Day 1, July 29, 2006
Day is spent getting all of my stuff packed, minimizing luggage, and saying my goodbyes. I unexpectedly, yet gratefully received some very generous gifts from many friends and family. I will miss… my dog. Totoro! My most prized possession, if you can call him that. Him and my guitar. Ok, I will miss other people too. Me and dad went to church, on our way, picking up honey roasted peanuts and a plum, and sat in a very decorated service. Qué interesante. So, after I said bye to dad and Michael, I was off to the check in counter. This was one of the more challenging experiences that I have, well, experienced. Even though I was told I didn’t need a visa to stay in Chile and go to school, I guess I did. So after about 45 minutes or so of waiting at the counter by myself, feeling my stomach growl, and watching my spaghetti growing colder by the second, the Delta representative told me that I couldn’t get on the plane till I got one. But I had to catch that plane! So I asked if I could change my reservations temporarily and then get my visa or written permission to stay over 90 days and then get my former reservations back. Eventually, everything worked out. I just kept praying for patience and tried to give all my worries and anxiety to God because I knew he would take care of everything. I knew that if I didn’t catch that plane that there was a reason. I guess in my endeavor to become all that I can be, I have tried to work on my patience, but I guess I’m getting more practice than I bargained for. I got to sit next to some very nice people from Florida though. Shared some gum and talked a little bit.

Day 2, July 30, 2006
Sitting down now, again, after watching 16 Blocks and borrowing some toothpaste from the charming flight attendant. I think he was from Australia? Not sure. I should find out. Snack time now!
Ok, I was wrong, “Lenny,” the nice flight attendant, is from England. So hard to tell when they speak quietly. He made sure everything went well for me, brought me a bunch of water and stuff. Very sweet, I gave him one of my mango bread.
So Lenny came back and introduced me to a flight attendant who was from Aiea Heights. She was pretty stoked about the mango bread too. I’m stoked that I meet cool people all over the place. I’m trying to live like every second could be my last. I don’t know how that’s supposed to work sometimes when I’m tired and I want to sleep or if I have a headache and just want to be left alone though.
I got off the plane, down the escalator, and through the tunnel in the train, and then I went to go check in and get my ticket. I guess I already had it. I left my paper (napkin) rose Lenny made me in the bathroom and was pretty bummed as I sat down to eat my hospital-like chicken parmesana with spaghetti. I knew I should have gone with the chicken mcnuggets and super yummy fries. Oh well. No electricity in the eating area! The only outlets that work are taken up by some businessmen’s laptops. So, back to the terminal to wait for five more hours. This would be a good day to want to stay on myspace forever and want to do nothing else.

Day 3, July 31, 2006
It’s 4:10am, Chilean time, and I’ve just watched two movies, Take The Lead, and She’s The Man. I’m listening to Good Charlotte, of all people, the song, Seasons. I feel energetic; I’m excited about this trip! I feel like anything can happen, I’m inspired. I’ve met so many cool people so far, and I haven’t even arrived yet! I love having to step outside of my shell. I met two people from Santiago, Sophia, who is eleven, even though she looks and acts older, beautiful girl, and her father, Julian. The wife/mother is sitting a few rows in front of us. Both Julian and his wife are professors, he teaches math, and she teaches children with special needs. They went to Boston to visit Sophia’s abuelo. I guess she has two older sisters back in Chile. She wants to move to Boston even though she doesn’t speak English yet. She’s adorable; she was cold so I offered her my coat. “No importa,” she said, but ended up using it anyway. Julian is very kind. He says his English is bad, but it’s pretty good. I say my Spanish is bad, but he says esta perfecto. I’m really stoked to be here so far, just hoping that Richard will be at the café when I get there. It’s crazy, I though speaking and understanding Spanish would be a lot easier, but I might have been wrong. Oh well.
So anyway, I want to learn French next, and go to med school, and I really want to be a traveling doctor. I can see myself living in a little village either by myself or with family, and just helping people. I don’t need to be rich; I just want to have enough to be content. I don’t know. We’ll see… I want to take a dancing class when I get back, and maybe perform in a musical. I wish I could go to sleep though; I’m going to be so wiped out when I get there. I need to be alert so that I can talk to the customs guys and find my way around. So stoked, so so stoked!

