Second Stop - Santiago

After 14 hours on an airplane, I was glad to finally land in Santiago that second day of February, 2006. Being an overnight flight, I managed to be tired enough to sleep most of the way, but in no way was it a comfortable sleep in the sitting position. Upon passing through customs and collecting my bags, I was greeted with a familiar face. My friend Sarah from California arrived earlier that morning and was waiting for me. Having acquired a sum of vacation time from work, she decided to spend it on 3 weeks in Chile with me. We’ve been very excited about this for months, ever since we began our planning last summer.

And speaking of summer, yes, it hit us when we exited the airport. Santiago was by no means as suppressive as it could have been given the haze that was obscuring the sun that day, so our winter-acclimated systems didn’t go into complete shock. Nonetheless, I felt a little silly to be carrying a coat, which was a necessary layer when I left New York. We made our way from the airport to the district of Santiago known as Ñuñoa, where I will be living these next three months. I am very thankful to my good friend Denise and her mom Betty for helping me secure housing. I think my living situation will work out well.

I am living with a woman named Lony Springjmüller, who is of German decent like many of the people of the Lake District, where she spent the majority of her life before moving to Santiago 20 years ago. Lony is 71 years old and has two daughters and three grandchildren, all of whom live in Santiago. She has a three bedroom apartment to herself, except that she chooses to rent out the spare two bedrooms to university students, which is the category that I fit into. The other student will arrive at the beginning of March when classes at the university resume. My room is small, smaller than my room in the residence hall in fact, but I also have use of the other rooms in the apartment, including a large patio with a swing.

During the first couple of days after arrival, Sarah and I spent the time getting to know Lony – who is a sweet woman and patient with my developing Spanish skills – and the neighborhood. I am a little intimidated about living in a city as large as Santiago, but things seem relatively comfortable thus far, so I am maintaining a sense of optimism.