My Arrival

Well after 25 hours of traveling, I finally arrived. I started by leaving my house in the Tri-Cities at 7:30 PM yesterday. Got to the Spokane airport by 9:45 and then waited around till departure at 11:15. Things were looking good till my next flight in Salt Lake City didn't even start boarding until it's scheduled departure time at 2:50 PM. This is where I don't know what happened exactly, but we sit around at the gate and on the runway till we finally take off at 4:10. My next flight leaves Atlanta at 10:05, and since I was supposed to arrive at around 8 I figured I'd have time to relax. Well, we touched down at about 9:10 due to the delay in Salt Lake, and then we sat and waited for a plane to leave a gate when there was another open right next to it until 9:35. I quickly jumped up and pushed my way past people who didn't have to catch another flight and managed to hop onto the tram since I needed to go from Terminal A to Terminal E, almost a mile away. Well I arrived at the gate at about 9:55 and was relieved to hear that they were seating rows 35-40 only. I was in 23. Perfect. I met up with the other two Whitworth students and then we all boarded and took our seats by 10:05. Unfortunately. our luggage doesn't move quite as fast as we did, so we ended up sitting in the gate until 11:20 PM. Hustle = worthless. This puts our arrival time to Santiago at 8:30 AM instead of 7:30. Not too bad, except we have someone picking us up and no way of contacting them to let them know we'll be late. After a restless and sore night of attempted sleeping on the plane, we arrive to Santiago, and have to wait forever to pay for our traveler's visa. (I don't understand why, but only people from Canada, US, UK, Albania, and Mexico have to pay this few...everyone else it's free) Then we go gather our luggage which was at the far back conveyor, not the first one with hundreds of people surrounding it. Then we go through customs (they let me keep my Cougar Cheese, thankfully) and have to fight our way through the mob of taxi cab drivers trying to get us to go with them to find our driver (who surprisingly was still there!). Well one would think the waiting would be over, except it was an hour and a half or so drive to Vina del Mar from Santiago. Then once there, I had to wait as each of the three other kids in our van got dropped off first. Finally, the driver crazily makes his way to my house and out comes my father and mother. Local time of arrival: 11:15 AM (8:15 AM back home). Yeah, it wasn't fun...

My family, however, is wonderful! Much to my surprise, instead of finding a 24 year old son waiting, when I walked in the door a girl came up and gave me un abrazo (hug), and a young boy came up and shook my hand. All of my host family information was wrong, except for the mother's name (I don't know how they could mess up that badly...oh well). I'm living with a 17 year old hija (daughter), and an 11 year old hijo (son). I think they'll be a lot of fun to get to know better.

As soon as I arrived, they asked if I wasnted to go to the supermarcado (grocery store)/mall with them. I said sure why not? They have super sweet escalator ramps here so you can push your cart just about everywhere! We got some shopping done, and then came home and ate some pizza. I knew that Chileans use a knife and fork to eat their meals, but I was a little surprised when they began cutting their pizza as well. It was nice though, I support good manners. Now, I'm just sitting in my room relaxing and possibly going to take a quick nap, although I don't want to sleep for too long.

First impressions of Chile? Amazing. As I was flying in, we went below these clouds and I felt as if I were in the Kingdome (google it for all you non-Mariners fans). But instead of seeing Griffey or Johnson, I saw the most beautiful mountains imaginable, with the occasional sun shining through to illuminate the peaks. Also, while in the car to Vina del Mar, I passed Dinolandia, complete with life size models!! Finally, the city I'm in sits on a hill and over looks the ocean, and although I couldn't see much today due to rainy weather, I know there's an amazing view to be discovered in a day or two...

I don't have a volt/outlet convertor yet so I need to conserve my battery. I'll update soon. Enjoy the warm weather because you can.