First Day

My host family (or most of it) met me at the airport. They could not be nicer.

I could write pages and pages right now. But i'm going on 39 hours without sleep. It does't feel like I've only been here for a day. I've already experienced so much.

My flights were not very pleasant. The first one was very turbulent and the second one was very long. I couldn't sleep on either. I landed in Santiago around 8:10 this morning, and met my host family at about 9:10. They could not be nicer. Their house is about 15 minutes from the airport and downtown Santiago. It’s in a Nos, a subdivision of San Bernardo, which is part of Santiago.

Today was super busy. It’s hard to believe that I was on a plane 15 hours ago. It already feels like I’ve been here for days. After we arrived at the house, I got a quick tour and we had a late (late for me, normal time for them) breakfast. Then I unpacked all of my bags. My room feels very homey. Possibly partially because my host parents decorated it with pictures of my friends and family. I have a nice view of the back yard, which includes a pool and fruit trees.

Seems about right for a year

These aren't even all of them

The view from my room

Nice set up

After I unpacked, Rodrigo (my host father), Benjamin (my host brother) and I went to the supermarket. I followed them around and chatted as I could as they got what they needed. Today really reminded me of my first day in Ukraine, just over a year ago. On both first days, I went to the local supermarket (both of which are huge). The areas look similar, too. There are huge shopping centers or car dealerships and right next to them could be a lot full of trash or a semi-finished building. Other similarities: Graffiti-covered walls everywhere, concrete telephone poles, stray dogs, and aggressive driving. The walls are interesting. Many of them are made totally or partially out of mud or mud blocks.

Back to the day. It started raining while we were shopping, which is not a frequent occurrence in Santiago. That was around 12:00. It’s 10:00 now, and pouring. There hasn't been any break in the rain. My host family jokes that I brought the rain with me. It was tough to explain that my city is known for flooding. Probably should have saved that one for another day.

We had a little break after shopping, then a “late” lunch. It consisted of Thai chicken and rice and salad. Everything was delicious. For dessert we had something similar to yogurt, but it was slightly sour. It was made of some type of fruit and topped with seeds in a sour sauce. I liked it. Then Benjamin and I watched El Effecto Mariposa (The Butterfly Effect). That’s a weird movie to watch when you can’t quite figure out what’s going on.

Then we went to tour the school. It’s big and nice. I’m nervous. I met a lot of my classmates, and they seemed very excited to meet me. We left the school and headed towards a bakery, when we noticed the car shaking. Chile welcomed me by giving us a bit of an earthquake. That was interesting. The cake is for the family lunch tomorrow, which should be nice.

We then went to mass, which was actually really nice. It would have been nicer if I hadn’t been almost falling asleep. We hurried out of mass and got home at about 8:45, and began to prepare dinner. We had Chilean hotdogs, which are just like American hotdogs but with awesome toppings (ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, papas fritas, avocado, and tomatoes). I ate two. I don’t know if I can ever go back to American hotdogs. That sounds bad, but I will definitely lose weight here. I basically didn’t snack at all. And I think I’m going to play soccer. And mass is quite a leg workout.

I can see this being a problem

I saw 21 stray dogs today. I’m going to sleep so well tonight. More to follow.