¡Estoy en Temuco!

GAH HI. ZOMG i'm in Chile. and it's AMAZING. sooo much has happened since i last posted. i'm not even sure where to begin. well last time i posted i was in chile, correct? oh and sorry about the not capitilizing. this keyboard confuses me and has small buttons haha. i'd hate to generalize the past few days but SO much has happened. like ridiculous amounts of things.

first at the orientation, we sat around a LOT. like too much haha. and first the people going to brazil left. and next is was the people going to paraguay. so the six of us going to chile sat around the pool talking for a very long time. then it was time to leave for the airport. but before we left, we met this nice christian group going to cuba to help do something. they all had southern accents. i liked it haha. then we were escorted to the airport with two AFS volunteers. one of them was named steve. he was my favorite. they had to leave us at security but the six of us stuck together and found our way to the right gate. the plane took off about half an hour late, but it was all good. i got to sit next to my friend erika, who i figured out is a lot like me which was great. i miss her. she's like 20 hours away is Copiapò though.

anyways, i slept for the majority of the plane ride, but definitely not enough. i was sooo tired when we got off. and then we had to find our way to customs and all that jazz. in spanish. that was somewhat stressful with the lack of sleep. also, it was FREEZING. i guess they don't keep the airports heated and we had just been in miami where it was like 90 degrees.

then we found the other AFS (there were about 62 others) and sat around with them for a few hours, waiting for everyone to arrive. we also exchanged money and whatnot. hahah when we walked by all the taxi drivers were like "gringos....muchos gringos".

eventually we all piled into two buses and took a 20 minute bus ride through santiago and ended up at this giant house/retreat. that also wasn't heated. so i had to wear at least two sweatshirts all the time haha.

so we got to just chill for the rest of the day. eat, sleep, shower, mingle, play games. so that was very fun. and the volunteers were all very nice and funny. also, everyone smokes haha. we also all crowded around this little wood stove so we wouldn't freeze to death haha.

oh and i had a roommate name jana huber from switzerland. she didn't really speak english but she was so cute haha. and we had to act out a lot of things. so we went to bed around 9 or 10 and were woken up at 7:30.

for the whole day we had these info sessions about chile and our responsibilities and what to expect. we also found out when we were leaving. however we also had a lot of free time and breaks haha. oh well, i didn't mind. i spent some of my time talking to these girls from norway and finland. they were very nice. it's all very strange though. like us americans have only known each other for a few days but i feel like i've known them for a lot longer. and we all stuck together at the orientation. haha i guess that's a good thing.

anyways, at 7:50 erika and i had to leave for the bus station. haha oh yeah i completely forgot to pack and ended up leaving my shampoo, condition, and lotion at orientation. gosh darn.

so then we had to sit outside at the bus station for a few hours. it wasn't that bad. and the volunteers were really funny. eventually erika had to leave me though :c and then at 11 me, two other girls, and the volunteer got on a bus to Temuco. it was really cool though because the seats turned into beds! haha i was so tired that i slept the entire way.

hahah oh and the bus attendent guy woke me up by shaking my elbow. and then when he came back he didn't think i was awake so he turned the light on and i was all groggy and grumpy and was like "okay, okay, i'm up, i'm up" but he didn't speak english and laughed at me. i thought that was cute though.

and when we got off the bus the girl from italy, martina, her host family came and greeted all of us. which was a kiss on the cheek, which i actually really like. like, you automatically feel accepted. it's the best. and then my host family got lost, but martina's host dad found everyone. haha oh yeah, so my host parents, sisters, and about 4 or 5 cousins came to get me. it was great. i love them all so much.

so then we came home and had breakfast at 8. then we exchanged gifts. they got me the most adorable mug with the family picture on it. then i got to sleep for a few hours cuz i was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo tired.

then we had lunch and went to this national landmark thing at the top of this hill that was overlooking the entire city. it was so so so pretty! i wish i had my camera to take pictures :c

then we went to the mall to shop for food and looked around. next we got home and i took a shower which starting was an adventure and a half haha. next we had dinner and talked a lot. it's so nice here. i can't explain how amazing the past few days have been.

and i've spent a lot of time writing this and my head hurts from all the spanish haha.

¡besos!