Sooooooooooo busy!!!

I've been incredibly busy. I've been here more than a week and this is the first time I've been able to get around to writing in this thing, and that's mostly because I know many of you want to hear an update. Honestly, I'm exhausted, but in a really good way.

We're staying in a really nice hostel in the centro de Santiago. Great location, very comfortable, and wi-fi. Living out of a suitcase in a room with 3 other guys is starting to get a little old, but it's only for a month, so I think I'll survive.

Santiago is absolutely beautiful, even if it is incredibly hot. I made it here a couple of times last time, and it seems to be a lot cleaner for some reason. That may have to do with their recent revamping of the public transportation system. The metro (which has always been incredibly clean) now uses a card-pass system that is compatible with the bus system as well. The buses (or micros as they call them here) are also all new or re-painted and cleaned. It's very nice. So yeah, I'm getting a feel for the city, and could definitely see myself living here someday too. Still, I'm really looking forward to getting back to Valpo.

Speaking of which...

This weekend I'm heading to Valpo/Viña with a bunch of the other volunteers for some happy-fun-beach-time. The groups been really amazing. There's really not a single person who I dislike in the whole group, and we've all become pretty good friends. In general a very friendly group of interesting people. Couldn't be happier with how that turned out.

Holy crap, I am exhausted. We've been putting in 10 hour days lately between teacher training and spanish. Today was a 12 hour day because we also had to deal a ton of chilean bureaucracy involved with our visas. Tomorrow's the same as we go throught he process of getting our chilean ID's. So that's fun. But our directors are great and really giving 110% to make our stay here as pleasant and positive as possible.

Hmm...what else. I think I've mentioned this before, but the percentage of the world who can actually do this sort of thing is incredibly small. A day after arriving here I met a French-Californian who had visited Carleton last spring. It's very possible I passed him on the street back in May, and now I run into him in Santiago, Chile. One girl on my program went to St. Olaf (about 3 miles from Carleton). Another to the U of M (we also share a couple mutual acquaintances). Four of my former SIT classmates will be in Chile at the same time in April. Not to mention the army of Australians and Britons I've met who have passed through Minneapolis or at least the US at some point. Anyway, there are constant reminders here of how fortunate and privileged I am to be here and to have the these possibilities. There are approximately 6.8 billion people on the planet. What are the odds of being born and having these opportunities? Not great. Looking at it that way, makes fatigue (and the frustrations of Chilean bureaucracy) pretty insignificant. Anyway, I'm feeling fortunate every day.

Some of my friends are salsa (?) dancing right now in the middle of the room. Ha.

Ok, wrapping it up, I have a cell phone here now. I'll be sending out emails shortly with the number and calling instruction should you feel so inclined. Mind the time difference, though, I'm 3 hours ahead of you. Ok, that's about it for now.

¡Cuídense todos!

Alex