All last week was my school´s anniversary and thus there were lots of games and competitions between the three alianzas. The three alianzas represented the school colors: Blue (water), Orange (earth), White (air) and there was everything from sports events to a comedy show sort of thing to dances to a parade!... read more

I was woken up on the night bus by a box of packaged breakfast things being dropped into my lap and whilst drinking my pineapple juice box I opened the curtains aaaaaand DESERT!!!! It was really really stunning... basically: desert... desert... desert... mountains! On both sides! I spent the rest of the ride just watching out the window- it was incredibly beautiful.... Just completely stunning, I mean we saw a bit of the desert when we visited my sister Laura last year... but it became so much more real when I was looking at it and knowing that this is my home for the next six months! I wish I had taken pictures for you all to see, but I was so awestruck I didn’t think to get out the camera. Two of the other exchange ... read more

The rest of orientation was pretty fun, and here are some more pictures... as promised! Some of them are of the Cueca dancers they brought in as a surprise for us, which was really fun. It was a little sad leaving because a lot of us started to get close- I think it’s a shared experience sort of thing that makes you get attached so quickly... we were all sort of alone together I guess. At the end of Orientation we headed back into Santiago for some of us to meet our host families (those who lived in or around Santiago). It was really really cool to watch, as we sat there on opposite sides of the room, waiting for names to be called so that the families and students could get up and meet in ... read more

hello all just a quick entry to let you know that we're doing a going away get together thing for me on this coming sunday (sorry for the late notice). it will be 4-6 at my house if you want to stop by, and then 6:30 until 10:30 ish at Chapoquoit beach. *please bring any pictures you've got for my little photo book thing :)... read more

So! I have news!!! I am going to Copiapó, Chile and will be attending El Colegio Cervantino! Copiapó is the capital of the Atacama region (aka: im gonna be in the desert!) and here are a few little facts about it (mostly thanks to wikipedia): -Copiapó is mainly a mining region -it was inhabited by the Incas before the Spanish took over -it receives about 12 mm of rain per year (yikes!) -Copiapó is about five or six hours north of La Serena (Laura's city) -it is about 35 miles inland from the Pacific in a "fertile valley" -the population is around 130,000 people -and Copiapó had a UFO sighting in 1864! I don't yet have the rest of my host family info... EDIT: evidently they didn't say it was in the mail, that was just ... read more