Second week of orientation: lots of trips, lots of lectures, and too much wine

So much has happened since the last time I wrote!

The second week of orientation was very busy. I didn't end up going Salsa dancing on Saturday night, because everyone was feeling pretty under the weather. On Sunday most of our orientation group woke up feeling quite sick. Sharing pisco sours on Friday night probably wasn't the best idea! Pisco sours = amazing citrusy drinks made with pisco, a liquor made from grapes. They are very tasty and very popular here.
We spent Sunday morning at an artisanal village called Los Dominicos, where we had lunch while a live big band played. It was really sunny and beautiful there. Later we embarked on a "social geography tour": We started in Las Condes, where my host family lives. This is the richest area, full of tall buildings, malls, and nice apartments. It is the area closest to the mountains. From there we headed all the way to the southwest area, where we visited a poor community famous for dug trafficking, and toured a drug rehab center there. It felt a little awkward touring around this area with such a big group, but it was really interesting to talk to people there. It is incredible what an extreme difference there is between the economic classes in different areas of the city. Chile is often one of the top ten most economically divided countries in the world, and this tour made me really grasp the extent of the problem.
On Monday we had an early lecture by Robert Sandoval of the armed forces, and an afternoon lecture by Manuel Garreton on politics and the election process. I was so tired, I had a hard time taking any of it in. So many interesting lecturers crammed into such a short time period! After the lectures we went to a general orientation at UChile, (the university) which made me remember that we were actually going to LIVE here and go to school, and that this isn't just a two-week vacation.
Tuesday we watched a video directed by Peter Winn, then attended a lecture on women and work in Chile over the years. Afterwards, a rep from a women's rights group called SERNAM talked to us for a while. Gender difference is so much more prominent here. I have noticed it on the streets (catcalls and "sucking" at women- a very strange tradition) and also in signing up for classes. I tried to sign up for soccer, and was told that it was a men's sport and that there were only soccer class/teams for men. After encountering the same problem in most of the departments, I finally found one that accepted women. What a frustrating system.
During the rest of the week we went to La Moneda (the government building) for a tour, had lectures on religion and newspapers (there's one here that's like the newspaper version of the Daily Show- very funny) and had personal class advising sessions. We also took a trip to Valparaiso, which I LOVED. The city is really beautiful, with thousands of colorful buildings stacked up around a picturesque port with palm trees. Megan and I took off our shoes and ran on the cold beach. It was so refreshing! Later we visited Neruda's old house there and ate in a restaurant that we had to take an outdoor elevator to get to- it was extremely old and rickety and a little frightening, but once we got to the top the view was amazing! We all ordered different types of delicious fish on silver platters, and sat in a room of glass windows overlooking the ocean. Someday when I'm rich and famous I will eat there every day.
On Friday, we went to a Poblacion, a poor urban settled community. This one was famous for being the first that was taken overnight by people who organized in the 70s and settled on public land. This was seen as a big step for the urban poor, so they named this particular poblacion La Victoria. We talked to students who are working to bring together the youth in the community through soccer and mural painting in the city. I am hoping that I can have my semester internship there, and help them with the murals or other projects that ECO (program that works with the urban poor) does there.
Friday night we had our last orientation food experience at a fancy restaurant in Santiago. We all got big bowls of clams, mussels, and other seafood and meat in a broth, plus two delicious desserts and pisco sours, red wine, and champagne. I need to learn to hold my liquor a little better here, they serve so much at dinner and I have a bit of a hard time composing myself at the dinner table after 3 glasses...
After dinner we went to a salsa club called La Maestra Vida, which was very fun but not what I expected! It was very crowded, and people dance a different sort of street salsa here. Trying to follow/watching everyone else trying to follow was hilarious.

Saturday morning I packed for moving in with my new host family! Ah! I was so nervous and excited. It was a great two weeks, but we didn't really have to branch out very much, and I still hadn't done any significant exploring alone. I couldn't really picture what my life would be like after this- my family, my house, my neighborhood, and my school were still so unknown! We all brought our suitcases down to the lobby and waited...