Livin' it large in Viña
The last week has been all about studies. My personal favourite is wednesday (which has momentarily claimed the shittiest-day-of-the-week -award from it's otherwise unbeatable holder, monday) when I start school at 8 AM and finish it at 10.15 PM. Ain't nothing like a good 14-hour schoolday to motivate you -not to mention adding the trips to the times, making the day about 17 hours long. Nice. So lot of time is spent here:
Good thing the house I am living in was a wise choice. It is nice to come home as there's something going on almost every day to take your mind off the studies. Last week we prepared a dinner as it was
cumpleaños of one of the house residents, Diego (the dude with the hat). Diego is a Chilean art student. Others in the picture (starting from the left) are my French colleagues Cindy and Gael, then the guy with the facial expression is the owner of the house, Aníbal, and next to him is Alvaro, a Chilean Ph.D. The girl on the right is Chris, an Australian art student.
The week brought also a bit better (and more bitter) taste of the differences between Viña del Mar and Santiago. What you see above is a view from one of the apartments the exchange students have there. Compared to my view of two doghouses, a fence and a crumbling next-door building I can see clearly now (-the rain has gone-) why someone would like to live in Viña instead of Santiago. And this view being from the cheaper apartments, as most exchange students live in what are called
los Torres, three big tower-like houses on the very shore of the Pacific.
The actual reason for my visit to Viña instead of Pitchilemu where I wanted to do some surfing was an official welcoming dinner for exchange students. The occasion was formal but unfortunately my backpack did not include anything even remotely formal. I went in jeans and a normal shirt which I did not even have time to iron as I had to run from the classes to catch the bus. I can vaguely remember the days when I wore a suit.. what has it been, almost three months now? Anyway, the food at the dinner was crappy and the occasion itself a joke, but the real value of the trip was to meet all the other exchange students. I even discovered that one of the Swedish girls' cousin is dating a friend of mine in Finland. Anyone still think the World is big, huh?
Before heading back to Santiago we (that being the
Santiagueños) had a casual friday at the beach. The water was rather cold (no Gulf stream here) but the waves just asked for some body surfing, so I just had to go in. I'm still spitting sand, but it was worth it. However, I was immediately followed by a show-off sea lion just to prove I had no talent for it. To top it all off, we had ourselves some quality sushi (in your face, sushi fans!) in one of the many touristy restaurants in Viña.. I have to get back there next week as well as there is some great BSc -student party that lasts for three days, so there's probably some more Viña coming up..
Let's study this weekend?
I cancelled all my weekend travel plans so that I could study, as UAI does not let you off the hook that easily. In most subjects they have a lecture control in every class to make sure everyone has read all the articles. Good thing about that will be that there is no super excitement for the exams.. Plus there is the matter of Statistics, a course I took over three years ago in Finland and at which I was -or am- in need of some serious brush-up.
As one might suspect, studying has not played such a big role after all. The almost four-day weekend that starts every thursday at noon turns easily into an almost four-day party, or so it seems. And to top it all off I got sick with a nasty flu that has kept me in bed for the past day already. Nice thing that movie rentals are cheap here (and yes, I finally saw the Jarhead which other bloggers have been fussing about -and digged it).
Lesson learnt: do not (even try to) study on the weekends. It can be done during the week and the lecture materials I can read in a bus on my way to some new adventures. Oh and also, barbecuing in shorts and a t-shirt in the middle of the night might not be advisable either, as the winter is coming and the freezing, below +10 centigrade -temperatures are just a couple of months away ;) .
Next weekend it's time to break some waves in Pitchilemu!
Extempore take-off
Last thursday we were having dinner in the house and counting all the frustrating stuff that the week had brought us and after a few glasses of wine I decided to head out to Argentina for the weekend with my French friends. And so we took the overnight bus to Mendoza on the other side of the Andes. One of the least nice things in a long time, the bureaucracy kept us on the border (me with shorts freezing in the cold mountain air) for a good hour with no particular reason. But such is life, we did not get discouraged but made the most of it. Unfortunately we just missed a tour of the local
bodegas, but were able to correct this by finding some excellent local wine on our own. The best ones we tasted in Mendoza were of local Malbec but they were still no match -to my taste- to the Cabernet and Merlot wines produced locally near Santiago.
So, with a Lonely Planet in the hand, we headed out for the supposedly most exiting stuff in the region -the Puente del Inca, a natural bridge that has hot springs around it dying it all yellow was, according to the book, something to see. You can draw your own conclusions from the picture above as to its magnificence.. Ok, it was a sight but definately not worth over 3 hours in bus. Good thing the place was some 1,5 hours hike from the Aconcagua natural park, so we headed for the biggest peak in the continent. There we were faced with some of the great sights the Andes have to offer. Here you go with some pics:
Despite the chilly winds the long bus trip turned out quite well after all, as you can see above. To top it all off, we had a taste of the famous Argentinian
parrillada con tenedor libre, which basically meant all the barbecue meat you can eat, with salads and sides. It was worth the reputation and in addition, dirt cheap! Argentina really is a budget traveller's paradise and we just went to one of the most expensive cities in the country.. Can't wait to get to Buenos Aires, that will be something else. The people at first touch did not seem very friendly, especially with car drivers who seem to consider pedestrians as insects to squash, but the place grows on you after a while. It is not as European as Chile (in UAI most students are second- or third- generation Europeans, for example) and Argentina has a stronger identity as a nation. One thing to note is that everything seems to have stopped suddenly (as in a crisis...) as the cars among other things are like straight from the eighties. Our
hospedaje owner did take his time to explain that Argentina was doing better than any other South American country before the crisis -and that now "the one on top" is Chile. Newsflash! Anyway, it was also curious to see that cars there did not run on gasoline but on gas. At least that was what everybody was putting in their cars regardless of the type of car.
