¡I'm in Copiapò!

I wish I could post pictures, but I'm too lazy to figure it out. You'll just have to believe me when I say Copiapò is beautiful. Actually Chile in general is beautiful! We had an amazing view of the snow covered Andes while we were flying in becasue yes, it's winter here. At our orientation in Santiago, most of our time was spent huddling around the fire (no central heating) or shivering. This was even more of a shock after our orientation in Miami earlier this week. I feel like we've done nothing but sit around and wait for something to happen for the past week, but it was agreat opportunity to get to know some of th other exchangers. There are 6 of us from the US, three year and three semester kids, as well as the Paraguay and Brazil kids. We spent a lot of time hanging out together and talking about Chile because we were the last to leave for the airport on thursday. None of the other Americans are being hosted very near me, but there is a Swiss girl named Carmen and a French boy named Julien who will be going to the same school as me. Right now I'm staying at the home of an AFS volunteer, my host-mom's tià Cecilia, until my host-family gets back from vacation on wednesday or thursday. She's been really nice to me, showing me around copiapò and even taking me by Bahià Inglesia. The house is beautiful, and she's been explaining things to me (some in English, some in Spanish). I can catch most of the Spanish if it's really slow. I think we might try to go buy our uniforms tomorrow, but in anycase I don't start school right away, which is really nice because I'm exhausted! I should probably also mention that the dreaded bus ride went very well. I slept through most of it, and our seats reclined into almost beds. It's nice to finally be here though. I'll try to write another update soon.