Is this real life?

So I got home from class today, and my Chilean family was about to walk out the door for a doctor's appointment (at 8pm? Sketch.), so I have the house all to myself for a few hours! They felt bad for abandoning me, but I assured them that the peace and quiet would be good for writing my essays. Have I written those essays? Nope. But I got to Skype with my real familia at the beach (I'm so thankful that we're in the same time zone!), and now I should probably blog, right?

As Abby said, we've officially started our real classes, at the real Chilean universities, with real Chileans! This week has been a little hectic with finalizing our schedules and figuring out how to navigate to and from class, but starting next week, we'll have sort of "normal" routines. It's crazy that we've been here for over three weeks, but the real semester is just now beginning. Things are starting to feel so familiar. For example, this is what I eat for breakfast every single day:

(Please note the avocado, questionable milk-in-a-box, lunch for the day, and Christmas placemat.)

I love that we're getting used living here. I thought it would take way longer for it to settle down and feel so comfortable to be living in Chile with a strange family, but I realized the other day that so much of the uncertainty from the first few days is gone! And we're just living normal life down here. Crazy. We just do things like go to class, browse discounted DVDs at Blockbuster, and watch the Bachelorette... but we're doing it all in Chile. So surreal!

 It's really fun to be at the university-- it feels so much like Vanderbilt in some ways, but it's also so different. Abby and I are taking three classes together (right, Ab?), and we have some really wonderful professors and super interesting classes. And we're taking them right along with the Chilean students! It takes me over an hour to get from my house to campus (depending on whether or not the bus is cooperating), but that's all part of adjusting to life here. I haven't lived more than 5 minutes away from my school since third grade! Here's a picture we took on campus one day:

I don't think I'll ever get over being AMAZED by the Andes. It's so hard to capture how big they are in pictures, but just trust us. It's unbelievable! This morning, I was a littttttle grumpy about leaving my house at 7:15 to get to class on time, but as soon as I walked out the door, I saw this:

It's hard to see, but it was a beauuutiful sunrise coming up over the Andes. What an incredible opportunity we have to be surrounded by this every day! (I was definitely getting some judgmental looks from the early-morning Chileans at the bus stop for taking pictures.)

Ok, I think I might actually go write those essays... Sorry this wasn't too informative. We're planning an exciting day on Saturday, so one of us will definitely fill you in about that! And more to come about college life... get ready to hear some complaints about the world of la fotocopiadora...

Oh- one last thing: on Tuesday, Abby, Allison, and I explored a mall near campus, and great news! We found more fro-yo (What? Do we talk about food too much or something?)!