Santiago

Well, I arrived in Santiago safely today. The flight was about 12 hours total, but luckily I slept through most of that. There are about 130 volunteers in all that will be doing the teaching program here in Chile. I met eight of them from the flight to Santiago. We spent the day walking around Santiago and sightseeing. It is pretty cold here. In the morning and evenings it is around 35 degrees Farenheit. It warms up during the day and the sun makes it appear less cold. It should be warmer at my site, as I will be in the northern part of the country. We will be in Santiago for the first week, taking Spanish classes, TEFL classes and taking care of paperwork. Next weekend I will travel to my site (still unknown) and meet my host family.

Ironically, many of the volunteers do not know much Spanish at all, since it technically wasn't required. I think it's pretty brave of them to travel to a country not being able to speak the language. Santiago appears to be a well-kept, developed city. They have an extensive metro system, which we rode today, several parks, universities, numerous shopping areas (including jewelry shops with lapis lazuli, a blue stone that is only found in a handful of countries, including Chile).