Week Six...and counting

It is now the beginning of the sixth week without classes. On Monday, the students were still blocking off the entrance to the University. So the police came in and blasted the students with water at 6 a.m. The fact that police took violent action, upset a lot of people. This week we were supposed to start up classes, but the professors are now saying that they want to take the time and resolve all of the issues.

Tomorrow there is a meeting open to everyone, I think I will go that way I can get a better understanding of what exactly is happening. There have been students on hunger strikes and I think the professors will soon strike if things do not get resolved.

I have to admit that this whole experience has been way more interesting and informative than any text book. Although I have had days of confusing, and some may think it is dangerous I have really learned about the culture from this strike. It has definitely given us all something to talk about.

Since I am an exchange student I was not allowed to participate in the Toma (taking). For my safety of course. I will write more about what I find out tomorrow during the meeting. For an update, I am doing well. I have a few weeks left and I know that I will be very sad to leave. Tomorrow I am making a Carrot Cake for my host family!!! I am excited for them to try it!!




My attempt to get a picture of the students´strike. This is what it looked like before the police came in and blasted them with water.

I took the strike for granted and did not get as many pictures as I should have. Who knows maybe they will reconstruct it in the next few days.

Besitos,
Sarah

Resolution?

It has been resolved or at least that is what I am left to believe, because I was told last night that classes will resume Monday, the 16th of June. I guess there goes my grand plan of traveling throughout South America. We will see. I really wanted to get a little more traveling in before I left, but now it looks as though classes will be consuming the rest of my time here. I have to make up five weeks of classes, plus finish up classes with the rest of the students...all in less than five weeks.

This should be interesting, to say the least.

In spite of the strike, I still am enjoying my time in Chile. I have met a lot of interesting people and have definitely improved in my Spanish abilities. I may not have had classes the whole time I was here, but that didn´t stop me speaking Spanish.
In fact, I think that I have learned just as much without classes as I would have with classes... ok maybe not about the textbook stuff, but I have learned so much about the culture and the language. This has been an worthwhile experience! I would recommend studying abroad to anyone and everyone!!! I am not saying that it is easy, but is definitely an eye opening and amazing growing experience!

So I should really talk more about my adventures, but once again I feel like that would be too much rambling. Maybe later today I will bore you all, that is if anyone still reads this..haha.

Besitos,
Sarah

Patience is the greatest provider.

Well, well, well... I have been without classes for about 4 weeks now. With all of this free time you would have thought that I would have written everyday in my blog. I still do not know what to think about the strike. At first, I was interested in the process and thought it was great that the students stand up for their rights. Now I am a little nervous, not knowing if or when classes will start back up again. I leave the 22nd of July and I do not think that classes will be finished by then. So what happens with me? Would´t we all like to know that? All the Michigan students were sent an e-mail asking when we are leaving. I sent an e-mail back asking what happens to my graduation date...still no response.

In one of the e-mails we were told that our professors are going to evaluate us on what we have done so far..hahaha. We had about 7 real weeks of classes, so far. I am not sure if that is enough to give me a grade or if there is something more that I will have to do to get a final grade. I am sure everything will all work out, but it still worries me.

With a surprise 4 week vacation I should have done a lot of traveling, but I did no such thing. I kept thinking that classes were going to start up any time, so I did not want to travel too far. My brother, Matt, came to visit for 2 weeks. I did some traveling with him. We went to Argentina for 5 days. Bariloche and El Bolson, Argentina (if you want to look up the locations of the cities we visited..haha) I guess it was a good thing there was a student strike going on, because Matt and I had time to travel.

I am thinking about doing a bit more traveling in the next week or so, because rumor has it that the strike is going to last for at least one more week if not more. They have been saying that it is "indefinite", so it could last the rest of the time that I am here. Oh, and side note: the teachers have also gone on strike at the university. (Not to mention a number of Universities in Chile are on strike, students and professors alike).

I will update you all soon! I am excited to see what else develops.
Chao chicos!!
Sarah

Hace mucho tiempo!

