Departure, Travels, and first day

I guess the first thing to say is that I am safely here! My pink suitcase now has a lot of brownness on the front...but mostly everything was intact.
Thursday was a late night, I went to bed around 1 after going swimming for 1 last time (i dragged lisa along). My alarm went off at 3, and 6 minutes later, i was out of bed.
We left the house around 4 after i gave my dad a final hug. One of my bags was too heavy when we got to the airport, so we rearranged contents to make them more equal. I had to go through customs to enter the states, and got to stamp my own passport. I walked around abit before boarding the plane.
I had a window seat, with a view if I looked backward (my seat was on the back of the wing). For most of the trip, it was cloudy, but I did get to see the grand canyon and the beautiful sights around it.
The inflight entertainment had some glitches, so for about 3 1\2 hours i could only listen to country. I endured it, not wanting to waste my ipod battery.
When I checked in with LAN in Los Angeles, the agent told me I had beautiful eyes, and asked if I was married (its hard to explain the circumstances)...he and his friend didn´t believe I was 17. haha..made my day. The man I sat by on the plane was interesting, a Spanish literature prof at UCLA, he has written 6 books. He spoke english with a heavy accent. We went through customs in Santiago (which we didn´t know we had to do there....I was shocked when I saw my bags on the carousel...) and then I barely made it to my next flight. I had a row of seats to myself, and read\slept.
I arrived, and was greeted by my counselor, an exchange student from Australia who has been here 7 months, my host mother, sister, and a friend of the family. All gave me a kiss on the cheek and i returned it. We went to the grocery store...yogurt is sold in bags and they have a lot of the same brands as here. And tons of vegetables :) Lunch was good, but at that point it hit me that i was going to be gone for a year...and I got homesick. After I just lay on my bed for a bit with my ipod....(and cried a bit..) I was fine and we went to meet the extended family. Again..the kisses. And now...my bags are unpacked, and I should get off the internet.
Missing everyone lots!!!
xox