I'm alive. I'm tired. I'm happy.
I was very energized to write this entry earlier, but I am losing steam as the day progresses.
I left Cbus yesterday at 1pm after some tearful goodbyes, flew to Dallas, had an 8 hour layover and departed at 9:25pm to Santiago. The wait was surprisingly ok, but the flight was a little rough, only because it was especially cramped and cold, but I got some sleep and before I knew it, it was 8 am and I was landing.
The view from the plane as you are heading south along the Chilean coast before you turn east to head to Santiago is beautiful.
The sun was rising over the Andes, the water on the coast was crashing, the fog highlighted the peaks and lakes, it was beautiful.
After 2 hours in immigration and customs, I finally made it through and without a hangup found my transportation company and joined a car with another volunteer, Katie. We talked a bit on the short drive over and then moved all our junk up four flights of stairs to our room, which we share with one other volunteer, Marissa.
Our hostel is nice, pretty basic. The other volunteers all seem nice so far. A group of us hung out at the hostel for a bit this afternoon and then walked around to whatever that smaller hill in the middle of the city is. --Chels we went there before with the castle, garden and Neptune fountain on top. It was smoggy but you could kinda see the mountains which was nice. Then we kept walking, saw a cathedral, the plaza de armas, a kid's park that was interesting and walked on back to the hostel. It was a nice day, not bad weather at all, but now it is starting to get cold. So now I am killing time until dinner at 7:30--looks like some sort of spagetti with potatoes an/or eggs. we shall see.
This day has been such a blur, I don't think it has hit me yet, it feels strangely comfortable and spanish, although I haven't used a ton yet, hasn't been a struggle. So I guess we are off to a good start, I have orientation tomorrow 9-6. Hopefully I will get to bed tonight early, but off to meet other volunteers now.
Love from Chile,
Cali
ps...does anyone know why I can't post photos anymore?
I was very energized to write this entry earlier, but I am losing steam as the day progresses.
I left Cbus yesterday at 1pm after some tearful goodbyes, flew to Dallas, had an 8 hour layover and departed at 9:25pm to Santiago. The wait was surprisingly ok, but the flight was a little rough, only because it was especially cramped and cold, but I got some sleep and before I knew it, it was 8 am and I was landing.
The view from the plane as you are heading south along the Chilean coast before you turn east to head to Santiago is beautiful.
The sun was rising over the Andes, the water on the coast was crashing, the fog highlighted the peaks and lakes, it was beautiful.
After 2 hours in immigration and customs, I finally made it through and without a hangup found my transportation company and joined a car with another volunteer, Katie. We talked a bit on the short drive over and then moved all our junk up four flights of stairs to our room, which we share with one other volunteer, Marissa.
Our hostel is nice, pretty basic. The other volunteers all seem nice so far. A group of us hung out at the hostel for a bit this afternoon and then walked around to whatever that smaller hill in the middle of the city is. --Chels we went there before with the castle, garden and Neptune fountain on top. It was smoggy but you could kinda see the mountains which was nice. Then we kept walking, saw a cathedral, the plaza de armas, a kid's park that was interesting and walked on back to the hostel. It was a nice day, not bad weather at all, but now it is starting to get cold. So now I am killing time until dinner at 7:30--looks like some sort of spagetti with potatoes an/or eggs. we shall see.
This day has been such a blur, I don't think it has hit me yet, it feels strangely comfortable and spanish, although I haven't used a ton yet, hasn't been a struggle. So I guess we are off to a good start, I have orientation tomorrow 9-6. Hopefully I will get to bed tonight early, but off to meet other volunteers now.
Love from Chile,
Cali
ps...does anyone know why I can't post photos anymore?
I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteBut so begins me hanging on every word of your blog ;)