Hannah Kelley’s Blog

I have taken most of my classes by now. I added another class, “Formulation of Latin American Culture” which meets on Thursday nights. The professor is an endearing older gentleman with curly hair and a penchant for “sh” sounds.
He described South America and Latin America as a grand painting of Indigenous peoples, Africans, Europeans and Mestizos.

Board drawing from my new class on Latin American culture

I also made a new friend, Sole. She sheepishly told me that I was one of the only foreigners she had ever met. Sole must be at least 19–how different from the United States, where every city boasts its own ethnic group, replete with corresponding nightclubs, fine dining, and religious centers.

Since this new class and two of my other classes are in Viña (del Mar), I have been taking the train. There is a stop called Bellavista which is 3 blocks from my apartment, and it goes directly to Miramar station, which is about 3 blocks from the history department.

Train/Metro

I recently received a paper from the university called a comprobante, which entitles me to a reduced bus fare. This wonderful little piece of paper is substituting for my pase escolar, or university ID which won’t be given to me until May or so.
Since it is just a piece of paper, I had to go to one of the ubiquitous photocopy stores to get it laminated.
What a situation! I was telling a good Belgian friend here, Matthieu, that the entire concept of having to go get a piece of paper laminated to serve in lieu of a university ID is totally foreign. At Wayne State, not only are ID’s served up instantaneously, I would never worry about using it for a reduced gasoline price.

On the topic of documents and identification, I also went to the Registro Civil with another scholar, Paul Goldberg, on Thursday morning to apply for my carnét. The Registro Civil serves the public much in the same way the Secretary of State does in the United States. I was warned several times that it fills up early and always has long lines (sound familiar?). I had to pay a fee equivalent to about $8. They took my picture, finger printed me, and gave me a piece of paper with the date of when I will be able to come and pick up the carnét. A carnét is the equivalent of a drivers license in the U.S., except that almost no one my age here drives, so it is more like a state ID. It is used to buy alcohol and tobacco, get into night clubs, and in case you are stopped by the carabineros (or in more colloquial terms, pacos).

Lancha!

On Friday I went with some friends on a small boat or lancha. It was about $20 for the six of us to go zipping around the port for half and hour. We were able to see all of the cargo ships, navy ships, as well as have a great view of all the cerros or hills of Valparaiso.

See more pictures from this here.

Boat trip with some friends

Also on Friday, everyone at school was walking around with bouquets of green branches for Palm Sunday, Domingo de Ramos.

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