La Vida en Vina/Valpo y Respuestas a Preguntas

I've been in Vina (it's going to frustrate me to no end every time I write that if I can't figure out how to put a tilda "~" on it) for a week now and I've received a good number of questions from my previous post. I'll try to get to as much stuff as I can before the internet goes out.

Last week was orientation for all of the foreign students at PUCV (Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso). Of the 60 students I mentioned before, about 55 of us are attending PUCV, with a small contingent at UVM (Universidad de Vina del Mar). We are all Americans (except for a Nicaraguan who goes to the University of Nebraska), and we're only a fraction of the roughly 230 foreign students at PUCV for the semester. More than 2/3 of that ~230 are gringos, but there are significant numbers of Germans, Spanish, and a few other nationalities. The confusion of orientation week, combined with the ISA tours nearly afternoon left most of us exhausted every night.

My roommate with my host family is a fellow Sun Devil named Tommy Lavelle. He's a Brophy High grad, Supply Chain Management major, a former frat president, and a Republican. At first glance not the type you expect to meet on a Study Abroad trip. But in reality, he's actually a great guy and we get along really well. With two of his buddies, he founded and runs a non-profit called GreenAssist that installs efficient light bulbs and shower heads in poor neighborhoods around the Valley.

Our host mom (Maria Teresa) is great and holy crap can she cook! The food is friggin' amazing. Normally, Chilean food is bland, usually chicken or fish with rice and potatoes, with no spices other than a ton of salt. Suffice it to say that Maria doesn't cook traditionally. We've had spaghetti, fajitas, and pesto. But don't worry that I'm not getting traditional Chilean food, too. She's made pastel de choclo, reyneta frita, and lots of palta (the Chilean word for avocado). Oh, and the pebre. Wow. We have a 23 year old host brother named Francisco who studies Astronomy and Engineering at PUCV. The other night he took us out to a bar nearby to meet some of his friends. It seems like Chileans are pretty chill most of the time and would be just as happy sitting at a bar with friends as they would be dancing in a fancy club (you know that's good for me, if you've seen me dance). Our house is on top of a hill (a bunch of people live up in the hills, including almost all of the middle class). The walk up sucks, but it'll help me get in shape if I do it at least once a day.

How do I describe Vina and Valpo? Hmm, well, I guess it would be best to do one at a time. They are twin cities (I live in Vina, but PUCV is centered in Valpo) and up in the hills I don't think there's a real border. In each city, you can tell roughly you are based on topography. No matter where you go, you'll have the bay on one side and the hills on the other.