Still on vacation! (for 3 more days)

Gavin and Ross got in to Buenos Aires on the 15th, and we spent 2 days in the city of 13m people. From there, we all went to Vin~a del mar (Chile) for 2 days before my parents got in to Santiago. While there, we stayed in a hostel for $10 a night, and used the facilities of the Sheraton Miramar ($150 a night). Pool, Sauna, Jacuzzi, Showers, Steam Room, etc. Since we have accents and look quite American, no one thought that we weren't staying there.

When the rest of the family got in, the 7 of us (plus Katie and Gavin) headed South after eating a large Churrasco (Beef sandwich with guacamole) and eventually got down to Pucon, in southern Chile. The first day in Pucon we did a jungle canopy tour, which was a large step for the Gringas (my mom and Katie) overcoming their fear of heights in the most daring display of trembling bravery ever witnessed by the eyes of man.

The next day we decided to get a bit of exercise, and so we climbed a volcano. It was with a guided tour, and a really calm walk up to the top, which was easily doable by anyone over the age of 4 who doesn't us a cane. Not really. At 9 AM, we started the death-march to the top of Volcan Villarica, which is an ascent of 1400m (43,000,000 feet) over a period of 5 hours. We stopped a total of three times, sat down 2 of them, and total non-walking time was less than 20 minutes. Dad fell a bit behind, and ended up climbing to the top in a group of French losers, unable to keep up with the breakneck pace of the Americans. They had informed us that the descent was easier, and was done sliding on a sheet of plastic. Now, this volcano is quite steep, and the "slide" down was quite a bit of walking through knee-deep snow. Although, I will say, the view from the summit was incredible, both into the opening and around, since we were the highest point visible.

We spent Christmas in Puerto Varas, and had a nice picnic in a national park on a lake. It was around 80 degrees out, and I definitely prefer the warm Christmas.

After driving back to Santiago, Katie and I flew to Lima. We got in around 10:30 this morning, having to wake up at 5 to catch the 8 AM flight. We decided to take a nap after eating lunch and getting settled in the hostel, which lasted about 6 hours. We woke up at 8 PM to go eat dinner, at a place that serves Andean (not Indian) food. We found the place, which was next to some odd construction that I figured must have been at least 100 years old. As we walked up to the door, we almost turned around to go somewhere else because it appeared to be an art exhibit and not a restaurant. We went in anyways, and apparently the restaurant is right next to an excavation site that was a pre-Incan religious center (400-700AD). We took the very informal tour of the site while listening to the music from the wedding party at the restaurant 5 feet from the edge of the site, which was separated by a rope (not even windows) from the sand and mud-brick structures. I don't think I'll ever forget hearing "pasame la botella" (Chilean dance song) and watching people with neon balloons dance around while walking through the human sacrifice section of the 1600 year-old remains of a Pre-Incan building. We later decided to skip that restaurant and eat somewhere else.

From Buenos Aires

Well I'll fill in the details later, since I'm pretty drained after a full day, but a quick update on the trip is that we did Cordoba, Argentina; Asuncion, Paraguay; Ciudad del Este, Paraguay; Iguazu falls, Argentina; and Montevideo, Uruguay. Now we're in Buenos Aires and Ross and Gavin get in tomorrow.

Epic Journey #2, Going out with a bang

So I was planning on working my way through Argentina, slow and relaxed, and maybe spending some time on a beach in Uruguay in December, before my family gets in, but then Jean proposed we do a 4-capital sprint, from Santiago to Asunción (Paraguay) to Iguazu Falls (intersection of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay), to Punta del Este (beach in Uruguay), to Montevideo, to Buenos Aires. So, it took me about 2.5 seconds to take him up on that, and we got one of our other friends interested (Angel, from Malaga in southern Spain) and bought bus tickets today.

Two weeks left...

Well, I've got 2 weeks left until I finish classes, another week until I'm done with exams, and on the first of January I'm on my way home. The day after I start my internship at Deloitte, and I'm sure the change from 8 AM 1/1 (Finishing the most incredible semester of my life) to 8 AM 1/2 (starting training at Deloitte) will be a decent bit of a shock. So, I'm starting to brace myself for the reverse culture-shock. I think my classes are going to end decently well, with passing grades, at least.

