My last post was very optimistic, and this one is too, but for very different reasons.

On Sunday we all arrived in Santiago and moved in with our families. The van was full of oh-so-much excitement and everyone was very anxious to be acquainted with our new families... and within two hours of meeting mine I was already in tears in my room. The city is absolutely amazing, and that means a lot coming from me, but it took me a while to realize this. My madre, for one thing, supports Pinochet and runs a very conservative household. She also only takes students as a way to earn money, which means she hasn't fed me lunch and has absolutely no interest in getting to know me or help me with my Spanish. (She even rolled her eyes at me when I asked her to repeat something.) Don't worry, I'm not an idiot, and I talked to my directors about it so they're going to move me to another family tomorrow. I'm already very excited because I will unofficially be the tia (aunt) of one of the girls in my program (my madre is the mother of her madre), and we're neighbors! So even though I have to take the bus, it'll be much better. (For those of you who don't know, Santiago just got this new bus system which works HORRIBLY. They have half the buses they need and the entire public is in an uproar. It got started two days before we arrived.) For some reason I'm not surprised that I'm the one that gets the scary torture-supporting family... though they do serve me my meals on a silver platter! (....no joke.)

Other than that, Santiago is amazing! I as a general rule hate cities, and already Santiago is starting to take a little piece of my heart. There is a lot of green everywhere - mini parks between the lanes of big highways, old playgrounds, trees lining roads, plants spilling from balconies, everywhere. It's very normal to have little stands selling random things like tabloids, incense, gum, empanadas (the official snack here.. soooo gooood). The program gave us an activity to do yesterday where we had to find a certain place in the city and observe, then interview random people about what it was, it's significance, etc, and then about certain slang words they have here. Chile is almost like a different language from Spanish... I've had to relearn many, many words. They also speak much, much differently. It's a beautiful accent. Anyways, my friend Marguerritte and I had to find Plaza Brasil, which ended up being this huge old playground with ginourmous trees! We met a lot of people, and met these kids (see picture) who tried to practice their English with us. The girl even sang us a song! The people are incredible, everywhere. I haven't met a person yet I didn't like (except my madre, whoops). Sometimes, they're too nice... Since my group is all girls pretty much, catcalls happen at a rate of perhaps one every five seconds. When I asked a man directions to my street, he answered, then asked where I lived and if I wanted an escort. Adios......

Tomorrow the program set aside a day for us to go and "culturalize." I think a few of us are going to go to Santa Lucia (a hill in the city from which you can see the entire city, and way off to the Andes), el Museo de Belles Artes (art museum), and probably just to wander, eat at Bar Restaran (director Rossana's favorite Chilean restuarant) or whatever.

Culture shock is a strange thing. At times you feel very at home where you are, and at others like you can't comprehend a thing. Sometimes home hits you in the gut at the mention of a single word, like 'lejos' which means far away. Many moments in the day I think about how different Chile is, and how unlike home. But there is also a prevailing spirit that I think does not change. People do the same things. Kids bury their friends in the sand, children get angry when you ignore them, couples kiss and gossip, we all just want to get along in this world. The faces here are different from those at home in strange ways that I can't quite grasp, perhaps it is just the influence of the accent. In everyone's eyes, though, I can see someone from home. The woman at the cafe today winked at me when I asked her what kind of cheese I was eating. It's all the little things about a place that make me feel very much at home. I love it here.