Hello Hello! For my first posting I bet you were expecting a picture of something more exciting than a concrete wall. But I couldn’t help it!... I love this. I think too, it’s pretty revealing of how I’ve found Chileans to be on first contact – very sensitive and sweet. This is a parking sign outside of the grocery store down the street from my apartment in the middle of the bustling capitol city of Santiago, indicating special parking for handicapped people AND pregnant ladies. Literally, a “Future Mommy”. Ha!! I’ll spare you the Cultural Anthropological analysis for now but I think this is a good thing. As amused, overwhelmed, and stimulated as I have been since my arrival on Sunday, I seem to be very confusing to a lot of Chileans. Its pretty cute actually because I have been told by 4 or 5 people that they cant “figure me out”. The cabdriver from the hotel I was staying at drove me to my new apartment today and finally blurted out that he wanted to know where I came from. Because they had been trying to figure it out… I looked maybe Mexican but not really, almost Chilean but definitely not, I spoke Spanish but not like the Argentineans - but I could be; I seemed Latina though, so maybe I was from Spain? But no... An Anomaly! I sat there giggling to myself and thinking they should let me know once they figure it all out ‘cause I have some questions myself.

It’s been a pretty exciting couple of days, it’s great to be back in South America in a big beautiful city that is so different but seems very familiar in other ways. My Spanish is coming back slowly but surely, I feel like a champ for semi mastering the Metro after a couple rookie errors, and I think I’m going to be able to do this thing. Today I moved into an apartment with a very nice Chilean guy named Eduardo and a Minnesooooouuten (from Minnesota that is) who is here teaching English. Funny, I was having these random good vibes about Minnesota before I left Jackson, anyone remember that? Maybe it’s a sign!? I’ll take it! My room is pretty neat, one entire wall is glass panes, half of which open to a patio, so I get lots of sunshine and look right out onto a garden and a wall full of climbing vines and plants. Nice. It may be a temporary place because the location isn’t the best but the set up is much better than a boring hotel.

I start working in about a month, (more on this in my next post) and visited the NESsT office yesterday to introduce myself and check things out. They have an office dog named Elvira, also a good sign. Tonight I’m going to practice my “you want to be my friend” smile because I’m going to need a couple of those pretty soon :) Speaking of… please do post comments or whatever on my little website... I think its pretty easy to sign in and it would be great to see your writing here next to mine.

Love, Kelly