Los primeros dias

Hola a todos!

We arrived in Chile safely on Saturday morning, although after a very frustrating and stressful trip. I was almost not allowed to board the plane, and after an hour of arguing with the ticket agent and after finding the mercy of a very nice supervisor, they let me through. When I arrived in Santiago only one of my bags showed up, and I was confined to wear only flip-flops until yesterday when the other bag (with all my shoes!) showed up.

There are 80 of us volunteers living here at Hostelling International in Santiago which has been a fun experience - we are all training together and will be placed all over the country to teach.

Training this week has been good but long. We are in class from 9am - 6pm every day and are learning how to teach (especially how to teach children who have little or no English knowledge), information about Chilean culture and customs, and we also have a Spanish class each day. It's been tiring but great so far, and I'm very much looking forward to traveling up to my placement in Copiapo this upcoming weekend, meeting my host family, and settling into the community.

It looks like i'll have at least some internet access during the next few months so please e-mail me, skype, etc. to keep in touch - though I love Chile so far I'm already missing some things about the States - especially friends and family. Hasta pronto!

~Steph~