¡Viva la pop culture de America!

Every time I travel, I'm amazed by the impact the US has on other countries, and I don't mean politically or economically (I don't really pay tons of attention to that stuff...yet...). What I'm refering to is the pop culture! Here's an example:

Homer Simpson immortalized in a sand sculpture, complete with a mini beer keg and in mid-burp, I'm assuming, knowing him...

Unfortunely, the artist was unable to portray the wiggly lip movement that makes me laugh so hard when Homer burps on TV...alas...we can't get everything...

I've also noticed that ALL the music here on the radio is American, but incidentally, its all the best music we have of the 70s, 80s, and 90s! They never place any of the crappy new music that's all redone and you don't really have to be a good singer to pull off. They've also adopted a lot of our words like "el mall", "shopping" and "rentar". Most of the movies are American and they usually have subtitles instead of dubbing them. I think this is because the dubbing is normally done in Spain Spanish and not Chilean and they don't really like that accent so they just listen to the English and read the spanish. This is also the same with TV shows, although they don't have the current seasons of any of them.

Although there are tons of American influences here they can't seem to get over the shock of seeing gringos (north americans) in person. Every time I'm walking down the street, I'm very aware that I look different and they notice it and stare. I just keep walking but it is a weird feeling! Even though I get lots of stares, they're definitely not hostile at all, on the contrary, they are very friendly and always help me out when I need directions or such.

Well, tomorrow starts the third week here and I'm well enough to head into the week and all the classes with excitement. I get to attend classes and see which ones interest me the most and then take those - what a nice system! So, I'm planning on taking grammar, history, literature and some other class that pertains to chilean life or culture. We'll see how it goes!

¡Hasta pronto!

Amigdalitis

This is the amazing view that I've been about to see when I've gone to the beach a couple of time. Obviously its hard to tell from a photo how beautiful this view is but trust me, its gorgeous! You can see all of the surrounding cities that really could all be one because they are so close. From this picture, I'm sitting in Viña del Mar, where I live, and you can see the horizon of Valparaíso, where I study, and then to turn to the right would be Reñaca and Concón, which are too smaller cities. Which you can see from this picture.

The wealth kind of trickles upwards here. There is a definite change in ambiance from Valparaíso, where the dogs walk around randomly, to Concón, where I saw some beautiful, newly built homes that are all in different styles such as Mexican, Spanish, Super Modern etc.

On Saturday, I was enjoying this lovely view and sunbathing, although this time with SPF 30 since I was a little crispy, when my sore throat from the night before, worsened and I decided to go home to sleep off what would inevitably become my first cold. I seems to be the case that all the newness of travelling and stress and going out, after two months of living at home and going to bed at 10pm, that a cold is inevitable to build up immunities. Unfortunately the next day I couldn't really swallow because my throat was so swollen. I spent the day in bed and then went to the doctor about the time my first class of Chilean Literature was starting and found out I have tonsilitis and need an antibiotic and even received a note that says I have to stay in bed for 3 to 4 days....however, I'm happy to report that I was able to swallow down a large breakfast today, Tuesday, without pain!

I've also learned some super important vocab such as:

tragar - to swallow

alto líquidos - lots of fluids

amigdalitis - tonsillitis

faringe - pharynx

hinchado - swollen

resfriarse - to catch cold

la gripe - the flu

seguro - insurance

Well, thanks for the comments and I hope that you all are doing well and as soon as I make it out of the house I plan on taking lots more pictures!

Chiao!

Erika

Counterclockwise

Yes...its true...I know that you all were wondering about this and it was the thing you wanted to know the most and I'm here to tell you that its true. Counterclockwise is the way the toilet flushes. Although this has been a shocker, I must say that its probably been the easiest one to recover from thus far in my visit to Valpo-Viña, Chile. There are constant reminders that I'm not in the U.S. anymore, Toto.


You know you're in Chile when:


1. You throw your toilet paper in the trash not the toilet.

2. Your shower is facilating between hot and cold.

3. The bus driver starts to drive away while your standing in the open door.

4. They have special clips on chairs and tables in restaurants for your purse so they don't get stolen.

5. You see any and every color on houses - including neon green.

6. You get soda water in a little glass when you go to a cafe or ice cream parler.

7. It costs $950 pesos for a coffee.

8. You eat dinner around 11pm, go to the bar at 1am and leave around 5am.

9. Mangy dogs wander around the streets everywhere.

10. You can't talk on your cell phone in the street because someone might steal it from you mid-sentence.

11. Your host mom tidies up the house - including your room - every day and puts things away for you, like a hotel.

12. You greet everyone with a kiss on the left cheek.

Well, thats the craziest stuff that's happened thus far to me. Its been an interesting few first days and so far I really like it here. This week is orientation week and we'll be choosing classes, activities we'd like to be involved in and learning about life at the university and in Chile. There are a huge number of exchange students at PUCV, and the program is extremely well-developed and organized (a big change from Angers, France). Hopefully, pictures will be coming soon (I haven't had the courage yet to take it with me for fear of it being stolen) and of course more updates are too come!
Chiao,
E