First Days in Chile

Wow! So much to write about it's hard to find a place to start. This is going to be a long post.

Wednesday, Septiembre 9

 Traveling to Chile wasn't bad at all. It was about a 3 hour flight to Dallas, then a 9 hour flight to Santiago. From Santiago we took a bus to Chillan, and that was 5 hours. I can sleep anywhere, so I got plenty of it on the plane and the bus. When I wasn't sleeping I listened to music or read or wrote in my journal. Not a bad way to spend 24 hours.

We arrived in Chillan around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and the families that everyone is staying with were there to greet us. One family had a sign for their student (Ryan), and the kids were jumping up and down with excitement. I was one of the first people to get off the bus, but I didn't see my family. A women approached me and asked if my name was David, so of course I told her "no", but I knew who David was so I pointed him out to her. He was in the back of the bus so it took him a minute to get out. While she was waiting for him, she told me that she hosted a student last year and that he taught their family how to play beer bong. Truly a game that transcends all cultures.

I saw my mom a few seconds later and introduced myself. Women greet each other and men with a hug and a single kiss on the cheek, so we embraced for several moments. Her name is Whildy. I then shook hands with my father, Juan Carlos. And just like that, I had a Chilean family. We packed my stuff into their car, along with my friend Casi's things. Her host-mom had to take her daughter to the airport that day, so Casi was going to be with my family until her mom got back that night.

Having Casi with me turned out to be a huge blessing. Not only was it easier to be with someone I already knew, but we were also able to help each other understand and speak in Spanish.

The language-switch has definitely been the most interesting and difficult part of the trip. At first I was able to communicate better than I thought I would be able to. That feeling disappeared after 5 hours and I'd exhausted almost everything I knew about Spanish. I spent some time writing down new words in my journal that night. But that was when I had that first "what-have-I-gotten-myself-into?" moment.

Thursday, Septiembre 10

Our group met at the Universidad del Bio Bio at 11am, and Florencia (the leader of the program) introduced us to our instructors and to the program. After this introduction we met our tutors for the first time. They were all just as excited to meet us as our families had been. My tutor, Ximena, was late to the meeting, but I bumped in to her as I was walking around campus. Her friend, Elisa, recognized me, and the only reason she did was because we had been friends on Facebook since the begginning of summer. Thank you, Facebook.

With our new Chilean friends, we all went to the mall downtown for lunch. The Chilean students spoke some English, some of them better than we could speak Spanish. So when push came to shove we spoke in English because it was easier. Florencia had told us that that was okay for the first day, but it was frustrating for me (and others I imagine) because I just couldn't converse in Spanish. It was a strange duality: after being in Chile for only a day I felt like I knew twice as much Spanish as the day before, and yet that still wasn't enough.

At 5 o'clock that evening the Universidad held a welcoming ceremony for us. We each got a nice keychain from the Universidad, and our tutors each got us a gift. A group of students played some music and danced for us, and then we had a small reception with some food. But the big party was outside, behind the school.

It's called a "la peña", and it was so much fun! Hundreds of students were there, and they had a small stage set up for bands to play. Around the perimeter of the event were booths selling food and drink (including wine and taquila). I spent most of the evening with David, Rhett, and Casi, and our tutors and some of their friends. We all tried our hand at dancing, which we were terrible at because we didn't know the dance, but no one else seemed to care, and we certainly didn't.

In fact, the dancing quickly endeared us to dozens of Chilean girls. I lost track of how many times I was asked to have my picture taken with a group of cute girls. I was told I'm "very handsome" and that I'm a "good dancer." David's tutor told me that the guys were "very famous" that night. I had my ass pinched at least twice. All the other guys I talked to had similar experience. Jimmy came away from the evening with the phone numbers of 5 different girls.

The other thing I realized about dancing was that it's one of the only activities that doesn't require verbal communication to experience it with another person. As I've mentioned, my speaking ability is very poor right now, but that didn't matter at all when I was dancing, jumping in a circle with my friends, or just goofing off in general. Having a good time is a universal experience, and language isn't really required for any part of it.

Friday, Septiembre 11

Those are the basics of what I've been up to the last couple of days. There's about a hundred other thoughts I want to share, but they'll have to wait. My brother just told me that in "cinco minutos" we'll be going to the bank to exchange my dollars, and rent ski equipment. We're going to the mountains to snowboard tomorrow. Pictures of the last few days will be posted later.

Hasta luego!