No más tarea!

I'm done!!!!

Well, now that graduation is over (sans tripping on stage!), I have left the thriving metropolis that is Waco for the browner pastures of West Texas. Whereas most of my friends are currently soaking in some summer sun, I am buried in a mountain of LSAT books. In my life that is currently being darkened by Logic Games, my July trip to Chile seems to be the only bright spot. Buying my plane ticket last week only served to make me even more excited… especially since I got such a sweet deal from FlyForGood.com!

Now that I’m not in a Spanish class everyday like I was at good ole’ Baylor, I’m forcing myself to watch Telemundo/Galavisión etc. every night to keep my ear trained to Spanish (so that I don’t sound like an idiot once I get to Chile.) So far the commercials have been the best part of this exercise; I highly recommend that everyone take at least 15 minutes to watch a Spanish-speaking TV station just to see how entertaining the commercials are. For example, what I thought was just an innocent advertisement for pots and pans turned out to be the story of a lackluster marriage that could only be saved by a scandalous makeover of the wife and a new desire to cook seductive food… using her new pots and pans. Better than a telenovela. Oh, how I love Latin culture :-)

Since I’ve been so inundated with LSAT madness I haven’t taken too many steps to prepare for Chile except a few things here and there. For graduation I was lovingly gifted with a new computer (thanks family!!) and am soooo excited to take it to Chile with me. My last computer was a 4-year old dinosaur that weighed about 10 lbs… not the easiest to travel with. This one is a sassy little black thing that only takes up minimal room – all the better to go through airport security with! Also, I’m planning to allot some graduation gift money towards a new digital camera so that I can post some excellent pictures for you guys to enjoy.

I just received my “Culture Kit” in the mail from Cultural Embrace. It’s filled with really great information about living in another culture; it even includes how to deal with the inevitable effects of culture shock. When I was living in Spain I remember having a few very intense moments of culture shock. A few times I would venture down to the movie theatre that showed American movies with subtitles. Another time, I had a very low moment and ended up sitting by myself in the corner of a Burger King savoring the beauty of an order of fries and chicken strips while getting some funny looks from the locals. As depressing as that sounds, it helped immensely.

Well, unfortunately I have to get back to my LSAT for Dummies book since I only have about one more week to improve my score by an unrealistic amount. I’m convinced that there is a special place in infierno for standardized tests. Until next time, here’s the philosophical question of the day:

When you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn?

-Caroline
Advisor Abroad in Chile

¡Graduación y Empanadas!

Yes, it’s true: I’m finished with finals! Glory hallelujah! I even managed to make all A’s, with the exception of a B in that pesky Spanish Grammar class that I was complaining about in my previous post (I will forever despise the subjunctive tense.) All that’s left is to walk across the stage this Saturday without tripping. Considering the heels that I’m planning to wear, this will indeed prove to be tricky…

Aside from packing up my little apartment, I have an ample amount of free time… and to be honest, it’s freaking me out. Therefore, I am going to take this opportunity to kill about an hour talking about what I’ve found out about Chilean etiquette and food culture thus far…

Chilean Etiquette!

After some very productive Googling, I discovered a website with some very interesting information on Chilean etiquette, and here are the highlights:

*Men will usually shake hands and women generally pat each other on the right forearm or shoulder.
*If invited to a Chilean's home, take sweets/chocolates or wine for the hostess. Send flowers in advance. Do not give yellow roses as they indicate contempt, or purple/black flowers as they symbolize death. Also, do not give scissors or knives as they indicate you want to sever the relationship.
*Dining etiquette can be quite formal in Chile. The hostess invites people to eat. Keep your hands visible when eating with your wrists resting on the edge of the table. Avoid speaking with eating utensils in your hands. It is considered polite to finish everything on your plate. Finally, pour wine with the right hand only.

Comida Chilena!

