Hi!
I apologize for being distantish the last couple of days. I can't believe I've only been here for two days. It has seriously felt like a week. Here's a little bit that has been going on rather than sending long emails to everyone. Not that I don't want to, I'm just hardcore exhausted. So! My 2 days here. We arrived about an hour earlier than expected in Santiago yesterday morning. It was a VERY long day, but everything went quite smoothly. I didn't really get much sleeep on the plane despite bringing my pillow , but I managed to have some complementary wine that I very much appreciated. I took an amazing picture of the Andes from the plane that I will post! Yesterday involved orientation, eating much better than anticipated chilean food, talking and getting to know the groupies, walking to a mall during a break with the groupies and then went to a bar called Las Urracas. I was somewhat hesitant to go because I was pretty deprived of sleep. There were so many discoballs there. A bunch of us gringos danced in our own little section and then there was a jean fashion show where somehow people managed to win a pair of jeans by the model giving them to them. Anyways, I tried a chilean beer which was yummy. Definitely managed to take me 15 minutes to order a beer though.
Then today was the big macho-y day. It's 9:36 pm here and After yesterday and today both my english and spanish have gone down hill. I probably won't manage to get either a minor in spanish or a degree in speech and hearing sciences. We began with more orientation and then took a language test, which was longgg and then my family came at 12:30. It turns out that Gabriel and Christian live together in an apartment. The apartment is 12 stories tall and we're on the 12th floor...so it's quite a view. There are two small balconies and you can see the Andes..It's pretty crazy. After I was picked up we went to a natural foods store called Trigal del sol. My host parents bought soy burgers for dinner. It was cool because everything was in bulk and they had some vegan things. We then went to the apartment. I have my own room and bathroom. I even have a cool red bean bag chair, a desk, a night stand and a closet. My apartment has a gym and a pool. Anyways, after I moved in, they made desayuno which is the lunch and usually the biggest meal of the day. It was a soy burger with rice and an eggplant tortilla thing which was amazing. Lunch took a while and there was a lot of conversation. After lunch we went to Lider, which is what I later found out as wallmart. There I purchased soap and a prepaid celly phone. Then my host dad y yo went back to the apartment and we walked to the metrostation to buy my Bip card AKA my metro/bus card. The buses and metros get packed!
Friday:
Today i had to get my visa verified. So my host mom went with me to meet my group at a metro station. Then we went to my school and had a tour. We stopped at this one place that was kinda like a museum, but not really. There, a little girl saw me, said "hola" and whipped out her phone to take a picture of me. On the bus I got stared at a lot too which is awkward because There aren't a lot of other directions to stare in that someone wasn't staring. Sorry for my poor english. I'm exhausted. But I'm having fun. I'll email you all soon:) sorry for not returning emails. I miss you all and will soon. I'm just too tired.
I apologize for being distantish the last couple of days. I can't believe I've only been here for two days. It has seriously felt like a week. Here's a little bit that has been going on rather than sending long emails to everyone. Not that I don't want to, I'm just hardcore exhausted. So! My 2 days here. We arrived about an hour earlier than expected in Santiago yesterday morning. It was a VERY long day, but everything went quite smoothly. I didn't really get much sleeep on the plane despite bringing my pillow , but I managed to have some complementary wine that I very much appreciated. I took an amazing picture of the Andes from the plane that I will post! Yesterday involved orientation, eating much better than anticipated chilean food, talking and getting to know the groupies, walking to a mall during a break with the groupies and then went to a bar called Las Urracas. I was somewhat hesitant to go because I was pretty deprived of sleep. There were so many discoballs there. A bunch of us gringos danced in our own little section and then there was a jean fashion show where somehow people managed to win a pair of jeans by the model giving them to them. Anyways, I tried a chilean beer which was yummy. Definitely managed to take me 15 minutes to order a beer though.
Then today was the big macho-y day. It's 9:36 pm here and After yesterday and today both my english and spanish have gone down hill. I probably won't manage to get either a minor in spanish or a degree in speech and hearing sciences. We began with more orientation and then took a language test, which was longgg and then my family came at 12:30. It turns out that Gabriel and Christian live together in an apartment. The apartment is 12 stories tall and we're on the 12th floor...so it's quite a view. There are two small balconies and you can see the Andes..It's pretty crazy. After I was picked up we went to a natural foods store called Trigal del sol. My host parents bought soy burgers for dinner. It was cool because everything was in bulk and they had some vegan things. We then went to the apartment. I have my own room and bathroom. I even have a cool red bean bag chair, a desk, a night stand and a closet. My apartment has a gym and a pool. Anyways, after I moved in, they made desayuno which is the lunch and usually the biggest meal of the day. It was a soy burger with rice and an eggplant tortilla thing which was amazing. Lunch took a while and there was a lot of conversation. After lunch we went to Lider, which is what I later found out as wallmart. There I purchased soap and a prepaid celly phone. Then my host dad y yo went back to the apartment and we walked to the metrostation to buy my Bip card AKA my metro/bus card. The buses and metros get packed!
Friday:
Today i had to get my visa verified. So my host mom went with me to meet my group at a metro station. Then we went to my school and had a tour. We stopped at this one place that was kinda like a museum, but not really. There, a little girl saw me, said "hola" and whipped out her phone to take a picture of me. On the bus I got stared at a lot too which is awkward because There aren't a lot of other directions to stare in that someone wasn't staring. Sorry for my poor english. I'm exhausted. But I'm having fun. I'll email you all soon:) sorry for not returning emails. I miss you all and will soon. I'm just too tired.