Si poh

Hello! I realize that I promised many people that I would write a blog while on study abroad, and have failed to actually do so, so here goes. I've been in Chile for a week now, after arriving on an overnight flight on the 14th. My flight arrived around 7:30am, which was fortunate because many flights from the US were delayed or canceled due to bad thunderstorms. The airport in Santiago is one of the buildings that suffered the most damage during the earthquake, leaving it very drafty and poorly insulated. Waiting in the airport for 4 hours for other students to arrive was my first introduction to the heating (or lack thereof) in Chile, as it is extremely rare for houses to have central heating. (The key to staying warm includes lots of blankets, tea, and long underwear.)
After waiting there we finally got onto a bus, which drove us into downtown Santiago, about 20 minutes away. It is so incredible driving from the outskirts towards the mountains: there are cardboard houses all along the river, which turn into high rises, which turn into a nice downtown area.

The first few days we did orientation/getting to know the city sorts of activities. We did a scavenger hunt throughout the city, in which we had to take pictures of ordinary objects, but those that had Chilean names. To do this we had to ask strangers on the street what simple words meant (super gringo) and then find them. One of my favorite things about being here--although also the hardest thing to learn--are all of the chilenismos, or specifically chilean words. Chileans have a vocabulary that is very specific to this country, not spoken anywhere else. For example, cars are autos not coches/carros, parties are carretes not fiestas, and baby is guagua not bebe. Also, Chileans drop the ending "s" on words, and other letters between vowels (encargado turns into encarga'o). Todo muy bakan (cool)!

Bueno, I am living in a wonderful homestay! There are about 35 kids in CIEE, and we are all in houses spread out around Santiago. My host family lives in Santiago Central, which is in an awesome location (just as it sounds). I can walk to la Universidad Diego Portales, and there are two metro stops each only a 4 block walk from my apartment. Besides the wonderful location, I live with an amazing family! Hector and Andrea (the parents) have a 2 year old son, Renato, and just had a baby 9 days ago, named Leonor, and la abuela lives here too. Renato is so adorable--he loves the movie Cars and plays with his toy cars ALL day (he calls the movie carSH. so cute.).

Right now I'm in a class with CIEE, called chile contemporanea, which is basically a crash course to chilean everything--literature, history, politics, human rights, language, etc.

Aah my fingers are freezing--I have a limit of about 15 minutes typing time before I have to warm my hand up again. Anyway, I love Santiago, it's an absolutely wonderful city, with people and noise and life everywhere. Definitely a good start to this year. I'll fill in more later!