Finally in Chile!

Hola a todos!
I am sitting at the computer in my host family´s house right now, right outside my room. Today is Sunday, my first day here. I will give you a synopsis of my trip so far

MIAMI
I met all the other AFS students in the airport and we had an orientation in the airport in a weird conference room with florescent lighting. It was really cool to meet the other students going to Chile and Argentina but the orientation was a little pointless. We left the US on 2-26 at 9:15pm or so... I didn´t sleep nearly at all on the plane! My first view of Chile was incredibly gorgeous...we started our descent into Santiago just as the sun was rising over the Andes. Everything was golden and pink and I was like "wow, this is my country for the next 5 months!"

ORIENTATION - SANTIAGO
This orientation was awesome. All the inbound exchange students from all over the world met for two and a half days in this religious center in Santiago. It was pretty nice and the food was good! I got to meet students from Austria, Germany, Thailand, Iceland, Finland, Russia, Brazil, Japan, France, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland and Norway. So cool. Everyone spoke English and I started speaking in a weird accent and with wierd English because I was hearing so many accents. The AFS volunteers there cool and the info was very helpful too.

Today I met my family. They came to meet me at the orientation this morning. Well my host dad, Panchi and Jaci came. I was SO nervous about meeting them but when they showed up, I very quickly became at ease. They´re super nice and super welcoming. I can communicate MUCH better than I expected and lots of people have complemented my Spanish. I´m learning Chilean words and that´s fun. The Chilean Spanish is difficult but so far not impossible. We´ll see how school goes tomorrow...Our house is gorgeous. Quillota is surrounded by mountains and it´s like being in a beautiful bowl. I´ll send photos later.

I am good right now. I miss you all a lot, and I probably won´t call for a while because I think that would be hard. I´m a little nervous and overwhelmed, but I´m also very happy and excited. I´M IN CHILE! Es increible.

Sorry this is short, but I don´t want to spend lots of time on the computer.

Besos y abrazos a todos,
Sela