Jan 29-Feb 5th

I arrived in Chile! The flight felt like it lasted forever and I was so ready to land and start the adventure. Once I arrived, I got stuck in the immigration line for over an hour and was worried my group was going to leave without me, but thank goodness they didn't. There are five other girls here with me right now: Sam, Amelia, Julie Ann, Tess, and Patricia. They are all great girls and it has been fun to get to know them. From the airport we went to our hotel which was called Hotel Neruda. Then we went on a tour of Santiago and got to see a view of the entire city from a super high point. It was amazing. That is how I took my facebook photo. The next day we walked around in another tour of Santiago and were able to see Pablo Neruda's house. For dinner, the girls and I adventured out and found an Italian restaurant where we were able to order, eat and pay for everything without causing too much of a scene! It was our first accomplishment. On Thursday, we drove to Valparaiso and met our families at the school.

My family lives in Vina Del Mar. There is the mom, dad, and two boys that are about my age. That night we went out for food and beer at a restaurant. I met two of their family members that live in Brazil right now. They would speak Spanish with me and then Portuguese with each other. That was a lot to take in on my first night with the family. The next day at night we went over to one of the other daughters house who is older and doesn't live at their house anymore. I met the whole family and again there was Portuguese, Spanish and English being spoken. At about 1am my brothers and all the kids about my age went out to a 'discoteca' and were out until 5:45am!! They party here so much later than what I am used to in the US. The next night I went to a concert with the girls in my group which was pretty fun.

Since then, I have had orientation, started school and toured Vina and Valpo. I can't wait to see more of the cities and learn where great places are. There is so much to learn. My classes are really helpful so far. I am in Advanced Grammar and Advanced Conversation with Chilean Culture. The classes are so small. There are five other students in my class with me! This is the smallest class I ever have! That is somewhat of an overview of what I have done the past few days and this week.