Cerro Santa Lucia

I developed plantar fasciitis about a month before leaving for Chile, which has somewhat hampered my ability to explore my new home. It's basically an inflammation of the tissue connecting your heel to your toes that makes it painful to walk, dance, stand... do anything but sit around icing your foot. It's the kind of thing you get shoe inserts for. The kind of thing you go to the podiatrist for. The kind of thing that can last for months, and longer if you don't let it rest. But not the kind of thing I'm going to let keep me down.

One of my methods of getting around the problem is to control my outings fairly carefully, and limit myself on bad days to just one trip. So the last week in March, when my foot was feeling unusually, wonderfully normal, I took a trip to Cerro Santa Lucia, an oasis of flowering green and rocky hillside in the middle of Santiago. Also rated #6 of things to do in Santiago on TripAdvisor at the time of my visit. But I'm not going to talk about it. I'm going to show you.

Chilenismos

I started learning Spanish in the 6th grade, continued through high school, and spent a semester abroad in Peru my junior year of college.  Before the start of my scholarship, I took a language test to make sure that my level of comprehension, writing, and speaking were adequate enough to study in my second language. But nothing could really prepare me for Santiago.

Spanish is spoken differently in every country, and Chile is no exception. Whereas in Cusco the language was peppered with words taken from Quechua, in Santiago the language is largely influenced by slang and Chilenismos. These are words that are specific to Chile, and there is a pretty good glossary of terms here.

Chileans also tend to speak rapidly, dropping certain sounds (mainly Ss and Ds) so that you sometimes have to get used to a new rhythm of listening in order to understand what people are saying. ¿Estás cansada? turns into ¿Está cansao? and ¿entiendes? into ¿cachas? I felt terribly embarrassed about having to ask people to repeat relatively simple sentences multiple times when I first got here. But it's ask, or nod and smile, and nobody ever learned anything by pretending to understand.

 Jamie and I get our Cédula(s) de Identidad (Chilean IDs)

My first classes at la Universidad de Chile were terrifying. I could understand everything one professor said, and almost nothing from another. The other students in the class might as well have been speaking in code. Fortunately, my classmates were infinitely patient in answering my questions and explaining what I didn't comprehend. After a two hour class about the Chilean Public Health system, I turned to a classmate for help. "El habla mal", she told me, which directly translates to "he speaks badly" and really means that he speaks with a lot of slang terms. "You should ask the professors to make sure they also teach to the non-Chileans in the room".

Along with myself, there are two other girls from the United States in my class, a Brazilian girl, a girl from Colombia, and one other student from Ecuador. I'm probably missing a few other foreigners - there are 40+ of us in the class, and I don't know everybody yet. Out of all of us, I've had the least recent practice living in spanish-speaking country, which just means that I'm taking it as a challenge and won't be afraid to ask for help.

The good news is that after a month's worth of classes (not as much as it seems, since we only have classes Thursday, Friday, and the occasional Saturday... every other week), my comprehension has clearly improved. I could always get the gist of what the teacher was saying; now I'm starting to understand the jokes.

Getting Your Visa

After getting your transcript legalized, getting a student visa at your local Chilean Consulate is nothing. Well, not nothing.

This is  a copy of what I received from the Chilean consulate in Boston, specifying what you need to have to get the visa while still in the US at their specific consulate:

