Hola a todos!

When I arrived here, it seemed I had begun a new life, and landing in Chile was like coming out of the womb. Seriously, at first it was dark (although not exactly warm on the plane) and then once we landed and I emerged from customs, it was like seeing the world for the first time! It was very bright and there were lots of people screaming things at me that I couldn't understand and then suddenly someone pulled me off to the side and there, for the first time, I saw my (host) mother.

So, if last Friday was my birth, I'm happy to report that I have no moved up to the comprehension level of a preschool aged child. I can say full sentences, understand things that are said to me, and even feed myself! (well, I guess I was always able to do this, but now I know the names of the foods, excitement!) And to top things off, today I had my first day of school (I'm growing so fast!) and Marisol packed me a merienda (snack) of a cereal bar, cookies and a juice box and took me to school herself to make ure I would settle in at my new school. I liked the other girls there, they also came with juice boxes, and I think I made a few new friends! Hopefully tomorrow I'll get through puberty!

Bueno, all metaphors and jokes aside, today was wonderful! I started my intensive language class and everything went smoothly, we went through some vocab, conversed a bit and read some small articles. Tonight my homework is to review "chilenismos" or Chilean slang and let me tell you, there is A LOT to learn. They have literally seven different words for guy/gal and a lot for "boring" (apparently it takes a real comic to entertain the Chileans). But I'm happy to report that today, after my class, I understood SO much more and was able to converse, at times, like a normal person. And the metro was great, it's actually pretty simple and tomorrow myself and my friend Victoria and I are going to school by ourselves, sin nuestras madres (without our host moms). The class let out at 1pm but before we left, Naomi invited me and Heidi to go to "Las Colinas" (The Hills) with her to get a better view of the mountains/city.

Seriously, the mountains are like a landform from another world, this picture definitely does not do it justice. The only thing I can compare them to is the vast amount of green in Ireland; it's something you can't even imagine until it becomes a part of your reality.

Although the mountains were gorgeous, the view of the city....not so much.

No, I am not a terrible photographer, this is the most we could see of the city at 4:30 in the afternoon. The smog (in spanish, EL smog, if you were curious) literally covers the city and it's at its worst during the winter months. Look out for some better pictures of the Santiago skyline in October!

And here is proof that I didn't copy and paste these pictures from the Internet haha. (Naomi (left) and Heidi)

Bueno, shout-out of the day goes to Catie Gainor! I finally saw Sex and the City 2! What's more, I saw it with my host mom! Which was incredibly nerve racking, since in the first 10 minutes, there is a sex scene and a gay wedding, both of which are extremely taboo in Chile. I gritted my teeth through the rest of it, trying to hide my enjoyment assuming that my host mom would find it appalling, but at the end, she jumped up and said she loved it, that it was a movie tan lindo! She said she was jealous of their lifestyle "elegante" with their fashion and their hombres. Bueno, Marisol is tan liberal and I had nothing to worry about!

Abrazos y besos a todos,

Abby