Orientation Begins

Yesterday was our first day of orientation. We had two really great lecturers who taught us about Chilean indigenous peoples and literature. The literature professor was voted the #1 professor in the whole UC system. She teaches at UCLA. The indigenous peoples professor teaches at the University of Chile and I really want to take one of his classes. He's one of only a few professors to come from the working class. He was also imprisoned and tortured during Pinochet's government. He has a very interesting approach to teaching history and told us all to be concious of who we're getting our information from. For someone who obviously has such a personal connection to historical events, he was very up front about any biases he might have and encouraged us to take a full look at any historical events we come across.

We got to check out the cafeteria at the Universidad Católica, where we'll be taking our spanish class. It was fun to see all the students and other guests in the cafeteria. It's a very bustling area in a really convenient part of town. Then for dinner we went to a pretty cheap place a few blocks from the hostel that had great deals on tons of food and beer. The whole time they were playing American funk and soul music, and the waiter sang along to every one.

Today we had a few (way less interesting) lectures and then went to La Vega, a really large Chilean seafood market. I had pastel de jaiba, which is a traditional crab casserole. It was very delicious. Then we went to the oldest palace in Chile. The guide was great and told us about lots of aspects of Chilean history. The parts I found the most interesting were the history of the palace, which had been rebuilt twice because each time it was destroyed by an earthquake, and the history of the Chilean mines, which is marked with exploitation and shows a lot about the rural history of the country. The most moving part of the museum was the piece of Salvador Allende's glasses that are on display. They're burnt and only half the actual glasses are there. They're a visual representation of the period of coup and dictatorship which didn't happen so long ago. Our guide was telling us, and I've heard it a lot since coming here, that the tension between the Allende and Pinochet supporters still runs very deep. It's important not to bring up opinions about it unless you know exactly who you're talking to because it can easily cause fights and animosity.

Tomorrow we're going to see the poorest part of Santiago and learn about the people who aren't living as fortunately as we will be when we're in our host houses. It looks to be an intense but very interesting day.

Everything still is so far, so good. Everyone's great and we're slowly starting to get the hang of listening to spanish while we're exhausted.