Traveling to Chile - Part 1: Trent Holbrook

View of the Andes Mountains from our airplane coming into Santiago in the morning

On the 27^th of June, I woke up early so that I could get to the airport on time for my flight to Miami and then I would be on my way to Santiago, Chile. To be honest, I really wasn’t that sure of what to expect. I had received a list of who was in my group a few days prior to my departure and it turned out that I was the only southerner in my group. There were 12 people total in my group, and with most being from New England and a couple from California, I wasn’t sure if I would be perceived as an outcast or not. When I arrived from the Nashville airport, I said goodbye to my mom and of course she got a little teary-eyed. I then traveled to my gate, I met up Harris Elledge, who went to Argentina through the same organization. We were really excited to have a ten hour layover in Miami… We talked about what our expectations were for our trips, where everyone in our groups is from, and how far along in summer reading we were.

Eventually we were in Miami where we decided to get something to eat to try to pass the time faster. We then sat in the corner of the airport forever until we decided to go join the other experimenters. Once we were with the other experimenters, Harris and I said our goodbyes and split into our respective groups before going through security and onto our gates. Once at our gates we played some of those games to get to know each other better. I was really happy with my group. They all were very friendly and accepting, and I was really looking forward to spending the month with them in Chile.

After an eight hour flight throughout the night in which I only slept for around 4 hours because my left foot was hurting for some reason, we landed in Santiago early in the morning. As soon as we stepped off of the plane, I started getting a little worried about what I had gotten myself into. It was freezing to say the least. Having gone from the high 90s to the mid 30s overnight was quite a change. I also hadn’t really brought a lot of extremely warm clothes, because on the internet is said that during the day it would be low 60s. I also learned some more disheartening news in the airport: Chileans aren’t very fond of central heating. I thought that I was in for some real trouble as I was standing there freezing going through customs.