En Casa
Trip Start
Jul 17, 2005
1
3
13
Trip End
Dec 23, 2005
I have just gotten back from orientation in Olmue with the rest of the American students. A lot has happend since I have last written here. My first night in Santiago I stayed in a hostel in the Bellavista neighborhood. Ironically I met two girls from my program there. That night we went out looking for a place to get a drink. Oddly enough we wondered into a gay bar. We quickly realized this after we noticed that the only people their were men and the waiters werent wearing any pants. I wanted to stay but the lack of pants made some of the girls uncomfortable. In the hostel I met a lot of really cool people, a lot were taking a year off and traveling around the world. I would love to do that one day. The next day i went to the hotel to meet the the other american students for orientation. That night we got to have dinner with our families. My family lives in a neighborhood in Santiago called nuņoa. They were very nice the first night I came. They live on the 5th floor so I will be getting a workout walking up and down the stairs. In chile they dont have central heat... it was a tad cold at first. They told me they often eat in the bedrooms because it is too cold to eat in the dining room. I iwll never complain about my house being cold again. I gave the family there presents and they really seemd to like them. My ten year old brother was very excited to get a Cleveland Browns jersey although I am sure he has no idea what american football is. The next day we had to go continue with orientation in Olmue, a little town about 2 hours away. We got to drive through the Andes which was beautiful. We passed through a lot of little towns. In every town, interestingly enough, the church was the nicest place by far. I just thought that was interesting. We stayed in this resort type place. It was a little isolated and very cold at night but we made the best of it. We went through a lot of orientation stuff. Apparently it is really rude to sniffle here, it worse then farting. I often sniffle subconsiencly. We also got salsa lessons every night. I think I am going to take lessons... I want to learn how to do it well here. While we were in olume we had to go on a scavanger hunt. One of the people that we talked to was this an owner of this restaurant... i will write later I must go eat
