My husband: Santiago

If Argentina was like my perfect boyfriend, then Santiago de Chile would be like my husband; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health I was going to be there for 6 months. Except that Santiago would be more like a mail order husband because I didn’t really know anything about it beforehand and honestly, I didn't love it at first. Everyone always asks me, “So why did you choose Chile?” but I don’t really know why. Once I decided I wanted to study in South America rather than Europe, Chile just seemed like the obvious option because of the immersion program it offered. I figured that the Spanish would be easy and the same as what I had learned in school [it’s not] and after visiting Buenos Aires I assumed that Santiago would be just like it [also, not]. Even though it's different than how I had imagined it to be, I really love Chile, which I'll show through my photos and stories I post on here :). 

I spent my first night here with my friend Lucinda who I met in Argentina and we had the most amazing seafood feast along with a couple of piña coladas at this crazy under the sea/marine themed restaurant. The next day Luc and I reunited with some other friends from Buenos Aires and besides taking this awesome photo with a lama, we went to the top of a hill called Cerro San Cristobal where you could see the whole city, visited one of Pablo Neruda’s homes in Chile, went swimming in the pool at their hostel, and cooked dinner together. Saying goodbye to them was really sad—one thing I’ve discovered about traveling is that it sucks having to leave people who you don’t know if you’ll ever see again [don’t worry though guys, I’m definitely coming to Australia. I need someone to make fun of how I say “heaps”].

After orientation for my program the following day, I moved in with my host family. I had a mom, Marta, two sisters, Fernanda and Catalina, and a sort of brother, Juan Pablo [he wasn’t actually related to the family]. They were all incredibly kind and welcoming and made my transition to Chilean life a lot easier. They live in Las Condes, which is one of the richest parts of the city, and it was a nice and safe neighborhood, but I moved out a few weeks later into an apartment in a more urban part of Santiago that's also conveniently nearby Bellavista [an awesome bar, club, and restaurant district]. 

Even though I have a lot more to say about my first few weeks here, I’m going to split it up a little bit so that it’s not just one overwhelmingly enormous post. So for now here are some pictures from when I got here fresh off the plane and a couple days after that. Chao!

My host mom and I