My First Meal, by Molly

For our first meal in Chile,we were shuttled from the airport to the home of Isadora, the final member of our all girl clan of five. Us American girls neglected to check any type of weather report upon arriving and were unprepared in our jeans and long yoga pants for the hot summer here in Chile. As we arrived to Issy’s house, we were greeted by her, her mother and father, and learned our first Chilean custom. When saying hello, you are to kiss that person’s cheek while they kiss your own. Maggie, Alex, Hannah and I held back a little because we’d never experienced something like this before. We then st and began speaking with Issy’s parents, telling them ur names and where we were from. Easy enough. Then, they began speaking in rapid fire Spanish, catching me completely off guard. My five years of studying Spanish in school definitely didn’t prepare me for this. My lack of Spanish speaking ability kept me from being able to communicate fully with her family and was proof we all (with the exception of Alex) had a lot of things to improve on.