Now without a cold but still without a washing machine

Yesterday Chile and I had our 1 month anniversary. We had planned a nice and relaxing day but I had “la mufa” (= Chilean for bad luck)

Julia and I had an involuntary “tour” of Viña and Valpo. We skipped class because we had to do our student visa. We left the apartment at 8 AM and followed the directions from the university – big mistake! After walking 40 minutes we founded out that the office had moved. We were told to go to the other side of town, so we took a micro – which by the way just as well could be called buses of death!

The state of the buses are questionable and they do not follow speed limitations. There’s a sign in the bus that says that the maximum speed is 50 kilometres per hour – but no way José – it goes at least 80 kilometres per hour – at each corner you really have to hold on for dear life! I have already fallen once in the bus. Since arriving in Chile, I have seen 3 accidents with micros in Viña and Valpo on the news. But they are cheap – the maximum price for a ticket is about 0,6 euros/5 kroner.

Well, we took one which went all the way up in the mountains of Viña. After 30 minutes of driving, we found out that we should had gotten off earlier. So we took another one down the mountain. Annoying, but at least we did get to see a different side of Viña, which we normally never would have seen. In the mountain neighbourhood lives the poor population – we saw a horse cart! The buildings are in poor conditions and the area is quite bleak. After getting of the second micro, we found what we thought was the correct office, but NO!... We were told to go all the way to Valpo to get the visa. So then we took a third micro for 30 minutes to get to Valpo. After 20 minutes of walking we found the office, just to get told that we have to make an appointment before coming! At that point I was about to explode!  To cool down we went to get a coffee and I remembered that my teacher from my courses “Doing Business” and “Marketing Trends and Strategies” owns a café close by. I didn’t think about that I had just skipped both his classes to do the visa – so meanwhile sitting at his café of course he came in! With a big smile he told me “Mette, you didn’t come to class today!” UPS!! I started to explain, but he told me that it was okay hahahaha!

He is very chill fortunately! All my teachers are nice and understanding with exchange students, young people and whatever comes with that haha! Even though my teacher in “Expresión escrita” said that “I am notorious for being the old witch” and “In my right hand I have a whip and in my left hand I have a big heart”, she seems very passionate about teaching and very intelligent and that is what is most important. I think that if you try to do your best you won’t feel her “wrath”. Up until now my favourite teacher is my dance teacher. Clara and I went to his class Wednesday with salsa, merengue and reggaeton and he made us laugh so hard – for example he said about dancing that (translated): “you have to heat up the soup, sell the soup, but don’t let him touch the soup!”

Besides taking dance classes in my spare time, I have been going out (getting to know the good party places in Viña). I have also seen “The Dark Knight Rises” 3 times. 3 times is a lot, but it very good. The first time I was actually pretty sick, so that justifies seeing it the second time. And the third time I didn’t pay for the ticket, so that justifies for seeing it the third time :P But I think that 3 times now is sufficient!

“No” is another film I really want to see. It is the first Chilean film about the campaign in the 1988 plebiscite which ended Pinochet’s dictatorship. In the plebiscite, the Chilean people had to vote in favour or against Pinochet’s dictatorship. The different parties (from the Communists to the Liberals) joined forces in the party La Concertación and created the campaign “No” which despite it is negative title had a positive message - as you can see in the YouTube video.

The video says that if you vote “no” you will give Chile a future and its honour back. On October 5^th 1988 55.98 % of the population voted “no” and this eventually led to the return of democracy in 1990.

The movie has premiere on Thursday and Gael Garcia Bernal stars in it!

Clara and I have planned to go see it together - I just hope that I will understand since they will be speaking fast Chilean without subtitles. If I don't I can just go see it 3 times like "Batman" hahaha!

Up until now, the weather has been nice with few rainy days. But then again – when it rains here you noticed it. The streets are filled with water days after the rain has stopped because they don’t have the proper infrastructure. Not because they don’t have the money, but simply because it rains so few days a year that they have not bothered to create the infrastructure. On one of the rainy days I went to my local supermarket and it look like a tornado had passed by; it was dripping from the roof, there were buckets filled with rainwater and one of the entrances were closed because the rain had ruined its roof. And it wasn’t even raining that much! Haha!   

Speaking about the weather and nature; I have now experienced 2 earthquakes! Or that’s what I call them, but my teacher in “Arte e identidad” almost laughed at me and told me that that was just tremors. Since it was the first time I have experienced an earthquake I refuse to belittle it so I am going to keep calling it “an earthquake” hahaha! 

I will leave you with the exciting news that it’s now for sure that I will be going to San Pedro de Atacama and Salar de Uyuni. Sunday Julie, Clara, Paula, Jennifer, Juliette and I bought the bus tickets and paid the tour to Salar de Uyuni! We leave on the 13^th of September and come home on the 23^rd! I am sooooo excited! 

Until next blog!

Kisses