El Comienzo

I’m here! It’s been one day and I have no idea where to even begin.  The voyage was long, but fairly, fortunately, uneventful (besides a few customs mishaps [apparently I’m a pretty suspicious person] and a lady on our flight od-ing on sleeping pills, causing the EMTs to rush on right before taking off). We flew through the night and arrived in Viña del Mar right before 1:00 when our host families were supposed to meet us and bring us home.  Turns out Chileans have a very relaxed sense of time so when we arrived, there were only two host parents there for the group of 21.  Luckily my madre, Valeria, was one of them.  She is a 57-year old divorced woman with a 22 year-old daughter,Paula, who lives with her and goes to an cosmetology institute in Viña, and a 26 year-old son Felipe, a civil engineer that lives in Santiago.  I was beyond nervous about meeting my family.  I only found out who they were a few days ago and knew barely anything about this family that I was going to be living with for the next 4 months.  Luckily, it turns out I couldn’t have asked for a nicer, more caring, mother.  She already calls me her “hijita” and dotes on me to no end.  The only downfall is that she tries to feed me copious amounts of food at every opportunity possible, and I haven’t mustered up the courage to deny her yet.  It is 3:00 and I have already eaten far more food than I do in a typical day, and I hear her clinking around in the kitchen as I speak…I seriously hope she isn’t preparing another meal.  But it’s totally possible because their meal schedule is very different than ours, and I haven’t really gotten it down yet. 

I’m living in an apartment that is probably the size of the living room and dining room at my house in Monte.  The kitchen is the size of my closet, and there are two bedrooms—I get one and Valeria and Paula share a bed in the other one.  I can’t help but feel like I’m cramping their style a little bit, especially when Paula’s boyfriend came over last night and ended up sleeping on two chairs shoved together because Paula shares a bed with her mom… But, they are so welcoming and gracious and make me feel very at home.  They were enthralled by the Montevideo book and pictures I brought.  They kept saying it all looked just like it does in the movies.  When I showed them a picture of my house they were shocked that there was no “protección” or fence around it.  Neither of them speak any English, but they are very used to having Americans in their home.  I am the 13^th “gringa” that Valeria has hosted throughout the years!

Viña is a stunningly beautiful place.  It’s a town of about 300,000 right on the coast of the Pacific Ocean.  The beach, the biggest casino in Chile, and countless discotecas are a 5 minute walk from my apartment.  The university that I’m attending is on top of a huge hill and looks out over Viña, Valaparaiso (the neighboring city) and the ocean.  It’s such a breathtaking view.  I have the weekend to relax and settle in before I start classes there on Tuesday.  I’m very excited!

I could keep writing for pages and pages on all the crazy and new and interesting and mind-opening observations I’ve made and experiences I’ve had but none of us probably have the time or energy for all that J I miss you all back home! Adios!