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