-flying into Miami-
-the nifty gadgets on my international flight-
I FINALLY arrived in Chile after more than 24 hours of flying (and waiting). And when I did finally arrive in Chile, the adventures were already lining up for me. After making it to the other side of the riDICulously long line for customs, I found myself delighted to see BOTH of my suitcases waiting for me. I thought to myself, "Wonderful! Things are going off without a hitch!"
Then, I began looking for my transfer from the program with whom I am studying (Escuelas y Centros de Espanol en Latin America...ECELA), but to no avail. However, every flight of my trip had been delayed and I arrived more than 2 hours later than I had told the school...so I wasn't very surprised to find myself without a ride to my host family's house. So there I was, a complete "gringa" (an American, more or less) alone in the Santiago airport with very little Spanish practice. Long story short, after some "kind" gentleman found me a taxi, the police got involved (yes...the police...) and asked how much this man was charging me for the taxi. When the police stopped me, I honestly didn't know yet since the taxi man and I were still walking to his car. After a lot of heated Spanish and a call to my host family, I realized that this taxi was "illegal" and was going to rip me off. Whoosh! Gracias a Dios por la policia de Santiago!! Thank God for the Santiago police. After this, the police that spotted the taxi man and I helped me find a transfer, for a good price, to my host family's house. What a start to my trip, huh?!
After my little run-in with the illegal taxi man and after arriving to my house, meeting the family, and settling in, I was more than overwhelmed. My host mom, Nancy, was so kind and took me walking to show me where I needed to go for school the next morning and showed me around the area where they live. They live in Providencia, a nice neighborhood with tons of malls, little tiendas, restaurants, and a Starbucks across the street! :) The apartment is very small, especially my room, but it's definitely plenty of space and I enjoy the location. Sometimes the noise is very hard to get used to (one night a bomb went off nearby...Nancy said it happens a lot and it's just teenagers protesting and the "bombs" are just for the noise...but still!)
I went to bed pretty early Sunday night (my first night) because I had a placement exam early Monday morning to see what level Spanish class I needed to be put in.
-the front of my school-
After 30 minutes of walking like a tourist to my school, I arrived completely sweaty and frantic at being 1 minute late. NOTE: Latin Americans are. not. punctual (especially Brazilians...) So after fretting the entire walk there, I realized all was well. Once done with my exam, I was placed in "Intermediate 1A". And although all of the materials that I have learned so far are the things I already learned in the United States, I always feel totally lost and insufficient. School is super challenging and my "profesora", although very nice and helpful, is very strict and makes me say everything correctly. There are 4 students in my class...1 Spanish-speaker from Canada, 2 Brazilians, and me. Obviously out of the above listed students, I am the most inept at speaking Spanish, so usually class is a little intense for me :/ But "esta bien"!
Aside from school, which takes up 4 hours of each day, I have been trying to participate in every activity possible to get as much out of the experience as I can. The school offers activities after classes a lot of the days, which is nice. The first day, we were taken on a tour of a place in the heart of Santiago called El Cerro de Santa Lucia. It was a beautiful place! We had to climb and climb up tons of hills and stairs, but each level we went up had another great view of Santiago...a perfect first experience. And yesterday, the school showed the movie "El Ofanato"...a horror-type Spanish movie that all of the Chileans fawn over. It was pretty good, but again, my Spanish is lacking which always contributes to not getting everything during stories and such. Yesterday (Tuesday), a few friends and I went out exploring in the neighborhood of Bellavista. It has a lot of trendy little restaurants and places to buy neat gifts and such. The neighborhood is really beautiful and it was fun roaming around there!
-me on Patio Bellavista-
Because my host family (Nancy, the mom, and her two sons Sebastian and Claudio) are always either working or out, school has been an awesome outlet for me to meet people. Already I have become friends with 2 Brazilians who took me under their wings, Gustavo and Jefferson. Gustavo knows Spanish, Portuguese, and English...so helfpul!! They are both very patient with me and my choppy attempts to tell stories and contribute to conversations. I've also met tons of other people from all over...one guy from Paris, a few from the U.S., a lot of Brazilians, and a lot of Germans. Everybody is so willing to meet everybody else, so we have a good time mingling on our breaks and during activities.
Overall, my 4 days here so far have been wild. I'm always tired, mentally and phsycially, but I would have to definitely say the 4 days have been positive! This is only the beginning of my trip and I'm very excited to see what the rest of it has in store for me!
So, with all of that said, MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I hope all of you in the Midwest are enjoying your blizzard. This will be my first Christmas without snow! I sure picked my timing right, eh? :)
Love and miss you all...I'll be sure to update again soon!
Chao!
