This is just a more detailed Synopsis of the orientations and my first day in Copiapò, but here I go.
Since I left New York wednesday morning, a lot has happened. I feel as though years have gone by. I flew to Miami where I had the most-difficult time catching a shuttle to the hotel. This did not bode well (after all, it was in English), however, everyone else had an equally difficult time with the shuttle, so if it's an indication of anything, I'm not the only one in for some hard times. After we got to the hotel (beautiful by the way) we spent a couple of hours hanging out and showering (although not both at once). I was roommates with Mimi, the girl I'd been talking to on Facebook. It was awesome, we became really good friends in like, a day! There were six of us going to Chile, three year kids (Me going to Copiapò, Mimi going to Temuco and Bo going to Iquique) and three semester kids (Rosemary going to Quillota, Allison going to Arica and Carah going to Limares). There were also the people going to Brazil and Paraguay at our orientation, so we hung out with them too, but the Chileans were the last to leave so we had like five hours by ourselves to talk. Most of the orientation in Miami consisted of waiting around, being yelled at for being late (oh, the irony!) and listening to stuff we already knew. Talking with the other AFSers was fun though.
After our day and a half in Miami, we took a hotel shuttle to the airport at 8 o' clock for an 11:30 flight. I managed to sleep through some of it, but I was in the middle of the middle row, and whenever I woke up, the people on both sides of me were sleeping. I did however get an amazing view of the snow capped Andes, which really drove home that it is winter in Chile. The real shock, however, was when we got off the plane and realized that they didn't heat the buildings. We spent most of our two days at orientation camp shivering. It was held in this large building full of pictures of Jesus and crosses that was practically impossible to navigate in. Somewhere in that maze however, there was a room with a fire, but we couldn't all fit around it. There were maybe sixty or seventy kids, mainly from Europe (actually, they were mainly from Italy), but people more or less stuck together in their country groups, and it was a bit awkward. Most of the other kids spoke English to some extent, so we Americans were embarassed by our language abilities. My roommate was a girl named Charlotte Rousseau (from France, in case you couldn't guess), and we had a small room with bunk-beds and a completely inadequate supply of blankets. Last night was the first night in a week that I haven't woken up frozen! And I slept thirteen hours for the record. School is going to completely wipe me out! Well, we spent most of saturday in our area specific groups (I was in group one, el Norte) and we found out a lot about the country, the culture and AFS. The rest of the cities in el Norte had the kids going by plane, and most of the closer cities, the kids were getting picked up, but us lucky ones got to leave that night for the bus station. There we waited around for a couple of hours, and I talked with Mimi a lot. We were the only Americans laeving that night, and it was sad to say goodbye to her. It's crazy how close we got in like four days.
My bus left first at 10:00 pm, and there were four of us on it from AFS. Me, Javiera, an AFS volunteer, Julien, a French boy going to my school, and Carmen, a Swiss-German Girl, all going to Copiapo. I slept through most of the bus ride because the seats reclined into almost beds, but I woke up a bit before we got there and looked out the window. The desert is gorgeous! When we got to the bus station, Carmen and Julien's families met them, and my hostmom's Tia Cecilia (she's actually her god mother) met me and brought me home. We drove by my host family`s house on the way and it is beautiful! Red painted stone of some sort. She thinks that my host family will be home by wednesday or thursday, but until then I'm staying here. She took me around town to see the mall and town sqaure, then we met her husband for lunch: a plate of grilled meat. Sorry Marie, I think I may have eaten your steak. Once you're all done laughing, I'll mention that my tia speaks English, but her husband doesn`t. I understand most of the Spanish directed at me (It's much slower), but reponding is difficult. I`ve completely forgotten the future and past tenses, so living in the present is pretty easy.
I've been exhausted for days now, but that did it. Did I mention that I slept thirteen hours last night? Before that though, she brought me out to Bahia Inglesia and Caldera. The desert is full of flowers right now since it rained recently and it's beautiful! Anyways, we got home (it's about an hour drive and did I mention she has a beach house?) and ate dinner (some kind of beef and rice) before going to bed. We may be going to find a uniform today or visiting Carmen who lives very close. She had to go to her school today, so I'm alone with the nana for a while. After she gets back, we'll see. I don`t really know what's going on, I think I don't start school for a while, but I'm sure I'll find out soon enough.
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