Imagine waking up after 5 hours of being only half asleep on an American Airlines 767, looking out the window, and being at eye level with the Andes mountains, peeking out over a layer of very thick clouds. That was my ''Bienvenida'' and I was jumping up and down in my tiny little seat to say the least.
I've been in Santiago for 2 weeks, and it's definitely an awesome city. With the traditional suicidal motorists of Latin America, a giant centro comercial every couple of blocks, and words like ''cachai'' ''pololo'' and ''taco'' ( ''you know?'', boyfriend, and traffic, respectively) Santiago is a pretty awesome place. The whole native Spanish speaker of Mexican descent helps, but it's not hard to feel foreign and at home all at the same time.
As an introduction to my reason for being here, I'd like to write many praises to the David Rockefeller for Latin American Studies, because they are freakin' awesome. This is Harvard money put to good use, like really. The 20 students in the program are all working and outstanding foundations, companies, ministries, and other institutions, allowing for professional improvement and cultural immersion all in one summer (or winter, depending on which hemisphere you follow). I'm working for Fundación Nuestros Hijos, pretty much doing the work that I want to dedicate my life to. I'll dedicate a post to that quite soon.
Apart from my daily, or weekly adventures amongst the every day commuters here in Santiago, you can expect me to report on such things as public transportation in this metropolitan area (an opinion which changes on a daily basis), the many adventures of the Harvardians and the friends we make, my travels outside of Chile to its neighbors north and east, and of course, news on the coolest host family on earth (Marcos, Carolina, Antonia age 6, and Magdalena age 4). I hope you enjoy the fun and hardships, and don't be surprised if many of my posts move in an out or are entirely written in Spanish.
Me despido con un beso, y un '' chao'', the Chilean way.
