Mi Ciudad Nueva: Santiago, Chile

I have officially arrived in my new city for the next 10 months: Santiago, Chile! I cannot believe I will be living in this beautiful city until December. I met with my Teach in Chile coworkers and I am currently living in a hostel with them in Providencia, a really nice area of Santiago. Everyone seems really nice and we all have similar backgrounds with studying/traveling abroad. We had orientation, ate at some really nice restaurants, learned about transportation and housing in Santiago, learned about our universities (DuocUc) and have done some sight seeing throughout the city. The weather has been gorgeous: about 80 degrees each day and blue skies with some smog over the mountains. The hostel has been great: the location is right near a metro and a running park. I am sharing a room with 4 other girls, including a mother and her 9 month old baby (who is adorable), and then there is another room with 5 girls and we all share one bathroom. I celebrated my 23rd birthday on the first day we were here which was really fun. We went to a restaurant for lunch (which is the biggest meal of the day) and my friend Mary Kate was squirming in her seat when all of the sudden she screams that there was a slug in her food. There literally was a slimy, wiggly slug moving around on her plate. It was hilarious. The guys have been cooking food for us which has been great. We all usually hang out in the patio at our hostel at night and drink some wine or beer. We are living in the hostel until the end of March and then we are on our own for living. I am living with a girl Abby in my program and we are currently in the process of apartment-hunting which is proving to be somewhat difficult. There is a lot available but we want to find a good location next to a metro stop because I have to commute at least a half hour outside of the city to my University.

The Chilean culture is definitely a lot different. The Spanish is INCREDIBLY difficult to understand: they drop their "s" at the end of words and they speak super fast and have tons of slang words ("Cachai" means "Do you understand?", There are different words for the stages of relationships: Pololo is a boyfriend and Novio is a fiance, they say "Huevón" almost all the time and it has a ton of different meanings). I am mostly speaking English right now in the hostel with all of my friends but I know I will be speaking Spanish more when I go out and at my university. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. Empanadas and completos (hot dogs covered with mayonnaise and tomatoes and avocado) are EVERYWHERE. Pisco Sour is their drink of choice. Chileans are not as focused on time and getting places quickly which is really nice. I am slowly starting to learn the city. It is nice because I don't need a map as much right now because we are staying in the same place but when I move I know I will need a map. When I was in Spain I constantly used my map the first month and I stood out like a sore thumb. The metro system is pretty easy to follow but it is kind of expensive. A lot of the stores are closed on Sunday. It is SO weird how the seasons are completely reversed: March is back to school month and winter break is in July. Whenever you ask for water they always ask "sin gas" or "con gas" for mineral water. The coffee is "Nescafé" which is just instant coffee and I am not its biggest fan but I will get used to it. I feel like culture shock has not hit yet because I am hanging out with a bunch of Americans so when I move and start to teach I know it will be a lot different. I am SO excited to be here though and I know this will be one of the best experiences of my life :)