1. Valid USA passport, or valid foreign student passport for non U.S. citizens.The passport must
be valid for a period of six months after the end of the period for which the visa has been
requested.
2. Four (4) passport photographs in color, 1 ½ inches square., full face, no eyeglasses.
3. A medical certificate that applicant has no communicable diseases, (vaccine preventable),
issued within 30 days of coming to this Consulate to get the visa, issued by applicant's school
health service or private physician, on issuer's letterhead.
4. An HIV Negative test report, issued within the same time period.
5. For a Visa Estudiante (Student Visa) a police report from the state police or state criminal
records authority where you reside stating that applicant has no criminal record other than
minor traffic violations. The report should indicate a statewide search. Fulbright Scholars
need only State Police Reports. An FBI check is required for those seeking a Visa Residente
Temporario (Temporary Resident Visa) or Visa Sujeto a Contrato with the right to work in
Chile. An added requirement for the Visa Sujeto a Contrato is the contract must be approved
in advance by the Ministry of the Interior and you sign a duplicate signed original in front of
the Consul here.
6. Letter of acceptance from Chilean educational institution or employment contract (TRV) .
7. Letter of economic independence/support, if under 18 years of age; or a statement from the
educational sponsor, e.g. AFS, Butler, Tufts, etc.
8. Visa processing fee of $140.00, subject to change, in cash or check drawn on the Bank of
America payable to Philip C.Garber, Consul.
9. Students under the age of eighteen (18) require a parental/guardian Autorización Notarial
(Notarial Authorization) signed before the Consul by both parents. If not , we can send you a
blank form to be signed before a notary public, whose signature must be legalized either by the
Clerk of the Superior Court or the Secretary of State of the state where first signed, and then
legalized in the Chilean Consulate, for which additional charges apply.
10. The actual visa form and the visa entry in the passport will be done when the applicant appears
in person at the Consulate with all of the above items completed. No visas are issued through
the mail. An appointment in advance is required. Our public hours are Monday-Thursday,
9:00A.M. to Noon, (US holidays excepted). Under special circumstances, an applicant may be
received outside normal business hours by appointment.

This is quite possible, but again, time consuming. They actually charged me $150 or $160 at the consulate, so I'm guessing this is already outdated. A simpler option would be to get a tourist visa when you enter Chile, then go to the appropriate authorities to get your student visa when you are in Chile. This way you do not need to get an HIV test, and you may be able to skip some of the other steps, as well. However you will need to pay the $140 reciprocity tax upon entering the country if you decide to do it this way, which for all I know means that you end up spending almost $300 (visa cost and reciprocity tax). I didn't have to pay the reciprocity tax because I already had my student visa. You can find good information and links here.

How To Legalize Your Transcript

One of the requirements for application to a foreign university is a legalized copy of your transcript. Simple, right? Actually, not so much. It took me quite a bit of searching on the internet, trial and error, several hundred dollars and several phone calls/emails before I finally got my transcript in a format accepted by the University of Chile. Your university may not be so strict, but here are some hints if you are applying to a university in Chile with a degree from a university in the United States.

Chile is one of a few countries that still (as of the writing of this post, 4/11/11 does not accept the Hague Convention, which "abolishes the requirement of legalization for foreign public documents". This means that instead you must follow a "chain of authentication" which starts with your university, then goes through a notary, a Secretary of State department, a Chilean Consulate in the US, and Exterior Relations in Chile. Each step takes a significant amount of time (and money), so I would suggest starting 2-3 months in advance to allow for things to go wrong.

First, get a notarized copy of your transcript from the university you graduated from. The transcript must be notarized by a notary in the same state as your university, which is no problem if you still live in that state. If you don't, the easiest thing to do is request a new, notarized transcript directly from your university and see if they will mail it to the state department for you, along with the requisite form. Since it's a little complicated, they'll probably want to send directly to you. The cost will depend on your university and whether or not you've left enough time for regular USPS mail or need to get it FedExed to you. The end result of this step is that you now have a notary saying that your transcript is real, your university is real, and the person who signed your transcript from your university is real. And legal.

Second is to send the transcript to the Secretary of State (of the state your university is in) for authentication. For instance, I got my notarized transcript from Connecticut College, and then sent it to the Commercial Recording Division of the  Connecticut Secretary of State. Looking at "agency services" or "legalization" usually brings you to the right page. Because Chile does not accept the Hague convention, you need to make it clear that you need an "authentication" and NOT an "apostille".  They will then send your authenticated document back to you. Prices vary according to state; in Massachusetts it is something like $20 per document, in Connecticut it is $40.  More on why I know that later. The end result of this step is that you now have the Secretary of State saying that the notary who signed your transcript is a real notary. And legal.

Third is a trip to your local Chilean Consulate. There are not Chilean Consulates in every state, and some are more "official" looking than others, but they are all official. Luckily for me, there was a consulate in Boston (Brighton) who authenticated that the Connecticut Secretary of State was a real Secretary of State and everything was legal. I would make sure before you go that your specific consulate can legally authenticate a document from the state your university is in. I believe there are certain regions allocated to each consulate. It cost me $12 at the Boston consulate.

