The Greatest Journey Has Begun-Living Like a Chilean

Today has been a lot better than yesterday, both because I learned more about how to navigate here in Santiago and I met mi mama anfitriona, Gloria (see picture to the left)! Before I start talking about my familia, I want to talk a little about how this experience has been so far. It is definitely a difficult task to try to comprehend the in's and out's of a large city like Santiago all while trying to understand what people are saying to you. Chilean spanish is not at all like the Spanish I have learned in the classroom. For example, Chileans have many slang words they use, drop all s's from words, talk very very very fast, and pronounce t's like ch. Overall, when I try talking to someone in a store or on the street all I hear are mumbles. What makes it worse is that it seems other people in my program can understand everyone very easily (but most of them have taken spanish since middle-school . Anyways, even though understanding is very difficult, I feel like if I achieve my goal of improving my comprehension, listening and speaking skills in Spanish here in Santiago, it will be a piece of cake understanding Spanish in other countries. Apparently Chileans have one of the thickest accents of all Spanish speaking countries in the world, so I will be pretty proud if I learn to comprehend those around me. 

Now to talk about the early portion of my day. This morning we all ate breakfast at nine and headed out to a classroom at one of the universities we will be studying at. There we had another orientation session which included learning more about how to move around Santiago, how to avoid disasters (stolen money, dangerous walks, etc.) and popular Chilean slang words. Probably the best part of the whole orientation is visualized in the picture below which contains a transit map of Santiago, a guid book to the program and safety in the city, and a CIEE personal bag (which I already got dirty...). Last but not least, the coordinators of the program gave each of us letters from our respective host families. I posted an image below of the letter so you can see how my host mother organized it. Getting the letter really got me excited because I now knew something about my mysterious family and learned that most of the members are scientists! You can tell that Gloria, my host mom, really put time into the letter and is passionate about having a host daughter in her house.

Around 5:00 PM, Gloria arrived at the hotel to pick me up and show me my new home. In the taxi we talked about what I am excited about, questions I may have, and my goals for this trip abroad. She is a very sweet lady and treats me like I am already a daughter of hers. One of her actual daughters lives in the house but works late most nights. Below are some pictures of the house, starting with the living room and then showing my bedroom.

I really enjoy how my bedroom is pink...and I have a large space to study and relax! It is a very calming room as well. Sometimes though it gets loud because we leave the windows open for fresh air (a common thing chileans do). Overall I like the apartment a lot. I also love the providence it is located in-ñuñoa-which is an area full of trees, a park right outside my window, a very large and very fancy shopping mall, and a vibrant/distinct lifestyle different from downtown. I will not mind spending most of my time studying outside in the park and watching life around me. The point of this trip is to experience and learn all that Santiago, or Chile overall, has to offer me, therefor I want to try to keep an open-mind and enjoy all that has been provided for me here by my host mother, the program, and Santiago's eclectic atmosphere.

 Of course I cannot forget Bicho the cat! Who apparently might cuddle with me in my sleep...have I mentioned cats kind of freak me out?