Dear Mrs. Hubbard’s class,
Sounds like this year has gotten off to an exciting start. What fun things you are doing! - from the scavenger hunt to the Aquarium and IMAX. Please continue to keep me updated!
I loved reading all of your smart and interesting questions and I will do my best to answer them.
"What do you find to be the most beautiful place in Chile that you have seen so far?"
This is a very difficult question as Chile is an amazingly diverse and beautiful country, but I would have to say the most beautiful is Torres del Paine National Park in the very south of Chile. I visited in 2009. The trip was a 5-day long backpacking and camping trip through some of the most beautiful terrain in the world. Here are some pictures:
"What is the most delicious food that you have tried there?"
I adore fresh fruits and vegetables, and all fresh produce is very cheap here in Chile. My favorite food is avocado (“palta” in Spanish) which is cheap and plentiful! I eat it all the time – on sandwiches, in guacamole… I’ve even learned to make palta soup! I am going to desperately miss palta when I return to the States because in the US avocados cost around 1 dollar EACH!
"What can you tell us about the whole situation, that we might not have seen on the news already?”
I’m very glad you guys asked about the miners. It has been a wild and exciting few months with all of the miner hype. One really cool thing is that the night the miners were finally rescued, everyone was watching on the news… I was at a friends’ house watching with her and her roommates. And as the first miner emerged from the capsule safe and sound, suddenly outside on the streets of Santiago you could hear car horns honking and sirens blaring in celebration!! It was so neat. It seemed like the whole world was watching nervously and suddenly the whole world erupted in celebration. It was really emotional.
Ian wants to know if you have been able to 'connect' with people there. Do you find that you have things in common with people there?
Ian, this is a very good question, because this is typically the biggest challenge people face when they live abroad. Luckily, I have been very fortunate to meet lots of amazing people, and though it did take several months, I do feel like I really connected with people. It helped a lot that I have a very small program – there are only 12 people in my class, and I have class with the same people every day. This allowed us to become close very quickly.
Interestingly, I felt like I became even more connected to my friends and community in Santiago after the Earthquake last February. I was out of the country at the time of the earthquake, but I was so worried about my friends and their families. Only at that point did it really hit me how important my Santiago community was to me and how much of an impact these people have had on my life.
Here are some pictures of me with my friends from school.
I am very close with my classmate, Carlos, and his wife and family:
'What do you feel has been the best experience that you have had at the university you are attending?'
Getting to know my classmates has been the best experience. It has also been cool to see how other colleges operate outside of the US. In general, classes are very similar. Most professors use power point to aid their teaching, and tests and homework are just as frequent as they were in college in the US.
Here is a picture of my on my birthday last year when my classmates threw me a surprise party:
Kamryn wants to know about the classes you take and what your major area of study is.
I am in an Environmental Planning and Management Program, so some of my classes include Environmental Impact Assessment, Environmental Management Systems, Environmental Contamination, and things like that.
Elijah wants to know what other major news events are happening in Chile.
Other news in Chile – honestly, I don’t have a TV so I don’t watch the news hardly ever. I find that in general news programs here tend to be very sensationalized anyway. In general, soccer news always makes headlines because Chileans, like all Latin Americans, are CRAZY soccer fans.
Do you know any of the families of the trapped miners?
I do not know any of the families of the miners since they live about 9 hours north of here. However, one of my friends from Santiago, who is a journalist, had the opportunity to cover the miner story and she was in Copiapo when the miners were rescued. She was able to meet many of the miners and their families, which was very cool!
We are currently studying about Chile and want to know what most folks do there to earn a living.
Just like in the US, there are a wide range of professions in Chile. In the countryside, many people are farmers or small business owners, and in the city, there exists any job you could possibly imagine from business owner to engineer to cab driver to doctor.
Colin wonders about the food in Chile. Do you have favorite places you like to eat or particular foods you have experienced?
Besides palta (avocado) I really love the seafood here. Since Chile has such a long coastline, fish and other seafood is abundant and relatively inexpensive. I just had huge, beautiful salmon filets for dinner last night – which would be way too much of a luxury for me to afford in the US.
We know they love soccer, but are there other sports that Chileans love too?
Many Chileans are into skiing and snowboarding since the Andes mountains are so close. I’d say more popular than basketball or baseball is skateboarding and roller blading. There are lots of skate parks in Santiago that are always FULL of kids and teenagers.
