Hello, everyone!

I have safely made it to Santiago, Chile as of 8 am this morning. Our first flight from Grand Rapids to Atlanta, Georgia was super short and quick. We met up with a bunch of other ISA (International Studies Abroad) students once we got to the Atlanta airport and ate our last bit of "American" food.

This is the view from our plane to Atlanta.

Yesterday was the opening of Atlanta's international terminal, but it was super nice! There was the "plane train" that took us to our gate where we waited for about an hour to board. Rachael and I tried to sleep, but there was a student from the University of Michigan who would not stop talking in front of us! The descent into the Santiago airport was beautiful, and we were all really excited to see the gorgeous mountains. 

This is the view of the mountains from our side of the plane. The other side had very tall, snow-covered mountains!












This is the Santiago airport. It was quite a ways outside of the actual city, which was interesting.

We met the ISA representatives after going through customs at the airport. Then we waited around for everyone to arrive and got to know the other students until we took a short bus ride to our hotel.










This is our room until Sunday, and it has excellent internet and a beautiful view (above).












We went to lunch as a group at the "Morning Cafe." I had a typical Chilean dish called pastel de choclo. It has corn, chicken, ground beef and onions in it. It was soo good.

Then we took the metro to Cerro San Cristobal and took a "funicular" to the top of the mountain. It was an incredible view although it was quite smoggy/cold. It was quite chilly all day! 

The view from the top of the "funicular" was amazing, and it really couldn't be captured by picture. Plus the smog/fog blurred it a bit.


The statue of the Virgin Mary was gorgeous.


I also tried "mote con huesillos," thanks to the recommendation of Kaylea See! It's like iced tea with peaches and this grain type thing. It was delicious!


Finally, we went back to the hotel and had a free night. However, most of us were exhausted from the flight so me and four other girls decided to eat dinner at "Baco." Now we're in the hotel relaxing and ready for bed! Miss you all!