orientation's through

Just a note - I may or may not ever get around to filling in the blanks of those Spanish parts where I made notes to myself of what to elaborate on. Oh well. I can't be too addicted to the internet here, so we're just going to have to deal.

So, like the title of this post says - our orientation is finished now. Today was the last day.

The classes I'm signed up for at this point (we don't have to decide until April 1, so we'll see how everything goes).

general level courses (start with a "0" in the code):

-Hinduism and Christianity: a possible dialogue (rel. dept. - I heard today from a guy that took this course before that it's really good - he's not a religion major, but has taken some rel. courses that he thought were interesting - I think it's more liberal arts-ish here than they present it to be - everyone has their track of classes they have to take for their titulo, but there are still general courses open to everyone)
-Utopias: Manifestations of Utopic ideals in Art (art department)
-Social Geography: A multi-disciplinary focus on (something....we get to interact with different types of people that we normally wouldn't have contact with through the university - different societal classes, etc.) (geography dept. - although it's more of a sociology-type class)

higher level:

-Spanish Communication and Chilean Culture (for int'l students) - Advanced level (ow ow - we'll see how that goes; I think a part of it is I just feel more confident speaking the language after having been down here awhile - he was deciding between intermediate and advanced, but I'm glad he put me in advanced, because that should mean most will be at or above my level, and I should learn more that way)
-Chile Independence and Formation of the State (history dept. - the code starts with a 3, for what that's worth - I was told it's complex/hard enough - Mariela, my monitor, said that I should take some higher level stuff, because it wouldn't be fair to just take general-level classes - this may turn out to be my hardest, but I need to learn about Chilean history, and digging into something a little deeper will be good for me)
-Folklore Dances (physical education dept. - some lecture/theory stuff, and practicing of the dances too, of course - I may drop this and just take the extra-curricular social dance class - I'd like to be able to dance the cueca by the end of my time here, though)

We took a bus tour around to most of the university buildings around Valpo. and Vina the other day, which was nice - they all have their own character about them, which is fun - and a different view. Got left with a few others from my group by the bus at the ocean science building, where we were admiring the sea, but it was fine - we just hopped on a micro to the university.

Today, I was at the Civil Registry building getting my Chilean id, and overheard/participated a little bit in an interesting conversation with the ladies on either side of me in line. They were nice. I learned that the poor people in Chile are all lazy. And, some other interesting things - they talked some about politics, machismo, standing in lines for government stuff, etc. Oh, and when they found out I was from the U.S., they of course said it's the land of opportunity. Fun stuff.

This afternoon, the closing part of orientation was a presentation about all the different extra-curricular activities. There's quite a variety of sports, workshops, volunteer activities, etc. to be involved in, which is exciting. And yesterday when I got my agenda after registering for classes, there was a brochure about different daily masses, that happen around campus, pastors that are available, and such. So those things are nice to know about.

The other night there was a party for the freshmen and int'l students. The overwhelming majority were incoming freshmen, so it was a bit intimidating to walk up on a pier full of Chilean students, especially looking rather gringa-ish. But it was fine - I met up with some other people from my orientation group, met a few other gringos, and a couple of Chileans. And today after the presentation and before the little reception for the ISEP-ers and independents, I met a few more Chileans.

Tonight, I think I'm going to Club Cielo, where foreigners get in free tonight - a bunch of the PUCV int'ls are going there, I think. I just have to figure out where it is, etc. Before all that happens, I have to wrap up here, add money on my cell phone card, go home for "once", freshen up a little bit, etc.

So, those are a few bits and pieces from the week.

Oh - mom - I may or may not e-mail you right now - so, yes, I got the message that you called last night. I was out to the movies with Sonja. Sinister Mind/Hide and Seek (I'm not sure which it is in English) is incredibly scary!!!

Of course, things are kind of surreal, really real/normal, etc. all at the same time, as always.

I'm going now. I hope everyone's doing well! Valpo./Viña are sitting pretty well with me right now, so that's one less thing to worry about - I'm sure you're all on-edge all the time wondering how I'm doing.

Oh - another little note - the int'l students are starting to greet each other like Chileans now - interesting stuff.