The Final Supper

Wow!! I have not posted in WAY TOO LONG. If I can't even remember to post while I'm still here, how on earth am I going to remember while I'm down in Chile? (Actually, I'm guessing my mom will be sending me constant reminders...). SO much has happened since my last update! I have been receiving lots of emails from my host club in La Serena as well as my host district in Chile, 4320. Yesterday, I traveled to the Chilean consulate in San Francisco and received my student visa. Today I packed and tied up loose ends. And guess what... Tomorrow I leave!! (Yeah, I told you a lot has been happening.)

I guess since so much has happened, I'll just give a brief overview of everything important. In mid-June my family hosted a couple of exchange students (a girl from Chile and a girl from Argentina) for a weekend. It was a great experience, and I highly reccommend it to anyone going on exchange. A week later, I left for a family trip to Italy, and while I was there I was emailed for the first time by my district in Chile. They sent me my forms with my home address in La Serena (I promptly looked up the address on Google Earth, of course...) as well as all of the information about my future school and club. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited to receive this email because it told me what day I had to arrive in Santiago. At last, I had an official departure date (August 8th)! After I arrived home from Italy, I finished all of the necessary documents for my student visa (which, believe me, was NOT a small task). I waited for an appointment to be set with the Chilean consulate in San Francisco. During this time, I received multiple emails from different people in La Serena (my host club's counselor, my "godfather", etc..) and they all told me that they were excited to meet me. Things started to feel pretty real when I made an appointment to fly to San Francisco on August 6th to be issued my visa. I flew down with Amanda (the other outbound to Chile) and we met up with a travel agent. We both were issued our visas with no problems and we flew back that evening. Although it was last minute (only 2 days away from departure), it was surprisingly calm. Today is my final night here in Portland, and I fly out tomorrow at 2:20 PM. I have a fairly short layover in Dallas before my (11 hour!) flight to Santiago.

It's so weird saying goodbye to people. Like, no matter how many times I've said "see you in a year!", it still hasn't sunk in that I really won't see my friends and family for that long. You'd think it would at least sort of feel real by now, but it's all just surreal. From what I've heard, it doesn't hit you until you're on the plane. I guess we'll see if that's what happens with me.

I will try to keep the blog updated more once I arrive to my home in La Serena on the 11th (after my 3 day Rotary orientation in Santiago). 

Wish me luck! My life is about to change drastically.