La vida en Arica, Chile

From today, it has been 12 days since we've been in Arica and a week with our host families. Those four days of orientation were long and tedious.  Having a set schedule and being confined to a hotel was quite a difference from traveling around on your own time. But it was really great getting to know everyone on the program and learning about our semester to come. Our group is fantastic and I honestly think we have an amazing set of directors who are super intelligent and understanding and really want to see each of us succeed. 

Anyway, during that first week we did have some group excursions to begin to orient us all to the city of Arica, our new home. 

 Playa Chinchorro with the Morro de Arica in the background. 

The touchdown Jesus of Arica who lives on the top of el Morro. Apparently he was given to Arica from Peru to symbolize a peace between the two countries. 

A bird-reserve beach. No swimming, no driving, no surfing. Just bird-watching

Two local men who were catching these mariscos near the water by the Morro. The shells are on the ground and the red tomato looking things is what gets eaten. I'm not exactly sure what it is though. They did say but I forgot the name. Maybe I'll go back and ask them. They're there every weekend.

We also went to visit a museum called San Miguel de Azapa Archaeological Museum which tells you about the history of Arica which includes...MUMMIES! We had some local students come talk to us during the week and one told us a story about how her friend was out one night at a discoteca which is right by the beach. She was walking around when she felt something under her foot and to her surprise, she had stumbled across a mummy. 

Relics and a super cool depiction of an older time in Arica. 

 A mummy in the museum. 

More mummies. 

We also went to visit a cemetery. This cemetery was unlike any other I have ever seen. Each grave was unique and personalized and they were all colorful. There were also benches around many of the graves because families will come on a pretty regular basis and sit around and chat. It seemed like a very relaxed and not sad environment at all. In fact, I saw one family all gathered around and the kids were bouncing about playing with a toy while the adults were leaned back and chatting, just like they were out on their patio or something. 

The cemetery trip was our last excursion as group before meeting our families. That night, Friday March 1st, we met our hermanos for pizza. So before we actually met our parents we first received a present and a letter from them, learned very briefly about them from our homestay coordinator, then went to a restaurant and ate dinner with just our siblings (no parents). The next day, Saturday, at noon, our families came to the hotel and picked us up. At pizza with our hermanos, my host sister Natty whose 11, host cousins Katty whose 20 and Kim whose 18 came to eat with me. It was so exciting to finally meet people from our family. Oh and here is what I got as a present from them earlier in the day. 

A really cool looking purse! They said they got it here so I'll be on the lookout for more. 

The next day I got picked up by my host mom, Roxanna, and Natty. My family (who lives with us) includes Roxanna, the mom; Ma Lu, the aunt; Maria Eli, the grandma; my cousin Katty; my sister Natty. Kim, who I met that first night doesn't actually live with us, and sadly I haven't seen here since then, but hopefully she'll be around. But everyone is very nice. They always make sure I have enough to eat and have no problem with speaking a little slower and explaining things and answering all my questions. I don't have a picture of them yet but I'll get one soon. Here is a picture of our house and my room though.

The first night with my host family, Roxanna, Natty, and Roxanna's boyfriend (the word for boyfriend here is pololo) were going to the beach with a group of Roxanna's friends. This wasn't just any beach trip though. As its the end of the summer here and school started for kids last week, it was the last hurrah and we were camping out on the beach. Tents, fire pit, air mattresses, a generator to give us some light at night--they went all out. It was a little overwhelming but also a lot of fun. I met a German foreign exchange student whose 17 and staying here for a year with one of the families who was camping with us. She said she only knew "Hola" when she got here, so that's encouraging for me because she was conversing with everyone easily. A note about the timing of things here: they stay up late. That first night, out of a group of 24 people with ages ranging from 7 to 50, I'm pretty sure I was one of the first to retire to bed at the early hour of 1:30am. 

Our campsite. 

I know this is a long entry, but it has been a while since my last post, and I still have to tell you about the food! Ok, so Chilean food doesn't necessarily have a cuisine. And honestly, a lot of the food is kind of bland. They eat A LOT of bread. My daily eating schedule is desayuno in the morning at around 7:30 during the week and not until about 11 on the weekends (because remember, Chileans go to bed late so consequentially, they sleep late, too). For breakfast there's bread with either nutella, manjar (dulce de leche), butter, jam, or cream cheese. A very well rounded breakfast. During the week I usually eat a yogurt too and I spent last week looking for mantequilla de mani (which is peanut butter) so now I have that option, too. 

The largest meal of the day is almuerzo, which is sometime between 1 and 3. For almuerzo usually theres a salad consisting of beets, carrots, onions, tomatoes, little bit of lettuce and dressed with olive oil and lime. The entree usually includes meat, potatoes, and rice. During the week, there's a housekeeper who comes and makes lunch and she also makes fresh juice, which is delicious. 

Here are some photos from my lunch on Friday. 

 The juice and some salad fixins. 

Ceviche. It was superb. 

This had potatoes, sweet potatoes, meat (beef, I think), and egg. I wasn't sure what to expect when I saw it but it was delicious. I had a clean bowl at the end. 

After lunch is when it gets a little confusing in regards the eating times. No one usually eats another big meal. But there is a thing called "once" (like the number, not like once upon a time) and sometimes a cena (dinner). Once is usually before cena, if you have both. There's a lot of variation between families between this though. Some have an once at 5ish then a cena at like 10. I think most have some type of an once though between 6 and 11. Things I've heard of for once: cake, fruit salad, ice cream, rice, a lot of bread, sandwiches. My family has one more meal at around 8 or 9 a night that they don't necessarily call once or cena. When they refer to it, they call it drinking tea. So they'll ask me, "Vas a tomar te?" (Are you going to drink tea?) This is probably most like an once. At our "tomar te" we have tea and bread and you can put the bread with either ham, cheese, salami, nutella, manjar, cream cheese, jam, butter, and now peanut butter. So it's kind of breakfast minus the meats and at night. I'll get some photos of this soon. 

Last but not least, the ice cream here is the bomb. Especially the mango. Yesterday I got a copa (sundae) of mango and frutilla (not sure what that is). Delish. 

Mmmmmmmmm...