My first blog entry, and well delayed it is! I suppose for now, I will start from day one and summarize everything that has happened up to this point, and begin a more steady blog afterward, so as not to overwhelm the reader! First, I want to apologize for my grammar, I spell well, and I speak well, but I also overly enjoy punctuation marks, especially the comma. So, you will have to endure.
February 3rd, 2009. This is the day everything became real to me. In just a few hours, I was going to be leaving my country, my home, my friends, my family, my comfort, MY ZAXBY’S for six months. This is a strange revelation, but I know that I have a great purpose in Chile. So I packed my things and headed for Atlanta. We left Huntsville a few hours behind schedule, so my arrival to the Atlanta International Airport was less than punctual. This turned out not to be as much of a problem as I had feared it would be. I entered the airport, searched for and found my ticket line. I say line, luckily for me I was the only person running through the maze of rope to the counter. I purchased my ticket, sent off my baggage, and it was real. My family came in from parking the car, and we chatted for a few minutes. After which, we had a short good-bye, and I walked through the security gates to begin my journey to Santiago, Chile. I walked past fifteen terminals until I reached my destination, terminal 1. I waited alone for a few minutes, and then the two others on my flight, Jaclyn and Danny, strolled in. It was good to get to see some semi-familiar faces. After we caught up with each other, we each retreated to our cellular phones to make our “last good-bye” calls. It was bittersweet. Beneath the blaring intercom we all tried our best to part with our dearest friends, and then our names were called. It was time to board the plane. Time to say” Hasta Julio” to US soil. What a crazy feeling that was.
We had been expecting to all have seats in first class, however because of weight distribution on the plane we were all bumped into coach. I was sad to say the least, it wasn’t necessarily that I knew what I was missing, but I was told you had unlimited ice cream in first class. To try to please us the best they could the airline gave us seats with few people surrounding us, I had an inner aisle seat with no one on either side of me. I decided rather than use three seats for myself, I would find Jaclyn and Danny and we would all be able to sit together. It worked out great. We were able to get to know each other some more through talking, laughing, and then trying to find ways to sleep. We landed in Santiago, Chile on February 4th, 2009, a short nine and a half hours after take-off. I purchased my visa, and we headed to baggage claim. On our way we saw Andrew and Katy Mosby waving from a window above, our ride was here and waiting. We grabbed our luggage and met them on the other side of customs. It was great to meet the people we would be working with down here. They are more or less my bosses. We then had time to experience some of Chile as we waited for the last girl, Ashley’s, plane to arrive. We exchanged some of our money into Chilean pesos. The transfer was 640 to 1 dollar, I was an instant millionaire. Then, we stepped for the first time into the Chilean air. It felt amazing, a fresh 70 degrees. Then, we stepped out of the shadow of the airport and hit the real Chilean summer: 95 Degrees. A sweater was not a good choice. After Ashley’s plane arrived we headed toward our new houses where we found Patrick, the other boy on this trip, waiting on us. Danny and I were dropped off and the girls were driven to their home.
Patrick walked us to what would be our home for the next six months. It is more or less a quaint boarding house on the 4th level of the building at the intersection of Vicuna Makeena, and Irravazavel. The duena of the house is named Carmen. She is an elderly woman who was very excited at our arrival. The other two people that live in our house are Nancy who is the live in mom, housemaid, chef, amazing woman, and then there is her daughter Karla, who later I will find out has one of the biggest hearts I have ever come across, she is going to make a great sister. Danny’s and my room holds an amazing view of one of the busiest intersections in Santiago. We are told that after a futbol game the biggest riots in the city take place here. Danny and I had about an hour of rest, and Patrick was ready to give us his tour of the city. We met up with the girls, via our first trip on Trans-Santiago. The Micro (Bus) took us well beyond the girls’ house, because Patrick was a little confused on where they lived. After asking several old natives we finally found our way to the girls’ house. When we arrived the girls were eating a small dinner with Andrew, Katy, and their new family. They were all very nice, and that was when it really hit Danny and me that we were starving. We had not eaten since the plane served us a dismal breakfast. We tried some of the different food that their mother, Gabbie, had to offer, but it was mostly appetizers to us, bread with pica de gallo, and some juice. We had to get out of there and find some food. The girls finished up and we left, Patrick was still in overdrive mode to get his tour underway so we had to beg him to let us stop and eat. We stopped at a small shop near our bus stop and ate our first Chilean food. I had a Viennesa italiana, and a viennesa completa. I can’t much tell you the difference between the two, all I now for sure is they were both hotdogs. One was covered in avocado (palta), mayonnaise, and tomatoes. I suppose that was the Italiana, and was representing the colors of their flag. The other was all of that plus some onions and other various unexpected food items, I guess making it more- Complete. After eating we took the Metro (Subway), and met up with one of Patrick’s friends, Felipe. We walked around for what seemed like forever. We passed a wall of posters informing us that Radiohead and Backstreet Boys were coming to Santiago in March. We were in a part of town known as Peonono. Apparently, this is where a pretty hopping nightlife exists. After walking past several closed bars, small shops, and vendors we reached our destination, San Cristobal…. And this is where I will pick up next entry.
