Packing and Procrastination

Hello!

Welcome to Cutter in Chile! On Thursday I head off to Santiago, Chile for the next 5 months! I am beyond excited, mostly because I have spent the last two months bumming around Chelmsford teaching swimming lessons and hanging out with my parents (don't worry Mom and Dad, you guys are really fun I swear!). While this has allowed me to watch countless episodes of How I Met Your Mother and read some great books it has also shown me that I really enjoy school and learning/having responsibilities in life. I've decided that's a good thing.

Anyway, for those of you who are super loyal followers of my life/adventures (aka my mother and father) you may remember that I had a very unsuccessful blog this past summer when I lived in Chiapas, Mexico, meaning I posted all of 5 times. My memory is really awful so I'm hoping that for my own enjoyment (and so my parents know I'm alive) I blog a little more this time around!

Aside from my goal to blog, I have one other expectation of myself in the coming months: say yes! Shout out to the lovely Rachel Hoffmann my Mexico roomie for this piece of wisdom. I know sometimes I'll be tired or cranky, but this experience isn't going to come around again and I plan to take full advantage of every opportunity put in front of me.

I'll be attending the Universidad Diego Portales, a private university in Santiago and living with a host family in an area called Providencia. Since coming home from Mexico I have sought out every opportunity to speak Spanish so I'm really excited to be immersed once again, although I am a little nervous about understanding the Chilean accent!

Most of my plans are up in the air, but I do know that I will be going with the rest of the AU students in my group to Easter Island and the Atacama Desert (yes, I just linked you to Wikipedia, it's fine). After my program ends I'm also going to hike the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu with other people from my program and I am beyond pumped. Other than that, who knows where I'll end up? My parents gave me the Lonely Planet South America on a Shoestring for Christmas, so I'm all set! My travel goal? No getting robbed on a bus at gunpoint (whaddupp Ombz! love you!). But seriously, I'm looking forward to seeing as much of Chile and the surrounding area as possible on my college student budget.

Anyway, now that I've managed to procrastinate packing for another hour of my life (blog templates are so important and time consuming!) I'm going to try to get started. Next time you hear from me, I'll be in CHILE!

P.S. Here's a link to my favorite Spanish song ever as a reward for actually reading anything above. (Chino y Nacho aren't Chilean but they're super cool anyway)