Mi Familia Chilena

Hi again!

I survived my first day in Chile. Santiago is a great city from what I’ve seen so far. It’s industrial and modern, but also has cool colonial buildings in the mix. The people are friendly…I got a kiss on the right cheek from every member of my host family as I was introduced. The only thing that I don’t like about the city is the smog…Santiago is surrounded by beautiful mountain ranges, but I can’t see them except on very rare occasion when the smog lifts. It’s also sort of depressing to never be able to see the sky. When we were flying in it was literally like we were entering some kind of hidden land below the mountains magically tucked away from all view by this dense layer of opaque cloudy grossness. (Actually, from the sky it kinda looked pretty…)

I haven’t had classes yet, just spent the day chilling out with my host mom mostly. Right now we’re watching the news. There is really no escaping the democratic primary, but at least here they spend significant time on other things also. We just got back from the supermarket (the largest supermarket I have ever seen in my life…think bigger than Costco) where my host mother got me the most delicious ice cream (helado) I have ever tasted. It was mango-y and creamy and just general deliciousness.

My whole host family is really great. The father is an engineer and the mother is a businesswoman who paints and makes jewelry. They live in a Las Condes, the financial district of Santiago. The house is small, but cozy. There’s no central heating, though, which is the only real adjustment I’ve had to make. But there’s wifi so I might as well be in host family heaven. My host mother (Mary) also introduced me to this really weird but delicious drink called Ecco. It’s sort of like really watery coffee, but it’s made out of barley or something like that. Very weird, but tasty if you cover it in sugar and milk.

OK, a little about the family now. Mary and Bernardo have three children: a son named Erick who is an engineer, a daughter named Edda who is a biology professor (we get along really well, clearly) and another daughter named Lena who I haven’t met yet because she’s getting married soon so she’s always over at her novio’s house. Mary’s mother is living here right now, too. She and Mary are both really funny and quirky women. We have a lot of fun together…and there’re only laughing at me most of the time.

Since I slept through most of the day, that’s all I have to comment on right now. More to come later!