Wow... I am such a bad blogger... lol.=( sorry guys. My Arrival!

Sorry everyone... haha it has been a crazy these first few days. Also my host brother who is 18 is always on the computer. =P Ok so let´s see, on Sunday June 15 morning at 8am I finally arrived in Santiago, Chile. It took 2 flights, about 12 to 13 hours flying in total, and traveling to another state. It was a long day I can tell you that. haha Dad and I met up with this girl Tori who also happens to go to SDSU. We met at one of the study abroad orientations. Before we knew it we were saying our goodbyes to our parents. And we were off to Dallas Texas. We landed in the Dallas Fortworth International airport. Tori and I took advantage of our break between flights and grabbed a bite to eat. A delicious meal of cesear salad and chips with artichoke dip. At the gate we ran into Miriam who is another girl who came from SDSU too.

The flight was long a total of about 9 hours. While we were flying Tori noticed that there were two girls behind us talking about Viña del Mar and Valparaìso, both which are cities we knew. We knew that we would be living with our families in Viña del Mar and the university is in Vaparaìso. So we turned around mention our program named ISEP and we immediately found common ground. They were also students in the same program. Laura and Meredith. Laura is from Texas and Meredith is from Tennesee. We spent most of the flight talking about our thoughts, our excitement, and our worries. I was excited. During the flight there was some excitement a ¨code blue". Or at least that was what was said over the intercom. I don´t know exactly what happened but someone needed medical attention. So that was a little scary. But everyone was handled.

Finally... Chile was in sight. I felt so spoiled looking out the window and seeing the gorgeous Andes Mountains. I couldn´t believe it we were finally here! Every thing else went pretty smoothy. I paid for my tourist visa, went through customs and found my bags. (phew!they didn´t lose my baggage) haha. I found my driver with a sign with my name and three others. Laura was one of them. The other two were guys. One was name Joel and the other Jon. Joel is from San Jose State University. haha I found another California friend yay! Jon goes to school in Nebraska. We took the bus/van for a 1.5 hour drive to Viña del Mar.

I was the first to get dropped off at my house 347 Jackson. Viña del Mar, Chile. So everyone got to watch me meet my new family. My parents and my youngest brother. My mom is named Alicia and my papà is Gabriel. The youngest brother is named Lucas and he is adorable. So finally I knew the answer to my question-were all of my siblings boys or sisters or both. On my information sheet about my family it just said 4 hijos and that means children. So I have 4 host brothers and a girl (prima) cousin. Tomás is the oldest and almost exactly the same age as me (20- and he will be 21 in septiembre). Then it is Matias and he is 18. Next is Ignacio and he is 14 and his nickname he prefers is ¨Nacho". =) like one of Bobby´s friends. Finally, Lucas and he is 6. So I literally walked into my new house and I don´t know why maybe because of nerves, or being overwhelmed I swear I forgot all my Spanish at that moment. I think I must have said "Sí" a hundred times. All the boys were sleeping so I went upstairs to unpack and take a shower. The oldest Tomás is studying at a university in Santiago so I was going to be using his room. He comes home every weekend, but during the week he lives near school. Slowly the other 3 faces peeked in and introduced themselves. It is interesting they celebrate Father´s Day here too ¨Día de Papà´.¨ We needed some groceries so my new dad, Tomás and I went to el supermercado to buy Harina (flour) and huevos (eggs). We shared a car full of small talk. haha which Asian was I? Mi papá´wasn´t far off he guessed Japones. It is interesting here they tip the person who bags your groceries. Tomá´s really made feel at home because he speaks the most english. Dinner... So because it was Father´s day we had many appetizers. We sat around the living room table and ate mussels, salmon, and cheese with crackers. Chips and guacamole. I tried my first Pisco Sour too. Here the legal age is 18 so I was old enough to drink with the family. It was tasty but the alcohol content is strong haha. So of course I got full and then we all went to the dining room to sit down to a full dinner. A generous chicken breast portion and papas fritas (french fries) but they were sphere shaped like cheeto balls or something. I tried so hard to finish it but I just couldn´t. Everyone cleaned their plates and here I was with leftovers. After dinner I went with my mom to the train station so she could teach me how to get to the university. You need to buy a card and you put money on the card. The train takes me right near the school. About a 15 minute ride. Soccer or fútbol is so important here. It is like air they breathe. =) My brothers think American football is so boring in comparison. haha. I watched some games with Nacho y Matias and then I went to bed. I found myself writing in Spanish without realizing it until I had written a paragraph. My brain actually hurt at the end of the day haha. And writing in my native language became so much harder. This was my first day here and I already loved it.