clases y el horroroso Transantiago

I think I have finally gotten my school schedule sorted out. Classes began last week, but I have been "shopping for classes" since then. Here's what my schedule looks like:

Monday - Latin American Geography; Chilean Art 1950-2000 (the professor is the director of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes - remember, it's the museum I visited that I wasn't really impressed with? - anyway, he says we will get special access to the museum. Maybe it will be more interesting with him to show us around.)

Tuesday - Chilean & Latin American Poetry (Anita, this is where I will gain the knowledge neccessary to comment later on the famous poets Chile has produced - stay tuned!)

Wednesday - Latin American Geography again

Thursday - Chilean & Latin American Poetry again; Historical Perspectives (a class offered by the program of student exchange; it covers important people and events in Chilean history)

Friday - Spanish of America (I might drop this class, because it seems like it is going to be very hard and I am lazy and don't want to take a class on Fridays so I can travel. However, it is about the different dialects of Spanish in the Americas and thus has great appeal to me.)

Although we have the option of taking classes at both the University of Chile and the Catholic University of Chile, all of the classes I've picked are at the Catholic University. No particular reason; it just worked out that way. A bonus is that getting to the Catholic University is much easier, which brings me to my second topic for today:

TRANSANTIAGO. Is a disaster.

One month ago, while I was in the lovely city of Valdivia, the mass transportation systems in Santiago underwent a major reorganization. Basically, one had two options to get around the city under the old system: 1) the Metro (which, despite being a large system, was relatively underused); and 2) the micros (buses operated by sundry independent operators that literally covered the entire city-one could get on a micro on one side of the city and ride it to the other side). There was hardly a street that was not served by at least one micro route, and, in the words of Nora, "Chileans are lazy. They would rather not walk even two blocks to catch a bus." Because of this, there were thousands of micros and it got to the point that the air contamination in Santiago was the worst in the world. (I read somewhere that one research study estimated that walking outside during the winter [when the pollution is at its worst] was equivalent to smoking 60-70 cigarettes a day!)

In order to cut back on the number of vehicles on the road and to improve the air quality, the Ministry of Transportation decided to create the "Transantiago". It completely did away with the micro system. The city was split into zones, and now people were expected to use either the Metro or 'trunk buses' to cross the city, and 'feeder buses' to travel within one zone. Sounds logical, right? I think so. But the program was not thought through very well. The buses do not run on timetables, and the Metro is only open from 6.30am-10.30pm. Sometimes I see three buses of the same route following each other, and then have to wait half an hour or more for the next one to show up.

Basically, the city is gridlocked for several reasons. There are not enough buses to haul everyone wanting to ride (Remember, the micros in the old system went down virtually every street in the city. Now there are buses only on main thoroughfares, meaning more people concentrated at one bus stop waiting for one bus.) The Metro, previously underused, is now a sardine can. Monday saw the most riders ever in one day (over two million). The system cannot handle any more riders. Sometimes when I try to get on a train, it is so full that I either have to wait for another one (sometimes two or three pass before I can board because the others are so full) or I manage to squeeze on board only to be squished under someone's armpit against the glass of the door. Add this discomfort to the fact that it is around 30 degrees Celsius here everyday and the trains are not really airconditioned (the windows open, thank god) and you arrive at your destination very hot and sweaty. Yesterday, 15 people fainted when they were caught in a sea of people at one Metro station for over 30 minutes. They were trying to shove their way through the crowd to get on a train.

Here's a brilliant idea: let's close a couple of lanes in Santiago's main thoroughfares to private cars! Let's make them accessible only to buses! That way, when horrible traffic jams (tacos in Chilean Spanish) snarl traffic because of the reduction of lanes, the drivers will see the buses scooting along at a fast pace and then decide to ride the buses! Never mind that there are not enough buses to move everyone already wanting to use them! Never mind that people are having to hang out of the doors while going down the road because there isn't enough space actually inside the bus! Normally I would say that private lanes for buses is a good idea, but not when the system already in place cannot possibly handle more riders.

All I can say is, at least all of my classes are in the afternoon. The buses and Metro are a little less crowded then, but it is still very uncomfortable. I hope a solution is found to this fiasco soon.