Anyway the last time I posted I left you all wondering wether or not I survived the drop-off, and since I am posting now, I did! It was great. On Monday my partner and I were dropped off at la Plaza de Armas, it was actually the closest location to school so we were able to walk there and explore huerfanos, which is a main street in Santiago Central. Huerfanos means orphans in spanish...so it's a little weird that the main street is named that. The Plaza de Armas is actually the place where Santiago was founded in 1541...so it was kind of a big deal. My partner and I spent about twenty minutes just observing and then started asking people about the history of the plaza. A man who was quite possibly homeless came up to us and started talking to us in broken english, (it is amazing how everyone here wants to show off their english to the Americans...I guess that is to be expected though) but as my partner and I pulled our bags a little bit closer to our bodies the nice man started to tell us all about the history of the plaza sometimes speaking in English and sometimes in Spanish. After getting lots of information from him we wandered into the first church of Santiago which was GORGEOUS! Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so I cannot share what we saw but I will be absolutely be going back there. After the drop off we went back to Casa SIT and my mom picked me up from school. Oh I guess I forgot to mention that this was also the first day that I took the transantiago public transportation. My mom and brother (Bruno) came with me in the morning to show me the route, but I was so nervous about school that I sort of forgot to pay attention. Anyway my mom picked me up after school so I didn't have to take the metro and the bus home but I did make plans with some of my friends who live in my area to meet in the metro station the next day.
After school my mom and I went to the Jumbo, it is a GIGANTIC supermarket here in Santiago, and when I say gigantic i mean at least double the size of Costco. It was crazy there! Two levels of parking and walking sidewalks (like the ones in the airport). Nothing I saw was too out of the ordinary except that the milk wasn't refrigerated, and I already don't like milk so that just grossed me out even more.
On Tuesday I caught the bus and met some girls from the group at the metro ALL BY MYSELF...maybe I could be a city girl after all. I used a Toyota and Pizza Hut as landmarks so I knew I was close.
So Tuesday was our first real day of classes. The only exciting thing to report is during the 3 hour spanish class that we have every day of the week but Fridays we have a thirty minute break for "free" breakfast! Thank goodness we get that break because without it I would go insane...3 hours is about how many hours of class I would take in a whole day at UPS. After spanish class we have an hour and a half break for lunch (seems a little bit excessive right?), and then we have our education seminar from 2-4. The day is very long, I need to leave my house at 8:30 to get to school around 9:30 and I don't return home till at least 5. After classes on Tuesday the whole group (minus 1 = 14 americans) went to a restaurant called Vacas Gordas (fat cows) where we all had a round of doble pisco sours, ordered 4 bottles of wine for the group, ate lots of bread, I ordered an incredible piece of steak, and vegtables for 20 dollars!!! And I was home safe and sound by 9 o'clock!
Today was busy with class and it was rainy. I am not sure if I mentioned this before but I am stealing internet because it is to expensive for my mom to buy so I am using someone else's but with the rain the connection has been pretty shady so I am sitting on the floor in my room next to my tiny space heater because it is beyond freezing here hoping that this post goes through!
I was also planning on uploading a picture of my room but the internet is so bad it is just not working. I promise one will come soon...but I also promise there is not much to see!
Things are going well here. I had a nice dinner with my mom and her boyfriend and I can already tell the conversations we are having are getting better and better! My mom's boyfriend said that I spoke very well tonight! That is HUGE!
Will report soon! BESOS!
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