New apartment, new family, new friends... new spanish dictionary?

What a week it's been!
This time last week, I was waiting for my family to pick my up at the hostel. It was so scary and exciting! I was picked up second to last of my orientation group, so the anticipation was killing me by the time they got there. Claudia, (my host mom) Javiera (my 19 year old host sister) and Daniel (Javi's boyfriend) all came to pick me up. It felt so funny to meet them for the first time! Even funnier was the fact that Javi and I look surprisingly alike- she also has long curly hair and brown eyes, and is a year younger than me. Claudia laughed when she saw me, saying that she wouldn't be able to tell us apart.
I spent most of the day moving my things into my room and getting situated. At lunch I found out two things: Claudia makes very good food, and I can actually communicate perfectly well with my host family. Both very good things! I spent most of the meal wondering at how I could speak with them AND understand what was going on. Somehow I had been imagining that all of my spanish would disappear once I had to actually use it in my new house. Fortunately it didn't.
At night I found out the best part of my new living situation- I have a scaldasono!!! What is this, you might ask? It is, in fact, the most wonderful thing possible to find in a country where there is no central heating. A mattress heater. This is my new favorite piece of technology. Only problem is, it is nearly impossible to get out of bed when it is literally generating its own warm toastiness. Oh, but it is so worth it.
Sunday morning I woke up feeling ecstatic. All that nervous energy I had pent up now translated into the most deliriously happy morning I have had for quite some time. The sun was coming in the window, I had a cute little room all to myself, I finally had clean clothes and a kitchen and a pet turtle, (!!!) and my host family was nice! I had chocolate cereal, manjar (dulce de leche) on toast, and tea and sat on the porch. Life was good.

Javi and I spent much of the day together, talking, making lunch, and later taking a test run through the micro and metro system. The micro bus system seemed a bit complicated, but not impossible to sort out.

Monday morning I had to wake up really early to go to the immigration office and apply for my Chilean I.D. It took a long time and the building was freeeezing, and I couldn't get the fingerprinting ink off of my hands for most of the day, but I am excited to get the card. Later we took a Spanish oral exam at the Universidad Catolica, where we will be taking Spanish class. (The rest will be at Universidad de Chile)

I cannot believe I will be taking Spanish classes in this place. It is beautiful! Old gothic (?) architecture, stone buildings, and a courtyard right outside the classroom? I can't believe people go to school there. And... now I will be going to school there?!

Monday night I ended up being alone for much of the night, because Javi was just starting a new job and so was Claudia. Tuesday morning, they gave me directions to the Tufts office and I took the micro bus for the first time! It worked out fine, but it is very difficult to learn a new bus system when you don't recognize where to get off. These first few weeks will be a lot of trial and error, I think.

From the Tufts office we headed to the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities, where we had a tour and orientation there. On the way back I got completely lost on the micro with Rebecca, and ended up on the wrong side of a highway. Oops. Again with the trial and error.

Tuesday night Javi and Claudia were at work until late again. Unfortunately, this meant I stayed up quite late and then realized I had to wake up at 6:30 for my first class! It's very different here, since an early class means that you have to leave the house suuuper early to get there in time on the micro and metro. Finding the class was a challenge, but the three other Tufts students and I who are in the class made it on time. In fact, the teacher was the one who was 15 minutes late! There was only one other student there, but luckily we found out that there are 9 other Chilean students signed up for the class, and that it technically starts next week. After the class I went back to the apartment, where I realized someone had stolen my Spanish dictionary out of the outside pocket of my bag on the bus. Really though? Nobody needs that more than I do! And it was so cute and miniature :( Luckily, I only keep the less valuable things in the outside pockets. At least they didn't take my tissues!

Later, I had a phone interview with the SFS Kenya program coordinator for this spring. After a 30 minute interview, she told me that I got into the program!!! Yay! I can't believe I am in Chile, and now might be going to Kenya in 6 months. What an incredible year!!!!!