Hannah Kelley’s Blog

You can access the original article here: http://www.estrellavalpo.cl today (March 25th) by scrolling down the page– or any other day for an indeterminate amount of time by doing a search for “Hannah Kelley”.

I was interviewed on Saturday while sitting at a cafe near my house.

At the top it says:

The Gringa of the day

>North american Hanna (sp) Kelley thinks that the nice part of Valparaíso is that each neighborhood is distinct and has its own identity.

HANNAH KELLEY “The hills left me stunned”

Aside from studying and getting to know Chile, she is working as a volunteer

by Lisa Karlsson

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“Hannah Kelley (21) arrived in Chile three weeks ago from the U.S. It is her first time in our country and in Valparaíso, but she already has a variety of opinions about this port city.

‘Each community has its own identity even though they are separated by just a few kilometers. I love that.”, says the north american, who was playing chess when we found her at a café on cerro Concepcion (cerro = hill).

She didn’t have a clear image of Valparaíso before she arrived, but she says that it was more or less what she had in mind, except that the streets of the hills are much longer and the stairs more tiring. “The characteristics of the hills left me stunned, they are quite impressive”, she signals.

During this year that she stays in Chile she is going to study history and pre-hispanic art, among other courses.

“But I didn’t just come to study. Aside from that, I am also going to work as a volunteer with Rotaract, an organization similar to Rotary International.”, she explains.

She tells us that a few weeks ago she went to a place in Olmué to work with some children alongside the Rotaract club. “It was a different experience, it will be very fun to continue working with them.” recounts this gringa.“

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While walking around Casa Central (main campus for PUCV) on Monday, I noticed that some fellow students were using white paint to write on enormous strips of black plastic, then hanging them as banners all along the inside of the courtyard.

Posters inside of Casa Central

I stopped to ask one of the students what they were doing. The posters all began with the word justicia, justice, in big capital letters.

The girl I asked told me that they were putting up posters for a vigil that would be held that evening for her friend and classmate, Karina, who was murdered. I later realized that Monday was the one month anniversary of her death. The purpose of the posters, and the vigil, is to raise awareness that the police have not yet investigated her case, and in a certain way to put pressure on them.

I edited a video out of the footage I took from the vigil, and from talking to the student.

Karina Silva Zamora - Justicia from hannah kelley on Vimeo.

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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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Friday I signed up for my classes, which are as follows:

Advanced Spanish Grammar, 4 credits

Advanced Written Spanish, 3 credits

History of Modern Chile, 4 credits

Art and Society in Pre-Hispanic Chile, 3 credits

Environmental Law, 2 credits

These courses were the result of hours of drilling the “monitores”, students in charge of international students, on which classes would be the best for me. I am pleased with my selections and think they will help me not only to elevate my Spanish into an academic realm, but also improve my understanding of this rich country. Classes start Monday at 3:40.

After signing up for classes the PIIE, or Programa Internacional de Intercamio (International Students Office) organized some activities for the foreign students. We saw various types of Chilean dances while we enjoyed empanadas and juice. I hope to upload the videos from this event shortly.

After the event I went grocery shopping and notebook/school supplies shopping with a friend from my group, Matthieu, and my monitor Maria José. They have an escalator in the supermarket here that is magnetized to stick to the cart wheels so that you can bring your cart upstairs with you. I bought bread, cheese, yoghurt and some other breakfast essentials.

Maria José was great–I don’t know how I would have bought school supplies without her. For some reason in the university, students no longer write on notebooks with lines–only on graph paper. This was strange not only for me but also for Matthieu, who is Belgian. I kept trying to find ‘normal’ lined notebooks for my classes in different colors (a color for each class, of course!). It ended up that I bought lined notebooks intended for high school students. We’ll see if anyone laughs at me for not using graph paper. :)

In the evening all of the monitors threw a party for the international students in Viña. There was a lot Reggaeton, Salsa and maraca-drumbeat-latin music. I enjoyed myself.

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