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..
posted by Kassu @ 7:21 AM
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