I think I've gotten accustomed to the point to where if I found out that there were some reason prohibiting me from ever going back to the US, that I had to finish my studies and start working in Chile, that I'd be pretty comfortable doing it. Given, I'm not planning on it , but without so much waiting for me in the US, I would've canceled my flight a month or two ago.

Anyways, it's been great, to everyone in highschool or college that reads this- study abroad. I think it's been the best (or one of, without a doubt) decision I've made in my lifetime.

Halloween, Buenos Aires, Surfing

So it's Halloween in Chile, as well, and it's not as big here, but warrants its own section of candy in the supermarket. I don't think there's any trick-or-treating, but there are quite a few parties. We're having a party in our building for one of my roommate's birthdays tonight.

We went surfing last weekend (a group of 27 of us... in a house for 16) at a beach a bit south of Santiago. The water was absolutely frigid... but with a wetsuit it wasn't bad until you fall, when all the water manages to work its way inside. (For all those worried, there were no sharks or sharp rocks or anything like that.) All in all, quite a nice weekend.

I'm going to Buenos Aires tomorrow at 10 AM to visit friends studying there (That I've been saying I'd get around to for the last 3 months...). It's a 24-hour busride, but after the Bolivia-Peru adventure (a total of 137 hours on bus in 2 weeks) I'm a professional, and 24 hours doesn't seem too bad. I'll be back on Monday!

Trip to Mendoza, Argentina/ Pase escolar

So last weekend we (a group of 8) decided to cross the Andes and spend the weekend in Mendoza, Argentina. It's a great city, very relaxed with a lot of parks. The best thing, without a doubt, is the "tenedor libre" (free fork) concept, which is basically a steak buffet. Except when I think "Steak Buffet," I usually think of a pretty seedy place with C quality meat. This is good Argentine steak, and a lot of it, for $5. God bless Argentina.

Also, I managed to get a student pass for the metro, which will allow me to legally use the student tickets that I've been using the whole semester. I was informed in the international students' office and multiple times in the metro that exchange students weren't allowed to get the student pass. I feel sorry for the gringos that are paying 3x the student price because they didn't bother to ask around for the student pass, and believed the people in the metro office when they said that you can't buy student tickets without a certain student pass. What I heard when they said that was "I'm not going to sell you student tickets without that pass." I managed to find 2 friends that worked in the metro next to campus who were sympathizers in my struggle, and for about a month had an underground network of student tickets. About 3 weeks ago, they tightened up all the regulations, and it was virtually impossible to get on the metro with a student ticket without the pass. I felt like Che Guevara, except without killing people. So, today, I finally managed to get the pass, and was smiling the whole ride back to my apartment.

So a few interesting stories-

The metro in Santiago is almost always clean, fast, reliable, etc.; without any drunks or crazy people...

But, one time last week I got on the metro and was standing next to an old Chilean man, and he starts saying "Texano, Texano!" Now, I'm not wearing my Texas sweatshirt or anything, and actually I had on a sweatshirt I bought in Bolivia. So, the way this guy is talking, I figure he's staggering drunk and probably crazy to boot. I kinda move away, and he starts saying completely nonsensical jibberish (at least I couldn't understand any of it). The guy next to me gets out and says "Careful, he'll punch you in the face." So I decide that's more then enough reason to exit and change cars at the next station, which I do, only to be followed by this man. So, I pick up the pace considerably, so does he, and I wait until I hear the bell sound for the door closing, and jump through at the last second. He tries to follow, but the door shuts in his face. If I'd had my whip, I would've felt more like Indiana Jones, but I guess that was enough adventure for the time being.

Two week epic journey

Well I did manage to write a bit about my journey up to La Paz, Bolivia, but that's only about half of it. The morning after I wrote that, we got up before 6 AM, and had breakfast prepared by a Bolivian lady who gave us directions to "Calle de las brujas" (Witches' street) and told us what to look for- "The little dolls, you have to give them a little food and water, and if you ask them nicely, they'll make your wishes come true!" We went to the street, and it's got mostly animal and plant parts, including dried baby llamas. Those were incredibly abundant, and smelled wonderful. We ate a four course meal in a nice restaurant for 40 Bolivianos- about $5.

