I've finally arrived!
Time to update the blog! My travels to Chile were uneventful. Planes left on time, seatmates were mostly agreeable and Miami airport was nicer than Atlanta—cleaner and better looking by far. By the time I finally arrived at the Davila home on Thursday, 29 December 2005, at 11:30 am Chile time (3 hours later than CST) I had been traveling for almost 20 hours! I was able to get an aisle seat from Miami to Santiago, which was great for my knee, but it was still very crowded for someone who is 5’8” and I didn’t sleep very well during the flight.
My luggage was way past my own travel allowances. I brought most of the year’s homeschooling supplies as well as some hard-to-find groceries for the Davilas and it meant that I carried more than twice my normal baggage. Even packing for hot weather in Chile and cold weather in Chicago, my own packing was minimal. After carting luggage all over the world, I am finally learning to pack small, if not exactly light;-) I must say, after trying to manage 2 suitcases and two carry-ons that were at maximum weight limits, I was glad to unpack and hand Jana all those books! Not to mention the 2 large jars of peanut butter, 6-pack of bottled A&W Root beer, and miscellaneous other foodstuffs!
If one of my goals for this trip is to discover if I am supposed to come back to Santiago after I graduate, my first week with the Davilas was a perfect beginning. The day I arrived I found out that we were going camping. And we were leaving the next morning! Jana said that the camping trip would either really connect us, or show us definitely that we couldn’t work together.
We camped about 4.5 hours north of Santiago on the Pacific coast just south of the town of La Serena (if you want to find it on the map). The campground was very lovely….and sandy. I have never spent so much time at the ocean before and it was beautiful! Our site was very shady, but the ground was very hard, and I was sleeping with just a foam mat. I started to feel my age when I had to get up off the ground in the mornings ;-) It was great to spend time so closely with the Davilas. I enjoyed playing with Christopher (10) and Alyssa (8) and was able to have several serious heart-to-heart conversations with Jana and Rodney. After even such a short time here, I feel like I have a much better understanding of what a year here with the Davilas will entail. We cut our stay short by a day because Christopher was not feeling well and had a fever. We arrived back today, my first day with access to email and all of you!
Some of the funny things about being in Chile:
- There is a hole in the ozone over Chile, and even with SPF 50 sunblock on I managed to get sunburned at the beach!
- This is the first New Years that I have been able to spend somewhere where shorts were required apparel!
- Camping with almost strangers makes you feel like family!
- When you are making observations about religion, you see it many things that you may never have seen it before: in decorations, people’s decision-making and political situations. It’s amazing!
- Making lunch the largest meal of the day becomes more and more logical;-)
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