2 and Half Mexicans

New Roomies, Rogelio and Paco!

Big news amigos! I moved out of the house of my Chilean family and into an apartment with 2 of my mexican friends. I didn't really have a problem with my family, but it was just too expensive. $750 a month for everything! In my new apartment, rent is only $210!!! Also, I'm just not used to living with a family. My old house was way up the hill in the middle of a neighborhood, but now I live 2 blocks from the middle of downtown Viña del Mar! The apartment is incredible. My roomies are from Aguascalientes, Mexico. All three of us are pretty good friends, but we will see how things work out over the next 3 months! While I'm very excited to finally have the opportunity to speak Spanish every minute, I'm a bit concerned at how much Mexican I'm going to pick up. They already have me cursing in Mexican haha. One thing pretty cool is that I have gotten to the point where I can Spanish 3 different ways, Mexican, Chilean, and formal.
The apartment is only 2 bedrooms. Roy and Paco share a room and I have my own. 2 bathrooms, one shower. The best part is the 3 balconies! I'm actually writing this blog from one of them. I'm going to spend the majority of my time outside because it is just getting to summer here and it is absolutely gorgeous! It is right next to 2 museums and I'm a 15 minute walk from everything, 15 minutes to the mall, beach, or my school.
It's crazy to think about how far I have come in my Spanish. The first 2 months I couldn't say more than a sentence, but now I'm able to live fairly easily with 2 guys my age  completely in Spanish. I'm sure at times I will have my difficulties explaining myself, but my roommates make it so much easier. This is easily the biggest achievement of my life. I still can't comprehend that I'm able to live in South America with 2 friends completely in a different language.

Personality vs. Language Barrier

I need to start this post with a little bit of clarification. Chile has been the greatest experience of my entire life. I love my friends, the country, and every thing about this new place I call home. I have met the greatest people in the world that I will talk to until the day I die. In 3 months, I have found people that I feel comfortable calling by the names of brother and sister. I could honestly write pages and pages about how fantastic everyone is, but at times I still have frustration. My problem is sometimes I believe I have taken on a task that I was not ready for. I'm trying to completely 100% submerge myself in Spanish and Spanish culture, without speaking any English.

I came to Chile for the challenge, but I don't think I realized how difficult it would be. I struggle to communicate my personality in Spanish. It's not that people don't understand me, but much more that I don't feel like I'm successfully portraying myself. It is something that can leave me feeling very isolated and stupid at times. I used very harsh words to describe these emotions, but I find them to be most accurate. Life is fantastic here, but it is no where near easy. Our perception of ourselves is a mix of self awareness y others views of ourselves, and when one aspect isn't complete, life just doesn't feel satisfied. It feels like everyday is a struggle and there is always something left out there that I wasn't able to really say. Frustration isn't something that happens only once a week, but almost everyday. I'm trying to be me, but in a world that isn't me. Not all of the problems relate to Spanish, but I feel like I only know how to blame them all on my Spanish. I'm currently having a hard time distinguishing between basic normal downsides in life and language barriers.

While at times Spanish can be very frustrating, it provides more motivation than anything ever in my life. A second language is difficult enough, but living in a country that doesn't speak your language is absolutely insane! The same exact insanity is the reason I'm here. It is because of this that I wake up every single day with a smile on face. Monotony doesn't exist in Chile, only challenge, hard work, and achievement. I just need to realize at times I can't win every battle.

Trekking, Music, Gameday

A list of events in Viña for just October. Too little time here!

Sorry I haven't updated my blog recently. It isn't that I haven't done anything, but that I have done too much! Life in Chile is always busy. It seems to be something completely different every day. Last weekend I went trekking 11km in the mountains of Olmué, Wednesday my first Chilean concert of Nano Stern in Valpariaso, Thursday I watched my Chilean friend perform in a rock bar, Friday we watched the Chile vs. Argentina game (VIVA CHILE!!!!), Today carnival in Valpairiso where people paint their bodies and go dance in the streets. SOO MUCH!!!! I could do something everyday here for 10 years and never be able to be satisfied. I've started really getting into Chilean music too. I enjoy the relaxed rock feel of it. Everybody should look up Nano Stern. He is a phenomenal vocalist.

