I have arrived!

---

Well, I made it here safe and sound! I left Thursday morning and flew from Minneapolis to Dallas. In Dallas, I had a lovely (not) eight our layover until my plane left for Santiago at 930 at night. Well, it was supposed to be 930, but one of the cockpit assistants or flight attendants or something forgot his passport! So everyone on the plane was waiting for about 30-45 minutes after our scheduled departure for his wife to bring his passport. I remember thinking "now if I forgot my passport, the plane wouldn't wait for me." In the end it worked out fine for me though, and i made it through customs and immigration after the plane arrived friday morning ( and after paying a lovely (there is the sarcasm again) $160 reciprocity fee). So far, though, it has been worth every penny and more!

Our group is quite small. there is only 5 of us coming in this "wave" program, while some students are already here. In total there are 16 people going through this API (academic programs international) program. After we were settled in at the hotel and were able to contact home we went on tour of some of the important spots in Santiago. It was great chance to see some of the more famous places and to get to know each other as a group more. This all culminated in a welcome dinner where I ordered duck, and it was very delicious!

I was so tired after everything yesterday that I crashed. Hard. I slept for about 10 hours, woke up, ate breakfast, then took a nap😊 It was beautiful. Our director was very nice about that, and knew we were all tired, so she did not plan anything until 1 today. We went on another long tour today, which included visiting Pablo Neruda's, a well known Chilean poet, house here in Santiago. Tonight, the five in our group went to a sushi place for dinner. I was afraid it would taste like the pre-packaged sushi I have had before, but, thankfully, it did not!

Tomorrow, I will travel to Valparaíso to meet my host family for the first time. I am a little nervous, but very excited! Overall, I have enjoyed my first couple days here, and I am looking forward to getting into a bit of a routine with my classes, host family, and everything else.

---

Comments

[Marci Hitz]

Glad it's going well!