Planes, Busses, and NOT TAXIS!

I didn’t sleep very well- which was surprising since I usually fall fast asleep on long flights. I really should have brought a sleeping pill…! This time I must have only slept a couple hours on our 8-hour flight. I woke up an hour and a half prior to our arrival and took pictures of my first Chilean sunrise while Sidney was still asleep.

I got to watch as people on the plane woke up all bleary-eyed teehee! People are so funny when they travel. We landed in Santiago and Sidney and I couldn’t stop squealing haha! The view from above the city was beautiful!

We got off the plane and waited for Ashley. Then we all got through customs and security with no problems. THEN we faced our first dilemma!

Since we had arrived 20 minutes after the group flight, I assumed (and so had my Program Advisor when I emailed him) that we wouldn’t make the group transportation. We had also been warned to avoid taxi scams right outside the exit of the airport. SO we peeked through the exit doors that boldly state DO NOT RE-ENTER, and finding no one with our program’s sign, we decided to order a taxi inside of the exit gate. It was quite a steep fare, but we paid it anyway - LO AND BEHOLD the moment we step out of the airpot one of our program advisors comes running up to us telling us in broken Spanish and English to refund the taxi ride since the group transportation was still waiting for us. Ashley ran back through the DO NOT RE-ENTER doors, and I’m standing there with Sidney and a bunch of luggage, getting stared at by about one hundred Chileans who are waiting for their friend/family’s arrivals. I was drenched in sweat and super embarrassed!

Thankfully no one gave Ashley any flack for crossing through the DO NOT RE-ENTER doors and the taxi company refunded our trip. I even got to keep the change from the first transaction we had made, ultimately making the entire debacle a monetary gain on my part hahaha!

Ashley and I laughed about it and headed over to the rest of the group. Being the social butterfly (er obnoxious moth) that I am, I ran around introducing myself to everyone and making happy conversation. I was really surprised to find that everyone was incredibly kind, and non-cliquey! Everyone was really sweet to each other and it was heart-warming to see. There were students from Texas, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Mississippi - basically any state you could imagine!

We all waited around for a half-hour - and we found two stray dogs in the middle of the airport! I didn’t pet them since I was afraid they could be sick - but they were pretty plump, and really friendly! Here’s a picture of them curled up after getting a lot of love from our group.

We said goodbye to the fluffy doggies and went across the street to our bus. It was early in the morning still, so the smog and fog was still pretty thick. The grass just beyond the fence was so so green though! On the bus we all felt really silly because the Program Director had to tell us all to put on our seatbelts! Since busses back home don’t usually have seatbelts so we didn’t even think to look for them - everyone laughed about it.

We drove east for about 45 minutes to our hotel where we dropped all our stuff in our rooms. By this point I had quizzed myself a bunch on the bus - so now, I know almost everyone’s names! Sidney, Ashley, Makenzee, Meagan, Logan, Will, Danielle, Jacob, Rostom, Becca, Bethany, Bridget, Gabby, Brandon.. We all were assigned roommates and headed to our rooms. Bethany and I shared a room - I took a shower, and then we all ate lunch at the hotel! It was AMAZING. They had pescado, salad, red breaded meat, really soft bread, a sort of casserole, and sodas at a full table spread with white linen! I took a nap after that and then we had orientation from our program directors: Luis, Brenda, and Jorge.

Luis is an older man who is very nice and patient (he was waiting for me and Ashley with a giant smile on his face during the whole taxi debacle). He has excellent English (better than mine) and a heavy accent. Brenda is a very powerful, professional-looking woman in her full business suit - but she is really just our mamá! She is very sweet and can be silly if you get her laughing - she’s always making fun of her accent in English and how she sounds like a babbling baby (but she really doesn’t). Jorge is fluent in American English and is absolutely hilarious! He is always making funny noises and telling stories.

After our orientation we took an hour-long Spanish test. I ended up skimming through the test, answering what I could, and then drawing pictures on the back of the exam hahaha! I only know a couple verb conjugation rules and basic phrases so I guessed on almost everything. I’m really looking forward to knowing more Spanish!

I got to explore the garden in the back of the hotel extensively today. It’s really pretty - there are some pictures in the First Days (Album) if you want to take a look.

A group of about 10 students and myself went looking for adapters and Spanish/English dictionaries down the street today - we struck out on the dictionary, but I did manage to find us a nice supply of adapters. There were three women in the shop and none of them spoke English! I used my best sign language and a few words from my friends and managed to get exactly what I needed with a bit of embarrassment and 4500 CLP (only about seven dollars)! I thanked them and marched out of the shop all proud of my first purchase in only Spanish haha!

That evening we had another huge dinner with meats, rice, salad, bread, and more soda on a white linen table. The soda here is a lot sweeter than back home - kind of like Mexican Coca-Colas. I really like it.

Tonight a whole group of people went out to a bar down the street - I kinda wanted to go, but I decided against it. I just traveled 27 hours in cars and planes and busses, and I’m pretty toast. It’s nice to sit down after a super long day and just write everything out.

Tomorrow I get to meet my host family! Apparently Brenda has been talking up the host-family I’m staying with to all the other students haha! She says it’s really funny that I got such a perfect fit. I guess the son is a concert trombonist? I don’t know much yet, I guess I’ll find out tomorrow :)

WELL I’m uber duper tired, and I think the students are coming back from the bar now (it’s about 1 AM).

Que pases buenas noches!

Love,

[CHAR]