Encantado

It's time for a brief update of the past few days before I go to sleep! All of this cultural assimilation stuff is tiring! I mean, I am expected to sit in a room and listen to orientation information, and spend time with some awesome people, and then eat lots of delicious food, and then repeat it all over again. Life is hard, guys.

The plane trip was fairly uneventful. I sat next to a lovely German couple who shared their stories and their candy with me -- it was a pretty excellent setup. I made it through immigration, baggage, and I could see the light at the end of the customs tunnel when I was dragged back into the abyss by an orange that I had forgotten to declare. It turned out fine -- the people at the airport were very friendly. 20 minutes later, I signed a bunch of forms certifying that I was a forgetful student and not, in fact, an agricultural terrorist, and I was good to go.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind, I am not really sure how time has passed so quickly! It helps that each meal generally takes at least an hour and a half, if not longer. Part of it is how large our group is, and part of it is just the culture. It has taken getting used to, and sometimes we get a little frustrated by the pace, but I think by the end of this trip I will come to enjoy it (especially once my Spanish has improved and I can keep a conversation going for the whole meal).

This afternoon, I met my host mom, Rosita! I got off to a bit of a rough start -- to begin with, I had just had to struggle off of the tiny elevator with my bags, and was trying to haul my way across the crowded lobby when I heard someone call "Rebecca!" Given that I was standing next to another Rebecca, confusion ensued. On top of being confused and unprepared, I was terribly nervous. I assumed that my new mama would say something to the effect of "pleased to meet you," and my plan was to imitate that and then clam up until I could work out another clever sentence to say.

So Rosita walked up to me, warmly kissed me on the cheek, and exclaimed "bienvenidos!" to which I replied, "bienvenidos!" You guys, bienvenidos means "welcome". Facepalm. I promise I speak Spanish.

Really, though, Rosita is an absolute sweetheart. She lives alone in a lovely apartment -- she has a son, who in turn has two young children, but she says while they visit sometimes, it is not all that often. Her very close friend Patti lives three floors down, and is hosting another student, Brooke. Rosita doesn't cook much, but Patti does -- I am hoping to maybe pick up some new recipes while I am here! I would also like to cook something for Rosita sometime, maybe as a "welcome home from work" surprise or something.

Well, I think I have rambled enough for the night -- I may or may not read through this tomorrow morning and edit half of it out. But for now I'll leave it be, and go to bed! Tomorrow, we tackle public transportation! Get ready, Santiago.