Finding out my seat was at the back of the plane, I was initially upset until I found out that the guy sitting next to me was a professional tennis player which definitely sweetened the deal. Once I got settled into my window seat, it wasn't long before we were up in the air and hit a few bad patches of turbulence over a beautiful lighting storm. Kristen and I thought taking a Benadryl would help us both fall and stay asleep but the turbulence woke us up and turns out neither of us could fall back asleep! So, from about 4 AM until we landed I attempted to get comfortable in the small space I had but of course once I drifted off the flight attendants came around with the complimentary (and unappealing) breakfast. By that time I just decided to throw in the towel with getting any shut eye and peaked out my window to see a gorgeous sunrise over the Andes Mountains.
Landing in Santiago was certainly a new experience. Since I was in the back of the plane, the rest of my group took off to get a head start on customs while I staggered through the Chilean airport wide eyed and sleep deprived. Once I made it to the first of 3 lines, I met a girl named Susie who told me all the insider secrets about living in Chile. For example, most houses and the University where I will be taking classes don't have heaters so she advised me to layer up and to never take the buses in Valparaiso because the drivers are lunatics. Thankfully, Susie walked me through all of customs as she told me about her return visit to see her Chilean boyfriend she met while she was studying abroad and of course gave me more insight about the culture. She even offered to show me around Valpo when I get there!
Lucky for Susie, her boyfriend showed up almost 2 and half hours before we were able to leave the airport since we had to wait for all the members of our nearly 40+ group to arrive. It's funny how even though Mitchell, Emily, Kristen, and I were all delirious and famished we still managed to make the best of the situation as we met other ISA students, who we will be taking classes with as well. When the fateful moment arrived for us to load up onto the bus, Mitchell didn't hesitate to lead the group through the overcast and chilly winter weather. Finally arriving to our "rent-a-room" apartment-like hotel, Emily, Kristen, and I all showered and celebrated our arrival with pictures and dancing then headed up to our group meeting.
The group meeting consisted of learning about how to and how not to walk through the streets of Santiago. After we finished the meeting, they herded the entire group into a small Cafe where all of us hungry Americans anxiously awaited our late lunch. When our meals arrived I think the staff was shocked by how quickly all the food disappeared! With full stomaches, we walked through the streets of Santiago to ride the Metro (it had so many people!) and walk through an outdoor market then visit the Cerro San Cristóbal. Essentially, it is basically a big park that has a zoo, which we sadly didn't get to visit even after all of my pleading, and it has an absolutely stunning view of the city.
the city of Santiago behind me!
We rode up a huge hill on a trolley which is operated by some poor man at the top who has to crank each train up by hand! In my opinion, that job deserves the most tips out of any profession. Once we reached the top, we had about 45 minutes to explore the incredibly cityscape, the different statues in the Sanctuary and the breath taking cathedral.
(left to right)
Me, Kristen, Mitchell, Emily
in front of the statue of Madre de Santiago
The main attraction: Madre de Santiago
Once we finished our sight seeing for the day, a bus came to pick the group up and return us to the hotel where Emily, Kristen, and I all skipped out on the optional Italian dinner with the group. We thought it would be a wonderful idea to find a nearby restaurant to get food and take back to the room so we could call it an early night. Did this happen? Absolutely not. Instead, we most likely gave a horrible name to America by thoroughly embarrassing ourselves at dinner. Our waitress actually laughed in our faces about how poor our Spanish was which was ironic since I was translating everything she said to us! But after a few cheese empeñadas and Cokes, we decided to make amends for the terrible reputation we had undoubtedly made and found out she was very curious about our trip. She told us all about Valpo and Viña so when we arrive on Sunday we hopefully won't be too overwhelmed. Even though we repaired some of the damage, she and the store owner still managed to crack jokes about us as we left but we were more focused on getting to the room to talk to our friends and family back home and get some sleep.
Day 1 in Chile: complete! This has probably been the longest day but in a good way of course. There are so many names and faces in the group that I'm going to need all 5 weeks to get them down but it also makes me even more excited for what's in store. I can see God's hand everywhere in Chile whether it's in the religious statues, the unique landscape, or even the graffiti (it's oddly pretty). He has made such a wonderful work here and I can't wait to see how we will be able to proclaim His name in the beautiful port city of Viña del Mar next week. We have a full day ahead of us tomorrow with lots of sight seeing so expect more pictures and even more humiliating stories as the Chileans stare at the mob of gringos trolling through the streets of Santiago!
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