It’s been a whirlwind. I hate that term, but it’s the only thing I can think to say that can tell you what the first 36 hours have been like here in Santiago. This city is so alive- everywhere, all the time.
We got into the airport yesterday morning around 8:30 and it was pretty easy getting through customs and security. I was lucky enough to meet up with a bunch of people from my program at the Mexico City Airport so I didn’t have to be alone waiting for 6 hours. After we landed we got a taxi to take us to the hotel. It’s a small place in the Providencia neighborhood. It’s really antique-ish and quaint, but the staff is awesome and really friendly. They gave us the scoop on some bars in Bella Vista and told us that we should come back to the hotel before their shift ended so we could go dancing. They were joking, but still it was really funny.
The food has been an experience. My first meal was surprisingly disappointing, kind of. It started with a salad which was two slices of tomatoes with sliced string beans- at least that’s what I thought they were. But the beans had a very fishy taste, which was big turn off. The meal itself wasn’t that bad, it was pot roast with rice. Nothing fancy, but tasty. Dessert, however, was half of a canned peach. It was quite the shock. But one of the Chilean beers Escudo was very good. I didn’t really eat dinner, but we went out and had drinks. A “Pisco Sour” which is their version of whiskey and then the sour part is fruit mixed in. I nibbled on someone’s empanada which was also delicious.
Before that I went for a run down Providencia in the “Parque Forestal Piniente.” It was my first run in a long, long time, but it was awesome. I’m sure a lot of it had to do with adrenaline from being in a new place and the fact that everything right now is really stimulating, but at any rate, it was a really good run. They have tons of statues and fountains and big toys in the park, even though it’s surrounded by highway. There’s a lot of PDA here. Which isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s just very interesting to come from a culture which normally sends public displays of affection within closed doors.
As most of you know, el futbol is muy popular. Last night the University of Chile (“La U”) beat La Union Española, or something along those lines, but the city went nuts afterwards, I think it was the championship game of some huge tournament. Basically, there were people walking the streets, singing, and waving flags the entire time we were having drinks. So after, we went out to the streets and followed them back into Providencia and met at the Plaza Italia where people were running around with their flags, but this time they had lit flares and were climbing on statues. There was a helicopter overhead, but I thought it was for the news. Apparently, it was for the armed forces who showed up in several armored vehicles. They unloaded in their riot gear and I thought they were just there for damage control. So me and another girl from my program August went up into the center of the crowd and took in the experience. Then the police broke out their fire hoses and started spraying the crowd… so we took off. We ran in the opposite direction of our hotel for a while, and everybody else started walking, so we did, too. We turned down some side streets so we wouldn’t have to walk back through the masses. I think everybody had the same idea because there were broken bottles everywhere when we got closer to the hotel, no doubt from people launching them at police cars. To our surprise, there was tear gas in the air, we couldn’t even see it, but when we started crying and coughing and everybody around us had tears streaming from the eyes, we figured we should probably turn back. Anyways, we ended up having to backtrack several times to avoid the tear gas, which was not so awesome, especially when we ended up walking through more of it a second time. We kind of got lost for a few minutes, too, but we found our way soon enough and were very relieved to get back into the hotel… which they had locked down. The news this morning said that officials detained 245 people, caught 30 people looting including two 12-year-olds, and found one person stabbed, but not dead.
Anyways, it was a crazy first night, and intense welcome, and a memorable experience. I’m probably missing a ton of details but I’m really tired from today’s run.
A lot of the students are here now so it’s cool to meet everyone and see what they’re interests are. Most of us are scrambling for housing and it’s very stressful trying to find a place in this city, but I get the feeling that there are a lot of people are age who need people to live with them, so I’m not too worried for them, or even for me if I decide to not do a home-stay.
I don’t even know what else to tell you guys, I’m so tired.
Oh, I got a cell phone. It’s nice. And I met a stray dog last night and we played for a little bit outside of a church, but he lost interest after I gave him some water.
That’s all.
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