Lima, Santiago, y acá

...acá = here and they use it loads in Chile...

So, I arrived in Lima, Peru around midnight and after waiting on my plane which was connecting to Santiago, was told that I was on another plane leaving for Santiago. By the time I got to that one it had left because we had arrived a bit late anyways. The two others leaving for Santiago were already full (of course). LAN (the airline) gave me a hotel room for the night. It was a Ramada connected to the airport and way nicer than the ones in the US. However, I was the only person besides staff that I saw the entire time (2am to 6am, so not that weird, but still...).

I got to Santiago late but safe, hopped on a shared shuttle deal, and after a minor crash arrived at the Hotel Torremayor and met up with the group. The driver was getting irritated with a backpacker from New Zealand who didn't know which hostel he was going to so he turned around to swear at him and ask him to find an address in the book because there are many hostels in Santiago. But we were rolling and drifted to the side...and smashed into one of the cement cylinders lining the side of the street. Pobrecitos...tourist and irritated driver both. He just looked at it and got back into the car. Luckily, I was able to translate enough so that we eventually found a hostel with an address.

While in Santiago we went to La chascona, one of Pablo Neruda's houses, La moneda (the main government building), and I got to see Hannah! La chascona was so cool! Neruda (born Naftali Reyes(?) Basoalto...who knew?) used it as a secret spot to be with his lover, Matilda Urrutia, who later became his third wife, and for his dinner parties/meetings with special people. They told us that chascón is a quechua word that means messy-haired, so the house was named after the curly-haired Matilda. There are all kinds of neat things in it. It has great views and is kind of like a ship, with windy staircases, portholes, a mess-like dining room, etc. We couldn't take pictures in most places and I don't have any of Hannah and me, but I do have some:

view from one balcony of La chascona

from one of the courtyards to the circular balcony. The courtyard above had a humongous grapevine with loads of fake-looking, delicious grapes.

La moneda

a government building (I've already forgotten which one/the importance) and some government dudes to the left of La moneda

Por fin...

I´ve finally arrived in Valparaíso/Viña del Mar! We got here yesterday afternoon, had lunch and some presentation/discussion time during which it was really hard to focus because everyone was so nervous about meeting their host families...and finally, they came to pick us up. My family is really nice; there´s a single mom named Marcela or Marce which was the name of my last host mom :), Valeska (25, finishing her thesis for a degree in psychology), Macarena (22, going to university, but I´m not sure where), and Pamela (16, loves music and is a bit quiet but also really nice). Right now there´s also a cousin and his friend visiting (Enzo and Marceal, but I´m still not sure which is which) from the Andes.

They´ve had host students before and I think they were as relieved as I was after talking for a bit. I think we´ll get along really well. I was glad that I had photos of Russell and Donovan because they were a great ice breaker and helped me explain that everyone in my family eats meat, I love seafood and am actually not that picky when they were wondering what type of vegetarian I am. The mom (Marce) embroiders beautiful, beautiful scenes that are hung around the house and Valeska paints so the photo book of Kauai that I brought was a lucky pick -- she said she´d probably end up using the photos for another piece. They have an adorable dog named Ino who is white and fluffy but not one of those irritating kick-dogs the size of a football that never shut up. He´s the regalón of the family (spoiled) and isn´t allowed in my room because he walks on the windowsill and they´re afraid he´ll break the window and fall all the way down.

I´m in the CIEE office in Viña and I think we have to go soon; we´re doing a practical tour of Viña and Valpo today then taking a language placement test. More on where I live, the journey here and PICTURES in a bit...

I'm studying abroad!

...almost. There are 17 days until I leave for Chile! I'll be studying at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in (guess where...) Valparaíso for five months. This will be my blog while I'm abroad so that y'all can see what I'm doing and I don't have to feel bad about not sending out regular detailed emails. Writing about my daily life for anyone in the world to read kind of weirds me out but I guess in this case it's useful :P

As for now, I'm reading, practicing my Spanish, praying for the rain to stop, and killing time until I leave. I'll be in San Pedro and Santa Barbara, CA from the 17th to the 24th visiting family and my two fabulous friends. Then I'm off!

Kyle and Sarah, the gals I'll be visiting in California.