Where is everyone?

This week, classes were supposed to start on Wednesday. I received an email from the history department saying that their classes wouldn't start until next week, which mean t that my first class on Wednesday wouldn't be happening. So Wednesday afternoon I geared myself up for going to a geography class called "Introduccion al Montanismo," which translates as introduction to mountainism. I'm not really sure what mountainism is, or what the class is about, but we have a month to decide which classes we want to take. About a block from class, I saw three ISA students walking and they told me that their class had been cancelled... or better said, no one had showed up to the class.

Yesterday, I was supposed to have a literature class called "Introduccion al Cuento Chileano," or introduccion to Chilean stories. A lot of the people in the class were gringos, but some Chilean students showed up as well. But, after about twenty minutes, no professor showed up, so we made a list of names that would be taken to the department.

I walked home for lunch, planning to return for another geography class, "Geografia de Chile," which Sigrid was also planning on taking. We walked to class together, which does take about 30 minutes, only to find an empty classroom. When we asked whether there would be class, they told us that since it is the first day, no students go to class since they don't think they will miss anything important. Then, the professor doesn't show up since none of the students are going to be there. The only people that end up showing up are the gringos that didn't get the message.

This whole experience was very surprising. At first I though, well, why didn't anyone tell me to not go to classes the first week? Then I thought, if no one shows up the first week, then the second week is really the first week, and you won't do anything during that class, so why go? Then you will never end up having class... And, isn't so unproductive to cancel one class when you only have it once a week? The whole thing got pretty frustrating to me as I was contemplating all these questions. In the end, I really just wish someone had told me so I didn't have to go all the way to school just to turn around and go home again.

Ah yes, this is culture shock, isn't it?