Well, it´s been quite the few days. I´m currently writing this at work with a spanish keyboard, which is surprisingly hard to use. Anyway, I´ll give a quick recap of my getting into Santiago, which I don´t really want to rehash all that much. My flight was fine, I did manage to sleep almost all night, altho is was also 2 hours late, and the meals were free. My flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago was great, mostly because they served a full free lunch for a 2 hour flight. Delicious. So when I got to the airport I was lightly upset to see the price for US citizens to enter has been raised from $100 to $131. Boo on the dollar. Once I finally got to my bags and went to the area where my taxi company was (I made a reservation in advance), they told me where to go...in spanish. I was very confused, but whatever. So I go down there, and none of them speak english, and they were all yelling at once, which was really difficult.
So finally I get in a cab with maybe 7 other people and we´re on our way. Well, the scenery is gorgeous. There are HUGE snow capped peaks everywhere! I think Colorado ain´t got nothing on Chile. And I mean everywhere. There are mini mountains even in the city, and I would call them hills, but really, they´re more like the appalachians. There is a huge river running through the city, Rio Mapocho, which is the dirtiest thing I´ve ever seen. It´s very fast moving, so it´s very brown and very muddy. Grossness. Also, there´s trash on either side of it everywhere, and usually a stray dog or two drinking from it.
Anyway, so my cab driver drops me off in front of a delapidated building that is padlocked. I think it´s quite obvious that this is the wrong address, but he tells me to find a hotel and leaves. Now, you have to remember I have 4 bags, so I can´t really walk anywhere. I decide to see if my phone works, but dusk is falling so I´m already feeling a little nervous. My phone doesn´t seem to work, so I decide to try using my calling card. I pulled up my mail to write down the numbers, but as I do so, my stupid touch screen reacts to my arm and the message gets moved. Now I´m freaking out, and when I find where the message was moved to, it won´t open. I have now decided that I am stuck in Chile forever and am going to die, so, I start crying. I try walking down the street a bit, but I just have too many bags. So, I try my phone again in depseration. It works! I get a hold of my mother, and she starts making some calls. Unfortunately this is Sunday, so nobody is at the office of the company which got me my apartment. So, I sit there waiting, and a guy on a bike comes up and in perfect english tells me, you don´t want to stand here, you´re going to get mugged. Awesome. Great. I´m so happy at this point. Then while again talking to my mother, who has had her spanish friend Carolina call my landlady for me, since she doesn´t speak english, a creepy guy with very long hair walks by and gets in my face, waving at me. So, I lose it and just hail a cab. Luckily, Carolina has found out they gave me the wrong address. I live at 291 Bellavista, not 0291. Well, my cab driver literally makes a circle and takes me back to the same place. For 6 dollars. and then after talking to Carolina twice, realizes where I´m going and takes me there.
My landlady, Jaqueline is very nice, but I have a very hard time understanding her. The house is really quite beautiful, with oak everywhere and very wide walkways, although all the actually rooms are very, very tiny. So, I unpack, realize I have no internet, and give it up for the night.
The next day I wake up, exhausted, and having decided not to go to work, take quite a bit of time working up the nerve to venture outside and buy things which is not in my house, like: a towel, toilet paper(i know) and food. I go to the grocery store, and it´s a beautiful day. I live right on the river, so I cross it to get everywhere, and it´s really quite a pretty sight. The day is beautiful and sunny, I´m hot in my sweathshirt, and even though I can´t read any of the signs in the supermarket, I manage to get some things. I also went to a towel store. Yes, a store just for towels. The stores here are very small, and you don´t shop, they have everything stacked up behind the counter and you tell the worker what you want, and they give you a ticket to take the the cash register. Anyway, I got a pretty blue towel, and headed home. At this point I´m feeling great, I was able to speak enough spanish to buy a towel! So I get home and try my key. It´s not working. I keep turning and turning and turning, literally bruising my fingers trying so hard. My fingers are still bruised actually. So of course, I start crying again. I suppose I was a little fragile. Anyway, I call my mother again to call Carolina to call my landlady and tell her my keys don´t work.
So I get and meet Mother and Baby. Mother does her best to help me, but speaks no english so it´s very difficult. Baby is actually cute, never cries, and smiles all the time. So when I finally get into my room I collapse and nap for an hour. I wake up, sort of feeling trapped, but decide to take a shower. The shower is freezing. I mean freezing. Like it was painful. But then I couldn´t feel anything, and then it got even more painful. It´s very odd to not be able to feel anything with your hands for a full minute while trying to get dressed. It makes for hilarity if one is not already on her last nerve. Anyway, my landlady came over, turns out I´m not an idiot, my key actually didn´t work, so she gave me hers. Problem solved. I watch friends with Mother and Baby, meet nearly 7 other people who live here, and learn that Baby loves me. Won´t stop climbing on me. Oy ve. I finally get my internet to work, and then just roll into bed.
The next day (this is yesterday) I use the other shower, which has some sort of heater attached to it that you turn outside of the shower. I apparently am doomed to be cold, cause I had to take another freezing shower. But finally, a ray of light. Jose Miguel, the guy I`m working with came to meet me at my house and he speaks english! not perfect, but really good. Finally, I am safe. Work was fine, although I can´t understand anyone and they can´t understand me. I finally have real food, rice and beans called lentejas that was delicious. And I get walked home, so everything is going better. As of right now I am feeling ok. It´s exhausting trying so hard to talk to people and failing, and it´s also quite lonely, but at least I´ve been fed and can walk to and from work just fine. After work today I´m going to try ice cream from Emporio de la Rosa, which is famous, and right on my way home from work. It´s a little cold for it, and it´s also raining, but I think I´ve earned a little treat. Wish me luck for today!
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