Gringas

Okay, so I've put this off long enough. and because of this, my post will be really long and disorganized. also, i'm going to put out a disclaimer. i don't really like capitalizing when i type because i'm bad at typing and i always end up capitalizing the wrong letter and then having to backspace. so, pardon my all non caps but just so you know, i am aware that you capitalize "I" and words at the beginning of sentences. haha.

okee, so let's start with the flights. my mom dropped me off at the airport and this was probably a bad idea because i was a hot mess for the hour i was waiting at the airport as well as for my flight up to toronto. my mom cried when we said goodbye, so of course i did too. some lady behind me in security took pity and started talking to me, but for the most part it was me sitting in the airport and tearing up like a dork. also, the guy next to me on the plane was suuuuper weird. he decided it would be a good idea to rest his arm on my leg as he was reading his newspaper. not quite sure how to respond, i just pretended like it wasn't happening but it made for an awkward flight. once i got to the toronto airport, kelsey and laura were there and i perked up quite a lot. the 10 and a half hour flight wasn't too bad but because i was in a window seat i only got up out of my seat once. ONCE! apparently argentinian men never have to pee. because they only got up that one time and i was a hurting. so once i got to santiago i took a taxi to my dorm. i also got super ripped off and tipped the guy $10 which is insane because here you don't tip taxi drivers. lesson learned.

at the dorm, i met two girls, yvonne and daphne. yvonne is a new zealander and daphne is from holland. they're bother super nice and we've been hanging out a lot. on that first day, we wanted to go to the supermarket to pick up a few things. unfortunately, the supermarket we wanted to go to was on fire. seriously. so we went to the jumbo (pronounced yumbo). this turned out to be a bad idea because a jumbo is a walmart on crack, and you all know how i feel about walmarts. so that was a gigantic fiasco. once we got back to the dorm and had downtime, i had the worst bout of homesickness ever. i decided to just let it all out as i talked to my mom on skype. since then, it's been better but i still tear up a little bit sometimes.

due to the fact that downtime=homesickness, i wanted to make sure day 2 was full of activities. so we (being me, kelsey, laura, daphne, and yvonne) went to downtown santiago and saw the plaza and la moneda. it was really beautiful and the weather is fantastic. we got some soft serve ice cream (frutilla flavored)and explored the different plazas around the downtown area. this included watching a woman bathe in a public fountain. and trust me, this woman had no shame. and she really really should have. then we went back to our respective homes to get ready for a night of discoteca. once we got all gussied up, we all got back together again with the addition of ramiro (laura's host bro) and his friends cristian aka naito and philippe. we had happy hour (called happy hour...they don't use a spanish phrase for it). then we went to a discoteca which was a little crazy. it was super hot, with strobe lights, loud music (some american some classic and cheesy sounding latin music) and people basically have sex with clothes on the dancefloor. i was glad we had our male bodyguards with us because i had a few mens come up to ask for a dance and i wasn't quite ready to be sexually assaulted at that time. but it was still a blast and we ended up singing some karaoke (bon jovi and blink-182). it was a really long night though because chileans don't go out until late, so we didn't get back until 4:30am. and you all know how much of a grannie i am.

at the moment, nothing concrete planned for this week except for a winery tomorrow which i'm pretty excited for. before i peace out i have a few random observations.

-we are most obviously gringas of the highest order. it's rather painful.
-people here dress well...interestingly. there doesn't seem to be any common fashion trend besides bad and mullets. but i enjoy it greatly.
-american crap is everywhere. all the movies on tv are american and dubbed or subtitled. ditto for tv shows. a lot of the music is american, and also outdated. haven't quite figured out the music scene...at all. haha.
-the most dangerous thing here is the driving. people are INSANE. my taxi driver was doing about double the speed limit on the way in from the airport. i was terrified. i also had a taxi driver reverse about five blocks. through intersections. in REVERSE. it seems that pedestrians are equivalent to road construction cones...you try not to hit them, but if you do, well shit it doesn't really matter.

(sidenote - i'm currently watching a guy from martinique do a hilarious dance to rap music. he is better than i am though...oh the return to dormlife)

-pesos. weird ass currency. they have 1 peso coins but these are seriously pointless. it's like 1/100 of a cent or something. yvonne was thinking about making a bracelet out of them because you couldn't buy one chiclet with them. but it's weird paying for things that cost $1200. a $1200 hotdog is hard to wrap your head around even though i know that only equals $2 U.S.

well if anyone is still reading this at this point, i'ma peace ouuut. i apologize for rambling but i'm not going to outline my blog before i write it...haha. anyways, love you all :)

a couple photos to make this look less boring...