Arrival in Santiago

View from my bedroom window. The smog can get fairly heavy in the city.

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I have arrived to Santiago and have gotten used to things fairly well.  I live on the 26th floor of an apartment building on the far east side of town.  My room is small but I have a desk and a TV with cable.  I have a sliding glass window door along the far wall that goes out to a balcony.  From there I can see the snowcapped Andes to my left.  The foot of the mountains are no more that a mile away.  To my right is the city.  It is possible that I live the farthest from school than anyone else.  I take the bus into town and in takes roughly 45 minutes to get to school.  However, is all one street that I ride down.  It is called La Alameda, which consists of about four different street names at various points.  It is the main street through which all of Santiago is in relation to and also the street that I live on.  My neighborhood is called Las Condes and it is much nicer than the rest of the city as it resembles somewhat of a suburb.  Today, August 28th, is the clearest day that we have had and the mountains are perfectly visible.  Usually there is a dense fog that hangs until the late afternoon. 

My bedroom.

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My host family is extremely nice.  Carlos (whose real name is Luis) is the father who works nights.  Lily (whose real name is Maribel) is the mother and cook of the apartment.  The only other person who lives with us is Nelson (who is from Columbia).  He is studying engineering and is in the same situation that I am in.  The food is pretty good and we usually all eat together and talk about various things, in Spanish of course.  Tomorrow they are all taking me to a Jazz club down the street. 

Today was my first day of classes and they seem like good ones.  The rest of the students here are from all over the U.S., although several of us have formed somewhat of a tight group.  This last weekend we hopped on a bus to Valpariso and Viña del Mar.  They are extremely cool towns about an hour west of Santiago on the ocean.  Viña is the beach town and our future home for the weekends.  I will tell you more about those towns later and include some photos as well.