Hello from Santiago, Chile and the very sticky keyboard in the hostel!  If any words I write are missing letters, blame this keyboard.

First lesson I’ve learned here: to type the @ symbol, you need to type Alt + 64… how would anyone ever figure this out?  I had to ask the guy at the desk.

Anyway, it’s 8 am and I have been awake since 6:40 am since I went to bed around 11 and really wanted to have some time to delete my emails and write a quick blog post.  We got to Chile much later than expected because our 11 pm flight on Saturday night was postponed (or canceled, I’m not sure) to 8 am Sunday.  I was sitting on the tarmac for almost 3 hours before taking off from Philly to Miami (due to weather, not being able to fill the fuel tank, huge line of planes, etc) and had no wifi or data, so I didn’t even know our group flight out of Miami was cancelled.  Luckily, my other co-host saved the day and organized a hotel for us to get some rest for a few hours.

Let’s back up though…. on Saturday I woke up to this horrific (looking) full body rash that started Friday night and got a LOT worse over night.  Photos don’t do it justice, but I was covered in this red, bumpy rash everywhere!

I went to the doctor and she said it is “undefined dermititis” which means it could be from the sun or it could be from the sunscreen I used, either way, I wasn’t looking forward to meeting all of my students with it!  Luckily though, we are 3 days in and it is about 80% better!  

So after a rushed morning of seeing the doctor, going for a run, packing, and getting ready, I was off!

I took the train direct to the airport, which was nice, and there was hardly any line in security.  I bought myself a very mediocre poke bowl and then got on my “on time” flight, but we ended up sitting there forever.  I wasn’t stressing about it though since we had a 6 hour layover in Miami before heading to Chile (but as I said, that flight got cancelled).

The flight was good… I got seltzer, pretzels, AND Biscoff cookies so it was like living large.  

In Miami, I met my co-leader and our group, got caught up on the happenings of the day, and while Kristin took most of our students to a hotel, I waited for the last plane to land.  I did so in the American Airlines “customer service” line whee they were “handing out” hotel and food vouchers.

Yah, handing out if you have time to wait 3 hours to get to the front of this massive line!!!  They had 2 people working to help over 80 people.  Way to go, American 🙂

I ditched the line after 1.5 hours and met the final student before heading to our fancy hotel!  I got a suite and was flipping out over this full glass shower (like a glass box in the room with multiple shower heads and wall jets!)

And this toilet with a phone!  I probably would have called my Mom just to experience it, but I was only there 1 am to 5 am and she would have been a tiny bit angry.

Back at the airport, we all hunted and gathered breakfast… the options were slim at 7 am.  Mom- this is the Cuban bread!

Everything with jamòn, so I found myelf a wrap with scrambled egg, spinach, and slimy roast beef….it was as disgusting as it sounds.  Luckily, MY RASH WAS LOOKING MUCHO MEJOR!

The flight from Miami to Chile was only 8 hours, so I watched a movie (Ben is Back- good, not great, but real), slept like 5 hours (got an exit row with a free seat next to me!) and ate some kind of gross food.  It was a good flight!  

We were met by program staff at the airport, took taxis to our hostel (just for one night).  My first impressions were: Mountains! and that this place reminds me of Spain and Peru combined.  That’s about it so fr.  At the hostel, we had a Chilean FEAST!

Jk, it was Telepizza, but it was actually really good- we were all starving!  And just like in Spain, “vegetarian pizza” is pizza with jamòn and veggies.. haha

And with that, we are back to the present.  Monday morning, feeling good, and excited to get the adventure started!!

See you soon!