Orientaciòn

Hola! Estoy aquí finalmente. It seems like I have been planning my study abroad experience forever. Now that I am sitting here in Chile it seems unreal. I can not begin to explain how nervous, excited and overwhelmed I felt before I left and how I feel now.

In there airport I met four girls in my program. It was awesome to know some people After a ten hour flight and a semi-uneventful trip through customs (I almost couldn’t pay the tax because there were small rips in almost all my bills and they wouldn’t except money with rips in it) I was greeted by Roberto and the rest of the SIT staff. They are all so amazing and friendly. They speak very slowly so that we can understand and are very patient with us. All day on Thursday and Friday we had orientation and discussed the safety concerns and ins and outs of living in Santiago. We are staying at a hotel right next to the ocean and it is gorgeous. We walked down to the beach, that is what the picture is from. The weather is very cold, it's nice in the sun but I have been wearing a lot of layers.

I found out that mi madre se llama Macarena and I have 2 hermanos; ages 4 and 6. I also have a Chilean padre. Elena said my family is very young and very nice. Mi madre works at a school for children with language disabilities. I think it is so awesome that Elena matched us with families that share similar interests. I almost cried when I found out about my family. We go into Santiago tomorrow and meet our familias so I am so excited and nervous.

Tonight we spent about 3 hours at a restaurant. Chileans are a lot more laid back about rushing and being on time. I think I was born to come here because I am chronically late. Haha. But it is weird but kinda nice to get use to a culture that is so chill. I think if you spent 3 hours at a restaurant in the states they would kick you out. Today we also went to the house of Pablo Neruda who was a Chilean poeta and politician activist during the time of the Coup in Chile. His poetry is awesome and he writes a lot of cool things about the sea. But I think that I could write poetry like that if I had the view of the ocean that he had from his house haha. Definitely check out his bio and his works he is a pretty interesting guy. His house is full of collections of crazy random things from all over the world. It’s awesome.