my first two weeks...

Hola! So I am finally in Chile. The flight over went fine, I was sat next to a sicilian guy called Daniele. He seemed really nice but we could only communicate in some mixture of of pigeon spanish, english and italian. I was just nodding my head for about twelve hours. The last hour of the flight was amazing because the plane flies right through the Andes as it descends towards Santiago. I had a window seat so the view was brilliant. I arrived at 10am local time was met by a nice chilean guy called Christobal at the airport and went straight to my spanish school but was too tired to take the placement exam so I went to my accommodation for a rest. I returned to the school in the afternoon, took the exam and was placed in a class straightaway.
My teacher is really good and everyone at the school is great. There about 50 students and 15 staff and in my class there are 5 other students. The school arranges lots of extra activities for the students to do outside of class hours. So far I have been to a cooking class, a couple tours to places in the city and some evening meals. My accomodation is also really good. When I arrived I was staying in an apartment with two Danish girls and a couple from Switzerland, everything was fine there but I felt like being there wasn't helping me to learn spanish. So after one week I moved in with a chileno family. They are a family of four with a son and a daughter and they´re all really kind and accomadating. The mum spent about three hours on the first night walking around the house pointing at things and telling me their name in spanish. I failed her test the next day though. Also the food is excellent, a lot better than what I was coooking for myself, and the mum does my laundry for me even though shes not required to (I have to buy the family ice cream and cakes in return :) also I have a TV and a DVD player in my room.
My classes at the school are from 1400 till 1800 so on most days i have been able to go out in the evenings and experience the city by night. Which has been a lot of fun and also kind on the pocket. For example, on thursday last week I went to a meal at the language school and then a party at someones house. In total I spent about five pounds and ate some really nice food, drank too much red wine and took a taxi home because I didn´t have a clue where my apartment was.
On my first weekend here I did some exploring of the city with a Hawaian guy and a girl from San Francisco. We took a fenicular railway to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, which is a hill overlooking the city. On the top there is a statue of the Virgin Mary so its like Santiago´s version of Christ over Rio. The views are amazing and we were quite lucky because there wasnt too much smog in the air so you could see the whole of the city and just make out the Andes in the background. Apparently you usually struggle to see the city through all the pollution. We also went to a few museums in the city. In particular el museo de bellas artes which had some works by the chilean surrealist artist Roberto Matta which blew my mind. The city itself is much nicer than i expected, I had been warned previoulsy that it was messy and a bit of a concrete jungle, but I think its a pretty cool place. The people are really friendly and they are everwhere. It seems as if there is a job for everything, or where in England there would be one job, there is two maybe three people doing it.
Last weekend I went to Viña del mar, a beach resort two hours from Santiago, with some friends from the language school. Its a really nice place with loads of beaches and bars and a casino. Of course I managed to get really burnt but that didnt stop me from having a good time.
I think my spanish is improving quite a bit. I can understand everything my teachers says and am able to answer almost all her questions. I took a test last friday which I passed so i have now moved on to the next level. There are about 12 levels in total at the school and I am just starting the third one. So I have a long way to go. The only problem im having is that the people here speak a lot of slang thats particular only to chile so its often hard to understand people on the street. Although I am able to understand the builders who make fun of my sunburnt hands when I'm walking to school. So funny!
On Wednesday this week I am going to a Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) concert at the Estadio Nacional in Santiago, I cannot wait. Next weekend six of us form the school are planning a trip to Mendoza in Argentina which is a five hour bus ride away. I let you know how it goes.
Unfortunately I have had a few problems with my the memory card in my camera so i dont have any pictures to show as of yet. However, i think I have resolved the issue so I will post some pictures soon and hopefully I can also get some pictures from friends of the stuff I have already done. Anyway all is well and I'll write again soon.

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