My New Chilean Life

Throughout my few days here so far, I've noticed that Americans are incredibly spoiled. We take advantage of the simple things like air conditioning, heat, dryers, and much more. I can already tell coming to Chile has and will continue to change my perception on things.

Yesterday I got to meet my aunt and my second sister, Javiera. Javiera is 20 years old and goes to the same school as me. I honestly feel so blessed that my family is so wonderful and welcoming. I know I told people before coming to Chile that one of my biggest worries was that people weren't going to find me funny in Spanish. That's not the case though. I literally made my mom cry and her sister laugh so hard because they couldn't understand my broken Spanish.

Thus far, these are the "bad" things so far:

• I can't watch my TV shows here. You have to be in the US to watch the shows online. Goodbye TV world for 6 months.
• I can't find my favorite face wash anywhere :(
• My program leader was semi unorganized. I kinda forcefully yelled at someone about my frustrations and later that day, things got better :) 

Clearly you can see that nothing is actually bad and I'm just a little dramatic, per usual.

Here are my random thoughts about Chile thus far:

• My family is beyond wonderful. My first day of orientation, my mom gave me 500 pesos to take the bus to school. She also leaves out breakfast for me in the morning. (Apparently this is only in the beginning). She likes to take care of me :) 
• I can officially take the bus to and from school alone!
• I accidentally asked the lady at the pharmacy for a face wash with butter instead of makeup. WHOOPS. In my defense, the words are kinda close....
• The buses here are SCARY. They drive so fast, you have to hold on for your life. They start moving before the doors are even closed and before you even pay. 
• The language has been very tough here for me. Chilean Spanish is much different than the Spanish I've learned my whole life. They speak incredibly fast, they shorten their words, and have so much slang. It's going to take me some time to get used to it. I think in about a month, I'll be fine.
• My host mom literally doesn't let me help. I keep telling her I'm not lazy and that at home I do the dishes, do my own laundry (along with everyone else's usually) and I can clean. The other day when she was dealing with a repairman in the other room, I sneakily washed all the dishes and put them away so she wouldn't have to. 
• Picking my classes have been a little frustrating. I need specific classes so I can stay on track with my studies. It seems so far that I will be taking three classes with Chilean students (SCARY) and one English Spanish class where I'll learn about conversation and culture. I'm actually excited to start classes though because it will give me a chance to interact with the Chilean students.

I'll try to have some pictures soon. Everyone tells me not to whip out my expensive electronics so I'm almost afraid to take pictures!

That's all for now!

Goodbye USA, Hello Chile

WHERE TO START?!

Getting ready for Chile was probably one of the most stressful and annoying things to do. Getting my VISA was a serious pain in my ass. I do have to say though, everything that I've done thus far to get me here has been 100% worth it.

My flights to Chile were surprisingly awesome. I met two really awesome guys, one on each flight. On my first flight this gentleman and I talked about life and he bought me drinks.On my second flight, I sat next to a sorta celebrity. He plays in a band for Romeo Santos, the lead singer of Aventura.

I knew that after my long flight and meeting these great people, it had set the mood for my adventure of a lifetime.  After sitting around the airport in Santiago, Chile for a few hour waiting for the other people on my trip then traveling for about an hour (not exactly sure how long it was cause I slept), I finally made it to Valparaiso to meet my wonderful host mom, Gilda.

At first I had an overwhelming feeling, I had gotten the tears of excitement and nervousness out and I was good to go. My mom drove me around the city so I could familiarize myself with it. Here are the main things I've observed about Chile so far:

• The roads are bumpy as hell
• Everyone talks to damn fast, I can barely understand. They also use a lot of slang and shorten words.
• The city looks like it will be a lot of fun. There are lots of different bars and dance clubs.
• There is a lot of graffiti everywhere.

Now I am hanging out with my new sister, Carolina and her friends. I'm attempting to understand them, it's almost impossible.

I'll have more for you guys later though, don't you worry!

ADIOS!

DISCLAIMER: I'm lazy and hate to reread. I'm going to apologize a head of time for any grammar or spelling mistakes. I'll try to clean it up for you though!