¡¡Estamos aqui!!

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¡Hola!

My first blog entry from Santiago! Ashley and I have arrived to Santiago, Chile safe and sound and have started classes. I am having the time of my life already, and I know it´s going to keep getting better. Our plane trip was pretty normal (I actually slept on the plane for about 5 hours, so I was lucky!) We got to the airport around 9:30 a.m. on the 3rd of January (7:30 Eastern time). While we were standing in the line for customs, we actually saw the group from Furman that is studying here! It was really funny seeing 20 people that you know in the middle of South America (they were even more surprised than us!) We arrived before the Delaware group and were suppose to wait for their plane which was scheduled to land at 1:00 p.m.. Well, after getting lunch, we were standing in the middle of all the chaos of people walking out hoping that maybe we would recognize a big group of American students. Taxi drivers were running around telling us that the group had already left and that they would drive us to our house instead. Around 1:30 we realized that their flight was delayed until 4:00....okay, I could deal with this, only 3 more hours of waiting. Well, 7:00 arrives and their plane finally lands! Ashley and I definitely know our way around the airport after waiting there for so long!

We took a bus to our University where we met our familias. I am living with THE BEST family ever! My señora is a chef so the food is fantastic plus they are all so caring and really want to know what is going on in our lives. My housing situation in Chile is COMPLETELY different than what I had in Spain. For one, in Spain I was living by myself. Here, I am sharing a room with Ashley, a bathroom with 2 other girls from Delaware (so 4 girls in all sharing the bathroom) and a house with 6 other American students! In total, there are 10 of us in the house right now and next week, there will be 12. Ashley and myself from Furman, 2 American girls from Delaware (Christina and Brittany), 3 boys from Delaware (Kyle, Matt, and Joaquin), my señora Vesi, her husband Carlos, and her 17 year old son Ivan. Next week, a girl from Europe is going to come as well and the family's other son Carlos is going to return from traveling to Germany! But I must say it has been so much fun living with so many people. Vesi and Carlos insist that we all eat together for dinner (which is at 9:30 or 10:00 at night...) and they are constantly wanting to help us with our Spanish. I could not have asked for a better living situation.

So Wednesday night all we did was unpack, shower, and collapse. Yesterday, we had orientation in the morning then took a 5 hour tour of the city. I was definitely exhausted after this tour! But we went to the top of this mountain that overlooked the entire city. The views were amazing!) We got back at 7:00 to our house and wandered around our neighborhood until dinner. Afterwards, Ashley and I went to a local bar where we met some very nice Chilenos who taught us some Chilean slang, haha! They also bought us our first pisco cola which is kind of like rum and coke. Pisco is a very famous type of alcohol down here. We got back to our house around 2:30 a.m. and had to wake up at 6:30 to take the metro to get to class by 8:00 a.m. This is the only thing I don´t like about Chile so far...8 a.m. classes! I am only taking 2 classes but they last 2 and a half hours, too long to be sitting in a desk.

Tomorrow we go to visit La Isla Negra and on Sunday to THE BEACH! I will keep you updated por supuesto!

Les quiero todos!

Ciao!
Laura

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