My how times flies without even knowing it. I have been keeping so busy and have not had time to write down the craziness that has been going on in Chile. I guess I should stick to the most important things.

I am ok!!! Although there was is a volcano in Chaitén, Chile that has been erupting; I am ok.
Everyone in Chaitén has had to evacuate. The water is so contaminated now, and the animals have been abandoned because there is hardly any place for the people to go, let alone their animals. The ash from the volcano has been falling in all areas of Chile and even in some parts of Argentina. It has been intense and I have been watching the news to better understand what is going on with the volcano.

I went to Chiloe over a month ago! It was amazing! I had a lot of fun and it was nice to do more traveling. There are penguins in Chiloe, and Kristi (who I traveled with) and I wanted to find the penguins!!! So we went in search of them. Well, it turns out that the penguins leave the last week in March.... yeah so we missed them by a weekend or two. So sad. Chiloe was still beautiful and exciting.We saw a double rainbow while we were in Ancud, Chiloe. Before we grabbed the bus to Castro, Chiloe we had to eat a Curanto which is the next picture.

The Curanto is ham, sausage, chicken, clams, some type of biscuits and another type of sea food....needless to say it was a crazy delicious lunch that I am glad I got to try. This dish started in Ancud, Chiloe!!

I have done more traveling since then, but I will wait another day to tell about those adventures! I thought I should at least update and let everyone know that I am still alive..ha.

Chao,
Sarah

¡Hola hola!

Another week has gone by, and I feel more and more at home. My classes are going very well, even though there were no classes this week. It is Semana Mechónes (Freshmen week) and there have been a lot of activities during the evening for all of the students. I went to a movie last night with my Chilean friend Daniella and Allison, an exchange student from the University of Michigan. It was an Argentinian film called Como un Avion Estrellado. It was very good, and it had amazing music!

Later tonight there is a fiesta on campus that I will be attending. I hear that a lot of students go and that there is coffee and music. I will have to let you know how that all goes. Last night there was a concert. I really wanted to go, but it was raining so hard that I decided it would be better to stay inside after 11 p.m.

Tomorrow I leave for Chiloe, an island of the coast of Chile, with Kristi!!! I am excited about that. Last weekend the other students from Central went, but I stayed behind. I went to Parque Oncol instead and hung out with Dani. The park was fun, but it ended up raining for most of the day and I was soaked to the bone. I had fun even in the rain, but on the way back I was pretty cold.


Like I said earlier, classes are going well, and the students and faculty are very nice. I am helping Kristi with some of her English classes and getting to know more students that way. I also joined the American Corner group, which is pretty much a group of internationals who volunteer to lead English conversation hours. My first session is next Wednesday!!!! It should be a lot of fun.

I just wanted to give you all an update. For the most part everything is the same. I am going well, the food is still delicious, classes are interesting and I am trying to travel as much as I can.
Other than that, I do not have much else to say..haha. I will be sure to write after my adventure this weekend.

Chao for now!
Sarah

Niebla, Chile

My bare feet enjoyed the hot black sand on the shore of the Pacific Ocean. I strolled along the beautiful shore for about an hour. There is something humbling about the beach in Niebla, Chile. There is nothing to worry about, plus there are no seagulls squawking at you. The sun shining and everything in life is perfect.

The water was cold and salty, but I had to go in for a swim. I could taste the salt on my lips and feel it on my skin as soon as I dove in the water. The fact that the water could have given me hypothermia never crossed my mind, until now. Although the water was beyond chilly, the weather was perfect for our adventure to the beach.

We (the Central gringos) decided that after lunch would be the best time to head to the beach. We hopped on the bus that goes to the city of Niebla. When we asked the driver to take us to the beach he pointed out the window and said Allí, which is Spanish for there. So we got off the bus and headed in the direction where he pointed.