From La Paz (where we spent two nights), we got on a bus to Copacabana, a city on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. We took an excursion on boat to the Island of the Sun, an important island in the Aymara (Pre-Incan) culture, where plenty of Aymara still live. We took a very unofficial tour from a local (for a little over a dollar) for an hour around the island and the ruins of the temple of the sun. He failed to mention that a very insistent group of locals charge admission to the temple of the sun... upon exiting. A nice strategy, and one I think I'll use.
We spent the night in Copacabana, where we went to the theater to see a play called "La Sandwichera," about a lady who runs a sandwich stand in La Paz. We were starving by intermission and left to go eat.

The next morning we were in Puno, for a short tour of the floating islands, where more Aymara constructed islands from a floating reed abundant in lake Titicaca. This was their strategy to get away from the Incan Warriors, and since they survived longer, I guess they won. We left that afternoon and got a night bus to Cuzco, which was the Incan capital of all South America. Needless to say, it's an incredible city. We spent a night in Cuzco and from there went to Machu Picchu, which was decent. Of course, by decent I mean without a doubt the most impressive thing I've seen in my entire life. You take a train to a tiny village whose only purpose is a stopping point at the base of the mountains, and then a 20 minute bus up a mountain, on a quite narrow path, to the walls of the city. There's not even so much as a bathroom on the mountain, much less a place to buy food or water, so our day of 5:30 AM to 6 PM was quite exhausting. We took a guided tour, and after that they let you go- to climb the mountains or explore or whatever you want to do. We opted for a nap on a terrace overlooking a cliff and the valley below, and then explored the city a bit and climbed (by climbed I mean walked) the mountain on the side of Machu Picchu where they take the picture you'll see if you google image search Machu Picchu. As soon as I get another transformer, I'll put the pictures up. Well, at least some of the 1056 pictures I took over the two weeks.

We slept in the village below that night and then headed back to Cuzco, caught a bus to Arequipa, got into Arequipa the next morning, ate breakfast, walked around, bus to Tacna, colletive taxi to Arica, bus to Iquique, Chile, and from Iquique straight to Santiago. That total journey (Machu Picchu to Santiago) was something like 45 hours in bus/car, with the last leg being 24 hours straight. Overall, it was a quite fast-paced trip, covering 3 countries in 2 weeks, without planes. The total time spent in bus/car/jeep was 137 hours. I think it was 5 overnight bus trips total, with a total of 7 showers. 2 of them had hot water, and 3 of them had flickering/decent/warm water. 2 were showering in ice.

Overall, it was incredible.

In Bolivia!

So, for the first time in a week or so, I've got a computer for more than just a minute or two. So, I'll relate what's happened on the 3-country, 2 week vacation.

First, I arrived 30 minutes early to the bus terminal... the wrong one, and thanks to cell phones, taxis, and friends willing to stall a bus driver for 10 minutes managed to not miss the bus. Although, in my defense, I was told "Estacion Central" which is the name of a metro stop where there is also a bus station. What I didn't know is that there are two terminals, about 4 blocks apart.

The bus ride was 22 hours to a town called San Pedro de Atacama, where we saw the most arid desert in the world. It's actually quite beautiful, during sunrise and set you can see the colors of the mountains changing opposite the sun.

From San Pedro, we took a 3 day bus trip to Uyuni, Bolivia, across the 2nd largest salt flat in the world (The largest is in Utah). The ground and all buildings are made of salt. It almost looks like the ocean... except salt. The first night, after ascending to an altitude of 4500m, (around 13,000 feet) we all felt a bit under the weather, except for one Spanish girl whose diet consists of chocolate, beer, and steak. We went to bed quite early, and since at that altitude in winter the temperature can easily get to -20 degrees, and since the place we were staying at had no heat, no hot water, and walls that were in need of repair we all slept in layers, in sleeping bags, under blankets, and three to a bed. At 1:30 I woke up because my brain was politely informing me that if it didn't get more oxygen and water, it was going to kill me. Imagine the worst hangover possible, but in several degrees below zero, and at an altitude where you literally cannot walk at a normal pace and hold a conversation. So I drank as much water as I could, and got to bed about 2 hours later. Then, I hear movement while I'm awake at 4:30, and the Portuguese girl asks herself, "Where the hell is the flashlight..." to hear 4 of us answer. So, the 5 of us got up and had some water and medicine and got to bed about an hour later. The next night was much better, and had only a mild headache the morning of the third day. From Uyuni we went to Oruru, a small town half way between Uyuni and La Paz. We took an overnight train to La Paz, where I am now, and tomorrow we go to Copacabana, on Lake Titicaca.

