cafe journal

As I'm getting more comfortable with the city, I'm finding myself loving it more and more. Yesterday I took the micro alone to la Casa Central which is where the main building is for the university I will be studying in. It was a little nerve-wracking to be alone for the first time but it was also very empowering to not get lost and make my way there all alone. Already though I understand the layout of the city and the micro system even better. In between our interview and tour of la Casa Central me and a few girls walked to the mercado and got some tea and coffee in the upper level. Thing I learned: don't go to the mercado anymore. Very aggressive staring/cat calls that made me and the other girls pretty uncomfortable. I remember seeing a truck driver drive by without looking at the street for almost a block! Who does that??Anyways, after the morning tour of la Casa Central I went home and exercised for the first time in a week and it was a great work out! There is a set of stairs that I counted 120 stairs and I ran up those 3 times, then ran to the other side and ran those as well as around the hill back home. Then of course I did Isabelle's ten minute workout inside! Felt really good to move again.

Last night was my true first night out in Valparaiso or I guess it was Viña. Kacey and I took a micro over to Viña and had a drink at Bar Fusion before walking over to Cafe Journal, a very popular gringo bar where we met with a lot of CIEE members. Dancing for a few hours, jamming out to 90's music and 50's music surprisingly. It was by far a successful night, I made it home safe and remembered the alarm code for the house. All around a good night.

Nina, my houses student from Boston who lived her last semester just got back from Bolivia and stayed here the night until her flight for the US left this afternoon. It was good to talk to someone who knew the streets and what to do/not to do in the neighborhood. I hope I see her again and that she's able to come back to Chile like I know she wants to.

Today we focused on figuring out or class schedule and it is probably the most frustrating thing I've ever done. I have to have a minimum of 18 credits according to Kalamazoo College while everyone else is taking 15-16 credits. But of course they can't just be any kind of credits. They have to be classes that are at least 3 credits which eliminates all the fun, easier classes that I was looking forward to taking. And annoyingly and very disappointingly, we won't be taking classes with Chilean students because of strikes last year. So the class list is much smaller and so there's only one option that I can take that will transfer as a credit towards my ANSO major at Kalamazoo. BUT I'm not even sure if I can get in to that one class and so, I just gave up. There is my rant. It is a very frustrating, stupid, and unnecessary event.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I can look forward to the weekend and the next five months :)