My first two months in Santiago, Chile!!
‘Cachai po weón?’ Three essential words you’ll need when in Chile! Chilean Spanish is one of a kind – the speed at which they speak and the endless number of modismos mean that even fluent Spanish speakers struggle at first! But as they say, if you can speak Chilean, you can speak Spanish anywhere!
Santiago isn’t really on the tourist map so there aren’t loads of foreigners, but it is one of the most modern metropolitan areas in South America, meaning you feel as if you could be somewhere in Europe. Sadly that means the cost of living is pretty similar to the UK… I accidentally managed to spend £60 on my first supermarket shop..! But you have pretty much all the modern conveniences you need here, even a special ‘British section’ with Tesco products! The only thing I miss is a decent cup of tea…Lipton tea with long life milk doesn’t quite cut it for me!
With a wide range of shops, restaurants, museums and parks, it’s undoubtedly an exciting city to get to know. The Central Market is a must-go for fabulous sea food at bargain prices. Clams in parmesan and eel soup are two of the classic seafood dishes, and incredibly tasty!
But for me, one of the main charms of Santiago is the ease with which you can escape the city and the notorious ‘Santiago smog’. In just a few hours you can reach the Andes to the east, the beach to the west, and even closer are national parks where you can hike and mountain bike. Already I’ve spent a weekend in the mountains in Cajon del Maipu zip wiring and hiking, hiking up Mount Manqueque and the San Carlos de Apoquinado nature reserve, to Mendoza in Argentina for a weekend of BBQs and wine tasting, the seaside town of Valparaiso and next week we’re off to the beach again for 4 days of partying for Independence Day! The Chileans don’t seem to stop partying. Ever!
I’m studying at the Pontifica University Catolica, a private Catholic university with 4 campuses around Santiago. All my classes are on the San Joaquín campus, about 20 minutes from my house via the metro. It’s like a small city – much bigger than Highfield Campus – complete with chapel, sports pitches and a picturesque view of the snowy Andes just behind it! Religion and tradition still play a very important role in the whole university set up which of course is very different to Southampton!
As an exchange student, university is very chilled. I only have class two days a week, on Monday and Wednesday, which makes for very long weekends to use for travelling! I have tests pretty much every week, so you have to make sure you keep on top of things, but as long as you do so, the work load is very manageable! Classes are however an hour and a half long, so staying awake sometimes proves quite difficult…
That pretty sums up my first 2 months here; time has flown by! Until next time!
Ciao,
Beth
