Mi primera semana en CHILE
Okay, I wrote this a few days ago... Monday I think. I don´t know what it says... Oh yeah, I have pictures posted now. Go to fastalbum.com/michellephillips to see them.
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Hola amigos! It’s been AWHILE… well, maybe not actually, but it feels like ages for me. I hope all is going well with you all. I already sent an email to a few people, but it was really short and uninformative because I had about zero time and I was using a slow computer with an annoying keyboard (it had a bunch of extra, Spanish keys). Right now I’m actually writing this in Word on my laptop. We don’t have the internet yet at my house, but I thought since I had some time for once I should use it. I’ll transfer it over to livejournal later, probably via my good old flash drive. Annnyway… enough of the intro crap, I guess I’ll tell y’all about everything.
So far, Chile is GREAT. It’s SUPER lindo (everyone here says “super” ALL the time, so it’s my new favorite word). But yes, I really like it. The city is really pretty and cute. Although Valdivia is supposed to be super rainy, it has been sunny everyday so far. I’m crossing my dedos hard core that that’ll keep up (unlikely). I took advantage of the sun, though, by taking a bunch of pictures. Ahhh there’s so much to write about, I will try to be as organized as possible…
My delayed flight:
My Chilean adventure started out a bit on the stressful side. I flew Detroit to Atlanta to Santiago to Valdivia. I only had an hour layover in Altlanta, and of COURSE my Detroit to Atlanta flight was delayed 40 minutes, leaving me literally 20 min to get across the airport to my overnight, international flight. YIKES. I spent the entire Detroit to Atlanta flight completely smushed in a middle seat trying to distract myself from the fact that I might have to stay over night in Atlanta without luggage. Once my stupid plane finished stupid taxying I had to stupid run to my stupid gate (probably about 400 meters). I was panting when I arrived there, they thought I was crazy. But then I got on the plane (and somehow my luggage did, too) and from there everything all was fine. I guess the US just didn’t want me to leave. Aw.
Santiago flight:
Once I actually got ON the flight it was good. The plane was less than half full, so I got my own two seats near the back. I slept in-and-out while also watching Harry Potter, The Family Stone, and eating dinner with a chocolate brownie (yum). When I woke up it was a beautiful, sunny morning and the coast of Chile was beneath me. I got some really nice pictures from the plane. I actually liked the plane ride a lot. It was a very strange feeling to be flying by myself to a foreign land where I didn’t know anyone, but it definitely was a good feeling. You all should try it sometime…
Santiago and on:
I got off the plane, went through customs, and met up with another girl from the trip. We spent quite a bit of time talking seeing as how we had a looooong layover. Turns out she’s super nice, although she’s unlike everyone else in our group because she is 25 and married, she doesn’t hang out with us much. Six of us arrived in Valdivia together, around 5pm, and we all got dropped off at our houses... THAT was kind of nerve racking, good thing I wasn’t the first dropped off. Haha.
My family:
Now begins the actually interesting stuff. My family is SO cute. I live with my Mom (Yoly), Dad (Pato), and their 25 year old daughter (although she is moving out in a week to go to school). My Mom and Dad are super nice. They keep telling me that their house is my house and I can eat whatever I want, hang out where ever I want, and talk to them whenever I want, etc. They are both very outgoing, which is good because they keep me talking. I feel like such a member of their family; I have already met their other daughter, her pololo (boyfriend), Yoly’s sister and family, Yoly’s mother, and I think a brother of Pato’s. And I’m pretty sure we’re going to have almuerzo (more or less lunch) with Pato’s mother this weekend.
My house is really nice. I have my own room with a big, purple bed and TV AND (the most important) I have my own bathroom. Me gusta mucho. The rest of the house seems really nice, too, although it’s difficult to tell at the moment because they are renovating, so the living room and dining room are torn up and there is furniture and things everywhere in the kitchen and the hallways. Yoly has apologized to me a million times because I guess they were supposed to be done before I came and they went overtime (something very common in Chile). Mis padres keep insisting that I bring my friends over to hang out, but they said I have to wait til after the house is done. Apparently it’ll all be done this Wednesday, though, and then we will have internet and normal phone usage and everything. Yea!
