Bienvenidos/as

Hello everyone! I finally decided to start a blog to keep you all updated because the funny stories keep coming. This doesn't mean I won't be emailing you still, so you're not off the hook as far as writing back to me! So far, everything is going very well.

My host family is wonderful. I live with Graciela, the mother, who is a German professor and an administrator of some sort. She is very chic and hilarious so there is a positive energy in the house all the time. Her daughter, Carolina lives here too. She sings opera, beautifully. Both of them are fluent in more than two languages which is intimidating but extraordinarily useful for me because they are fantastic at explaining Castellano to me, and correcting me so I am learning a lot. Graciela's sister, Viviana lives a block away. Vivi has a student living at her house to, so we have become good friends. They are a lovely and warm family as well. Their mother and father live in town too and are equally as wonderful people. So, there is no shortage of family get togethers and big, noisy, welcoming meals.

The city is not exactly what I expected. It has a dusty backyard appearance, worn down by wrath earthquakes and dry winters among bouts political and economic struggle. Inside a bland exterior, you will usually find a vibrant and warm interior of a home or a vivacious restaurant. The whole town seems to spend most of the day spending time with one another. Here, they don't start work until later in the day, take a couple hours off in the middle of the day, then return to work and stay there until dark. Meals last for what seems like hours, and sometimes is. After class, which ends around 6, many of us will go out and share a pizza and a bottle of wine (or more) which can cost around $3 US but will last a couple of hours. There is a little stray dog that sleeps on the steps of the hostel nextdoor, and he is the "welcome" into the neighborhood. I live right off of a busy street so there is a lot of noise at all hours of the day but it makes it easy to get around.

We toured some wineries the other day, which were quite and sleepy. Because it's winter down here, there is no green on the vines at all. We toured a deep underground cellar which was very cool (literally too) and then did a wine tasting at another very fancy, modern winery, Alta Vista. We took a nap among the vineards. Later in the day, we went to a beautiful, quaint spanish food restaurant where I tried my first oyster and some shell fish which I had a small allergic reaction to...

We ran into some people on the bus the other night, exchange students from Mexico, who were lost, so we said "why don't you just come out with us?" So they did, and it was a blast. I think we will become friends with them in no time. Otherwise, we have spent a significant amount of time around bottles of wine, or a pizza, or going to clubs (that's an experience)... oh yeah, and attending orientation and Spanish class.

I have really started to miss breakfasts and spicy food....and my family and friends.

I think that's enough for now. For your sake and mine, I'm going to close.