Homestay!

HOLA!

Well today was my second day with the family I will be staying with for the next 5 weeks. So far things are going well minus the language barrier...no biggie. My mom's name is Gloria and she is very kind and patient with me, this is her first time hosting a student so I think we are both equally nervous. Gloria has one son whose name is Bruno, he is 4, and she has a daughter named Alissia (spelling?), she is 2 1/2. They are both great and very high energy. I can actually have pretty good conversations with them but Gloria has to remind Bruno to talk slower a lot of the time. Gloria keeps saying that her kids seem very happy and seem to be liking me so everything seems to be going well. Gloria is divorced, which only became legal here in Chile 4 years ago, but is dating a very nice man whose name I never quite catch. He also has three children but they spend most of their time with their mom. Gloria has a lot to handle with two kids under the age of 4 at home all day and also maintaining her job as an architect. It will be interesting to see how things un-fold in the future.

Tomorrow I will take a test to figure out which level of Spanish I should be placed in for our month long intensive spanish class, I am not very nervous, but that is probably not a good thing.

After the test we are going to be doing what SIT likes to call a DROP-OFF, yes it sounds just like it is, me and one other student will be dropped off somewhere in Santiago and will need to find our way back to CASA SIT (the nickname for our school). We won't have a map, we are just supposed to dive right in and ask as many people as possible for directions. It should be quite the experience. Tomorrow will also be the first day that I will use transantiago (public buses and metros in santiago) so that should be interesting as well.

All in all things are going well here. There are moments when I am extremely overwhelmed but there are also times when I forget that I have only been her for 4 days! Sometimes finding the right word to say is easy but sometimes it is hard...I am happy to be here and homesick all at the same time. And exhaustion and are have become very close friends!

Missing everyone back home. Sending lots of love.

Santiago and BEYOND!

Well orientation is nearly over and we are getting ready to head to Santiago and meet our families! I don't know much about my Chilean family but that I am with a single mom who has a little boy who is 4 and a little girl who is 2! Thats all I know about my family but since I am meeting them this afternoon I will have much more to report in the near future.

Yesterday was very busy, most of the morning was full of boring orientation stuff...still mostly in spanish but I am actually getting most of it! They taught us how to get to our school (Casa de SIT) from our homestay houses, I will be taking a ten minute bus ride and then a ten minute ride on the metro...I can't believe I am going to have to do all of that on my OWN!!!

After lots of meetings yesterday we went to Pablo Neruda's house which was very interesting...he was quite the pack rat but his view of the ocean was incredible...no wonder he was a famous poet...with his view anyone could be a poet, it was beautiful!!

After our tour we had a cocktail hour in front of a huge fire, we tried Pisco (sp?) sours...they were quite strong. We then went to an incredible restaurant where we were served a three course meal, shrimp, steak and some sort of white fish, tons of dessert, as well as wine and some very disgusting drink to end the whole meal. After dinner which started at about 8 and didn't end till midnight we all came back to the hotel and just crashed! I understand what everyone is saying now about the brain working in overtime when you are here...I am exhausted at night just because my brain is working so hard!

I am very excited to meet my family but also very nervous...I hope I will be able to understand them and communicate with them and that I don't say something that is totally wrong. Will update soon!

LOVE YOU ALL

Chile!!

I am officially here! None of it seems to feel real yet...I have uploaded two pictures, the first being a picture of the hotel we are staying in for orientation and the second being a picture of the water which is right across the street from us!! It is not too cold here as long as you stay in the sun but the hotel is FREEZING...they don't use heating systems here.

The plane rides went fairly smoothly, I was delayed in Atlanta for about an hour and a half because of bad weather but once the airport re-opened they scooted us on the plane and we are off. The plane was empty so I had 3 seats to myself and that was AMAZING! I slept almost the whole time and they served dinner and breakfast (yay international flights). I was so tired that I didn't even make it to the movie part of the flight.

Once we landed and paid the tax that everyone must pay when they enter Chile for the first time we collected our luggage and went through customs. THEY TOOK ALL MY DRIED FRUIT! It was tragic!!!

The rest of the group was waiting for me and a few other people on the trip who were on my delayed flight and after some hugs and some short introductions we were off! We took about an hour car ride through Chile to get to the coast, which is where we are until Sunday. The whole ride we were surrounded by mountains and everything is just so beautiful!

When we got the hotel I quickly skyped my parents to let them know I arrived safely and then we had a great breakfast in the hotel. Next up is orientation...I am crossing my fingers that it is in english...but I am not holding my breathe. Our program director and guides are only talking in Spanish, luckily I am catching most of it but my brain is working overtime!

I miss everyone back home very much but everything is good so far! More to come soon...

Logan

Hi all,
I am just about to be in on my way. I am sitting in Logan with my mom and dad all of us trying to avoid the sad goodbyes. There is about an hour until I board my first flight to Atlanta and then I have an hour layover and I am off to SANTIAGO!!
These past two days have been full of goodbyes that were bittersweet...I am excited to be able to share my adventure with everyone back home and at school but I wish I could take everyone with me.
My parents and me had a wonderful lunch today with our family friends where I ate my last salad...it was delicious! (we missed you Elyse)
The next time you hear from me I will offically be below the equator and as my dad says I will have another ear pierced (old sailors traditon...don't ask).
Wish me luck!

Only 2 more days?!?

Wow, if you didn't get it from the title, I leave in just two days! Can that be right? I am sitting on the couch surrounded by piles of clothes, suitcases, dried fruit, and home-stay gifts. It is still completely surreal to me and I can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that I am actually going to Chile. There is still a lot I have left to do, but my laundry list of things is slowly growing smaller and smaller. I will update as soon as I can once I arrive.