Introductions

Absorbing, absorbing, absorbing. I have been absorbing my surroundings for four days, swallowing flavorful names, faces, words, places into part of my consciousness without the time or much less mental energy to completely process it all.

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Katie drops me off at the airport. Goodbye with a big hug and promise from each of us -- her to get better and me to visit her in Pennsylvania when I get back. Wham! A gust of thought blows across me as a swing open the door to DIA. You are all alone, now, it says. And then another, not as sensational. Well that was dramatic, let's go.

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"Señora, señora!" one of the many taxi drivers awaiting arriving travelers at the Santiago airport points at the ATM. I have just turned away from my debit card which is now sticking its tongue out from the machine at me as if to say, stupid gringa. Ok, I grab the card and show the taxista the address of my hostel. I'm resigning myself to an overpriced ride, but at least to someone who seems trustworthy. 

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"Are you SITers?" Four students tentatively approach each other at the Andes Hostel but quickly launch themselves into talkative budding friendships. We wander into a park, across the river, into a plaza, down muraled streets. By sundown four has become eight and we are enjoying Santiago from the terrace above the hostel. We're asking the obvious, where are you from, what school do you go to?, sharing anecdotes, and contemplating the next day when we'll meet the rest of our group and start our orientation.

Now I'm in Valparaiso's little sister Viña del Mar. The two are separated only, it seems, by a slight ridge on one of the many hills that slide into the Pacific, the younger one possessing beaches while the older holds the port. Orientation is taking place in a Hotel Cerro Castillo, where we eat, sleep, and get the low-down on all our program entails in Spanish. Not only does everyone in the group seem like genuinely nice people, our directors could not be sweeter. This first week has a familiarly freshman feel to it, what with the communal living, the excitement of an experience, and the meeting, meeting, meeting. 

I have been introduced to Valparaiso......

yesterday we got a panoramic view from a boat in the port and today we had a "drop-off" activity where you and a partner have to find a landmark and ask locals about it. Mine was an ascensor, a lift typical to Valparaiso that climbs a steep hill. The first woman my partner and I asked in our deliberate Spanish replied, "Sorry, I'm a tourist too,"but thankfully added, "But my cousin's from here." The cousin was a very helpful history teacher, and we learned more about this ascensor than we would ever need to know. And interestingly the tourist was hardly a tourist. She was visiting from South Dakota, where her family's lived ever since they went into exile in the 70's when her father became a desaparecido after the coup. 

.........But even though I know Valparaiso's name (and her nickname, Valpo) and have seen a glimpse of her, her personality is still as unknown to me as my host family is until Sunday. Today I realized that during the time I am becoming acquainted with new people and a new language, I will also be getting to know a new city. And she seems pretty darn cool!