First days in Santiago

We arrived on the morning of Friday, July 10 in Santiago, Chile. Nestled at the foothill of the Andes, it is very modern city with a colorful and lively history which we will learn much more about in the coming month. The plane trip had been about 15 hours total of traveling, with a $6.25 draft beer at the Dallas Airport to ease the transit. Sleep was not difficult in the slightest, with my exhausted self crashing hard after an all-night party in Boston as my last night in the US for 2 months...

The bus ride to Las Condes, our section of town, passed through a 3rd-world looking slum-like area of tin-roofed shacks, multitudes upon multitudes trailing into the distance. Chile was obviously still a 3rd world nation, although on the verge of being a 1st-world nation. Upon arrival at the apartments, I arranged to share living space with Zack Freeman, a super chill Seattle dude, and Eddie, a fairly uptight grad student/military type. Needless to say, Eddie moved out within a few days, claiming "quiet issues" and the need for personal space, but methinks in part due to our inclinations toward partying. The day was spent exploring our neighborhood, noting locations of useful places such as the gym and supermarket. The three of us walked to the supermarket after a coffee and empenada failed to curtail all hunger, purchasing a variety of groceries, which was made more interesting in that we had to decipher all the Spanish labels. Mi espanol, perfected during my summer abroad in Costa Rica, began crawling out of the hole in my brain where it had retreated to during lack of practice in the US. And of course, the almighty cerveza was purchased, 12 pack of Cristal by myself and 12 pack of Escudo acquired by Zack. Eddie was big into cooking, so when we got back we explored the kitchen and he cooked up an interesting dish of pasta, eggs, and vegetable stirfry...

More to follow, must leave for class soon...