Fiestas Patrias

Hello everyone!

Thanks for all the great questions! I will do my best to answer them.

This week in Chile we are celebrating the Fiestas Patrias, which means the Independence Day Celebrations here in Chile. We have Thursday and Friday off from school and I'm excited to hang out with my friends and enjoy the cultural festivities. Some of the customs for this time of year include eating certain traditional foods like empanadas, and drinking traditional drinks like chicha and pisco, and it means lots of traditional dancing, which here is called the "cueca." I've attached some pictures for you to get a better idea.

Empanadas:

Pisco:

1) Do the high schools have organized sports teams? What sports do the students play for their school?

Yes, the high schools do have organized sports teams here, and the most common and popular sport is definitely soccer. The university level teams are really exciting to watch! While soccer is clearly the dominant sport, you also see golf and tennis - but hardly any baseball or basketball - in Chile.

2) What is your favorite thing about living in Chile?

My favorite thing about living in Chile is feeling like I am a part of a culture other than my own. It is extremely challenging to adjust to daily life in a different country because here they speak a different language and have different customs. However, now that I am comfortable here, I feel very proud to live in a place where I have so much to learn every day, and it makes me happy that I've now formed relationships with so many different types of people, from my classmates to the old lady who works in the little supermarket across the street in my neighborhood. Every day is a challenge and that is very exciting to me.

Some friends and me:

3) What is the temperature like there now?

Right now we are juuuuust getting over winter! It's still pretty chilly at night, but spring is right around the corner and we've had some really gorgeous days over the past two weeks. Just think about how the seasons are exactly opposite here as they are in North Carolina. As it starts to cool down for fall in NC, you can imagine that for me in Santiago, it will be just starting to finally warm up!

4) Can you tell us about watching television...the programs they have? Is it all in Spanish?

Most TV here is in Spanish, for sure. However, some of the popular shows from the U.S. come on TV here, like Grey's Anatomy, Friends, and others, and these shows are in English with Spanish subtitles. Chilean TV is funny, I don't really like any of the programs. They have alot of dramatic soap operas with bad actors and then pop culture dance shows, kind of like Chilean MTV. But I do really enjoy watching the Chilean news, it helps me learn about what's going on here and practice my Spanish at the same time.

5) Are video games popular there? Which ones?

Unfortunately, I do not have a clue about video games :) I know they have video games here but I can't tell you which ones are popular or not! But I've seen them for rent at Blockbuster (yes, they have Blockbuster here!) just like you would see that in the States.

6) Are you finishing your Master's Degree? And students wonder how old you are... Yes, I am here doing a Master's Degree in Environmental Planning and Management. I'm learning about environmental problems like conservation, contamination, global warming, etc in the context of Chile, but also how to confront such problems no matter where I am in the world. I hope to come back to the States and either continue to study to become a professor or work with environmental policy. I am 23 years old and turn 24 in November!

7) How did you get involved in the studies you are doing now in Chile? I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to study here in Chile because of a scholarship from the Rotary International Foundation. I chose this program in Chile because the quality of education here is quite high for Latin America and because I wanted to return to Latin America to perfect my Spanish and continue to learn about Latin American policy (which I studied in college). Here are some pictures of my classmates and me. There are 12 of us in my class (we all started together last semester, and this is our second semester; it's 2 years total):

8) Do you have any pets? Are you living in an apartment? I would love to have a pet but since I'm leaving in a year, it wouldn't really be fair to get one and then abandon it when I go home at the end of 2010! I am not a cat person, and I would love to have a dog, but I guess now is not the time. Maybe I'll get a bird.....

I am indeed living in an apartment. It is a studio and I live by myself in a great historic neighborhood with lots of nice cafes, restaurants, and theaters. And it's only 2 blocks from school! I love having people over to eat and hang out.

Having coffee with some girlfriends in my apartment:

9) Shawna wonders if teenagers and pre-teens dress the way we do in the US. Hi Shawna! In general I would say yes, but perhaps here they dress a bit more "casual" or "punk" than is typical in North Carolina. They wear skinny jeans and Converses, and sweat shirts with those Arabic looking scarves wrapped around their necks - guys and girls. And for some reason people tend to wear darker colors here... goes with the more punk style I guess.

10) Have you travelled out into the Andes Mountains yet? If so, what was it like?

I have been to the Andes! In fact I was there last weekend! It's incredible to live so close to such huge, gorgeous mountains. Here are some pictures (these are from last summer before the snow... now they are covered with snow!) :

11) Is there much snow in Santiago? If so, what does that mean for being able to get around? Santiago itself gets no snow, unfortunately! We are nestled into this valley among these huge mountains, and unless you live up in the hills, you never get snow here. However, it snows big time on the mountains which are right next to us, and you can just look up from anywhere in the city and see it. And it only takes an hour to get up to the snow by bus.

12) Can you tell us about the shopping? Malls and such? Do you shop there, or do you mostly shop in the local neighborhood stores?

Malls became really big here in Chile within the last 10 years. I am telling you, Chileans LOVE the malls. There are some extremely nice ones with all sorts of stores and restaurants and movie theaters. I hardly ever go to the mall, I prefer to shop in the local stores in my neighborhood. There are some cool local designers who have stores on my street actually, and if I want to buy clothes, I check those places out first.

Looking forward to the next questions. Take care and have a great week!!

Shepard