Getting Acquainted With Chile

I feel like I have so much to catch you guys up on!!

I left the Houston International Airport Thursday morning after a delicious airport breakfast with my family. I flew over to Miami, FL then onto Bogota, Colombia, and finally, I landed in Santiago, Chile around 4:30 in the morning. Needless to say, no one was there to pick me up yet, so I hung out in the coffee shop for a few hours. I rode over to Vina Del Mar with about eight other students around 9 am, but we were all exhausted and slept all the way over, which was only about an hour and half or so. Everyone got dropped off at the school to meet their families, except me. Somehow my mom arranged for the van to take me directly to the apartment. AMAZING!! They took me on a tour of the apartment, showed me my room, and then my mom, Patricia, my sister, Karla, and my brother, Hugo, and I sat down in the living room and talked. My brother and sister speak pretty good English, so my mom was like "I don't care if you go back and forth between English and Spanish, tell us everything about you!" Haha she speaks only Spanish, and she is amazing. She is so loving and welcoming. She is always patient. Come to find out, they have been hosting students for like seven years now! Soo intense! They are like the perfect family to do it!! After we talked, my mom took me out to show me some important sights and then we all met up for lunch. After lunch I started the long adventure of unpacking. Then in the evening Hugo and I went over to his aunt's house for dinner. OMG that was so fun! It's his aunt and uncle and they have a 30 yr old daughter, and she has a 5 year old daughter. Hahaha the little girl is such a ham. I love her to death. They were so nice, and they talked slowly to me. Every time I messed up they reassured me, saying that I was fine and it was totally alright to make mistakes. Everyone here is so patient!

All that happened on my first day here. Needless to say, it was a LONG day!! Saturday everyone slept in. I thought I had slept super late, but I was actually the first one up. The night before Hugo showed me how to use the shower, but when I went to turn it on there was no hot water. In Guatemala sometimes the water would go out, and I didn't want to seem rude by saying there was no hot water. Entonces, I took the most excruciatingly painful cold shower of my life. My scalp was burning the water was so cold!! Come to find out, I have to go into the kitchen and turn on the hot water when I want to shower. I felt SOOOO dumb! My mom was freaking out, hugging me and going crazy that I had taken a shower without a hint of warm water. Anyway, that was my morning. Then later that day I went shopping with my mom which was a blast. I got converters and a cell phone, so I am all technical savvy now!! Then I went grocery shopping with her. Ok, so their mall is four stories and has a walkway to another mall which has a grocery store in it. I feel like it is HUGE!! But they said that it is super small compared to the mall in Santiago. I can't wait to go there!!

On Sunday my sister went to mass with me so that I wouldn't get lost. She is so sweet! After mass we met up with their dad to go eat lunch...guess what we had...yep...Chinese Buffet! OMG incredible! Everything has a South American twist, since two countries don't use the same ingredients. However, just like all other Chinese Buffets, it was delicious! Then I went to the park with Hugo and Karla. We rented this thing...I don't know what the heck you would call it, but it is like a bike cart. You sit down on a seat, but it has four bicycle wheels, and you have to pedal. It's really awkward to explain, but I will go back and take a picture for you. It was sooo much fun! We rode all around the park and took sharp turns and just had a blast. Then we walked around the city for a few hours before we came back here.

Monday was my first day of school, kind of. This week is just orientation, but it's still exciting!! There are three parts to the UVM campus, and I attend the international campus, which makes sense. There are about 25 or 30 students in my group. It's funny though, because there are two other girls from Houston, TX and one is named Lauren. SMALL WORLD! Monday was tests. Soooo not my favorite! In the morning we took a written test, then in the afternoon we all had to come back for an oral test. It was so hard. I don't find out about my placement until tomorrow, and I am so nervous! I had a lot of built up stress for the tests, so I decided to go running. I ran over to the beach and then walked along it for awhile. It was so calming. I love living on the coast. However, one time I stepped in water, in bare feet, in winter, not the best idea. THE WATER IS SUPER COLD!! I am so grateful for my home here in Chile. I have an amazing family, and I live in a gorgeous city :)

Today is Tuesday, and it was my second day of orientation. I got to sleep in, because we didn't have to be at the school until 2:30. We took pictures, because tomorrow we are registering our visas. YAY! After that we had a seminar on living in Chile and rules for our host family. It was pretty basic, except now every international student is super paranoid about getting robbed. I want to take pictures to show everyone, but apparently my camera is never safe. I know it's about using common sense, though, so I will probably venture out sometime soon and snap some shots for ya! Today Hugo got my wireless up and running. It had not been letting me connect, but somehow computer man figured out how to do it. Now I have skype capabilities, and I can blog to everyone from the comfort of my amazing bed!

Sooo that is Chile so far. I promise none of the other blogs will be this long. I had to catch you up on a lot of stuff, though. Tomorrow is my make or break day, so please pray for me!

I hope all is well! Have a great night!