Saludo desde Chile!

Here I am, safe and sound in Santiago. Sorry I've been incommunicada, but I actually had no way to communicate. The family I'm staying with has wireless internet but the connection was broken this weekend. They only just got it fixed today and I have been DYING (judge me as you will, but it's scary to be unable to contact anyone in a foreign country).
The trip has gone pretty well so far, although it hasn’t been very long. The plane ride was long (9.5 hours) but not too bad. Each seat had its own touch screen so you could pick what movies or TV shows you wanted to watch. I watched The Duchess (good but sad and too long) and a couple episodes of Friends. There was also a map that showed where the plane was. I got a breathtaking view of the Andes as we flew over Chile.
In classic Kelsey style, when I emerged from customs I walked right past the people holding the sign for me and proceeded to wander around the airport for about 10 minutes before someone helped me find them. Of course, they hadn’t recognized me because of the hair. María and Nelson are my host parents and they are incredibly nice. And patient—my Spanish is rustier than I thought. It’s coming back to me quickly, but as soon as I got some alone time I grabbed my dictionary and looked up words I had trouble with.
I’m living in Las Condes, one of the more moneyed neighborhoods of Santiago. The house I’m staying in is nicer than the one in Memphis. Nelson is an architect so they are pretty well off. There is a lovely garden with a bunch of trees, a small rock fountain, and a hammock. Excellent. Two of their children, María José and Nelsito, will be staying here when school starts but for the next week or so it is just me. I have my own bedroom and bathroom. The shower curtain says “laundry” in English in a bunch of different fonts. Haven’t figured that one out yet.
The first thing María told me when I arrived was that I needed sunscreen. Apparently the ozone layer above Chile is patchy so I’ll need to wear it whenever I’m outside. I also had (read: got to) go to the largest mall in Santiago right off the bat since I forgot a crucial part of my wardrobe.
María and I also went to the bodega down the street to buy lunch. She gets all her produce fresh, I love it. When we first got to the house she offered me fruit juice and promptly filled the blender with strawberries. The eating schedule is: sleep in, late breakfast, large lunch at 2:30 or 3, and bread with spreads such as peanut butter (!)(I don’t even care that it’s crunchy)(it turns out crunchy isn’t so bad) for dinner at 9:30ish. Ironically, this was exactly my eating schedule for the past 6 weeks while I was working at Bola Pasta, so it’s not much of an adjustment. María says peanut butter is very expensive but she loves it so much that she buys it anyway. I think we will get along. As a thanks-for-letting-me-live-with-you-for-four-months gift I bought them an Elvis CD. I was unsure if it would be enough but Nelson loves it, he’s a huge Elvis fan (props to Mom on that one).
Orientation started today. It wasn't anything too exciting, but it was nice to see people I know and SPEAK ENGLISH. I had my first empanada today, fue muy rica (en Chile they say "rico" instead of "delicioso." and they do say "piscina."). Orientation continues for the next two weeks with some vague "activities" listed on the schedule. Should be interesting. I'm also probably going to Viña this weekend to see my boo. Sorry about the length of this one. More about culture, etc. later. Ciao!

Pre-Departure

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog! Here I will be chronicling my international adventures during my semester abroad in Santiago, Chile. I am living with a host family and taking classes at Universidad Diego Portales. I will hopefully also have an internship, but I won't be applying for that until I get there. I am leaving Feb. 19 and coming back June 24. In between, AU's program has trips planned for Easter Island, Torres del Paine in Patagonia, and the Atacama Desert. I also plan to go to the beach and visit Amanda at Viña del Mar and possibly make it over to Buenos Aires to see Jenelle (and tango!). And, of course, I will be exploring Santiago with Dania and the other AU people I meet on the trip.

I'll be posting pictures, of course, and I got one of those little Flip video cameras for Christmas so I'll probably post some short videos too. My host family has internet at their house (at least, I think that's what they said) so I won't be unavailable. My email address is kp61692@student.american.edu; AIM screenname is theKeltzreigns; and my Skype address is kelsey.poole. Hopefully I will have the webcam figured out by the time I get there. I will not have my phone so please don't try and call or text it. I'd prefer not to have 800 texts waiting for me when I get home.

Just a few thoughts before I end the post. I'm excited but I'm also pretty nervous because my Spanish skills are very rusty. I'm sure I'll make a fool of myself for my host family in the first five minutes. As some of you know, I'm pretty anti-seafood but I will have to deal with it while I'm there because that is mostly what they eat. I've heard the Chilean nightlife is pretty fun so I'm looking forward to that. Also, I was very surprised by the number of people here in the States who asked me what language they speak in Chile. The manager at Bola Pasta asked me to bring him a monkey.

I guess that's it. Next post will be from Santiago! ¡Hurra!