Bolivia is running up the list of favortite countries quite quickly. In fact, we just ordered a pizza that's about 4 feet in diameter for $15. Lunch today, including salad bar, small buffet, entree and soup cost about $5.

Until next time, which will probably be sometime next week-
Dan

I'm off!

Well- going to San Pedro de Atacama, BOlivia, and Peru- in an hour. I'm gonna get stuff ready and get out the door!

Birthday

So while a country where the legal drinking age is 18 (and in Chile it's actually somewhat enforced... somewhat) and in the middle of test week is hardly the ideal setting. So, at least partially just to defy tradition, I didn't drink anything alcoholic on my 21st birthday. I did, however, have some wine after midnight.

Jean and a few of my other friends here cooked tacos for me, to remind me of good Texas food. I'll admit that I was skeptical of the French/Chilean tacos, but they were actually quite good. It was kind of like a family celebration, if your family is all the same age and from origins scattered around the world.

Riot!

(I'm safe, and not in jail)
So today there was a riot in most of Santiago central, that had something to do with labor rights. I asked people, and it was sort of an eclectic mix of leftists, right-wingers, communists, and fascists. Either way, it was people that were unhappy with... something... enough to break a lot of things and get the riot police called out. As on 2 PM, 60 people had been arrested. And it's still going on. Classes were canceled at the University, and so on my way home I definitely took a couple of pictures. (Don't worry, Mom, I was far away from everything) Either way, it was a pretty exciting day.

Travel Plans

So some of my friends from the residence I lived in the first week are planning a trip to Northern Chile (To the driest desert in the world), then across the border to Bolivia, and then to Machu Pichu, in Peru. I almost said no, because the plan involves skipping the week of class before the week we have off, but I decided that I probably won't have the opportunity again for... oh... the rest of my life, so I'm going for it.

The group is 4 Spaniards and one French girl, all of whom are quite fun and pleasant to be around. Also, none of the five speak any English, so it'll be good for my Spanish.

We'll leave the 7th and get back the 23rd... and the week ending the 7th is exam week. I figure that'll be a good time to travel.

Sat., 8-25

It's a little weird to put the date as 8-25, since in Chile it would be 25-8.

I'm starting to figure out the collective taxi system, which is a group of cars that go from the end of the metro lines to certain areas for a fixed price. It's about $2, and a taxi to the area I usually go to (Julio's negihborhood) would probably be $25. So I'd say it's a pretty good deal.

Well, nothing much planned this weekend, but I think the weekend coming up we're going to Vina (a city on the coast) with the roommates who are from there. They all insist that it's a lot nicer than Santiago, so I'm ready to go.

Julio's in town

So last night I went to Julio's (My Peruvian friend whose family lives in Santiago), and had dinner with him and his dad. His dad works in currency trading, and Julio just finished an internship with UBS (a very large bank) and so our conversation was a lot about economics and finance. Since I'm taking accounting here, I've learned enough of the words in that field to be able to talk about most things. At one point, since Julio learned accounting in English and his dad doesn't do much accounting, neither one knew how to say 'earnings per share' in Spanish. I did, though, and preceded the answer with "Now I can teach you both a little bit of Spanish."

It was also quite different than eating pasta or something quick at home with the roommates versus a full meal and a very expensive bottle of wine.

I've got class at 1:30, so I'll probably go to lunch with Julio (and maybe his dad) and then head to class.

Lazy Sunday

So I found out that Jean's middle name is "Pierre," giving him the most French name possible. Although, he's a business student, and doesn't like wine or cheese.

I think I'm going to buy some fruits or something... trying to eat healthier.

Mom would be proud/ Email out

If anyone's sent me any email today, I haven't gotten it, because the email server doesn't seem to want to work.

In other news, the three females are out of town, and the five males left at home tonight... cleaned the kitchen. The fridge smelled pretty bad, so we figured we'd better do something about it. Really- a full clean of the kitchen, about a 2 hour endeavor. I'm quite proud. There are pictures.

El Bulla (my new futbol team) won today 5-2, and we're one point down for the Chilean championship, which will happen in a few months.

Quiz

So I had a quiz at 8:30 this morning, and I could see on the faces of everyone going to campus that early that they were as sorry to be there as I was.

