it's the end of the world as we know it...

I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time last night...

it was 11:30 and I had been on a plane for 12 hours trying to reach my final destination, Punta Arenas or what I will now be calling "home sweet home". We made three stops on our way from Santiago to Punta Arenas yesterday, and I now understand the full meaning of motion sickness with a side of inner ear problems... but hey we signed up for Patagonia so Patagonia is what we got, or that's what our contact Lorena told us. I don't know why I was so surprised last night when I was told I would be leaving the group and meeting my host family immediately, Surprise- English Opens Doors would be a more fitting name. So, after about a days worth of flying, eatting two plane meals and having to hold back throwing up on the Chileans surrounding me I met my only Spanish speaking family, FUN!

Um... culture shock, homesickness and the inability to understand how I ended up here came all rolled up together in the grilled cheese sandwich presented to me for breakfast. But, there's always a but ... I toured the city today, ate chocolate, saw the Pacific Ocean and came to realize I live at the end of the world. Life is looking up.

Last week in Santiago with the fellow English speakers I was surrounded by, city life, and overall general excitement it was easy to forget I was in a different country much less a different hemisphere. Today/last night... I was reminded very quickly. I am a complete foreigner, I look different and don't understand the language. yikes. my host family is amazing though, our mimes skills have already improved vastly, in fact the 14 year old boy living with us charaded (may not be a word?) how to get in a collectivo (a taxi that runs a route around the city it is much like a bus). He literally re-enacted how to get in, shut the door, tell them to stop and pay. If it hadn't been so imperative that I understand what he was miming I wouldn't have been able to quit laughing for days. My host family consists of an elderly couple and their grandson. I will have a fellow volunteer living with me starting on Friday, which I am very thankful for. Everything is new, brand-spanking new. Within the new-ness I am learning valuable lessons:

What a smile can accomplish
How we should savor the moment no matter if it's good or bad
How important it is to appreciate mankind
The beauty we are surrounded by everyday
How unimportant possessions are
how much it sucks when you don't speak the language
Friends are worth more than money could ever be

i love you