Wow. Oh Wow.

Wow is right. That is about all I have to say right now. I am now in Valdivia and have completed my first day of school. Incredible. All the kids are great, both US and Chilean. And dont even get me started on my family here. They are the best! I have and 11 year old brother, Cristobol who has stolen my heart- I am in love. He has the most expressive bright glowing eyes ever and whenver I make a mistake (like every other word) he giggles and is not afraid to correct me. Haha. Its great. Aww, I am sitting here smiling thinking abou him.

About smiling, apparently dimples in Chile are called ¨margaritas¨ as if my blond hair didnt call enough attention and grant me the nick name of ¨rubia¨I also get ¨ohhhhh margaritas!!¨ Oh boy. Its great.

So I´ve decided. The blog is going to be more of funny stories, tid-bits, and things that make me laugh here, while e-mails will be more of the day to day kind of stuff.

So here it goes-

¿who needs to shower? apparently not me or my family because we dont do it too often, and thank god becasue the water is so freaking cold. dear god, how do they do it?

pololo = boyfriend. if you are asked ¿tienes pololo? (do you have a boyfriend?) Yes. The answer is always yes. Trust me, women have asked me and when I responded- No, no tengo pololo. - They asked me to please got meet thier sons. ¡¡¡Que loco!!!

Going out dancing is like going out to a hardcore areobic class. Once you get on the dance floor do not plan on leaving, even if you want to, ha good luck. The group went out to a discoteca the other night and when I triend to leave to get water, go to the bathroom, escape creepy guys the answer was ¨Wait until the next song. Not yet. One more. ¨ Granted this goes on for about 10 more songs until you make a run for it and by then you are covered in sweat so nobody wants to dance with you anyways!

And finally food. Holly hell people eat so much here and ALWAYS clean their plate. And even if you say you are full they keep feeding you more and more. We are going to have to work on this one. I have a run scheduled for this afternoon, I might need to change that to a quick marathon ;)

Ok enough babbling on the blog . . . I miss you all and love you!

And I am so sorry I have not responded to anyone yet. This is my first time on a computer since Santiago! But things are settling down and I forsee way too much internet time in my future.

besos! (kisses)
-Margarita (aka Me!)

I made it to Chile in one piece! After a great break at home, and a tear-filled goodbye at O´hare airport, I made my way to Dallas, and finally Santiago - where I am now!

The flight was not bad at all. I sat next to a very nice man who let me practice my spanish, gave me some pointers, and contact information if I need any help. Later at customs, I was talking to a guy in line next to me who ended up being in the same program! Crazy! Especially since there are so few of us, and I was there early. Anyways, his name is Danny and he is spending his time in Santiago with a friend, Nacho.

All three of us have teamed up. After I had an extremely entertaining taxi ride to my hostel, I rested up, ate some dinner, and then got picked up by Nacho and Danny to go celebrate Nacho´s friends birthday. It was so much fun. All of his friends were so interesting and nice. They put up with my not so wonderful spanish. I can speak just fine to adults, but when I get around kids, they talk sooooo fast and use so much slang, I might as well be trying to understand Chinese.

Today Nacho took us all around Santiago, and then to the bus station where we bought our bus tickets. Currently we are hanging out at Nacho´s apartment. His mother has a bunch of her friends over for a tea party (how cute!!) Tonight our bus takes off at 11pm. I am SO relieved to have someone to ride with. It makes me (and my parents) feel 100 times safer.

Internet and phone acess has been unplanned, so sorry if I have not gotten back to any of you. Tomorrow after things get settled in Valdivia I will begin my routine and be and email/blogging machine!

-katie