Getting Settled

Hola Chicos!

I am getting settled here quite nicely. My host family has set me up very well. They are very sweet people. I was worried that being a vegetarian would be a problem, but the Mom (Pabla) was not phased when I told her that I was a veg. She´s had so many other students live with her in the past that it wasn´t something new. She also used to be a nutritionist and feeds me well balanced meals which is so great.

There are five people that live in the house normally. Paula is married to Roberto (who is gone on a business trip and I have not met him yet), and they have two daughters, Paula (26) and Daniela (22) and a granddaughter Valentina (6). I really like Daniela, she is the one who helps me the most with my Spanish and I think that we would be friends if we met each other in school or some other place. Sadly she´s leaving this weekend for the rest of the time that I will be here. They are all very nice but I don´t get to talk to them much- only during meals because everyone does their own thing during the day. I wish I had more interaction with them.

School is going well too. I took my placement exam and was places into the Intermediate group. I think that it´s the best place for me. My class has 5 people in it and everyone is about the same level as me. Right now we are working on conjugation into the past tenses. It´s more difficult than you think to know the difference between - ¨I was going to the store¨ and ¨I went to the store¨ and ¨I always went to the store.¨ Anyway, I´m getting the hang of it.

I have gotten to explore the city a little too. I hiked up the tallest hill in Santiago called Cerro San Cristobal where you could overlook the whole city. It was amazing. There is so much smog in Santiago that you cannot see the mountains. Every day it´s like this. i´m told that only when it rains can you ever see the mountains clearly. I wonder what the smog is doing to everyone´s health here.

I also got to go to the political history museum which was a great little museum in the main town square. They covered a quick history of Chile following mostly the European conquest and settlements. It was a great little museum. I came across a dentist chair from the 1800s and took a picture of it. When I´m a dentist I will post it in my office to make my patients thankful for what we have now. It doesn´t look too comfortable....

That´s it for now. I have Skype now so if anyone wants to talk online my name is Lindfox24.

Besos Amigos!

Estoy Aqui!

So I made it. It was a very uneventful trip. I was preparing for the worst... lost luggage, trouble at customs, ticket confusion, but none of that happened. It was so smooth. There was even a reservation made for me for the shuttle that I didn´t make. -- I think that my hostel did it for me. Everyone has been so nice and accommodating. Those tricky hostels...

I met Sole- she is my cousin´s husband´s wife´s sister. Very very distant family, but still family! Her and her husband Rene (he´s french) took me around Santiago for most of the day. It was great. I was feeling a little overwhelmed by culture shock, and they made it so easy for me. They both speak English, know the city well, and are very smart and sweet. It was a great way to transition into another culture. Hopefully I will get to meet up with them later in my trip.

Tonight I will meet my host family, I will be staying with them starting tonight until the end of February. I hope they are nice. I don´t really know anything about them except they live close to school and don´t smoke. Two good things, but not too much to go off of. I wonder if I will be able to communicate with them. I expect a lot of hand signals and awkward silences.

Tomorrow I start school We´ll see how much Spanish I have forgotten. I have to take a placement test first thing in the morning, then classes for half of the day. I´m excited to get back into Spanish school because I feel so slow not being able to speak the language and I hate feeling like a classic tourist.

Anyway, that´s it for now. I will report back once I find out what school is and what my host family is like. Hopefully I will have my camera cord and can post some pictures.

Getting Ready to Go

Getting ready to leave on an adventure takes a lot more than I initially thought. There are so many loose ends to tie up that I keep thinking up new ones every day. There is only so much I can plan ahead, and when it comes down to it, how much can you plan ahead for something like this? Can over-planning take the fun out of things? I try and get the important stuff like money, antibiotics, and passports out of the way but new little things keep hitting me. Like, should I bring a water filter, or a sleeping bag? The answer seems easy, but packing light is the ultimate challenge. Sometimes I have thoughts wash over me like "What the hell are you doing?! You're going to end up dead or worse!" (in the words of my great-grandmother) and sometimes I am so excited to go I can't wait to be engrossed into a completely new situation. Either way, it's going to be exciting.

Both in Chile and Peru I will be living with host families. I think that this will improve my Spanish immensely because if I want to communicate, it will have to be in Spanish.

For those of you who don't know yet, here is my loose itinerary:

January 23- Leave for Santiago, Chile
January -February- Language School in Santiago and Bariloche, Argentina
March- Travel in Patagonia and maybe Bolivia
End of March - End of May- Dental Volunteering in Cuzco, Peru in a Children's clinic
June- Travel??

This is my first Blog, and I'm not big on keeping a journal so bear with me. Hopefully my posts will keep getting better...