A bit of a summary

As you're reading this, the events described in the proceeding paragraphs have come and gone it seems like forever ago. But alas, I've only been in Chile for a week and four days. Given the late start of this blog (how irresponsible, you say) I present to you now a brief summary of my time in Chile thus far, a time so brief, but rife with adventures as I begin to explore this new, but vastly grand, and indescribably long country called Chile (a note: Chile is not pronounced, as many gringos would have it, like the popular restaurant establishment, Chili's. It is in fact pronounced: Chee-lay). I would like to start with the most dubious adventure as of yet, that of course being the flight (or lack thereof) that got me to Chile (but actually didn't get me to Chile). The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to some friends recounting the ordeal: "I should be in Chile right now, if you were going by my original flight ticket. Thanks to a most inconvenient "weather radar malfunction" my first flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta was delayed about 3 1/2 hours (perfectly coinciding with the layover time I WOULD have had were I to arrive in Atlanta at the scheduled time). So yes, long story short I missed the connecting flight to Chile and had to stay in a rather mediocre hotel (it was a suite room though) last night. Now I'm sitting at gate E28 most earnestly awaiting my new flight...which leaves in just under 5 hours (exactly a day after the original one was supposed to leave). So come 10:05pm tonight I should be on my merry way to Santiago, Chile (though it'll be a rather subdued state of merriment given my experiences within the last 24 hrs). Upon arriving in Chile, I will meet up with the students on the group flight (conveniently (but not for them) having been canceled yesterday as well....guess you can't trust American Airlines either). Then off to orientation in Olmué which is a small rural town on the outskirts of Santiago." You can tell I'm in a much more relaxed state at the moment. That was a most stressful day. After the flight fiasco, I met up with the group at the Santiago airport. They were also a tired bunch so we didn't say much to each other and slept most of the way to Olmué. It was surreal when I woke up in Olmué because I hadn't seen how we got there (for I was in an irreversible state of slumber) so as far as I was concerned there was nothing in between the airport and this mysterious quasi-resort hotel smack dab in the middle of what I was going to learn to be the "Cordillera de Los Andes". The next day we took a horseback ride through the town so I was better acquainted to this, now slightly less mysterious, place. We also hiked around the Parque Nacional de la Campana, which is a park at the base (and at the top I guess) of la montaña de la Campana. It's a pretty majestic mountain and I really want to hike to the top...but that's for another day. A guide told us about the history of the place and about the rare desert and forest vegetation that grows on different sides of the mountain because of the way the sun shines on it. So, that pretty much concludes the events that occurred in Olmué (oh yeah, and we had orientation where they basically told us "ladrones" or thieves were waiting around every corner waiting to take all of our personal possessions at the slightest glimpse that we weren't paying attention to our every move). This is only slightly true, it only really applies if you're a gringo walking down a dark street at 3am by yourself and are drunk...at least that's what my host family told me. Well, there's still more to say, but I don't feel like writing more right now so tune in later.