It was not much of a beach; we were not allowed to swim in the water. We were a bit bummed, but then we realized that if we climbed over a mountain of rocks we could get to another beach, which allowed swimming and has a much nicer view. We decided to do a bit of rock climbing to get to the other beach. The rock climb was just as amazing as the beach was. Surprisingly, it was not too difficult to get there, but if the tide had been different we would not have been able to climb over the rocks. It was a great feeling of achievement once I made it to the beach. The view was breathtaking and the sand was nice and soothing on my sore feet.If you look closely you can see Ben climbing down the rocks. It was an awesome experience.

I have never felt more at ease. Everything in Chile is so calm and relaxed. The shoreline was covered with stones and shells from the ocean. Time did not exist at that moment. As the waves crashed onto the shore, we enjoyed the children rolling in the sand and squealing with excitement as the waves crashed against their ankles.A little girl and her father throwing stones into the ocean, while two stray dogs chase after the stones. Stray dogs are everywhere.

The day was perfect to be at the beach. At times I had to remind myself that I was standing in front of the Pacific Ocean and not just Lake Michigan. The shells and rocks alone were beautiful. I forgot about all my troubles, especially my aching ankles after our long hike through the rocks to get to the beach. I cannot even put into words how the cool breeze felt, the sounds of children laughing and playing, or how amazing the sun felt beating down.

We were having such a wonderful time we ended up staying there until the sun set. We ate at a local restaurant, El Coral, which is always a fun experience when we order. We always end up with something extra due to our accidental ordering of fries without knowing it.

We barely made it to the last bus for the evening. Once we sat down in our seats, we fell asleep. I woke up due to the wind from the open windows on the bus and kept a lookout for when we had to get off. It was an exhausting day, but it was worth it.Kids rolling in the sand..do not ask why. I guess, why do kids do anything?

Chao,
Sarah

Los estudiantes de Universidad Austral de Chile.

Today was very interesting for me. I did not really do anything until about 2 p.m. After lunch I left my house to meet up with a friend of mine, so I could practice speaking Spanish. On my way there, I noticed a crowd of students blocking the university's entry. This was not the first time that I saw this. On Monday, classes were canceled because the students were striking. They were on strike because they were promised a new building, and when the university did not start working on it, they protested.

It was different today, though. There were more students spread out all over the place, and police lined up ready to take some kind of action. In Chile, it is against the law for the police to enter the campus property. So the police were standing there, waiting. Plus, they had these huge van/trucks vehicles. I did not know what they were for until later.

There was one student who had a megaphone and was shouting something, but I could not quite make it out. As I walked by, I saw the group of students I met earlier this semester. I stopped to talk to them and find out what was going on. I knew there was a strike, but I did not know what it was for. They told me that the price for the buses was going up and it was too expensive, so the students were blocking the entrance to the university so the buses could not get through.

We continued to talk about classes and the strike, when all of a sudden they told me to run. So I did. I ran with one of the girls that I was talking to. I happened to be wearing flip-flops today, too, not a good idea. While we were running I looked back. It was then that I figured out what the trucks were for. They had water in them. The police had these huge hoses that they used to spray water at the protesters. I imagine that the water hit with such a force that the students will have bruises in the morning. We stopped running and the rest of the group caught up with us.

They all laughed at me because when they told me to run, I ran like a madman. They had a good laugh about my flip-flops, too. While we were laughing about my reaction, some students started throwing rocks. They started to run because the police sprayed tear gas. I had students running past me with red eyes, wet clothes, and their hands over their mouths.

It was a lot to take in. No one was seriously injured. One girl fell while running, because so many people ran all at once. Other than red eyes and irritated noses, most of the students were fine. I do not think what happened today will deter the students from protesting later. It was really interesting, and as weird as it may sound, I am glad that I was there to experience it. Nothing like this ever happens on my campus at Central. Not to mention it is good to know that they do not want to be pushed around. It definitely speaks volumes when a large group of people get together to protest something they feel so strongly about. It sure was something to be a part of, and I will never forget it.

Chao for now.
Sarah