My Journey In Chile: Moving In, Moving On

Welp, I’m all moved in with my new family for the next few months! I don’t know how, but I got lucky again! I have an amazing host family here in Arica. I live with my dad, Pedro, mom, Betzy, and 14 year old brother Cristobal. I also have twin older siblings, Noemi and Pedro Pablo, but they both attend university in other cities in Chile so they’re not at home. I will get to meet them in a few weeks when the come for a week to celebrate Chile’s Independence Day on September 18! I have a lovely house that's pretty close to everywhere I might need to go. We also have a maid, Fanny, who brings her adorable little 2 year old son, Juan Diego, with her everyday. I actually think that Fanny and Juan Diego might live at the house, because there's a garage-type building that's not connected to the house that I haven't been in, but that's where Fanny hangs out during the day when she's not cooking or cleaning, and I'm pretty sure she and her family live there. Still unclear. And then we have a little poodle named Puco. At first I was in love with Puco and was so happy to have a dog, but then my bedroom kiiind of got infested with fleas and I kiiind of was attacked... But no worries, I've now moved into a different room while they decontaminate the upstairs and Puco has a nice new haircut :) Typical me getting odd skin bumps/rashes/reactions. It really wasn't that bad.

On a new note, we’ve completed our first week of classes here and so far it’s been pretty calm and easy. We have three hours of Spanish lessons in the morning, then we go home for lunch with our families, and then we have a lecture in the afternoon. I live about a 30 minute walk from the campus we use for Spanish classes in the morning, and about 15 minutes from the campus for our classes in the afternoon. I could also easily take a taxi or a colectivo, and both are very cheap ($1-3) but it’s nice to walk around and get to know the town more and to get some exercise in! All taxis have a set price, so no matter where you go in Arica, you won’t pay more than $3 for a taxi. And if there are more people in the taxi, then you all spit the $3 fee so it’s even cheaper! Colectivos are kind of like a taxi, but each car has a number or a letter on it, and each number/letter represents a specific route that the colectivo takes around town. So you find the colectivo that goes near where you need to go, and you pay $1 for the ride. It won’t take you directly to your house, but for example, there’s a colectivo that drives down a main road only two blocks from my house, so I can easily take that if I need to. But like I said, most things are within walking distance for me so I try not use my money on transportation.

I’m really liking the group of students on the program as well! There are 4 guys and 19 girls, and surprisingly a lot of them are Midwesterners! Since we don’t have much school work yet we’ve all been hanging out (the whole group, not just the Midwesterners) before and after classes and finding all of the good places to eat and shop. There’s an amazing street market on Sundays (probably one of the only things open on Sunday) and it’s literally the longest market I’ve ever seen before. I walked it last weekend with Katy and it took us about a half hour to get through the entire thing, and we didn’t even stop that much because neither of had brought money. I cannot wait until tomorrow so I can actually shop there. They have anything and everything you could think of, from clothes and shoes to notebooks and shampoo to souvenirs and decorations, all for an extremely low price. AND we can bargain. I’m so excited.

Okay well it’s lunch time so I have to go, but here are some photos before I go!

This is my bedroom I USED to live in before the flea infestation