So when they say quiz (control, in Spanish, but the least heavily weighted of the assignments) I was under the very mistaken impression that it would be a 3-4 question, make sure you paid attention 15 minute sheet of paper, turn in, go back to bed. This was a 90-minute behemoth, with multiple-part questions, that I only did well on because I've had 3 other financial accounting classes. The rest of the class was about to cry. I think this quiz was to scare out all the people that don't absolutely have to take the class this semester.

Julio, my Peruvian friend whose family lives in Santiago, gets in tomorrow.

Well, I have nothing planned for the weekend yet, but something always comes up.

Trip to Cerro San Cristobal/ Futbol game #2

So the weather has been completely insane- yesterday was around the low 80s, and today was the low 30s. Fittingly, yesterday I went to a national park with a group of Americans (it was the longest I've spoken in English since I got here) and took a lot of pictures that should be up eventually, and today I did pretty close to nothing.

Yesterday evening I went to another soccer game, and I think the fact that I know the soccer yells and songs probably makes me look like a bit less of a foreigner.

The cold is starting to get me (another 2 weeks or so left in winter) because the heat in the apartment is only a gas stove in the kitchen. No one likes to get out of a warm bed on a cold day, but it's even worse when the temperature in the room is in the upper 50s.

Also, I think everything in Chile is about 2 hours later than the US. The workday (for my information systems and journalist roommates) starts around 9-10 AM, dinner is 9-10 PM, and a typical bed time is 12:30 on weekdays and 5-6 on weekends.

One thing that's interesting for me is that in cafes and restaurants I'll see things like "Salsa Norteamericana" (American sauce) or "Pan Americano" (American bread) and a lot of things "American." Oddly enough, I recognize almost none of it. Salsa Americana is a mix of mayonnaise, ketchup, and something else. Pan Americano is some kind of pastry. The french roommate has the same thing- we were trying to figure out what a "cafe frances" is... and even the waiter didn't know.

We get Wednesday off this week, so it'll be two 2-day weeks.

Dia de ninos, internet

So Sunday was the "Dia de Ninos," which is similar to Mother´s or Father´s day, except it´s quite obvious that the children are being thanked for their contribution toward the Chilean economy. It´s about as obvious as Valentine´s day.

The internet was great for about 4 hours, and the next day it decided that 4 hours was enough for the week. The owner is calling a technician that should come tomorrow.

Also, I´ve been eating "completos," which are hot dogs covered in avocado, mayonnaise, and hot sauce; and lomitos, which are pork sandwiches, for just about every meal. So, I decided I´d better join the gym across the street (or the cardiac hospital down the road). My schedule is nice- I can go in the morning before class pretty much every day. It´s about a 35 second walk from my apartment, so there´s pretty much no reason not to.

Futbol Game

So yesterday afternoon I went with Alejandro, the sports journalist in the apartment, to a Chilean professional soccer game. Since we got there about 15 minutes before the game started, there was a decent line to buy tickets. It seems obvious now, but I didn't figure that whenever the game started, there would be a mad rush to the ticket counter. This happened when I was about 3 people away. I did manage to get my ticket (It's all the practice on the metro), for $6, and went into the stadium. Every team has a few songs, most quite profane, but what I did not know was that they sing literally the entire game. I learned quite a few new Spanish phrases every time the referees made any call. Or any time they were near the goal. I got the in-depth tour of the history of the stadium (the estadio nacional, where we were, was where Pinochet killed a few hundred people weeks after taking power) and the game. I now know a decent amount about futbol, but only in Spanish. The game ended up a tie, with the other team scoring in the final minutes.

Eventually I'll put the pictures up, but blogspot doesn't seem to want to load anything very quickly. Also, I need another transformer for the camera dock, so I'll have to get that.
But, we did get the internet up in the apartment, so it's nice to be able to use the internet from home.

One week of classes down, interesting mishap

In the following story, I promise everyone is completely sober, although you might not believe it.

So I´m at the residence with my mixed group of European friends, and the metro is about to close. So I get up to leave, and everyone tells me, "no, stay, we´re all having a good time." My Argentinian friend (Cata) has a double room but no roommate, so she says it´s no problem at all for me to use her extra bed. So, I accept and we all continue talking. I met an American speech pathologist who had a bunch of interesting travel stories, and he and I traded stories for quite a while. So Cata says she´s going to bed, but no hurry, whenever I was ready to go to sleep just go in, room 407, and the bed closer to the door was mine, and she´ll leave the keys in the door. So an hour or two later, I go up the fourth floor, I see the keys she´s talking about, but they´re in room 404. I was pretty sure she said 407, but there were definitely no keys in room 407. So, I walk in, see my empty bed next to the door, and without turning on the lights see curly hair coming out of the covers on the other bed. Also, she´s a very artsy type, and the wall has artsy film posters and a lot of handmade things that were very fitting for her. So, I go to bed.

