We are now in Chile so the date is 17 Feb 2012.  When we arrived at JFK (silent J) yesterday we met our UConn counterparts and Dr. Colosi's good friend, Dr. Lurie.  After 24 hours of traveling, Rodrigo, a Chilean dentist and staff at the dental school in Concepcion, finally came to our rescue in a Mercedes Benz van!  Jeannine (now pronounced Heannine( was a real trooper and sat on the floor for the hour long drive.  In Concepcion, we were welcomed at Rodrigo's parents beautiful summer home by great hospitality and a feast of wine, traditional Chilean drinks, and delicious food.  Our favorite was white wine with strawberries! The weather was too chile, haha, to swim, but perfect for our outdoor feast!

We all got settled in our bungalows, where we'll be staying for the next 2 nights while we are in Concepcion.  During the few hours we had free, Taryn, Heannine, Erica and Keith played twister with some local children, and Dr. Colosi, Miriam and Kristen (new last name Ju( took a walk to the beach.  

Tomorrow we will visit the dental school in the morning and then come back to our hosts' house with a group of Chilean dental students for a barbecue.  We're all looking forward to meeting our Chilean colleagues. 

PS Now that we are in chile the keyboard is different and this one entry took about 30 minutes to write.  fyi 500 pesos to a dollar.

To update you on Heannine's last post, the first thing everyone did when arriving in chile was find the nearest banos