My Chilean identity card was stolen from me today near my school. It was in the front pocket of my hoodie and inside of my coin purse that had about $8 in it. Somehow the card ended up back at my university, and I picked it up from the secretary of the international students office all within a couple of hours after it happened. Curious. I am lucky that something more important wasn’t stolen.
Most of my classes have started this week. I am really enjoying my Interpretation class, which is basically a class which trains in translation techniques (Spanish – English). I guess that this sort of class, in the US at least, would only be found at a special institute for language translation. I love having the opportunity to take it. We are listening to oral recordings and practicing synthesis (short summary) and simultaneous translation (you translate while you listen or read). My vocabulary in Spanish is increasing, given that a lot of the words are about things that I wouldn’t normally have the chance to talk about (medical situations, for example).
Yesterday I had my Ethnomusic class, which looks like it will be more of an anthropology class than an overview of Chilean indigenous music. We are going to be doing an overview of all of the major ethnic groups of Chile, and focusing on much more than music.
I changed my hair color to a dark brown, and all of a sudden a lot of people are asking me if I am Chilean! An Argentine girl is staying with me this weekend, and she said that when she first heard me on the phone she thought I was from Chile. I guess I am not Mexican anymore, ha ha.
A new development has come up with Scholars for Schools that I heard last night while I was at the meeting for the Rotary Club of Valparaíso Bellavista; one of the main newspapers here, La Tercera, publishes a series of juvenile paperback books for only 500 pesos each (about a dollar), and is going to help us buy them in bulk for the libraries we are supporting, given that one of the administrative employees is a Rotarian. Since books are so expensive in Chile, this is really great news. I look forward to hearing more about this connection through the Bellavista Club.
Speaking of Scholars for Schools, we now have a website in Spanish: http://scholarsforschools.cl.
In November I am going to take the DELE, which is a diploma certifying my level of Spanish. It is good for the rest of my life, more or less, and will be especially useful should I ever decide to work in a Spanish speaking country or for a company where Spanish is the official work language.
