Road Trip!

I rolled into Seattle last night with my brother after nearly 3,000 miles of just four days of driving. I traversed 12 states: Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and finally Washington. For being the middle of winter, the roads were surprisingly clear and the weather surprisingly pleasant (if beyond freezing -- literally -- through several states). We really lucked out.

But -- make no mistake -- this is not the beginning of my career as a long-distance trucker. Being stuck in a confined space for 45 hours with all my earthly possessions, my brother, and iffy radio and cell reception ... not really the life for me.

Now I have about a week to kill here before my flight to Santiago leaves on Feb 8. I'm anxious to get there and get started. I got info today about my host family -- I'll be living in Santiago with my "parents" and 27-year-old host brother, and I'll have a host sister my age who lives with her boyfriend elsewhere in Santiago. I'm so excited that the program was able to find me a family with kids my age (I'd specially requested that) because having Chilean friends will be lots of fun and also great for learning Spanish. Yay!