October 4, 2007

Things here are going great! My family is incredibly nice, and they help me with whatever is necessary here. I have two older brothers, and two sisters here. I go to school with the younger one, Bernadita, everyday. I have my own room, which I must say is very clean due to the fear of killer spiders here (no joke). I currently live on 129 Maipu, Buin, Santiago, Chile.

I am scheduled to change homes in March, yet I must admit I was a little disappointed. The Rotary here scheduled many people, not just me, for one year in one house. There was a change in plans though. At the first meeting they informed us that we all must have two families at the least. This was a little frustrating cause my family thought this, and I also gave all of the gifts to the family here. My parents have also invested things like a cell phone here, but now they hear I'm leaving. So that is the only real inconvenience. I also look at that though and see that this is part of the experience, dealing with not so pleasant things sometimes.

As far as other things with the club...my counselors are great, they took my group skiing, and I have received my first stipend of $70. School is going fine, and the teachers want me to start tutoring a small group of students in English once a week, so that's cool. I am also making friends here, so everything is great. My language is growing increasingly fast, and this is largely in part to the fact I am fully submerged here. I have Garrett time, a small time alone for sending emails like this, but other than that, now that I have been here a month, I am going to try to cut down on computer usage. I also have plans to hang out with more friends, now that I have been here a month with my family, and they have gotten to know me fairly well.

When I first arrived here I was greeted by my host father and his host son, both named Edgar, at the airport in Brussels. They were extremely kind, however I only spoke with Edgar Jr. for about 3 hours before he left on a plane to New York, for Rotary Exchange! My host father, Edgar Sr. (I call him Eddy), was very sad to see his son go, but told me that I am his new son now! Soon I was on my way to my new home of Hamoir.

I will email you more next time!

Garrett (In Chile)