Aventuras en Santiago

Hola!! Hey everyone! It's been about a week since I last wrote and I feel like my old life has fallen off the planet and I'm in some sort of dream! I'm slowly getting use to the life style here because it seems fast but when I start school I think it will slow down a lot and I get in the groove of school again.

Santiago..... ok so we spent four days in Santiago and we saw a lot! The first day we as a group (there are around 60 students here from all over the United States) went to Cerro San Cristobal which is a place the indigenous wanted to name after the Saint San Cristobal. Cerro San Cristobal allowed us to see all of Santiago and the Andes! To get up to the top we took el ascensor or fenicular. It's a really old box that moves on a track and gets to the top of the mountain or hill in this case. Shown above.

The next day we went to the Presidential Palace which is in the downtown of Santiago. We were told all about Salvador Allende and his overthrowing. We actually stood in the place where he committed suicide. Our tour guide was a short fat man with a beard and long coat. It was really hard to understand him even though he spoke really slowly for us. I think is was me just trying to get use to the accent down here and use to listening to a tour guide in another language.









The next day we went to a vineyard named Cousin~o Macul and got to see how everything worked and even try some wine which was very good. A lot of us didn't like the cab that we got to try because of the woody taste but I loved it! Afterwards we went to the poet Pablo Neruda's house which was beautiful! He has three houses in Chile which we will see all of them eventually. He named this house La Chascona which is a hair style that his second wife wore which is basically piling the hair on top of the head. Neruda wanted to model his house after a boat so everything was really small. I wasn't able to take pictures in the house but I can say it was very pretty! I wanted to live there!!

The last day we were there we visited Cerro Santa Lucia which is where Santiago was founded in 1902 by Pedro de Valdivia. It was basically a castle with a lot of steps to get to the top. Jeannie and I took a photo at the top but the sun was really intense so I have one eye shut.

Santiago was awesome but I got really tired of being herded around by a tour guide in a huge group of Americans. I didn't like drawing attention to all of us because there were enough men yelling at us that they loved us! I'm glad to be in Valparaiso now and with my family.

My family is great! Jeannie and I are living together and are both having a great time talking to everyone. We have a baby named Martin, a sister named Camila, a brother Sergio and lastly and most fun Juan. Sergio and Juan are nephews of our mom. Juan is funny and teaches us a lot of words which is good because both Jeannie and I lack vocab. We call him Juan Juan and he calls me Melie because they can't say the A. I actually like this new nickname!

I start classes on wednesday so Jeannie and I have friday to tuesday off so we're going to try to do something fun with Juan or other girls from the program. Hasta Luego!!

Spasms of Excitment

I have now finally made it safely to Santiago for the first portion of my trip. I arrived here at 7:45 am having no idea of what to do and where to go. Firstly, the travel went smoothly considering I thought I might miss my flight in Dallas for Santiago! I was sitting in the waiting room for my flight and struck up a conversation with an obvious looking college student who just happened to be from Denver University! Small world. Once on the plane, my entire body was shaking from excitement. There was a man sitting in front of me speaking spanish with me and joking with me about the personalities of Chileans saying they like to talk a lot! Being around him made me that more excited plus I just happened to sit next to this boy from DU on the plane so we talked forever until the Dramamine kicked in and I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer.

Once waking up for breakfast at 5 in the morning, the sun was slowly coming up lighting up the clouds. Soon the coast of Chile was visible and then the most amazing view I've ever see from a plane came to me... the Andes mountains sticking up around mass amounts of clouds with white snow covering the peaks... almost more pretty than the Rocky Mountains in the fall! My breath was taken away and all I could think was I can't believe I'm doing this all on my own! Once I landed I navigated myself slowly through getting my visa, immigration, and then customs. My spanish was definitely put to the test and I made it through which made me feel some hope that I would be able to live and function in this country. I was scared to death though when I saw how many people were around me because I needed to find my friend Jeanie and make it to our hotel for the day. I didn't think I would ever find her and it was such a relief to find her in the mass of people including other students with ISA (International Studies Abroad).

The day was exciting meeting a few of the girls in our group including another girl that goes to CSU and is from Montrose which was exciting! Tomorrow is the big day of meeting everyone in our group which is around fifty students. Then we are here in Santiago for four-five days and then off to Valparaiso to meet Jeanie and I's host family!!