Salsa!

Last night we got to go salsa dancing in santiago! i was so excited. i found another girl to go with so it was nice to go just the two of us instead of such a large group. we went to another area of the city called providencia, and there we took a salsa lesson at the restaurant habana. it was just 2 couples and a single guy. he turned out to be french which was interesting. i paired with him and dana was with the instructor. we danced for about 2 hours! the best part was when i was counting to the beat in spanish, my partner in french, and the instructor in english. well it was funny to me, maybe you had to be there ¨:). we went with the guys to a sushi restaurant and i had the best white choc mousse. two of the guys spoke spanish fluently. they had a good time with the fact that i sound like an idiot. we missed the metro on the way back, so instead of walking forever back it took us a half hour to figure out the right bus back to the hostel. good times! some chileno guys asked to take us for a beer so i finally got to practice my spanish. it was choppy and confusing, we definitely had to do a lot of charades. but im so happy i tried. it was prob the best night out so far. a neat experience. well im off to another orientation class. this is getting pretty tiring. Hasta luego!

its really only been 3 days?!

i feel like i have not slept in quite awhile...my plane got in on saturday around 730 in the morning. did not sleep for long on the plane and it was just go go go from then on. a person did not meet me at the airport, but a chilean security guy saw me with all my bags and decided to take over and help me out. he walked me through the checkpoint and got me set up with my ride to the hostel. i must say it is quite an experience walking out of the airport to a crowd of people with signs and taxi drivers etc. when the doors blew open i realized just what others meant by it being frigid down here.
i arrived at the hostel with others having already been there for a week with another program and we all just started trickling in. i love the hostel environment. everyone has such interesting stories and reasons for coming out here. i think a lot of the reason we all connect so well is we are all looking for an adventure. something different than what most would normally do.
the day was really long having been up since 5 am on the plane. we arrived, settled in, then started exploring. we walked quite a ways around the part of Santiago we are staying in. i went with a group of about 10 girls. lets just say we were quite the spectacle. people looked us up and down, some boys followed us for a bit, and when we sat outside at a restaurant outside people just walked by and stared. its pretty funny. the tall guys, especially this black guy lester get a lot of comments and looks.
anyway, met a few people from colorado which is neat. this one guy goes to school in boulder and we have been hanging a bit. we didnt really want to go and a get wasted like everyone the first night so we just walked around the city. apparently you have to be pretty careful at night and keep your belongings close because there are plenty of ways you will get robbed.
i think i have the hardest time with all the stray dogs. i mean everywhere you go you see them! the are ignored and just hang out in the streets. i finally petted one, he was so sweet. it really breaks my heart but ill have to get over it.
sunday we woke up late and bought cell phones and went to lunch with a chilean guy another girl knows. about two girls in the group speak spanish well so the rest of us kind of sit back and listen. i must say i understand more than i even dare to speak. it is much more difficult than anyone could expect. the biggest thing is gaining confidence, but that takes time.
i went to a viking restaurant for wine with the guy from colorado. it was so cool. the restaurant was so uniquely decorated. and for a $5 dollar bottle of wine it was so so good.
today was the first day of orientation. so long. i hated sitting in a chair and listening to everything. after that we were put into our classes for spanish lessons. its great because the profesora speaks in spanish only and you just have to figure it out. best way to learn.
tonight we were going to gym and a bible study but we missed the guy we were going to meet. so my friend, jeremy, he went and im here at some random internet cafe in the nice part of santiago. i really need sleep....there is so many more little things i could talk about but i guess thats all for now! chao.

12 days and counting!

Ok, so it's starting to set in that Im leaving soon. Very soon. Im trying to get everything in order while still working a lot and trying to see my friends. Im getting a tad overwhelmed. Also, as volunteers apparently we have to complete three different assignments for our program and do some Spanish tutorial. Trust me, Im not complaining about that, I can use any help they offer. Its just I need to finish the first one before I leave and the site we are registered on (it's like facebook for Chile volunteers), it does not have a link for my assignment. Or maybe Im missing it completely. Others are writing blog posts introducing themselves in Spanish. For some reason I think that might be what I have to do. Yet if I can barely speak Spanish, how am I supposed to write it?! So...kinda not sure how this is going to get done. Solution? Email the guy who sent the link and ask him what exactly it is that I need to do :) Hopefully he gets what Im saying in my email.

So this blog is pretty much a rant, I know, but it's part of getting ready to go! I have still yet to hear of my exact placement and the family I will be living with for the duration of my assignment. Apparently we learn about these right before we leave.

Departure date and time: July 24th 3:38 pm.