Día 1

no quiero hablar en inglés porque será mas dificil hablar en español después, y ya tengo bastantes problemas... pero para ustedes... I'm willing to do some english writing while the thoughts and memories are fresh.

I left from Pittsburgh friday at 5 PM, then, after a 3 hour layover and 1 hour delay in Atlanta, headed off to Santiago. There were 19 kids headed to Chile from the US on my flight, and I was fortunate enough to be sitting between Sara and Liz. We had a grand ole time, although that meant that there was less time for trying to sleep. Not that we didn't-- we just weren't very successful. So, after arriving and going through customs with minimal complications, we all walked out the door and met our host families who were waiting for us. My host parents were there-- Adriano Donoso and Ximena Azocar. Some quick group pictures, then we were off for Curicó, a 2 hour drive. At first I, was just so excited to be seeing the landscape that I was wide awake. The landscape feels raw with foothills of the Andes popping up sporadically out of the flat grassland, looking more like mountains then pretty much any of the Appalachians do. Even though it is fairly cold here (it is witer afterall), palm trees are everywhere, which surprised me. Anyway, I slept for about half the ride, and then arrived at the Donoso/Azocar house

. It's gorgeous. Really.

Lots of stone, and even a pretty gate.

My room is also very nice, and comes with a cozy bed, a good sized closet, it's own bathroom, and a substantial window with curtains that actually block the light (unlike my shades at home). At the house I met the younger brother Adriano, and the two older sisters, Ximena and Cami. The sisters are both living in Santiago, but are home for a little bit. I spent some time talking with them and they're both very nice. Adriano the dad and Adriano the son took me on a tour of the town. There are a lot of nice places to walk around, and there are a lot more people walking around then there ever are in Morgantown. It didn't take long to feel that the city is almost twice is big.

Well, I think I start school on monday, though if I understand correctly that depends on whether or not I get a uniform today, which looks doubtful. It'll be nice to go to school though because the one thing I think I may have underestimated about this experience is how much normal, somewhat boring life there is between all of the excitement of new things and adventures. It'll be nice to meet other kids and have friends to combat the monotony. It's been pretty nice overall, and I think I'm really realizing what it means that this will be my life every day for the next 11 months or so.