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and i'm here.

(my first week in chile was without a computer, so i apologize for the length and delay of this entry!)

after several interesting conversations with my belgian seatmate on the plane about american politics, reality tv, where to go in chile (his wife is from santiago) and the current status of milwaukee (where he lives), i arrived with only minor delays at the santiago aeropuerto. there, my bag of trailmix was confiscated at customs (apparently raisins are still fruit) but they let me bring in the three bags of coffee and about 12 pounds of m&ms and cake mix (hard to get in chile). although i felt silly bringing coffee into south america, neither chile nor argentina are coffee drinking cultures, as they don't grow it (this was affirmed by my belgian friend). however, there are about 4 starbucks in santiago and i can't imagine that the rather awful instant coffee that they use can hold out much longer. 

i'm currently staying with the marshalls - a wonderful missionary family that covenant helps support. they met me at the airport on saturday and i went to one of their church connections, cristo rey on sunday. the service started at the usual time - about 30 minutes late and i've never been kissed so many times in 15 minutes. the traditional chilean greeting is a mutual audible kiss on the right cheek for woman-woman and man-woman. a man-man greeting is usually prefaced by a vigorous handshake.  the accent has been a challenge, as well as the vocabulary, which incorporated a lot of slang and indian words. 

other differences:

burger king offers it's chicken sandwiches and burgers with palta (avocados)

they serve pate instead of liverwurst on their sandwiches in the buses

oh yeah, buses. they have lots of them and people actually ride them. a lot.

the tv is basically the same, just with spanish subtitles.

only gringos use rolling luggage

their version of dodgeball is way more intense (you're vunerable from both sides and by the end, on all sides)

the coke bottles are skinny and diet coke is coke light

the lightswitches are sideways

the milk comes in liter sized boxes and doesn't have to be refrigerated until it is opened (which can be for almost a year!)

end of sidetrack and on with the narration - that sunday night we left from santiago to head down to the south of chile to a place near osurno. puerto fonk is a charming tin roofed encampment with capricious toilets and much autographed bunkbeds. the view from the main house way amazing - the snowcapped peak of el volcan osurno (one of the most perfect examples of a conic volcano in the world) and its sister volcan puyehu, also stunning. these were offset nicely by the glistening lago llanquihue, the largest lake in chile, which is shared by argentina. the wind was constant and mild, making the black volcanic beaches perfect for sunbathing (tomando el sol - literally taking the sun- in spanish) and whipping up some nice waves that beat a regular, ocean-like rhythm. see photo.

our schedule: we woke up about 8:30 had solo bible time in the morning, followed by a discussion and then at about 9:30, a breakfast of bread, butter, cheese, jam and chocolate con leche. then we had some lectures (which i understood to varying degrees - depending on the accent and rapidity of the speaker), played some games in which we were divided into azul and verde alizanzas (teams), then lunch around 2 and then to the playa (beach) until about 7. the sun was headed down by 8, at which point we had dinner around 8:30 or 9 followed by another tema (lecture). then more games and bed by 12ish. 

one day we had a hike up over these gorgeous fields, with the mountains rising on the sides and the lake shimmering into the horizon. after making our way to the top of these rolling pastures, we found ourselves at a very eccentric farm whose owners had a perchance for.... ancient fords, model t, model as, mercurys from the 30's, bel-airs from the 40's - all in varying stages of restoration. and lots of jugs of homemade brew fermenting in the sun. on the way back down we filled our pockets and mouths with dozens of ripe moras (blackberries).

our other excursion was to the cascadas - a beautiful waterfall that we reaches after an adventurous bus ride and a verdant, slippery hike. the water was freezing and up to our ankles as we made our way the last hundred meters, gripping the mossy, concave walls that stretched up both sides, forming the illusion of a semisphere of green on both sides of the falls. the water crashed down into a deep pool and sent up such a spray that the walls were all dripping and a complete rainbow could be seen from almost any angle. i climbed back behind the falls and the sensation of the incredible power behind the water sent such a rush of adrenaline through me that i didn't feel the cold until we were wading through the icy stream again.

now i'm back in santiago after about a three hour delay trying to come from downtown because the metro was shut down (someone committed suicide)  and thus all people that would be on the metro were shifted to buses, thus all the buses were full. this did give me plenty of time for people watching though. chile is quite a melting pot of german, french, spanish, indian, peruvian, mexican and arab. the smallest minorities by far are blacks and asian. lots of blue and green eyes mixed in with hazel and brown.

i'm now shifting gears to school, trying to find out what i need and where to go. i'll be moving in with a chilean family closer to the school by this weekend. they also speak fluent english, just not to each other, so it should be a good transition linguistically. one thing i am very excited about is that lined notebook paper basically doesn't exist here - just graph paper, which i, being a nerd, thoroughly enjoy. i'll post again soon, much love!