Rain, Rain, Go Away

So much rain! It's a little unfortunate and my house mom says it hardly rains. But, it seems like it's here to stay for a while. Speaking of my house mom, I love her! She is the sweetest thing on the planet! Her name is Gloria and she lives by herself in what would be considered uptown Santiago. Hopefully I can get a picture with her soon!

Anyway, central heating does not exist. Space heaters are where it's at! It's pretty darn cold inside and out. Even though I am sitting inside, I'm wearing pants, warm fuzzy socks, a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, and a scarf. With the heater pointed in my direction I'm comfortable :) Heating aside, I think Gloria is on the wealthier side of Santiago. I got really lucky with my house placement and I am super thankful for a mom that is extremely nice.

Today and yesterday I have been wandering the city just to see what's out there. The dreary weather makes everything gray. The skyscrapers just seem to blend into the misty clouds above. Luckily, gray became one of my favorite colors last year (Probably a product of Macie's passion for black, I just couldn't go that extreme) and I have found that I quite like it. I got a cell phone yesterday for local calls and texts... what an experience! It's prepaid, so I don't have a bill to worry about, but the poor man explaining the plans to me and my friend had to repeat himself about 5 times. I finally decided on a phone though and I now feel connected to the world again, even though my contact list if full of a staggering 5 numbers. I think the guy who sold me the phone took down my number. He said he was just kidding, but then never erased it haha. I haven't heard from him yet and I'm hoping I won't.

Today so far has consisted of meeting my mama chilean and her showing me around the neighborhood. It was pretty funny how everyone in the program was matched up. We were led to a church and all the students sat on one side of the aisle and the host families on the other. One by one they called a student and then a parent. As each stood up you just went, hugged, and then you were off with no further instruction.

My mom came with her sister because her sister was the only one with a car. At first I thought, "Wow, I have two mom's?? That's pretty radical for Chile", that was before I took a closer look at them and realized they were related. The sister would honk at every pedestrian and approaching car, even if there weren't in her way. I wanted to crack up, but the I thought that would probably be rude haha.

Coffee and sweets are typical to eat in the afternoon. Dear lord, is there such thing as the abroad 15? So far I'm liking it here, a lot. I keep forgetting that i am here for school. It still feels like a crazy vacation that I just decided to take. 

Sorry for the long entry, you're super cool if you read the whole thing. These first couple days are just filled with interesting stuff to share. That is sure to change once school starts. ¡Hasta luego! 

I made it!

 

My first view of the Andes

I have never felt like more of a california girl in my life. We touch down and there is snow on the ground... I´m wearing flip-flops and my toes are painted bright yellow, the disneyland sweatshirt added to the cali vibe too. Needless to say I was a little cold, but I got my luggage and my boots soon enough.

Nine hours from Dallas and I`m finally in Santiago! What was supposed to be an empty flight, turned into a really crowded one when another flight got canceled and all those passengers hopped on ours. Two people on the plane asked me if I was excited to go home, I guess it's a good thing I blend. 

Arriving in Santiago seemed like a whirlwind. I just went with the crowd without really paying attention to where I was going. They knew where they were going though and soon I was waiting in line at customs. Explaining my major to the customs guy is so ridiculous. People don't really get what Global Studies in English so Spanish isn't much better. I proceed to get my bags, once again just letting the crowd direct me. For the first time in my life, both of my bags were some of the first off the plane! Incredible. Getting a Taxi was next. You have to wait in line at a desk in the airport instead of on the curb, it's not too bad considering it's 42 degrees outside. Then once you have your receipt you walk out the doors to a rush of cold and and about 50 men yelling out their taxi company name, it`s kind of overwhelming.

I find my guy and he drives me through town. It looks so similar to California, I like it. I'm staying in Hostelling International Santiago for the night, but I feel like I'm at Dashain (The Co-Op in IV). It`s a pretty cool place. I`m digging it, but I`m only here for one night until I meet up with my group tomorrow. (Forgive the punctuation, it takes a little getting used to on a spanish keyboard.)

Here We Go

Here I am, Maya Rae Martinez, joining the blogging world. I never pictured myself writing about my life for others to read, but I mean why not? Today everything we do is blasted on some social networking site anyway. The first of these so called blogs is dedicated to the coolest people I know: the costume wearing-waaahoooo screaming- cheese eating- bitches ain’t shit preaching- down for anything girls of Breakpointe. Y’all mean the world to me and have inspired me more than you probably know.  

Soooooo the countdown begins. 4 days. Well, actually the countdown began a long time ago, but it seems like the here and now is all that matters at the moment. Packing is impossible, I have too many shoes. Is is embarrassing that this is actually a problem for me? Hell no! I love my shoes... Although my past year has been filled with incredible memories, I find myself searching for more. There is so much more out there waiting for me, I just know it, and I’m about to freaking dive right in.

Chile. I could be cliché and say it’s going to be an experience of a lifetime, but I think I’m gonna go a completely different route and say it’s going to be THE experience of MY lifetime. An absolutely HUGE, larger-than-life thank you goes out to everyone that has supported me, you all knew I was going to go anyway but it’s nice to have you guys backing me up :) The past month has been such a crazy range of emotions: love, frustration, happiness, sadness, joy, excitement, anxiety, stress, but I can finally say with a decent amount of confidence that I’m ready. So BRING IT!