Gamedays here were phenomenal! The first one was Friday Argentina-Chile in a qualification match for the World Cup. I met up with a bunch of friends at a local bar to watch the big match. My friend, Sven, taught me a normal German drink, Sprite and beer. A very strange mix, wasn't bad, but I really couldn't figure it out. It covered up the taste of the cheap beer, so I might have to stick with it. The game turned into quite a dud, very quickly. Argentina won 4-1. We stayed until the end mainly for the sideline commentary in the bar. Chileans act like the stereotypical Italian during soccer. They screamed things I can't say on here and busted out the CHI LE chant after the only Chile goal. Hopefully the next two games this week are a bit better to watch. We've got Mexico-Brazil and Chile-Peru which I'll be watching with natives from every country except for Peru. After the game, we all went to Club Ovo. It's a club located in the nicest casino in Chile. We managed to get on the list before hand so we didn't have to pay the usual $20 cover. The club easily could have been featured in a Jersey Shore episode. It was huge and stacked with filthy rich people. I managed to get home by 6:30 a.m. It sounds so late when I'm typing it, but it's just normal here. I went home after the club, but some people even went to an After party. I don't understand how these people are alive...

My Spanish has started to shift from the Intermediate to fluent level. I now only speak Spanish, even with the gringos! I'm able to talk all day and not come home with a massive headache! I still don't understand TV or songs very well, but hopefully in time. If there are subtitles, I'm able to understand almost everything.

Here are some photos from Olmué

On the way down we fell a lot

We climbed to the top of there

Carrete, carrete, y carrete

I'm starting to see a lot of advantages in only hanging out with people that don't speak English. My Spanish is growing very quickly. I'm easily able to converse with the Mexicans, Chileans, and French students. It shocks me everyday how quickly I picked up the language. Sadly, I am starting to learn a lot more Chilean than Spanish. We use words that people from other countries don't understand. A few common examples are:

• Weon/weona - bro, dude, can also be offensive when said with a different tone
• Pololo/ Polola - Boyfriend and Girlfriend
• Sipo, yapo, nopo, po - We add the word "po" to the end of everything. It doesn't really change anything

While I did come here to study Spanish, the best part about the other students is that they really, really know how to party. Not to brag, but I honestly believe my last 4 days could have killed Chuck Norris. I haven't made it home before 4am. These kids are crazy!!! We all usually meet up around 10 to have a "previa" (pregame) at one the Mexicans' houses. We stay there until about 12 or 1 depending on if we have to be at a club by a certain time. During previa, we all drink either pisco, rum, or beer. We play music from all over the world and just kind of hangout, but completely in Spanish. After previa, we are off to the next place. It varies from bars, clubs, discoteques in Viña or Valpo. I have been to at least 50 different clubs here. To get to the clubs in Valpo, we all jam onto one of the micros (bus) and take a 20 ride. The micros are insane because you are jammed in there like sardines and everyone is heading to clubs. We really need these in the United States. Once we arrive at the club, we usually stay until about 4am and just dance, dance, and dance. The students from the United States here do the exact same thing, but the students from Mexico, France, and Chile are just waaaaaaaay crazier. There is a difference in experience. They have been going to clubs before they came to Chile, while most of the gringos here are under 21. Here is a summary of my last 4 days:

Wednesday
Previa until about 2am, went to Cafe Journal to check out Gringo Night with some Chilean friends. Bounced around to a few bars and finished the night off with a trip to McDonalds around 4am. This was the calmest night since I had class at 9am the next day.
Thursday
We managed to get on the list at a club in Valpo called La Sala. It is a fantastic place to go dance. Due to a early previa, all of us were feeling very borrachos (drunk). While dancing like drunken fools, we found a random streamer around a pole. Instantly, we knew what must be done. We removed the streamer, broke it up to many pieces, and tied it around our heads similar to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We rocked them all night long while dancing until about 3:30 am. I woke up with it around my head and was very, very confused. We almost got in a fight that night to. Some drunk girl got in the face of my friend, Sven, and of course her pololo jumped in. I pulled Sven away, balled up my fist, and was ready to swing. We still have no idea what is was about, but it got very tense for no reason. There are a few pictures from that night at the end of this post.
Friday
Basically the same as Thursday except in Viña.

Three nights in a row of crazy partying. Today we all went to the beach and just played a little bit of soccer. I have been here for 2 months, and I think keep thinking at some point I'm going to lose that feeling of absolute awe but it has yet to happen. I can honestly say I have never been happier!! Tomorrow we are going Trekking, so you guys will get another blog post soon!

I cannot explain this picture.

Pretty popular club

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This about sums up my time in Chile