She checked the list... and my name was on it.

So I made it through the first week of classes here without too much trouble. I think I'm going to get really used to my schedule with only one or two classes each day and zero labs! Unfortunately... we've found out that a few of the professors feel as if we have a lot of extra time on our hands. As a result, we seem to have a fairly heavy reading load for each class. But alas, what can we do?

Wednesday night was one of the most amazing nights ever. Our entire group of 28 students loaded a bus at 4:30 in the afternoon for the hour and a half ride to Santiago, the capital of Chile. Once there, the bus driver dropped us off in front of La Moneda (the equivalent of the U.S. White House except in Chile). As a result of some great fortune, we were in fact there to watch the premiere of El Largo Exilio de Ariel Dorfman: Una Voz Contra el Olvido, a documentary on the life of Ariel Dorfman who is a famous Chilean author. One of the directors of our trip was his student at Duke University for several years and that is how we obtained this great opportunity. After taking some pictures out front, we preceeded to walk into the building. One by one we walked up to the main podium to identify ourselves and receive a program. When it was my turn I told the lady my name. She checked the list and yes... my name was in deed on it! Beforehand we were all served wine and cheese and had the chance to mingle with all of the important people there. I have no idea how we got so lucky. Many of us felt as if we were not even worthy to be there. It was such an amazing experience that I can hardly put words to describe it. We eventually made our way into the theatre to view the film. The film was very well done by a Canadian producer. There was a Q & A session following the film after which we headed for home. It was a long ride home, and most of us did not arrive to our houses until 1 A.M. only to be up in time for class at 8 A.M. the next morning. Nonetheless... the experience was well worth it!


This afternoon our university had a free asado (like a BBQ) for all of the students to start off the semester. It was at the university in Valparaiso which is a city right next to Vina del Mar. Valparaiso and Vina del Mar are often described as being like the St. Paul and Minneapolis of Minnesota. Anyways, five of us decided to try taking the metro from Vina to Valparaiso. I had never been on it before but was excited to try it out. What an adventure the trip was! We managed to purchase our tickets, ride the metro, and get off at the correct station without any problems. Then we started walking towards the university. As it turns out the university was WAY to far away to walk to, so a man told us to take bus # 705 to get there. We got on bus #705 and after asking around discovered that we were definitely NOT on the right bus. So after riding a few more blocks we jumped right back off. We had no idea where we were or where we wanted to be going. We talked to a couple of boys on the street and they told us to get on bus #701. Multiple buses continued to pass us as we stood there on the side of the curb without seeing bus #701. All of the sudden a bus numbered 704 pulled up to the curb to let people out. The doors opened up and lo and behold what do you know? Some of our fellow American students were sitting in the seats, staring at us from up above. "AHH!!!" we screamed as we ran towards the bus to jump in. We rode the bus the rest of the way and got off at the correct stop. I have absolutely no idea how we would of found the university had that bus not pulled up at that exact moment. Isn't it funny how somethings seem to just work out perfectly?

Goal for the week: to figure out the micro (bus) system!