I have arrived in Chile!!!

Well after much anticipation I have finally arrived in Chile.  My travels began when I woke up at 4am on February 11th to fly from San Francisco to Miami.  After my 5 hour layover in Miami I began my flight to Chile.  Midway through the flight they alerted us that one of the passengers was having a health emergency and we had to make an unplanned stop in Ecuador so the woman could receive medical attention.  Anyhow, we finally arrived in Santiago at about 9am Chilean time which is five hours different from the Pacific time zone.  So I am actually writing this message at about 1:30am, partially because I took a long nap during the middle of the day just to recover from all the traveling.  After I awoke I cruised around Providencia, the part of Santiago I am staying in before I move into my homestay.  I had a delicious meal with fresh juice.  Fruit here is nothing short of amazing.  I walked by a store and smelled the peaches like two stores down.  I think tomorrow I am going on a fruit quest.  It is in some ways surprising the different types of things that have made it from the US to Chile.  McDonalds and Dunkin' Donuts to name a couple.  I hope to see more of the city and meet up with some of the other students on my program when they start coming in tomorrow.  The Spanish here is definitely going to take some getting used to.  Chileans make a habit out of dropping letters off of words and throwing in Chilenismos as they are called as often as possible, so it will definitely take some adjustment, not quite like the Spanish I am used to at home.  Well I guess I will stop at that for now.  It is getting late and I am sure I will have more exciting things to say when I get some sleep!  

Hasta pronto!