{"id":1334,"date":"2016-07-11T10:06:55","date_gmt":"2016-07-11T14:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/sla2016\/?p=1334"},"modified":"2016-07-12T11:38:04","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T15:38:04","slug":"reflective-journal-entry-1-hola-from-chile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/2016\/07\/11\/reflective-journal-entry-1-hola-from-chile\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflective Journal Entry 1: Hola from Chile!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I arrived in Santiago, Chile on May 9th<\/sup>, and spent the first couple days in the capital with other students from the International Studies Abroad (ISA) program. While in Santiago, we visited a lot of interesting places in order to learn more about this country, for example, La Moneda, Cerro Santa Luc\u00eda, Cerro Crit\u00f3bal, Plaza de Armas, and Mercado Central de Santiago. Moreover, we also paid a visit to a pottery town and spent a day at the oldest vineyard near Santiago.<\/p>\n

\"With<\/a>

With all the ISA students in Santiago<\/p><\/div>\n

We arrived in Vi\u00f1a del Mar the following Saturday evening. From now on, I will spend the next 5 weeks with my host family in this city. All my classes will be at the Universidad Cat\u00f3lica in Valpara\u00edso, which is another beautiful city right next to Vi\u00f1a. This past week was pretty busy with various orientations with ISA and the university (PUCV), several excursion trips in both Vi\u00f1a and Valpara\u00edso, and my first three days of class.<\/p>\n

Unlike Santiago, Vi\u00f1a and Valpo are two smaller cities close to each other along the coastline with better climate. Therefore, the weather is pretty warm here despite the fact that it is winter in Chile. There are also a number of historic and cultural landmarks in these cities like Santiago. In the afternoon after class, we visited some famous sightseeing spots like Reloj de Flores, Museo Fonck, Plaza Sotomayor, Paseo 21 de Mayo, etc.<\/p>\n

\"View<\/a>

View from Valpara\u00edso port<\/p><\/div>\n

My Chilean family is wonderful and very welcoming. My Chilean mom introduced me to all the family members on the first day of my arrival on a welcoming party. Normally, the mom, the grandma and one of the sons would live in the house with me. Sometimes, the elder son with his daughter would come for the weekends. I have spent hours talking with my Chilean family everyday, trying to practice my Spanish as much as possible and learn more about this new culture and custom, even though I could barely express myself on the first couple days. My host family is super nice that they always help me when I have difficulty on expressing myself, and is super patient listening to me, correcting my grammar, and talking with me about all the different topics. I could not be happier to live with them for more weeks.<\/p>\n

\"With<\/a>

With my lovely Chilean family<\/p><\/div>\n

Regarding my first week of school, I chose two intermediate level courses at the PUCV\u2014\u201cIntensive grammar\u201d and \u201cChilean culture and conversation\u201d since I believe I can get the most from these two classes by building up my grammar and vocabulary and practicing my conversational skill. In addition, I signed up for a writing tutor session once a week and a Spanish language table with local university students every Friday. I really look forward to all the following classes and activities at the university!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The University PUCV<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I arrived in Santiago, Chile on May 9th, and spent the first couple days in the capital with other students from the International Studies Abroad (ISA) program. While in Santiago, we visited a lot of interesting places in order to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28953],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1347,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1334\/revisions\/1347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}