Estoy en Chile!!

As I write this from my Tia’s high-rise apartment in Santiago, I am struck by how much has happened in the last 72 hours. I’ve travelled continents, made best friends, met a new family, and been to two major cities! On Friday, my family and I travelled down to the Fort Wayne airport for my first flight. After eating, having to rearrange the luggage (a weight issue) and ripping my pants, I departed for Dallas/Fort Worth. After a cramped flight next to a grumpy old man who wouldn’t let me open the window (his eyes were too sensitive for the light), I touched down. There, I met up with two outbounds to Chile from Oregon: Ellie and Margie.

After eating a quick meal, we prepared for our flight, which departed at 9:50pm. We boarded the plane, and everything was going smoothly when it was announced that we needed to switch planes due to technical difficulties. This resulted in a three hour delay, and we finally took off in a new plane at around 12:30am. The flight was around nine and a half hours to Santiago, but I managed to sleep through about seven hours of it!  We arrived in Santiago at about 11:30am (we were the last students to arrive), and from there departed to an orientation in Vina del Mar. The bus ride was a showcase how beautiful and rugged the scenes are. Once we arrived in Vina and Valparaiso, we stayed at a hotel for about three days, during which Rotary officials gave us a crash course in Chilean customs, what to expect, and the rules of Rotary, and other information. It was a bonding experience for the students and it was amazing to experience so many different cultures at one time! One thing that was especially amazing to me is how well all the europeans could speak english! I roomed with a Finn named Pepe (Peik, we had some awesome jam sessions on the guitar) , and a Swiss named Alex, both of which were fluent in english. In fact all of the europeans, to varying degree, could communicate efficiently in english!  To me it showed how little we emphasize learning universal languages in the US– but moving on we toured Vina, and ate at various restaurants. Which brings me to the food!!!! Chilean food is the best food ever.. All countries should eat like them!! First of all they have five meals! (My mama was so surprised when she heard we only eat three!) Second, they eat everything with palta (avocado). And the bread is amazing. I could (and probably will) have a whole post about it! The final day in Vina, Rotary took us to the PDI office (policia departmente de investigacione) to get our visas legalized. After that we were bused over to la oficina de Gobierno de Chile, which is like the chilean version of the DMV. There we had to wait almost three hours, but were able to apply for our Chilean ID cards. 

After that we returned to the hotel, had lunch, and the contingency of students going north travelled back to Santiago to catch their flights. I planned ahead to stay with my host family in Santiago for a week. I met up with my host family at the airport, and we went back to my tia’s apartment overlooking Santiago. There, we ate dinner, I understood like 8% of what was said, and I handed out the gifts I brought from home! An entire day has passed since then, including Isidora, my host sister, leaving for Germany, but I’m so tired I won’t put it in this post. Now vemos!!