Mintun blogi vaihtoajasta Santiago de Chilessä: The reader's digests of the first week.

Best picks of the week:

1. The Spanish course started
2. Crazy football victory in the city
3. Getting lost when searching a restaurant
4. The new home starts to feel like home
5. Saturday night fever and our house warming

Some observations:

1. You have to wear a winter jacket in a classroom = Chileans have lot to learn from the Finnish house building and heating
2. There's a kissing couple in every corner of the city = Chileans kiss a lot
3. Chileans are supremely friendly and helpful!
4. They stare you on the streets
5. Brazilians know how to party - Scandinavians know how to finish the party with style ;)

On monday we finally attended the Spanish course. The course started pretty much from the zero point. Me, Pia and Laura are all attending the course before the semester starts. The exchange semester starts in the end of July/in the start of August. My first Spanish classes went "mas o menos" well. The teaching is basically in Spanish and the teachers try to avoid using English as much as possible. Understanding (not to mention talking) was very difficult in the start but I'll hope it gets better during the forthcoming weeks.

The view from our school

On thuesday morning we went to a shopping mall. Our classes start everyday at 2 PM and they're ending at 7PM so we have plenty of time in the mornings if we want to do something special. From the mall I needed to acquire an adapter so that I could use my laptop. The salesman in the Mac Store was super nice and he gave me a piece of cabel for free! On thuesday evening we went to a bar opposite to our school after the classes. We had a beer or two after which we took a metro back to our home station (Baquedano). Earlier in the afternoon our Spanish teacher had warned us about the national football final, which is going to make the city go disorganized on the same night. Not being so fanatic football fans, we sort of forgot it. We remembered it again when we got out of the metro in Baquedano: the exit gates were closed and the police let people out in a little groups. When we got out from the station - accompanied with the chanting fans whose team had just won the game an hour ago - we noticed that we were thrown in the middle of the crazy football victory. Thousands and thousands of fans were gathering to this particular place which just happened to be situated on our way back home. The plaza was packed with raging and shouting people who were climbing on the traffic signs and hanging on top of the statue. The streets were blocked the riot police was loaded for bear and the tank style army vehicles were driving around. It was ABSOLUTELY crazy! When we got back to our flat we could hear the whole city chanting and yelling and the sounds of emergency vehicles filled the streets. We were standing and listening the sound at our balcony, when I said to girls: "It sounds like they are destroying the city". The next day the Brazilian friends at school told that I was actually right and the morning news were full of stories about the dangerous football victory and fans who were breaking the city. The videos I attached here are worth watching, they could be the hottest youtube material.

Crazy football fans raging at the Plaza Italia

Laura with the riot police

Fans.

Wednesday, thursday and friday were pretty usual days. On thursday night we got lost with our class mates when we tried to find a restaurant that our teacher had recommended to us. The district where we got lost was not the best area in the city to get lost, because of dodgy streets. Luckily we were in a big group of both girls and boys. After 1 hour of walking around we decided to give up with the searching of the restaurant and looked for some random restaurant instead. Again, with the help of the locals we found a street where was a fish restaurant, so popular among the locals that we had to take a queuing number and wait for half an hour to get in. But it was really worth it. After all, the evening turned out to be a nice one and not a total fiasco.

On saturday me and Pia had some extra lessons (because we arrived later than other students) at one of our teacher's home. Her home was in a bit wealthier district and the house was very lovely. When we arrived, the cutest dog and a delicious breakfast waited for us!

After the lesson on saturday it was a time to prepare everything for the evening. We had a house warming party (literally ;)) and all the people we knew by then were invited. The party was great! After midnight we left to a karaoke bar, which was empty before we got in. We were singing so much that I lost my voice. After karaoke we continued our way to a club. The entrance of the club was weird: you could never have thought that there was a club if you wasn't aware of it. It looked just like any detached house but inside could be found a party. We had fun till the end of the night and the warming of our house was a great success!