The fourth step is the hardest, since you now have to get your beautifully stamped, signed, stapled, inked and stickered transcript to Exterior Relations in Chile. I contacted Spencer Global at this point, a lawyer group who told me that you cannot mail your transcript to Exterior Relations, but must deliver it in person, stand in line, etc, etc. Obviously, it was cheaper to pay them about $106 USD than to buy a flight to Santiago and back. For that price, they also sent it to the University of Chile for me.

All of this takes a lot of time. And if you are like me, you will run into a few problems. The first time I got my transcript notarized in Massachusetts (when it needed to be in CT), because I had un-notarized copies of my transcript left over from when I graduated and didn't know better. This mistake was not caught until after I had legalized it both at the Massachusetts Secretary of State and the Chilean Consulate in Boston. After getting new, notarized copies of my transcript from Conn, the CT Secretary of State did not recognize the notary Connecticut College had used because she had married and changed her name, but not updated her notary status. At which point I had to ask for a new copy notarized by somebody else and start the process over again. Everything went smoothly from there-on in (thanks to my father for his numerous visits to various government departments), until it was time to send my transcript to Spencer Global. Sending it DHL or FedEx costs a pretty penny, but makes sure that your transcript will actually get to where you want it to go.

The problem now was that Spencer Global lost my transcript between receiving it and taking it to Exterior Relations.

Therefore I had to go back through the entire process again, starting with a new transcript, which considering I lived on Martha's Vineyard, went to school in CT, and had to get things legalized in person in Boston was no easy feat (again, much thanks to my father in Boston for being amazing and making many of these trips for me. I'm not sure what I would have done otherwise). Spencer Global refunded me all of my expenses.

Needless to say, 3 months is NOT going to be too much time.

If you have any questions or doubts, I believe there are a number of legal services who will do all of this for you and take away the headache (for a price). Just look up "foreign legalization of documents" and you should be able to find someone to take care of it.

Better Late Than Never...

It's been over a month since I first arrived in Santiago, and I've seen so many things, met so many interesting people, and learned so much that it's hard to know where to begin this blog. But I'll start by introducing myself. My name is Amanda Wallas, I'm 26 years old, and I'm studying Public Health at the University of Chile for a year, thanks to the Rotary Foundation by way of the Rotary Club of Martha's Vineyard and District 7950. For those of you who don't know, Rotary International is, according to the website "...the world's first service club organization, with more than 1.2 million members in 33,000 clubs worldwide. Rotary club members are volunteers who work locally, regionally, and internationally to combat hunger, improve health and sanitation, provide education and job training, promote peace, and eradicate polio under the motto Service Above Self." In the summer of 2009, I applied for a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship through the Martha's Vineyard club with the help of Rotarian Harvey Hinds, and after an interview with district leaders, was awarded a $25,000 grant to help spread world understanding and peace by being an Rotary Ambassador to Santiago, Chile. Zip forward to March 1st, 2011, and I've landed at Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport excited, nervous, happy and exhausted from 14+ hours of travel.


Jose Miguel Oportus Mateluna of the Vitacura Rotary Club (and my temporary host counselor) met me at the airport and brought me to the house of the López family in Las Condes, a comuna (suburb) of Santiago. Along the way, I couldn't help but be struck by the differences between Santiago and Martha's Vineyard, my home for the past 3 years. Santiago is a metropolitan, modern city, a lot like New York in terms of size. We drove on a major highway past towering skyscrapers, apartment buildings, malls and commercial centers. Martha's Vineyard is a small island off the coast of Massachusetts with a year-round population of about 16,000 and no traffic lights (the blinker at the 4-way stop does not count). I grew up just outside of Boston, but had never lived in a city before; Santiago is nothing like Boston. Santiago could probably eat Boston for lunch.

Los López are the extended family of a coworker of my father's, and they had graciously offered to let me stay with them until I could find a permanent place to settle. Their house is as close to the center of Santiago as my house in Newton is to Boston - they're about a 15 minute cab ride from the Los Dominicos end of the Red Line (Metro); I was about a 20 minute walk from the end of the Riverside end of the Green Line (T). I ended up spending 3 weeks with Arturo, the Patricias (Sr. and Jr.), Connie, Cristobal, and Juana (the nana), along with various other family members and friends who stopped by for Saturday lunch or a weekend visit. They treated me like one of the family, helping me adjust to a new place with such love and understanding that I don't think I'll ever be able to truly thank them as much as they deserve.