Orientation

During the week of orientation, my friends and I went shopping in the downtown area for various supplies we had either lost en route to Chile or forgotten at home. One of the first things that caught my attention in a "super" (short for supermercado, or grocery store) was an aisle full of liquor--as most of us North Carolinians know, these items are prohibited in our own grocery stores. As we browsed the shelves, amusing ourselves with the Spanish titles, we stumbled across Cuban Rum! A friend and I decided to split the cost (a whopping $12 for a fifth) and try it with fellow volunteers at the hostel. It was surprisingly strong and sweet, and I highly recommend it to all of my alcohol-drinking friends
whenever the animosity between the U.S. and Cuba
dissipates.


I mentioned the name "San Cristóbol" in an earlier post as a popular attraction in Santiago. I went with a few volunteers to explore the city and came upon this hill, the second highest in the city, that offers visitors a fascinating vista of the Andes. At the top of the hill (and pictured above) is a large statue of the Virgin Mary that overlooks the city. We did not make it all the way to the top of San Cristóbol due to the setting sun, but below is a picture of the city that was taken from the half-way point. As you can see, smog constitutes a major problem for Santiago, which is located in a valley and therefore trapped beneath a perpetual blanket of its own creation. In fact, the towering Andes can only be clearly seen from the city after a rainstorm, which permits the polluted air to rise.



Our adventurous spirits were not satisfied after dark fell (the sun sets around 6:15 here) and so we ventured out into the city once again after dinner was served. One of the volunteers who had explored on his own showed us a bookstore he had found that contained loads of Spanish literature. Having majored in Spanish myself during my time at UNC, I was fascinated to discover this small wealth of information embedded in such a large, developing city. Most of the books had fallen from their original shelves during the earthquake earlier this year and were thus hopelessly out of order, but I happened upon "Como Agua para Chocolate" (As Water for Chocolate) and bought it without hesitation. In addition to his public collection, the owner (who spoke only Spanish) revealed to us his private archive on a platform suspended from the ceiling. The literature displayed there was mixture of photocopies and originals, he told us, of poems and prose produced during the military dictatorship (1973 - 1990). Though these materials are still highly controversial in Chile, he welcomed us to browse through them at any time.

Earlier I mentioned the cheap cost of Cuban rum. I knew before coming to Chile that the cost of living in South America was generally cheaper than that of the U.S., but I was told by various locals throughout orientation that Chile is actually among the cheapest countries in the South. Though I cannot verify this (I will try once I visit Argentina and Peru!), I can vouch for the relatively low cost of meals. Each volunteer was provided with a check for $2,500 Chilean pesos (roughly $5 in U.S. currency) to cover lunch. As lunch is the biggest meal of the day in Chile, I wasn't expecting to find a venue cheap enough for the check to cover the cost. In one restaurant, however, the meal of the day came with a soup, salad, chicken and rice (a popular dish here), a soft drink and a dessert for around $2,100 pesos! Wine is also very cheap--most bottles can be purchased for less than the equivalent of $5--as the city is surrounded by wineries. I never thought that beer could be more expensive than wine, but that is generally the case in Santiago.

And finally, a bit about the hostel. For those of us who had never stayed in a hostel before, the transition was somewhat difficult. I did not know, for example, that guests are usually expected to provide their own towels and toiletries. As I had no towel, I resorted to drying myself with my pajamas for the first few days of my stay. In addition, there was no central heating, so we really had to bundle up at night to stay warm. It is apparently a rarity for buildings to have central heating in Santiago, so volunteers found it necessary to wear jackets and gloves at all times throughout the day. Below is a picture of the hostel.