Llena de paltas!

Things I love about Valparaiso:
-the food (I will elaborate more on later)
-the multicolored buildings
-location, right on the ocean!
-weather, a perfect 70 degrees not too hot, not too cold
-the language, although difficult to understand right now spanish is a beautiful language that I hope to perfect here.

So I have officially been here a week, but it seriously seems like a year! Right now I'm chillin' in my room nursing my ridiculous sunburn I got today from being at the beach waaaayyy too long. Painful stuff, but a day at the beach was worth it, especially since the weather will be turning poor quite soon.

I finally moved in with my family last Saturday! What an event that was. We left orientation on Saturday and drove into Valparaiso where we pulled into a horse racing track (weird no?). When we pulled into the parking lot, you could see all the cars with our host families waiting for us. That was so intimidating, because all of our host moms were looking into the bus trying to find us and we were all hiding from them, terrified out of our minds. Then ONE BY ONE they would motion for us to get off the bus and they would call out the student's name and the name of the host family so the families knew who the students actually were. But I felt like I was at prom or at a formal event or something getting my name called and them suddenly I walk down the stairs and appear before the crowd. Awkward.

My mother was there to greet me though and then I meet my dad and my little 12 year old sis. Let me tell you about my family. They are so cool. My dad, René seriously reminds me of a mix between Tony Soprano and my grandpa. He loves to make jokes, but speaks so fast, Chilean spanish of course, which is difficult to understand. But he is very nice. He loves sports and even hockey and baseball, so we always have something to chat about. My mother, Ximena, is super nice also, and told me the only rule in the house is that I have fun. She loves to teach me new words and corrects my Spanish when I'm wrong. This doesn't bother me, she knows I want to learn. The most useful phrase I have learned is "a la vela" meaning like got with the wind or go with the flow, wherever the wind takes you. This is one of the things I'm having most trouble with, because I and people from the US in general are super time oriented, but here it is all very chill. Latin American time: something I believe I will learn to love. My little sister, Victoria, is super nice also. She walked me to the mall and helped me buy a cell phone, yea a 12 yr old helped me :) It is all very early living with them, but I believe all will be just dandy with the fam.

My fam has an avocado (palta) tree in their backyard so we eat avocados at every meal!! They told me by the time I leave, I would be filled to my brain with avocados (hence the title of this post). That is not a problem for me, because I love them. The food we eat is amazing, everything is fresh, the bread is like no other. I cannot complain much about anything! :)

This week was orientation at school. It is so weird to be on the other side of things and go to international orientation and get tours and have activities, etc. I can now see how difficult it must be for all the internationals who arrive at Mac or in the US. But school doesn't start until next week, which is super weird because I believe spring break is nearing for all at home when I haven't even gone to one class.

For now, I'm spending my time at the beach and exploring the cities until class begins. Unfortunately, I will not be able to take my parasite class, which saddeneds me deeply, but what can you do about it right? More to come later about. Thanks for bearing with me on these posts, I'm not one that writes in a linear manner and that can connect thoughts well :)