YOO we are officially international. So the first day I meet the other people who are in my program and I hit them with the classic, "Wassup y'all my name is Yesenia from Chicago...". You know the drill. So our directors tell us we're about to travel an hour away from Santiago de Chile to go to Valparaiso and start our orientation and legal foreign stuff. I was ready.
We get on this bus and we all knock out. When we get to Valparaiso this hotel room is NICEEE. I'm like okay I guess my tuition actually went to a good cause (I need to know where my money going you know?). So we have lunch and we start our orientation and getting our legal paperwork together. We then meet up briefly in the classroom and they start talking to us about Chile and basic things like transportation, safety, etc.
One thing that stood out was this chemical called Burundanga. Apparently, people put it on paper and give it to you then it drugs you and they can manipulate you. I'm sitting there like "Haha I'm from Chicago I'm not stupid". Then they did scenarios and I was like "Oh no no I'm gonna get robbed". I think it's better for them to warn us than to have our guards low so I was like okay I appreciate that.
Eventually, we have time to go back to our hotel room and I notice that there are people smoking upstairs on the roof. So I jokingly tell Leslie, my roommate, that if we could have a rooftop view or something like that. The day goes on and I learned about cultural aspects of the country, the economy, etc. At the end of the day I tell Leslie that we should go explore and see if we could go upstairs.
Now look I am not sure if we were even allowed up there, but yo I had another moment of "I've made it!". Here's the Daily "Deep" Post. Once I got a glimpse of Valparaiso and el mar it put things into perspective. I realized that I was actually FAR. Not right down the street or around the corner. I was actually a whole other continent away, but I liked it. It made me realize that I was far away enough to actually make it big. I really thought that I wanted to stay in Chicago, but after seeing the view I knew there was more to the world to see. I know, its cliché, but for real. It was a super relaxing and breath taking experience.
THE END. ✌🏽🌞
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