Living and studying in Juneau

It has been a tough change coming from Chile to Juneau. I knew things were going to be hard when I walked out of the Los Angeles airport for a connection and I was cold. And I knew things were going to be really hard when I walked out of the Sitka airport and everything was dark and smothered in snow.

I only stayed in Sitka for a couple of days, which I used to do paperwork and get ready to move. I took advantage of the fact that my Spanish was still fresh to take a Spanish language test, and I scored high enough to obtain four semesters’ worth of Spanish credit. At the end of this semester (in May – an American semester is actually a trimester), I should be only two classes short of graduation, and I should be able to get my diploma in August. That would be a bachelor of liberal arts, with a minor in Spanish and an emphasis in English.

Juneau is rather depressing in the winter. I live in a chunk of suburbia in Mendenhall Valley and study at UAS at Auke Bay. The distances here are too great for walking and the roads and sidewalk are coated with ice or covered with snow, so I have to take the bus everywhere, in the dark, in a city that I don’t know. Even when the sun is out, everything is in black and white, as this photo of Auke Lake from the university:



And I forgot to tell everyone that I met Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez in a bar in Santiago! I thought his populist stuff was just an act, but he really seems to be an outgoing, friendly person:



Just kidding! That’s just some guy who happens to look a little like him.