Long Way to Go

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I have a lot to say and not much brain power to say it with.

Friends and Roommates
I have made many new friends since i have been in the hostel. My three roommates are Anna (from Vermont), Carley (from Philly) and Liz (from Sommerville). We have walked all over the city and had some great advntures into an open air market on Sunday. We ate fruit salad for around 50 cents and I got to take my picture with a living statue. We almost got caught in teh middle of a metal workers union strike and then we ate empanadas con queso (with cheese) and drank beer for hours for only $7 each at Mister Pizza. I have also made some friends with other people in my program. Leora is a great girl who will be coming with me to Caldera and Andrew, a cool guy who welcomed just about everyone into the hostel. Although I thin I have a tendency to attract Jews of the people above only one is not Jewish and two even keep kosher. I dont know but I think we come out of the wood work. Gino is one of the program leaders from the Ministry of Education. He is young and incredibly fluent in English and really cares about us volunteers and eats dinner with us and chills while we freak out about passports, host families, and what ever else seems to come up.

Santiago
Santiago is a beautiful city even though it is HUGE! 6 million people and growin, right along with the Andes that surround it. Wow, those mountains are beautiful!!! It has been cold and rainy (because it is winter down here) but it is still beautiful and the people are so nice. I have seen the President's Palace, La Moneda, and gone to a museum. The city is very class divided and it is interesting that the wealthiest people live on the highest part of Santiago and the poorest live in the lowest part. Where is am staying is in Old Santiago, the poorer but not the poorest side of town but still mostly for international tourists and apartment dwelling college students.

Hosteling International
I am staying in HI Chile. A hostel for national and international travelers. You have to be buzzed into the big blue building with orange shutters by the front desk person who always speaks english, which by the way is awesome! This is where I sleep, get fed, shower, and chill when I am not galavanting around Santiago or in class or on the phone with my mom and Sean. The walls are painted all sorts of bright colors and the rooms are kinda small but it is a nice hostel from what people have been telling me and the people are so nice, workers and travelers alike. Right next door is a little hole in the wall market that sells fruits, veggies, bottled drinks, a couple of tioletires and condiments AND empanadas for 350 pesos or around 75 cents and coffee for around 50 cents. Life is good!

Where am I going
In less than a week I will be in Caldera, a small port town in region 3 of Chile also known as the Atacama region becuse it is the beginning of the Atacama desert, the driest desert on earth. I am really excited. I find out about my host family on Wednesday and next Monday I leave on a 10hour bus trip from Santiago. I hope to be teaching in a high school because Chile has a mandatoy English Debate program that highschools have to participate in. They need native speakers to help coach the teams and I am that girl. I debated in college and am so excited to use that experience and passion here. Dude, this is awesome!

Class
My least part of this trip thus far. My language skills are sub par and I feel like a dunce even though i am in a class with other volunteers who speak less than I do. I need to catch up fast so that I will be able to communicate with people outside of Santiago. That might be nice. I keep asking my self ...you suck at laguages....why did you come to a spanish speaking country??? But this is still going to be the experience of a lifetime and i know I will be able to pick up enough to get myself around. I have to dont I? hehehe...

To come
For the rest of the week I will be taking classes on how to teach and in Spanish. This weekend Werner and Luisa are taking me to the beach to see the beautiful coast of Chile and the Paific Ocean for my first time as an adult. I will be back Sunday afternoon and then will be leaving for Caldera Monday night. Here we go. Wish me luck.

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