Hola de Viña

Estoy en Chile ahora! [Right now I'm having issues with putting pictures on here, I can email a link to my facebook photo album- let me know!]

So first off, I made it here with hardly any problems! I left DIA around 4:15pm and then met up with about 12 other students in Dallas/Ft. Worth. I ended up sitting by most of them on the plane, too! It was a 9 hour flight from DFW to Santiago then, through the night. They served pretty decent food too on the plane! I had two seats to myself, so I was able to sleep slightly more comfortably. We arrive at about 7:30am, and then had to wait for out bus to take us to Vina for about 3 hours. In our customs form, we had to claim any food items we wanted to bring to Chile-- I had trail mix and they took it away from me because it had fruit in it...grr! I hadn't even opened it yet! One girl brought honey with her and forgot to claim it, and had to pay $200 USD! Que triste!

Then we had an amazing drive from Santiago to Vina- mountains, hills and lots of vineyards! It reminded me of the foothills of Colorado, but here everything is so green! It is nearing the end of winter here, which means lots of rain! It was SO cold when we arrived. But anyway, we made it to Vina, where our host families were waiting for us. It was such a crazy experience- on our bus everyone was screaming, laughing, trying to spot our families- we are were all very nervous for this!

My mama, Erika, was waiting for me with her friend Alejandra. They drove me around Vina a bit and then took me to our apartment. I have my own room, which is very nice! I really like my two sisters also! They know some English, which has been helpful! My mom and sisters have been very good about slowing down what they say, simplifying everything so that I will understand. I've found the some of the most important words are the ones that describe locations- up, down, above, before, after, etc. That evening I spent unpacking, getting to know Erika and sleeping a lot! I was so tired!

Yesterday was a long and crazy one! First off, it was rainy and cold ALL day, but that didn't stop me! Erika took me to the Centro, which has a lot of stores. I want to return when everything is open, because it was a Catholic holiday so many stores were closed. I needed to get my converter fixed, and yesterday I eventually bought a new converter and two new cords. I've never liked technology, especially in a foreign language! We also took the metro, basically the subway, to Renaca, where my university is. It is very close to the beach! It is so hilly here! I think I will be living in my tennis shoes because both my apartment building and university are on very steep hills. Then last night I went to my first bar! The vast majority of our group was there and it was SO nice to see some familiar faces! It is funny because our conversations were half in Spanish, half English- they would go something like "Como estas?" "Awesome! y tu?" I love it! Soon enough, it will all be in Spanish! I had piscola (pisco+coca cola= piscola) which was pretty good actually. Pisco is a bit sweeter than other hard alcohol, so it tasted better, to me at least. The Chileans like to stay out late! I got back to my apartment around 3:30am, and the bar was still so crowded when we left! Don't worry mom, we didn't walk back, we took the micro (a bus) and I walked back to my apartment with someone else so I wasn't alone at all.

Well, it's almost 2pm here now and I have hardly done anythiing today! My sisters are doing homework, and I have a ton of reading to do, so I think I will get on that! I might be going exploring with Andria, a girl who lives very close to me. She wants me to ride the metro with her to practice for school tomorrow! Did I mention school starts tomorrow? Ay, dios mio! More on that later...