Visa Registration and City Tour

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Longest Line of My Life

Today I woke up early (or earlier than the past few days) and had a quick breakfast before heading to the center of the city to meet everyone for our group visa registration process. We were supposed to meet by 8:35am at the subway station Santa Lucia before heading to what is essentially the FBI of Chile to register our visas. My host father Carlos took me to the subway to meet everyone (on a side note, it was easier than the subway in Washington D.C., but that could be because it's quite similar and it wasn't my first time on a subway, and I wasn't alone 😊 ). the process was supposed to be finished for all 50+ of us before 11am, when we were supposed to take a tour of the city. Then we arrived, and the line was to the end of the block and around the corner! We ended up at the end of a line that extended over 2-3 blocks and at one point extended across a crosswalk (we didn't block the crosswalk). We stood in line for about 4 hours before we finally reached the door of the building we needed to enter. Fortunately for us, it was a MUCH cooler morning than the last few have been, and was overcast, so we didn't fry TOO bad! It was a good opportunity to get to know some of the others in the group that I hadn't met before.... but after 4 hours we were all ready to be done! FINALLY we reached the entrance of the building...only to realize that the line continued to snake around inside the building...so we waited an additional 1.5 hours until we were finally at the front of the line. By the time we finished the process, it was past 2pm, over 3 hours past the time our tour of the city was supposed to start. I had never seen such an outrageously long line in my life, even at DisneyWorld at holiday time! We grabbed a quick lunch at an empanada place (where I accidentally ordered a 'pinapple empanada' (pina) instead of a 'pina empanada' (meat (beef) with olives and cheese)). Of course the man behind the counter laughed at me... and I did too. Then we had an abbreviated tour of the city via tour bus, but we still got to see some of the main points of interest in the city, and we were referenced to visit them in more depth later on.

Some Encouragement

My host mom Cecelia picked me up at the Universidad Andres Bello (UAB) after the tour, and she was talking with me and some of the other students, and said that she felt that I had gotten a lot better in my Spanish (at least my comfort in speaking and recalling my vocabulary) even in the three days I've been here! That was just about the most encouraging thing I could have heard, as I have been feeling quite overwhelmed by all that I don't understand and have yet to learn! Cecelia and Carlos speak a good amount of English, but we speak mostly Spanish at home. It's super helpful, because if I can formulate most of a sentence or thought in Spanish, they can help me learn the new words or sentence structures that I am struggling with or unfamiliar with. I think they deserve the credit for almost everything I've learned the past few days! I couldn't ask for better host parents for my time here in Santiago.

After we got back to Providencia, a few other students and I shared some ceviche at a local restaurant. Note to self--ceviche is AMAZING. Especially when the ocean is only an hour and a half away and the food is fresh!Tomorrow is the first day of classes; I'm both excited and nervous. I hope they are challenging, because I know that is the only way to grow, but I also hope they aren't overwhelming!

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