Hey, my name is Jared and I'm a rising senior from Beaverton, Oregon. I've never been south of San Diego so I can't wait to touch down in Santiago in a few weeks. Along with three of you I'll be working at Acción Emprendedora. Antonio e-mailed our housing assignments today and Planos.cl—the Chilean Google Maps—reveals my future crib is happily a 10-minute walk from AE's headquarters in Providencia. So no 8:30 a.m. adventures on Transantiago for me.

Until June I'm working in Asheville and refreshing my Spanish by way of Sábado Gigante ("¡Hoy regalamos un Sonata de Hyundai!") and emol.com. I expect that a lot of my work will be done in English since I'm working on increasing AE's profile abroad, but that I'll speak much more Spanish in my non-work hours than I did when I studied in Madrid last fall. Apparently my host mother is a yoga instructor so I also hope to increase my 15" sit-and-reach and prepare for my hardest class next semester.