Dia 4, 1 de Agusto
Me gusta mucho mi familia. Ellos estan muy amables. Ayer fue, en un restaurante chino. Mi papa, Omar, habla inglés, y cuando yo no puedo comunicarme o encontrar una palabra, el me ayuda. Mi hermanito, Naim, esta timido, pero el me encanta. Yo se el esta travieso. Naim tiene una guitarra, y a eso, me gusta mucho. Mi mama, Rosy, esta muy simpático, pero hoy, ella esta inferma. Ellos estan muy estrecha y cariñosa. La casa esta muy cuco y todo aqui e en la ciudad es más moderna que yo pensé. Mi español es muy mal ahora porque estoy tímida y yo no quiero hacer alguna cosa estupida.

I like my family a lot, they’re very friendly. Yesterday we ate at a Chinese restaurant. My “dad,” Omar, speaks English and he helps me if I have a problem communicating or can’t find certain words. It’s sad though, he left about half an hour after we got home. He’ll be gone for a month. Naim, my little brother, is a little shy, but I like him. I know that he is a rascal. My “mom,” Rosa, is very nice, it’s a bummer though, she’s sick today. Everything is kind of different than I thought, more modern. My Spanish is really bad! I’m having a hard time understanding people, and it’s hard for me to speak because I’m afraid I’ll say something wrong. I’m stoked though, they have a guitar!

Día 7, 4 de Agusto
Of all things… my adaptor broke. Ah, so now I’m going to go find a new one in el Centro, and I think I’ll go find a USB cord while I’m at it. I’m so stupid… I forget everything… I hope my parents don’t throw away that medicine bottle with my nice earrings in it (hint hint) it only has one pill left hahahahahahahaha!!! Ok. Need to reserve battery… dying…dying…ding… dy…d…

Día 9, 6 de Agusto
It’s been almost a week, living in Chile, and it’s been pretty interesting so far. I just learned that what I meant to say… was totally something else. Embarazada means I’m pregnant, and is not Avergonzada, which means I’m embarrassed! Ah, everyone is very entertained my strange antics. It’s B-E-A-utiful. We had dinner (cenar) at Rosi (my mom here)’s sister’s house, two apartments down from ours. We had un torta de caremela, some german cake or something, blond vanilla chocolate chip brownies, el pan con mantequilla, jamón y queso. Qué Cenar! It reminded me of that one time we had ice cream at our house a few years ago. Ha, I was so happy! Today was el día de los niños, so I guess that’s how they eat dinner here… once a year. Ah, I’m so tired, but I need to write, because later… I just won’t. I’ve been going strong since Friday. We had a four hour orientation, which was long as hell, and then after we went home to eat dinner, around 10ish, we went to Café Journal, which is all the way down the hill, about 20 minutes walk. I went with Kevin D. and Jonatha, who live right next door to Rosi’s sister. It’s so awesome to have people to walk with whenever. We made a pact to never take the bus (el migro) a la Universidad. Yes, altogether, we’ll save like slose to $100. Anyway, we walked to there, and Jonatha bought three picsos. Oh. My. Goodness. It was so bitter. Ah, so I had tea. Ha, I’m such a dork. It was crazy, everybody had their beers and piscos, and there I was with my tea. Ok, well I wasn’t the only one, Chris and Tori had like Jugo naturale y agua. It was superdivirtido, we were all dancing and talking, and losing our voices (I don’t know if I’m getting sick, or if I’ve just been talking and screaming too much). So after the craziness, we had pollo and queso empanadas, and walked home at about 2ish. It was nice, it’s cold here, but after walking up hill for 20 minutes, gosh, I was so hot! Oh yes, and tired. I went right to bed after brushing my teeth, which was a mistake, because when I woke up at 7:30 (so early!), my pillow smelled like smoke. So after me duché, I fell asleep watching the munsters in español. Later, I waited for like an hour, waiting for my gringa amiga, while she got lost in Viña. Craziness.
So yes, later we went on that superlargo tour. It was fun, ah, but so long!!! We went on ascensores, which are like vertical elevator/train things. Valparaíso is awesome, beautiful architecture and street art everywhere. I spent way too much on a painting, but me encanta!!! Haha. We went on a crazy boat ride in the middle of the night to look at seals, which was crazy. First time ever I had to pay to go to el baño. Y despues, yo fui a la casa con Jonatha y Nikos.
Today! Finally we are on this topic, although, frankly, I am way too tired to type much about that right now. Kevin, Kevin, Chris, Tori, Jonatha, and I went to Reñaca to surf... will write more later...