Chile has a very diverse food culture. As I have previously mentioned, I’m especially excited about the seafood, but I have discovered that there are other local dishes that sound equally as exciting. Here’s a little look into what I’ve found out about the Chilean food culture:

*Chileans normally eat 4 times a day. The first meal of the day is breakfast, which mostly consists of rather light fare including toasted bread with butter and instant coffee with milk. Lunch (served between 1:00 and 2:00 P.M. ) is the big meal of the day. Traditionally two main dishes are served. The first course may be a salad of some kind. The second dish generally includes beef or chicken, accompanied by vegetables. Around 5:00 P.M. Chileans take once, an afternoon tea with bread and jam, that often also includes cheeses and palta (avocados). Once, which means "eleven," is evidently named after the British tea time—11:00 A.M. Around 9:00 P.M. most families serve dinner, which is usually a single but substantial dish, most often accompanied with wine grown in the many Central Valley vineyards.
*Some popular dishes in Chile are empanadas (pastries stuffed with meat, cheese, or seafood, as well as onion, raisins, and olives), humitas (a paste of white corn, fried onions, and basil, wrapped in corn husks and cooked in boiling water), and pastel de choclo (white corn and beef casserole topped with sugar and mostly cooked in traditional black ceramic dishes).

I’m pretty much obsessed with Anthony Bourdain’s show No Reservations on the Travel Channel. Despite his snarky attitude about most things, his look into the food culture of the countries he visits is super entertaining. Here’s a link to a video of his visit to Chile and the empanadas he encountered.

http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/Anthony_Bourdain/Video/Tony_Visits_The_Legendary_Las_Deliciosas
Well, unfortunately I need to start the long and arduous process of packing up my apartment. So, until next time, here’s the philosophical question of the day:

When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?

-Caroline
Advisor Abroad in Chile

Sobre mi vida...

¡Hola!

Well, as promised, the level of procrastination in my studies has significantly increased as the number of days before graduation has decreased. Since I am currently putting off studying the subjunctive verb tense in Spanish (a topic which I repeatedly have nightmares about), I’ll take this opportunity to tell you more about myself.

I was born and raised in Abilene, Texas and graduated from Abilene High in 2006. After my graduation, my senior trip was a 2 week tour of Europe with a group from my high school history classes. We started off in Italy and visited Rome, Florence, and Assisi and then made our way to Lucerne, Switzerland. From there we took a bus to Paris, where I officially ran out of money, and then took the Chunnel to London, where I begged my parents for more money via a 4 minute phone call from a hotel room that would turn out to cost about $40. This was a particularly momentous occasion in my life because it not only showed me how much I love to travel, but also created a deep-rooted fear of using hotel phones in Europe.

Me in Paris. I was smiling because I had not yet realized that I was out of money...

I entered Baylor University in the fall of 2006 and have been here ever since. I’m an International Studies major and have a minor in Spanish (which would turn out to be a masochistic decision… who knew that learning another language would be difficult?) As much fun as Waco is, my first 2 ½ years here only increased my desire to get the heck out of Texas. Finally, my opportunity to escape came last spring during my junior year when I decided to study abroad in Madrid, Spain at Saint Louis University’s Madrid campus. During my time in Spain, I lived with an awesome Señora named Carmen, I learned how to thoroughly embarrass myself with my botched Spanish, and I had the opportunity to travel all throughout Spain and to parts of Europe. I visited Amsterdam, Athens, Munich, Prague, Vienna, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Moscow (where I lost my passport and barely escaped… it’s a really entertaining story that would probably make a decent Lifetime Movie).

Me in front of Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow... something I will never fully understand.

Last fall, as I was trying to figure out what to do with my life after graduation, I received an email saying that a Cultural Embrace representative would be at Baylor to talk about opportunities abroad. Since I knew that I’d already missed the deadline to take the LSAT and apply for law schools for the fall of 2010, I figured that going back abroad would be the thing to do during the year before entering law school in 2011. After the presentation, I was fairly positive that this was the company that I wanted to work with in deciding what to do and where to go abroad.

Over the past few months, I have made the decision to teach English in Chile through Cultural Embrace so that I can work on my Spanish while imparting wisdom upon the niños there. Although I was a little nervous about the prospect of teaching English since I’ve never done it before, I was comforted by the fact that I will be working alongside a Chilean teacher in the classroom; basically it’s like having teaching training wheels. I can’t tell you how excited I am to get down to South America and throw myself into the Chilean culture. My dealings with Cultural Embrace so far have been great. Even when the earthquake hit a few months ago, they were in constant communication with me to help me figure out what would happen next. Their mission statement of “discover the differences, share the possibilities” is something that I have found to be true in all of my travels abroad and is something that I can’t wait to apply to my time in Chile!

So, next time you hear from me I will (hopefully) be a graduate of Baylor University and will be prepping to take the LSAT in June (ugh.) and for my trip to Chile in July (yay!!). So, until then, I will leave you with the philosophical question of the day:

Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?

-Caroline
Advisor Abroad in Chile