Hola!

So it has been a crazy whirwind last couple of days and this is the first opportunity I have had to sit down and write anything significant. So I´ll start at the beginning. I arrived in Valdivia on Friday at around 11:30AM after over 20 hours of travel. I was a bit tired to say the least. Ximena, the head of the English department at the university, was there to meet me, which was great. On the ride to Valdivia we talked about what we were going to do for the practicum and she told me that she had found a place for me to live. This was really nice because I didn´t have any idea where I was going to sleep that night, much less stay for the next two months. It turns out that one of the English teachers had a cabaña built in her backyard years ago for her daughter to live in. Noone was using it now Ximena talked to her and she said she would rent it to me.
The place is great. I have two small bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchenette and a living/dining room. There´s a gas heater (which stopped working this morning, I think it´s out of gas), a mini fridge, an oven... the works. The woman who owns it is named Estela. I don´t know how old she is but she has a grown daughter, who I haven´t met yet, and a thirteen year old grandaughter who I have met. She lives in the house with her 100 year old mother, who I can´t understand at all. Estela is fluent in English which is really nice, but she is encouraging me to speak only Spanish. So far she has been great.
On the first day, after I put my stuff away, Estela had me over to the house for lunch. Lunch is the main meal of the day in Chile, so it was very nice. Then she took me around Valdivia and showed me the sights. She also took me to the university and we talked to Ximena for a couple of minutes. She is clearly excited to have me here and that is really nice. After that we went back to the store and I bought some food and stuff. This all took place within a few hours of me landing. So it was all a bit crazy and surreal. One day I´m sitting in Olympia, packing my bags, thinking I´ll be sleeping in a hostel when I arrive, next thing I know I´m I have my own cabaña and I´m sitting in a strangers house drinking wine for high tea, talking in spanish with a thirteen year old girl. Very bizarre. But also very nice. Estela has done everything she can to make me feel at home, and it has been great.
The only issue I have had so far is the fact that I can´t get internet on my computer. Right now I am using Estela´s computer. I can connect my computer to her wireless network, but it just wont go the extra step to connect to the internet. I´m hoping on monday I will be able to connect to the school´s internet, but we´ll see.
Yesterday Estela took me to the feria (open market) where I saw a ton of stuff I hadn´t seen before. It was really cool. It´s exactly what you would think an open fish market should be. Also, there are giant sealions that hang out around the market cuz people throw the fish scraps. It´s pretty cool to see them that close. After that she took me to the coast, a twenty minute drive away. It was beautiful.
Today is rainy. This is the first rain I have seen so far since I got here. It´s kinda nice, reminds me of home. I am being continually impressed by the similarities and the differences between the North West and here. The weather and temperature are the same, except it´t the beginning of spring here. Many of the trees are the same, though it is very strange to see pine trees growing next to palm trees. In so many ways I could be sitting down in a little town in Washington, except everything is in Spanish and much much older. Today I think I´m just going to relax, maybe watch a movie or two and enjoy the sound of the rain.
I´m hoping to have internet soon and when I do I´ll post some pictures. But, for now, adios.