February 3rd, 2009. This is the day everything became real to me. In just a few hours, I was going to be leaving my country, my home, my friends, my family, my comfort, MY ZAXBY’S for six months. This is a strange revelation, but I know that I have a great purpose in Chile. So I packed my things and headed for Atlanta. We left Huntsville a few hours behind schedule, so my arrival to the Atlanta International Airport was less than punctual. This turned out not to be as much of a problem as I had feared it would be. I entered the airport, searched for and found my ticket line. I say line, luckily for me I was the only person running through the maze of rope to the counter. I purchased my ticket, sent off my baggage, and it was real. My family came in from parking the car, and we chatted for a few minutes. After which, we had a short good-bye, and I walked through the security gates to begin my journey to Santiago, Chile. I walked past fifteen terminals until I reached my destination, terminal 1. I waited alone for a few minutes, and then the two others on my flight, Jaclyn and Danny, strolled in. It was good to get to see some semi-familiar faces. After we caught up with each other, we each retreated to our cellular phones to make our “last good-bye” calls. It was bittersweet. Beneath the blaring intercom we all tried our best to part with our dearest friends, and then our names were called. It was time to board the plane. Time to say” Hasta Julio” to US soil. What a crazy feeling that was.
We had been expecting to all have seats in first class, however because of weight distribution on the plane we were all bumped into coach. I was sad to say the least, it wasn’t necessarily that I knew what I was missing, but I was told you had unlimited ice cream in first class. To try to please us the best they could the airline gave us seats with few people surrounding us, I had an inner aisle seat with no one on either side of me. I decided rather than use three seats for myself, I would find Jaclyn and Danny and we would all be able to sit together. It worked out great. We were able to get to know each other some more through talking, laughing, and then trying to find ways to sleep. We landed in Santiago, Chile on February 4th, 2009, a short nine and a half hours after take-off. I purchased my visa, and we headed to baggage claim. On our way we saw Andrew and Katy Mosby waving from a window above, our ride was here and waiting. We grabbed our luggage and met them on the other side of customs. It was great to meet the people we would be working with down here. They are more or less my bosses. We then had time to experience some of Chile as we waited for the last girl, Ashley’s, plane to arrive. We exchanged some of our money into Chilean pesos. The transfer was 640 to 1 dollar, I was an instant millionaire. Then, we stepped for the first time into the Chilean air. It felt amazing, a fresh 70 degrees. Then, we stepped out of the shadow of the airport and hit the real Chilean summer: 95 Degrees. A sweater was not a good choice. After Ashley’s plane arrived we headed toward our new houses where we found Patrick, the other boy on this trip, waiting on us. Danny and I were dropped off and the girls were driven to their home.
Patrick walked us to what would be our home for the next six months. It is more or less a quaint boarding house on the 4th level of the building at the intersection of Vicuna Makeena, and Irravazavel. The duena of the house is named Carmen. She is an elderly woman who was very excited at our arrival. The other two people that live in our house are Nancy who is the live in mom, housemaid, chef, amazing woman, and then there is her daughter Karla, who later I will find out has one of the biggest hearts I have ever come across, she is going to make a great sister. Danny’s and my room holds an amazing view of one of the busiest intersections in Santiago. We are told that after a futbol game the biggest riots in the city take place here. Danny and I had about an hour of rest, and Patrick was ready to give us his tour of the city. We met up with the girls, via our first trip on Trans-Santiago. The Micro (Bus) took us well beyond the girls’ house, because Patrick was a little confused on where they lived. After asking several old natives we finally found our way to the girls’ house. When we arrived the girls were eating a small dinner with Andrew, Katy, and their new family. They were all very nice, and that was when it really hit Danny and me that we were starving. We had not eaten since the plane served us a dismal breakfast. We tried some of the different food that their mother, Gabbie, had to offer, but it was mostly appetizers to us, bread with pica de gallo, and some juice. We had to get out of there and find some food. The girls finished up and we left, Patrick was still in overdrive mode to get his tour underway so we had to beg him to let us stop and eat. We stopped at a small shop near our bus stop and ate our first Chilean food. I had a Viennesa italiana, and a viennesa completa. I can’t much tell you the difference between the two, all I now for sure is they were both hotdogs. One was covered in avocado (palta), mayonnaise, and tomatoes. I suppose that was the Italiana, and was representing the colors of their flag. The other was all of that plus some onions and other various unexpected food items, I guess making it more- Complete. After eating we took the Metro (Subway), and met up with one of Patrick’s friends, Felipe. We walked around for what seemed like forever. We passed a wall of posters informing us that Radiohead and Backstreet Boys were coming to Santiago in March. We were in a part of town known as Peonono. Apparently, this is where a pretty hopping nightlife exists. After walking past several closed bars, small shops, and vendors we reached our destination, San Cristobal…. And this is where I will pick up next entry.