I wake up, somewhat blury-eyed from sleeping in my contacts, and see an Italian girl standing at the foot of my bed. She waves, and I look around, and realize I am very much not in Cata´s room. So I very hastily explain what happened, and we both laughed quite a bit at the odds of Cata forgetting to leave the keys in the door, the Italian (Danila, of all names) leaving the keys in the door, and the fact that hers was a double room, with the bed near the door unoccupied. Apparently, when she woke up and yawned, I yawned in reply, and she thought, "oh, that´s my room- wait, I don´t have a roommate!" and then got up, got her keys off her desk (that I had put there) and goes downstairs to eat breakfast. I thanked her for not macing me, and she said she figured that if I were going to rob her, I probably wouldn´t have stayed the night.

What are the odds?

I avoided getting ripped off (mom, if you remember the taxi ride in Greece back to the ship, it should sound familiar) by a taxi driver here: My Chilean roommate (Tomas) and I are coming back to the apartment after a big "fiesta para extranjeros" (literally: foreigner party) and the only cash I´ve got left is about the equivalent of $40US. The ATM decided my accent and look weren´t enough to mark me as a foreigner. So, I know what the taxi driver is going to do, and I say, "I´ve only got a larger bill, do you have change?" He says yes, but decides to try his scam anyways. The cab ride was 2900 pesos, and the bill I had was 20,000. So I give him the 20, and magically there´s a 1,000 in his hand. He says, "it´s 2900." And I say, "I can see that, and I gave you 20,000. So, you owe me about 17,000." He waves the 1000 again, and I say "It´s completely impossible that I gave you a 1000. I only had one large bill, and I told you that." So He says "Oh, yes, this is part of your change. And then gives me the 17,000." I figured I´d let him save face and I just said, "Oh, of course, I misunderstood." Meanwhile, Tomas had no idea what was going on, but after I told him that he was trying to rip me off, he realized how the scam works.

As far as my classes go, it seems like I picked pretty good ones going along with my goal of learning business Spanish. After two classes of accounting and one of ethics, I´ve already got a decent amount of vocabulary in those areas. My other two classes, management and Spanish, haven´t started yet.

The apartment is working out great, but it´s really, really cold.

2 days of school down

Ok, now that I´ve got a decent internet connection, I can write a bit more about my classes and the apartment.
The people I share the apartment with are Alfredo, a sports writer who writes for the main newspaper in Santiago; Tomas, a business major at a different university; Maria, A psychology senior at the same university (mine); Gonzalo, who works for an advertising firm; Sa Hewo, a South Korean who came alone, to Chile, after taking one college semester of Spanish and not speaking much English, and is spending her time travelling around South America; and Nikki, an American from Chicago who´s studying humanities at my university.

My classes are Accounting I, which should be great for learning business Spanish, Management, Ethics, and advanced Spanish. I haven´t been to Ethics yet, but in Management and Accounting I´m the only foreigner.

Schools Starts

Everything´s going great, the internet is down in my apartment and I´m about to go to class. The semester is looking pretty good. More details later, I love the apartment and I think I made a pretty good selection with these classes. (Also, I´m the only foreigner, and definitely the only american) in the 3 I´ve been to so far. I go to the last one on Wed.

More details later.

Apartment found, moving in tomorrow

Well, I found a pretty good apartmet, 8 rooms + kitchen and right across the street from a park. It´s right in the middle of Santiago, about 30 minutes from where my classes will be. I´ve also got an international student orientation tomorrow at 3. So, between moving and that, it should be a full enough day.

Also, my phone number is (56) 76275218.

Day 4

Today we saw the last places available on our list, and I´ll probably have a place by the end of this week (Or August 1, at the latest).

On a side note, the three foreigners decided not to let the Chilena pick the restaurants anymore, seeing as the bill for 4 people at her choices was usually around $40US, and when the travellers picked the restaurant it was around $15. Jean and I left a restaurant that we had stopped in for lunch under the guise that we had left our wallets at the hotel because the place was too expensive.

