Julieta Bautista-Lopez
PUCV, Chile
I have officially been here for 10 days now, and settling down has been quite easy. The things I was most worried about have not been as big of an issue as I thought. I was really afraid of transportation, food, and my courses but everything has been going so well besides the registration process.
Deciding which courses to take has been awfully hard because the biggest obstacle is will I make it to class on time. This is odd being from such a small university because I have about a 5 minute walk from one class to another back at Maryville, but here its not so simple. I was originally enrolled in a Business class which is in Valparaiso and a culture class which is in Viña, and I had to change it because the distance from one place to another is about a 35 minute bus ride and with only a 10 minute gap between them I had to choose one or the other. Decisions, decisions, decisions. I can not complain too much because I have an awesome schedule. Monday- Thursday I do not have class until 2pm and Friday my first class is at noon. I am happy with my classes and am looking forward to the rest of the semester. I am glad I decided to take 17 hours at Maryville last semester because this semester I can relax and have time to travel ( thank you previous study abroad students for that advice. Although I have not been to all my classes yet I can already see some differences in teaching style and organization from the U.S. Here my professors are very relaxed or as they say " everything runs on chilean time". This is interesting because people here in Chile do not care to be late. If they get held back because they saw a friend and need to say hello they will take there time and not worry about being punctual to everything.
I believe their choice of education here is organized this way because our professors know we will learn more about Chilean culture outside the classroom with hands on experience rather than reading it out of a textbook. Also, textbooks are not common here because school is made as affordable as possible so we just have packets that we photocopy for about 3 USD ( awesome huh?) Anyways, the classroom setting is similar to back at MC because class sizes are about 10-20 students and there is a great relationship with professors. They are very understanding and make time to meet or stay after class in case the lesson was not clear. I did learn that for my Spanish class I have to make a blog in Spanish so for those of you that want to follow my Spanish blog I will post a link as soon as I get a chance.
Besides academics, Chilean culture and Spanish is very fascinating. Although I am Hispanic the Spanish I grew up speaking and their Spanish is very distinct. I always catch myself saying the wrong things or staring at them like I have no idea what is going on. Awhile back I had uploaded a video about Chilean slang and everything has been proven true. They greet each other with a kiss on the cheek and say Alo inside of Hola. Chao instead of Adios. They do not pronounce "s" and everthing endes in "ai". They say "po" after everything and use "cachai" for do you understand. It is awesome to hear two Chileans speak because I learn so much about their interactions just by the way they speak.
For example:
Spanish: Como estas? Chilean Spanish: Como Estai?
In the beginning it was somewhat difficult to understand, but now I can keep up.
I apologize for not having many pictures this time, but I have mostly been focused on classes and most of my days consist of being at the beach with my friends.
PUCV, Chile
I have officially been here for 10 days now, and settling down has been quite easy. The things I was most worried about have not been as big of an issue as I thought. I was really afraid of transportation, food, and my courses but everything has been going so well besides the registration process.
Deciding which courses to take has been awfully hard because the biggest obstacle is will I make it to class on time. This is odd being from such a small university because I have about a 5 minute walk from one class to another back at Maryville, but here its not so simple. I was originally enrolled in a Business class which is in Valparaiso and a culture class which is in Viña, and I had to change it because the distance from one place to another is about a 35 minute bus ride and with only a 10 minute gap between them I had to choose one or the other. Decisions, decisions, decisions. I can not complain too much because I have an awesome schedule. Monday- Thursday I do not have class until 2pm and Friday my first class is at noon. I am happy with my classes and am looking forward to the rest of the semester. I am glad I decided to take 17 hours at Maryville last semester because this semester I can relax and have time to travel ( thank you previous study abroad students for that advice. Although I have not been to all my classes yet I can already see some differences in teaching style and organization from the U.S. Here my professors are very relaxed or as they say " everything runs on chilean time". This is interesting because people here in Chile do not care to be late. If they get held back because they saw a friend and need to say hello they will take there time and not worry about being punctual to everything.
I believe their choice of education here is organized this way because our professors know we will learn more about Chilean culture outside the classroom with hands on experience rather than reading it out of a textbook. Also, textbooks are not common here because school is made as affordable as possible so we just have packets that we photocopy for about 3 USD ( awesome huh?) Anyways, the classroom setting is similar to back at MC because class sizes are about 10-20 students and there is a great relationship with professors. They are very understanding and make time to meet or stay after class in case the lesson was not clear. I did learn that for my Spanish class I have to make a blog in Spanish so for those of you that want to follow my Spanish blog I will post a link as soon as I get a chance.
Besides academics, Chilean culture and Spanish is very fascinating. Although I am Hispanic the Spanish I grew up speaking and their Spanish is very distinct. I always catch myself saying the wrong things or staring at them like I have no idea what is going on. Awhile back I had uploaded a video about Chilean slang and everything has been proven true. They greet each other with a kiss on the cheek and say Alo inside of Hola. Chao instead of Adios. They do not pronounce "s" and everthing endes in "ai". They say "po" after everything and use "cachai" for do you understand. It is awesome to hear two Chileans speak because I learn so much about their interactions just by the way they speak.
For example:
Spanish: Como estas? Chilean Spanish: Como Estai?
In the beginning it was somewhat difficult to understand, but now I can keep up.
I apologize for not having many pictures this time, but I have mostly been focused on classes and most of my days consist of being at the beach with my friends.