i'm not in "gringolandia" anymore...

yes...my host family just told me that they, (basically all chilenos) refer to the USA as "gringolandia." Anyway...I'm here! I got to Chile about a week ago after dealing with some canceled planes, some delayed planes, and some really unhelpful airport people...after we arrived in Santiago, we went to a small town called Olmue where we had our program's version of orientation-basically getting tons of food shoved down us, learning about some basic cultural differences between the US and Chile, and making fools out of ourselves at our brief salsa/merengue dance lessons. The few days at the hotel in Olmue were kinda realllllly overwhelming, because they're basically just feeding you tons of information about Chilean culture, our host families, chilean language (which apparently is not spanish, it's Chilean and nearly impossible to understand), and what we ought to expect-or not expect- for our coming semester...I was soooo anxious to just get to Vina and meet my family and confront the city rather than sitting in a conference room listening to lectures about everything...all in all, in those 2-3 days, I felt more unsettled than I've felt in a long time, and it was sooooo hard to deal with it since I knew no one...

Anyway, we finally came to Vina del Mar where all of our families were waiting for us...everyone was nervous and excited and just really anxious to get settled and meet our 5-month family...hah...I was really scared about getting stuck with a witch or something but I lucked out...I have a mom and a dad, a 16 yr old sister Natalia, a 23 yr old bro Diego, and a 26 yr old bro Gustavo...the mom, Ale, is suuuper nice and accomodating, and most of all patient and talkative! Ever since i've arrived she's gotten me everything i need and more, and cooks great food! The dad, Hernan, is really nice as well, and pretty protective...the morning after i arrived he took me down by the coast to show me where it's safe to run where there are tons of people and a path and everything along the beach, and then when i went to take my first 'micro' (bus) by myself, he walked me to the bus stop and made sure the driver knew wehre i was going...I felt like I was in kindergarten all over again, but it's ok...i guess. Natalia and I are really starting to open up with eachother, and she's started teaching me "modismos chilenos," things that only native chileans say, so hopefully i'll be able to catch on here pretty soon...we'll see about that...the brothers are cool but i dont really see them much-theyre both in school and work and out of the house most of the time...
Vina, where i live, is a small city along the coast right next to (like 5 miles away from) Valparaiso, a large, bohemian port-city...There are colorful buildings/houses lining the streets and literally piled up the hill overlooking the bay...i really like it...havent explored the inner streets yet, but i know they're full of cool things to see/do/etc...
I'd say for now, i've never felt so limited in my ability to communicate with anyone...my family will talk to me a thousand miles a minute and i basically just sit there and smile and say 'si, si, si' over and over again...and then sometimes they'll ask me a question but i dont really know it, and they'll sit there and wait for a response, until they realize i have no idea what's going on...they're finally catching on that they talk super fast and mumble and i cant understand and the mom will say, "oh, she still doesnt understand," and then they manipulate the words alot and try to explain to me...oh my gosh it's frustrating...i really feel like a little kid learning a new language from the start. For all you spanish people, basically forget the majority of your verb conjugations, grammar and pronounciation, drop the end of most words, the beginning of the rest of the words, add a dictionary's worth of new words and phrases, some serious mumbling and speed talking, and youve got what they call Chilean. Apparently I missed the memo that chilean spanish would be this tough...

ok, more later...i'm off to freeze...there's no heat anywehre, so basically in order to get warm, you have to climb into bed...in a nutshell, getting out of bed in the morning is the worst part of my day...