Over Eager

In my over eagerness to learn more about my summer home, yesterday I drove to my neighborhood bookstore and plopped down on a stool in the travel section. I pulled out four different travel guides for Chile and flipped to the index to look up Santa Maria. No dice. Then I looked for San Felipe and out of the four guides, San Felipe was mentioned only in one! It wasn't even a feature. All this guide said was that San Felipe was a good day-trip from Valparaiso and it had some "pretty historical buildings" to see.

That's it.

Oh well.

I bought a different guide (the cheapest one) and went home to do another internet search for San Felipe. I did find this article that's more about the region around San Felipe in general. Check it out!

Another thought that I had last night: I will see a whole new set of stars when I'm down south. Kinda exciting.

Have a good week, everyone!

The Location

Yesterday I found out where in Chile I will be going. The town is called Santa Maria and I haven't been able to locate it on a map yet! However, I do know that it is near a city in the Valparaiso region called San Felipe, which is north of Santiago at the base of the Andes! Try Google Mapping San Felipe. Some people have uploaded pictures of the town and the surrounding areas as well. Still no word about my host family.

According to my contact in the program, there will be four other people from the United States going to the Santa Maria. He said that some schools participating in the program do not have internet access or even a phone but told me not to worry. I'm not worried. Don't you be, either!

I cannot make promises about blogging with any frequency. I'm not sure yet whether I will be able to have internet access in Santa Maria or if I will have to go to San Felipe. I will try to keep you updated, of course.

In the Beginning

So, here I am again at the beginning of a new Spanish-speaking journey.

Actually, it's about a month before my flight departs Detroit for Santiago (via Chicago and Miami). But I was getting excited about blogging again and I was trying to think of a good procrastination tool. I really should be lesson planning.

Oh well. Here's to many future adventures in Chile!