Adios Santiago

Hey y`all,

I haven´t had a working computer to upload any pictures yet, but I have loads of good ones. For some reason my laptop will not connect here at the hostel. I´m kind of beat down right now because we have had class everyday for the last few days and we party every night. There are a lot of English speaking people here from all over the states, europe and canada at the hostel so it is a lot of fun.

Tonight is the last night in the hostel. Tomorrow I go meet my host family in a town an hour or so north of Santiago called San Felipe. You can look it up on maps.google.com...click on the ´satelitte´ view. It is a farming community where they grow a lot of Avacados. I´m a little nervous about the language barrier because my host family do not speak any english and my spanish sucks! I´m sure I will learn fast. It is a single mother and a son of age 14. She is a teacher in my school which is about a 20 minute bus ride away. San Felipe has about 70K people. It will be good fun. There will be one other volunteer from Texas in my town.

I´ve been hanging out with a guy from Ireland named Niall all week who is on an ´`around the world` trip. He is my age and we´ve had a good time exploring the city together.

When the smog isn´t too bad the mountains surrounding the city are really beautiful. There is so much going on here politically and socially. This country was under military dictatorship for almost 20 years. Just 4 years ago divorce became legal. It is an interesting time in Chile. People seem to be really excited and interested to have us here, especially the host families and teachers. You can just tell they are super interested in how we speak. There are a ton of different meanings to words and slang. For example, one woman called the sprinkles at the ice cream at lunch ``jimmies`` so a conversation proceeded about what ``jimmies´´ are in our language.

I´ve been surprised at how organized this program is. The logistics of the whole thing has been pretty smooth. There is a fuzzball table here at the hostel that has been a lot of fun as well. I also bought a ´bamboo saxiphone` for like 10 bucks that has been fun for everyone. You all will hear it I´m sure if it makes it back to the states. The wine here is delicious. For a 5 or 6 dollar bottle you can get the best wine you will ever have. Tres Medallion 120 Cabernet is a good one if you can get it in the states. Another is something, something Diablo.

There are so many little differences between the cultures and the´`things` from the plugs in the wall to the tiny urnals and how everyone kisses for a greeting, but male and male still shake hands. People eat dinner at 8:30.

I´ve got to go and pack now and get ready for the trip tomorrow.