Tiempo libre en Valdivia antes de la empieza de clases

I arrived in Valdivia on Thursday, after a short flight from Santiago. It was definitely nice to just have a short jaunt down here, as opposed to making the whole trip at once. I have, though, come down with a mild cold. I'm blaming the air quality in Santiago. I still was able to explore the town and take some photos in the day and a half I had before our orientation today. Most of the students arrived yesterday, and so most have yet to get out into the town. Everyone is meeting up later tonight to go out in town, since tomorrow we are free to relax and recover from travel and what will surely be a ridiculous night.

There were a few other students on the day early flight to Valdivia with me, and we have had a good time wandering around Valdivia, which is incredibly beautiful. The school and my host family's house is located on Isla Teja, and it is a short walk across the bridge into the city center. Valdivia is the capital city of the Los Rios region of Chile, which includes 14 major rivers, which all converge before flowing out past Valdivia and into the Pacific Ocean. It is majestic. Colorful boats line the shores near the bridge. There is even a big submarine which is now a museum.

Today we had our orientation for the study abroad program, I spoke Spanish nearly all day, and felt pretty damn good about it. There was definitely some bumps in there, but I feel like it's coming quickly. We went and got a fantastic almuerzo (lunch, and pretty much the only meal that seems to matter in Valdivia) at Agridulce, which was paid for by the program and was quite nice. Everyone seems legit, I had a truly fantastic day, and am looking forward to tonight. I'm going to lay down for a couple of hours.

Monkey tree, one of many growing around town. Truly bizarre.

Just some pretty stuff on my way to the bridge yesterday.

These guys deliver on scooters, which are unfortunately not designed in similar abstract fashion.

The view from the Isla Teja side of the bridge of the center of town, the fishmarket, and some lobos marinos, which are seals, but look a little different than the ones I remember from California.

The central church on the right, as seen from the docks.

I'm on a boat.

I'm on a submarine.

Valdivia!

¡Santiago!

My voyage to Valdivia, Chile, started out with a 5 day layover in Santiago, where I hung out with my dear friend Chris, enjoyed a taste of Chilean language, culture, and history, and explored a fantastic city. The legendary pollution was not terrible while I was there, though it was overcast most days. One day, when we walked around downtown it was clear enough to see the majestic cordillera of the Andes which serve as a backdrop to this amazing city. It was incredibly fortunate that I had scheduled this layover, because when I arrived, my checked luggage was still in Los Angeles, and because I was in Santiago they were able to deliver it to me at Chris's house the next day. The first delivery was actually not my bag, and me and Chris had to chase down the delivery man before he took off and I was stuck with someone else's luggage, but they eventually figured things out, and I now am in Chile with more than one outfit to wear over the next 4 months.

In Santiago I saw the city center and the capital which was bombed in the 1973 coup, and all of that touristy stuff. But really, the most impressive part of my time in Santiago was the living situation Chris has fallen into. He's living with 5 older guys, several of whom were very involved in the struggle against Pinochet. It's not my place to elaborate on the specifics of their activities, but suffice it to say they have some interesting stories to tell about the dictadura, and that Chris has learned a lot about himself and his political beliefs by living there. Visiting Chris was really amazing, it was impressive to see how much he has grown in his time abroad, and  was inspiring to see how much his Spanish has advanced in the last year. I thus left Santiago full of inspiration  about my studies in Valdivia, full of zest for life, and feeling that I had recharged my connection with one of my best friends.

On the somewhat related culture side, I also watched two movies, one directly related and one somewhat related. The new film "No," starring Gaél García Bernál, about the popular vote in 1988 whether or not Pinochet's dictatorship should continue, I watched in a cool little theater in Santiago with Chris. It was, I'm afraid to report, underwhelming, too long, and one of the least attractively shot films I've ever seen. The cinematographer was aiming for some sort of washed out, backlit theme, which was taken vastly too far, and in many scenes, even when people were talking, you couldn't see what the hell was going on. It was like you were just being bombarded by blinding light the entire time, and film, unlike the human eye, doesn't adjust to that. Anyway. Gael García, was, as always, fantastic. I also watched the German movie Good Bye Lenin with Chris and a few of his roommates, and it was great. Funny, interesting, poignant, well-filmed, just super bacan. ¿Catchai?

I promise more photos will accompany future blog posts. After a certain run-in with some thieves in Bogota with Robin, I was hesitant to bandy my camera around in Santiago. Valdivia is relatively quaint, and I have felt pretty comfortable taking photos around town, many of which I will post tomorrow. In the meantime, here's some shots of Chris at his Trapeze class, and a really neat mural which was on the wall of the school where the class was.