Our maid:
It’s not uncommon for families in Chile to have a maid. She works here in the house Mon-Sat from 8-5, or something like that. When they were telling me about it I almost didn’t believe them, but it’s true. I really am living the good life here; the maid knocks on my door in the morning and brings me breakfast while I’m getting ready, then she washes and folds my clothes for me and cleans my room, makes my bed, etc. It’s pretty sweet. And she’s really nice. My parents should look into it. I don’t know how long it’s been since my underwear have been folded for me and left in a neat pile on my bed.
The food:
The food here is really fresh, therefore really good. For breakfast I usually have bread with jelly and fruit, sometimes even a café con leche (yes, it’s actually pretty good). Almuerzo (lunch) is the most important meal of the day. Pretty much everyone, including students, comes home at 1pmish to eat almuerzo with their family. My family’s almuerzos have been a little messed up because of the renovations at our house (we can’t eat at home) so I haven’t yet experienced a true, normal almuerzo (we have mainly gone to restaurants or my grandma´s, mmm). Because almuerzo usually includes a lot of food, once (dinner) is generally like lunch in the US. I usually have bread with avocado, tomato, turkey/ham/tuna, and some sort of chile/garlic stuff. It’s yummy. I’m beginning to LOVE avocado. And pinapple juice.
Ohhh crap. That´s where I left off writing on my laptop. Now it´s back to me typing in real time. A little has changed since then, but not much. My house is done. It´s actually super nice in the living and dining rooms, they look just like nice rooms in America. We have three littlish dogs, one cuuuuute black one and two super puffy, poodley white ones. One of the white ones peed on my bed yesterday. That was dumb. My Mom told me that she´s never done that before. Yeah right. Haha. But the dogs are growing acostumed to me and starting to bark less and let me pet them. Mimi even sleeps on my bed sometimes.
I live about 25 minutes from school and I have to walk there and back usually 2 times a day (because of almuerzo). I don´t mind, though. It´s really pretty and at least I´m close enough to walk. Sometimes my Dad drives me. The earliest I have class is 9:50am and we don´t have classes on Fridays. It´s actually a really easy schedule. Classes seem to be the normal load of work, although it´s a tiny bit harder because some of the profs are difficult to understand. We only have classes with grigos, though, so that´s good.
The other gringos on the trip with me are generally really cool, even though there are so few of us. There are a couple guys who live by me who I usually walk with to school and what not. We have gone out together twice now and had a lot of fun. They are all into traveling around and hanging out and stuff, so I forsee many fun times ahead of us. I´m so excited that I get to be here for 3 more months or whatever.
One of the major awesome things about being here is that the Chilenos seem to actually LIKE gringos. They are super cool. They actually came with us both times we went out and we had a lot of fun. Yesterday night we went to a kareoke bar and although no one sang up there alone, we sang Piano Man as a group at our table when it randomly came on (such gringos we are, haha). The chilenos also have a discussion group going with us on Wednesday in which we hang out and just talk about our experiences and stuff. Yeah, just generally they are so nice.
There is an English prof here who is probably 25 and was part of our program a few years ago and then came back here to teach. Today she invited us to her 2nd year English class and it was sooo much fun. Actually only three of us went, but we got to talk in front of the class (in ENGLISH) and listen to their grammar lessons and listening excercises. They were SUPER corny. Haha. All the students were soo excited to meet us though. Me gustó mucho.
Yeah, outside of the gringos I speak Spanish (slowly and stupidly) all the time. My family only speaks Spanish and all of our Chileno friends make us when we are speaking with them. It´s kind of fun but it gets a big annoying sometimes. I´m pretty good at understanding them speak, although it´s much harder when they are just talking amongst themselves. Chileans are notorious throughout the Spanish speaking world for speaking really quickly and dropping (they say eating, haha) their s´s. It´s taking some time to get used to, however, I can feel myself improving, if only the slighest bit.
Bah, I´m super pissed because tomorrow most of us have to get up and go to the centro at 8am to do some stuff with our visas. Talk about LAME. I´ll have to take a big siesta tomorrow. And fix my cell phone. I got one for only 40 bucks with minutes and stuff, however, for some reason I can´t receive calls. Also LAME. Yeah, so I guess I´m outtie. I´ll try and update this thing more often now that I have internet at home. PAZ amigos.