I have officially become a Chilean for 5 days now! Above is a picture of the entire YFU Chile group from countries varying from Denmark, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, and Norway. I am in the center-ish of the photo wearing a blue shirt.
But let's back up a little bit...
On Tuesday afternoon, I took a flight from Albuquerque to the Dallas international airport. Above is a picture of the Sandia Mountains in Albuquerque. When we reached Dallas, Isabel and I met one of the YFU coordinators who led us to the international gate. There, Izy and I ate dinner together, walked around exploring the restaurants (it was a huge place!), and eavesdropped on people's conversations in different languages. (Below: getting ready to eat)
We finally got onto the plane early in the evening for the 10-hour flight.
We arrived in Chile Wednesday morning. I was exhausted from having not slept for 24 hours (I could not sleep on the plane because I was full of nerves). Before getting off the plane, we had to fill out Customs forms. So, as everyone else filed out of the plane, we tried to rapidly decipher the form and write our answers, debating if the products we brought actually had fruits and vegetables, what it meant for a person to be carrying a minor as baggage, etc. Then we stood in the Customs line, which was exhausting and monotonous. There really is no fun in standing in a line dragging your luggage along. But, finally, one hour later, I was rewarded with arriving in the place of honor, the very front of the line.
The officer of the Policia de Investigaciones (PDI) was incredibly nice. I was a mess trying to locate my paperwork from the bottom of my backpack, but we managed to joke in Spanish and even to talk about the process to leave Chile. I showed him my passport, visa, and actually had no idea to also hand him extra visa paperwork. Once I successfully retrieved the disorganized pile of paperwork from my bag, he pointed at the bottom section of the visa paperwork which says to keep the paperwork and show it to the Chilean official. I felt semi-bad but, really, I have not been able to keep my thoughts together anyway in the preparation these past few months. Nonetheless, I bid the officer 'good-bye and thank you' and went to locate baggage claim with relief and pride - that finally after a 30 hour car-ride the paperwork had been correct and complete and that I could hold my own speaking in my form of slow grammatically-incorrect Spanish.
The final part of the airport-retrieval process was to have our luggage scanned. So, in a remarkable balancing act, another American exchange student and I stacked 5 luggages and a guitar onto a cart and pushed it throughout the airport to scan our things. And another proud moment - I could communicate with the men who had collected our luggage to borrow his cart!
Then, we met with various YFU volunteers and a mix of Germans, Danes, Lithuanians, Finnish, Austrian, and French exchange students at a sectioned-off part of a restaurant upstairs. One of the best moments of my life: being surrounded by Danes playing UNO for the first time and conversing about the price of Uno in their country (can you believe that it is near $40 USD there while it is about $3 USD in the USA?)
Here we are in the airport. The four of us are the US exchange students, while one of the YFU volunteers is second from the left. I am in the center of the photo.
After three hours at the airport, ongoing waves of new arrivals to our table, and funny and confusing communication with a French student who does not speak English, we piled onto two tour buses on a two-hour drive to Olmue, a small town at the bottom of the mountain.
On the road there, we saw many vineyards and leaf-less trees with the Andes in the background. The entire ride looked like this picture and reminded me much of the Jemez mountains.The orientation was held in a gorgeous vacation place nestled in the middle of the town. We woke up at 7 am each day to meet for breakfast at 8am, where I have sort of developed adequate European-style table manners. Then we did activities in English to learn about Chilean culture in a large room with the volunteers. Often, and the part that I enjoyed the most, we had free time, where friends and I explored the city (which was tiny, so visiting the supermarket twice a day became a special event) and talked about our countries in our rooms. Peanut butter jokes, discussions teenage activities and preferences in the countries, and the fact that America's influence is extremely strong, especially in Scandinavia. In the evenings, we ate dinner together, talked until the morning, and danced to Spanish-language music. I learned how to (poorly) dance the cueca, the Chilean dance, which has incredible rhythm and beauty.
After four intense days in the beautiful town, we packed our luggage, dragged it out into the frigid air, and got onto the tour buses again for the two-hour drive to Santiago, the capital city, where I met my Chilean family for the first time.
In just four days, it has been remarkable. The Scandinavians, in particular, have a special place in my heart for their frankness and humor. Moreover, I have gained more confidence with the language and know with certainty that I can survive in conversations and daily life (but only if Chileans speak very slowly).
Tomorrow - school! Si po!
