Day 1 and 2

Hello everyone, it´s Janet and Steve!

So we left RDU on Friday at noon. The guy checking us in may have been Chilean because he was really nice to us and gave us 5000 frequent flier miles and winked at us. Or maybe just Steve. Then one of the security guards thought Steve was Elijah Wood for a minute. We got to Atlanta around 2 pm and walked around a bit except we didn´t know where to go except the CNN center where we stood in the same building and breathed the same air as Anderson Cooper. But we did not see him, so we were sad. So sad that we gave up on Atlanta and went back to the airport. Atlanta underground was not very impressive but the Marta was pretty neat.

So we got to Santiago airport at like 8 am yesterday after a 9 hour plane ride during which we didn´t sleep very much. Customs and security was ok, but trying to leave the airport was a bit of a problem. I think we almost were kidnapped by a shady guy in a suit. He kept telling us to go with him in his ´taxi.´ Luckily, a Chilean police officer told us not to trust anyone and to look for a blue bus to the bus station. So we took this blue bus to the station and then took another bus to Valparaiso. Yay!

After arriving in Valparaiso, we took another bus and then a taxi to the hostel. By this time, we´d been up for about two days and we were very tired. We unpacked our things, got settled, and began to explore the mysterious hills of Valparaiso. The house we are staying in is actually pretty nice. It appears to be one of the larger houses in the area, however, it does not have any heat or air conditioning, infact no house in Valparaiso, from what we can tell, has heat or air conditioning. This is not that big of a problem, except for the fact that it gets down to 30 to 40 degrees at night. So, Janet and I woke up this morning freezing.

As for today.... well we set out to explore Valparaiso. When we left the house today, we had three major goals: 1. To find the school where we will be taking spanish classes, 2. to find the library, and 3. To go to the grocery store. Guess how many goals we got acomplished after hiking/walking up and down hills for about 7 hours? Well, sadly, only one, and that was that we found the grocery store, which in fact we knew where that was from yesterday. So, really we didnt accomplish any of our goals... but that is how it goes living in a country thousands of miles away and not knowing a lick of espanol.

Well... I think that is enough... there are many more stories to come, so stay tuned!
As for tomorrow: we are not setting three goals, apparently that is too ambitious, so we are going to only set one goal: That is to find the school again.

Buenos Noche!

Steve and Janet

Valparaiso, Chile

Hey eveyone. Steve and Janet have arrived in Valparaiso. They are safe and will begin their first day of school tomorrow - so cute. I will be joining them in 11 days when they pick me up from the airport in Santiago. Hopefully, Steve and Janet will post some stuff soon.