Snow and School

This week has been fairly crazy. But first, THE WEEKEND!

After much planning and confusing phone calls in Spanish, me and several people from my exchange group went up to the Andes to go skiing! WOOT! It was a blast, and several times I felt like I was going to die. Luckly, I didn't. It was really cool being so high up. We went to a resort called El Colorado which went to the top of a peak about 9000 feet above sea level. It was a blast since we were up in the Andes and the sun was beautiful. We were also able to get out of the smogy Santiago city for a while (aparently July and August are the worst months for the smog. Once September rolls around, the smog should go away.) I stayed on the intermediate hills, but once I become a more competant skiier, I would love to come back and try the harder runs. One nice thing for a clutz like me was that we were above the tree line so there wasn't any trees to crash into.

This week classes offically started at both Universites. I can take classes at la Universidad de Chile, which is the oldest and biggest university in Chile. It is also the main public Univeristy in the country which means that it can be a little unorganized. I can also take classes at La Catolica which is equally important as U Chile, but it is the private version. It is also a catholic university, but the only really religous influence that I can tell is the crusafixes in the classrooms. Although Chile is a fairly Catholic country, so even this doesn't seem strange to me.

Learning to "work the system" here in Chile takes some effort. Each major has its own facultad which seems to operate compleatly independently from all of the other facultads. Next week when we register, I have to go to each department head and get their permission to enroll.

Another diffrence in the education system here is the readings. In Chile, there is a very high tax on books, and a very low repect for copyrights. This means that no one buys books here. Instead, each facultad has thier own photocopiest where you go and let them know what class you are in and they make the photocopies that you need.

Here is my (un)offical class schedual:

Gymnastics at La Catolica Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings.
Latin American Politics at U Chile Tuesday and Thursday morings.
Sketch Drawing at La Catolica Monday afternoons.
Geography of Chile at La Catolica Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
Spanish for Foreigners at La Catolica Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.