Pre-Departure My journey to Santiago was a long journey with several stops on the way. I have never flown by myself before, I was always accompanied by parent or a teacher. The flight in total took about nineteen hours with two stops and two layovers in between. Before I even got on the plane, my family and I had to drive to the airport in Chicago, which from my house is a five hour drive. The plane departed at 07:44 am and landed in Miami at 11:50 am. Then the long layover began as the plane left the airport at 16:15 pm. From Miami, I would arrive in Lima, Peru at 20:45 pm. Then I would finally leave for Santiago, Chile at 22:15 pm, arriving 03:50 am. This was only the beginning of my adventures.
Feria y Fonda My host father, Juan Esteban, picked me up from the airport. We arrived approximately around 05:00 to the house where I was first greeted by a barking dog..
The Shock It took about two weeks for the cultural shock to hit me. Coming from a Hispanic family, I didn’t give much importance to the shock situation. I knew that there would be some differences in the language and culture.