Bienvenido a Chile

As the first rays of sun awoke me from my overnight flight, I peaked out my portal window to glimpse my first scenes of Chile. What awaited me was a sunrise illuminating the snow capped and rugged red peaks of the Andes breaking through a dense layer of opaque clouds, making these pointed crests look like islands within a blanket of white. This truly was a wonderful welcome and start to my abroad experience.

Currently I am living in an apartment in a section called Providencia. I am living with three other guys at the moment, two Brazilian and one American and they have been very friendly and nice people to live with. I have started my three-week Spanish course this past Monday so I have been able to meet other extranjeros. I have enjoyed these classes and they have allowed me to meet people from all over the world.

I am exploring the city more and more everyday, and the more I learn about it the more I love it. Santiagians are very respectful, and if you have a question they will go out of your way to help you. They also are very fast paced, both with walking and their speed of speech. The Chilean accent is known to be one of the most difficult to understand, as they have many Chilenismos (Chilean Spanish words) and they don’t pronounce most of their s’s, so while the plural forms exists when listening to them speak you wouldn’t know it. However like everything, you get used to it.

This Friday is a holiday (I asked a few people and none of them knew why) so with this long weekend I am planning on using my first chance to go exploring, I don't know where to yet but I will update you on my return!