Here is a picture of Chileans celebrating in the streets after a World Cup win:
Tyler wants to know how you are enjoying the college experience there in Santiago? And does your school have a college soccer team?
The college experience in Santiago is very different because not all of the college buildings are located on the same campus. For example, my classes are in the Urban Planning building but this is different from the school of agriculture or the school of art or the school of medicine, which are all part of the same university but are split up among different buildings all over the city. Here is a picture of my building:
Interestingly, there are not college sports like we know them. Although some of the most famous soccer teams are named after universities, this is only because they started off being university teams and then evolved into professional teams. College sports like we think of them do not exist here – only professional. So unfortunately you see far less school spirit here than in the US.
Andrew wants to know about the climate and temperature. Is summer really hot there?
The climate is very dry which means temperatures fluctuate drastically. In the winter it is very cold – in the 30s – but there is hardly ever snow down here in the valley (only on the mountains). And in summer it is blazing hot – it sometimes reaches 100. There is also a huge different between night and day temperatures. Right now in spring it will get up to 80 degrees during the day and then drop to 40 at night!
What is the American dollar exchange rate there?
The exchange rate is approximately 500 pesos to one dollar, meaning a loaf of bread costs about 1,000 pesos – really crazy, huh? Here is a picture from the nearby city of Valparaiso. Can you see what the price of bread says (“Pan” means “bread”)?
Connor wants to know if Chileans celebrate any holidays to honor their veterans, since we are preparing to honor ours.
Great question, and unfortunately I have a silly answer. Honestly there are so many holidays here that I don’t even know what we are celebrating most days! Chile is a very Catholic country, so there are many holidays related to Catholic saints. Since we have at least a couple holidays every month, I often don’t even stop to ask what is being celebrated because it is usually some Catholic saint’s day that I’m not familiar with. So the truth is if there is a Veteran’s Day, I have no idea!
Elijah asks if there are any plants or flowers that grow only in South America and Chile that you really like.
There were some GORGEOUS flowers that I took pictures of in Torres del Paine:
Have you been able to visit any areas in the Amazon Rain Forest yet?
I have actually visited the Amazon, but not during my time in Chile. I visited when I was volunteering in Peru back in 2003. Amazing – snakes and birds and crocodiles! But Chile doesn’t have any jungle-esque ecosystems, unfortunately.
Elizabeth wants to know about the wildlife. Is there a particular animal native to Chile that you find interesting? Your favorite? Do you have pictures?
These are not my personal pictures, but this is what a huemul looks like, one of the national animals/symbols of Chile. This animal is actually endangered now and there are several huemul conservation programs.
Adam wants to know if hunting game is much of a sport in Chile?
In the south it is popular to hunt havali, which is like a wild boar. Fly fishing is also very popular in the south where there are some of the most beautiful rivers in the whole world!
Joe wonders if there is still snow on the mountains surrounding Santiago, even though temperatures are warming.
The snow has just finished melting – it’s so sad it’s all gone!
Dexter wants to know about the money used in Chile. Could you give us some examples of what the money will buy and how their money compares to ours.
The prices of things are pretty comparable in general (except I find certain foods to be way cheaper, and certain manufactured items, like electronics, to be way more expensive):
Let’s see:
The price of an apple: 100 pesos (about 20 cents)
The price of two pounds of strawberries: 500 pesos (1 dollar)
The price of a block of cheese: 2,000 pesos (4 dollars)
The price of a movie ticket: 3,500 pesos (about 7 dollars)
The price of a 10 minute cab ride: 3,000 pesos (6 dollars)
The price of a subway ride: 450 pesos (90 cents)
The price of a computer: 1 million pesos (2,000 dollars) – electronics are WAY more expensive here!!
Can you show us pictures of some of their native foods?
The truth is that Chilean cuisine is not very exciting or unique. There is a lot of heavy, “home-style” cooking like stews and pastas and beans. Here is a picture of empanadas, which are like calzones or meat pies. They are very popular.
And here is a picture or curanto, which is like a huge seafood soup/stew.
Dean wants to know about your name. How did your parents choose Shepard? We think it is a really neat name.
Thanks everyone, I like my name too! It was my great grandfather’s name and my mother’s middle name. My mother’s first name is Susan and she always thought “Shepard” was way cooler than “Susan” so she decided to name her first daughter “Shepard” – and that’s me!
Until next post!
Greetings from Chile,
Shepard