In the mean time, I think I´m going to go take a nap.

Dia de busqueda # 2

Today was spent similarly to yesterday (except I got a phone). We saw a bunch of great places for rent, but in every one there´s always exactly one thing wrong (it´s a really old building, far from campus, only Americans...). Right now I´m deciding among three (and there a ton to see tomorrow: One close to campus (close = 20 min, far = an hour), very cheap, the owner seems to be a really nice, laid-back guy... but the building is pretty old and the place is just so-so. There´s one that all the Frenchies have heard about, which is a house with 10 rooms that´s known throughout Europe as the place to stay in Santiago (but there´s a group of 6 french people already there, and it´s pretty far from campus), and a really nice place with a young professional type guy (and two other roommates) moderate distance to campus.

With any luck I should find a place by tomorrow evening. I´ve got some good options so I won´t be settling for anything.

It´s hard for me to write in English, and after every sentence I feel like I should punctuate it with some Chilean slang. I said about 10 words total today in English, maybe 20 in French, and that makes two days in a row that I´ve said less than two sentences in Enlglish. I went out for a bit with a group of mixed internationals, French, Brazilian, Peruvian (I was proud to be the only American) and we all spoke Spanish.

Pretty much everything is a small adventure (and sometimes not so small) around here. At times it´s somewhat shocking, but I think if I could spare a year away from UT, I´d probably stay down here.

Oh, and things to send with Gavin- Laptop Battery... I´m sure I´ll think of something else. Oh, my cell number is.... written on the box upstairs. I don´t pay for incoming calls, and I have no idea what it costs to call a cellphone in Chile from the US. I imagine it´s not cheap.

Anyways, all is well in the southern hemisphere, hope everything is great in the US!

I´ll send more emails etc when I have my new place. As for now, it´s dial-up on an old computer and a shared line (that means it´s really, really slow)

Full Day number one

I met a guy named Jean last night who is a french exchange student studying in a university down the road from mine. We went around Santiago to check out places to live, after deciding that el punto didn´t make the cut for proximity, ambience, neighborhood (it´s safe, that´s about it). We saw a few great places and I´m starting to build confidence with my Spanish after communicating all day (apart from a half-conversation with a realtor from California) in Spanish. The Chilean accent is giving me less and less of a problem. I´ve so far got a few good options on places to live (I don´t want to live with many Americans, which cuts out a few places) and we´re checking out a few places tomorrow. I have mastered Chilean-realtor Spanish.

We ate in a little cafe for lunch, good sandwiches (beef with avocado, egg, and some crazy sauces) for practically nothing ($3, I think) and pizza for dinner ç (about $8).

I´m getting a phone tomorrow, as well as transformers for my computer, so I should be more accessible later in the week.

-Dan

Also, the toilets empty counter-clockwise.

Arrival

The plane was delayed out of Dallas until 2 AM, which was hardly welcomed by anyone. I translated food and drink orders for two Chileans in the Mexican restaurant in the airport (the Chileans didn´t know what the items on the mexican menu were, and the people working in the restaurant were all gringos). They were in the US on business, and gave me a lot of advice on where to go in Chile for vacation and how to get there, etc.

I got on the plane and actually managed to get a few hours of sleep, before waking up and talking to the Chilean next to me, who works in IT. He gave me his card as well as a lot of advice on getting around the city and what to do.

I took a taxi to the dorm, which is farther away from the university than I was expecting. I´ll go to the university tomorrow and get all the international information and everything around there. Although, since my cell phone doesn´t work and the clock on this computer is kind of screwed up, I realized I have close to no idea what time it is. I think we´re 2 hours ahead here, judging by a very confusing map in the airline magazine.

I´m pretty sure my Spanish has improved in the last 3-4 hours dramatically, or at least a lot of it came back to me, because now I´m finding it a lot easier to communicate that it was 24 hours ago.

I went around a park pretty close to the dorm and wandered into a free museum of natural history. I was expecting a few quiet families and some geology nerds... but it was almost like a playground for a bunch of toddlers running around in there. They had the skeleton of a blue whale in the entrance hall, quite amazing.

Well, apart from the fact that everything is closed on Sundays, everything´s great, and I should have plenty of time to get everything done that I need to tomorrow.

4 hours til takeoff

This is to see if everything works on this site. Everything's packed, and I'm about to sit on a plane for 10 1/2 hours.