Now, after a relaxing weekend we are back in (the school of) business with all the to do -things glooming in sight. But I did not leave Argentina empty-handed: I managed to get a nice dose of Andean sunburn. "The sun can not be that strong in the mountains.." -Strike two!
Mañana strikes back
Yep, just as I was under the impression of an organized metropoly with everything working on time etc., the so called human factor came to play. What seemed in talks to be the very next instant has turned into days and might turn into weeks. I knew about the "
mañana" -phenomenon already and ignored it, but it's still very alive and kicking! The past week was mostly spent in waiting for someone to do something they promised to do a while back. Be it curtains to the room, be it a monitor I agreed to buy or be it contact information "I'm just sending you", I was kept waiting.
Waiting can be fun, though. You can just do nothing with a good reason! And after all, I had my own room where I could do nothing! The room I eventually got is quite big, some 50 sq. meters in size. And all it basically needs is curtains as everybody passing (that being virtually everyone in the house) can see the most of my room. Not to forget the dogs, of which the more intelligent beast is in the pic below -they try to sneak in through the low windows that I previously kept unlocked to sleep on my comfy chairs...
I am also in the process of getting a computer (might take a while though I have everything save for the monitor..) to get some work done on my thesis and also on the normal courses, as the courses seem to have a rather different workload than the ones in Finland. Especially the course
investigaciòn del mercado is going to cost me some work as the teacher speaks spanish so unclearly and fast that even the Chileans can't keep up all the time. And the class attendace is kept extremely strict, missing over 25% for ANY reason results in failing the course (so bye bye those long weekends) and entering over 5 minutes late equals missing the class. Also, the amount of readings is sufficient to make even the most ambitious HSE professors happy.
Yet, not to complain, the courses are carefully organized and they are taught by experts with excessive demand for interactivity, so I might end up learning something (!). And, as I mentioned, the sports facilities are excellent in my campus -and the bachelor -level students still have obligatory courses in P.E.! I myself ended up with a total of 4 courses after fighting the red-tape-people for a while. Gladly, as having more would have meant no social life at all. Anyway, us masters students get to use the sports facilities as we like so the extra time between classes will be well spent.
Still, it will be a bit hard getting myself up for the early mornings as the school is REALLY far, see from the picture above, the small white dot in the background next to the mountainside (on the right) is the campus. The picture is taken from a viewpoint in the very center of the city (thus the cablecars) and the house is just some 15 minutes away -in the opposite direction.. On top of the same hill there is Santiago's equivalent to Rio's big statue -not nearly as visible, though, thanks to both "some" difference in size and the smog.
The truth shall set us free
That is the motto of my university, Universidad Adolfo Ibañez -or at least it is written under the emblem of UAI. The past few days have been spent, as one might guess, trying to start a life here. Of course, it has not been without surprises or problems, but overall it has been ok.
The orientation for us was in Viña del Mar, a city some 1,5 hours away on the pacific shore. That is where most of the exchange students will be, as there is the other campus of UAI. I could see why as we cruised along the beach road after the orientation.. But, I am decided on staying here in Santiago despite all.
I will move in tomorrow with my two new French friends, Cindy and Gael. They are living in the center of Santiago and have been a great help so far as they spent the past semester in Viña del Mar and know their way around. We make 60% of the exchange students of UAI Santiago, as we are just a total of five.. So far Cindy and Gael have helped me in everything, getting a new mobile number (+56 87232443, the old is not in use anymore!!!), getting the flat, organizing my studies, etc. -and drinking beer! They seem like really nice people and living with them, one Italian student and three Chilean artists should make this 4 months quite memorable. Oh, not to forget the dogs in the house - one of them accidentally mistook my toes as sausages or something and grabbed a good hold of my sandal the other day.. Big and on the slow side, but very friendly the two of them.
Anyway, about the university itself: it is a big ultramodern campus with outstanding athletic facilities including a swimming pool and unlike in most of Santiago, the air is fresh (if someone did not know, there is so much smog that Ciudad de México would be proud, see pic above)! This all is due to the fact that it lies about an hour trip (metro+bus) from the house, up in the mountainside. As it is a private school almost everyone goes by their own car and us poor foreigners and a minority of other students get to wake up at inhuman hours. Still, in a weird manner, I like it. Or I like the idea of living in a "normal" Chilean house, close to a bohemian neighbourhood of Santiago (to mom: it is still quite safe as there is so much people all the time) and the lively city centre and going to school in a perfectly equipped private university with not so big classes and a chance to keep in shape and breathe real air. Here you see a view of one of the windows and some arcitechture of the campus.
The only worry I have at this point is with the courses. I managed to get an amount of them that might satisfy even the results-driven International Affairs of Helsinki School of Economics.. Results-driven because they seem to expect that I complete the studies of 5 months in 3 months. Obviously, the people here look at me like I was crazy asking for more courses than is the norm and aiming to start my Master's thesis at the same time.. But anyway, at the moment everything should be ok, depending on the room available on the courses and about 10 other things I just might be able to pull this one off and make it back on the RTW track in time.
