Hanna’s Study Abroad Adventures

I am heading out with a group of students from my program to do a 5 day long hike.  It will be cold, it will be tiring, we will be hungry, thirsty, sleepy, but it will be fun!  I should have brought camping accessories with me but I just really didn’t think of that as I was leaving Wisconsin in the middle of a blizzard.  Luckily relatives have items that can be borrowed and Jumbo, the Wal*Mart of Chile, has a plentiful supply of “good enough” items.  After buying a special pair of $10 socks at a sporting store I realized that this trip was going to be a little more expensive than I had anticipated.  Hopefully I have a sufficient supply of everything.  Hopefully no one will freeze.  Hopefully the fact that we will practically be in Antarctica wont cause any mishaps.  Look it up on line, it is one of the most southern places one can possibly go.  And it is almost winter here.  Smart, very smart.  If I survive I will tell you how it was.  Until then, chao.

I live in a huge apartment building on the 19^th floor.  I have a beautiful view of the city and an even better view of the smog that suffocates the air and creates an atmospheric effect that should not be allowed to occur across only a few miles of land.  Michelle Bachelet, the new president, instated a new system of transportation just in the last couple months in an effort to reduce the pollution.  I guess they don’t really want the whole in our ozone to get bigger.  Tansantiago is the new system that in theory will eventually work.  Previously there were like 8,000 micros (buses) that traversed the city in no particular manner.  You could get picked up and dropped off right at your door any time of the day or night.  Now they have cut the number of buses in half and have very specific routs that no one can figure out because they are not willing to look at the map that says exactly where they go.  Sometimes the micros don’t show up and no one really knows their time schedule, but there is a map of where they are supposed to drive. The micros dump everyone off at the metro stations because previously no one used the metro.  This is great because now when I try to get home from the University I have to spend a glorious half hour sweating profusely while suffocating amidst an immovable throng of equally sweaty people.  Luckily thus far I have found that while Chileans are very willing to whistle and catcall, they don’t actually touch.  If I had to endure that sweaty half hour metro ride while being unwillingly fondled, well, I would probably start walking.  The good news is that the pollution has already begun to decrease.  The bad news, everyone hates the new system and finds it most intellectual to discuss how terrible it is day upon day.