Entrada nùmero uno

It`s only been a little over a week, but as I`m adapting to things it feels mucho màs longer (Apologies for weird punctuation: these keyboards are exasperating. How am I supposed to write with only one shift key?). I guess a quick recap of the life-of-Sarah-since-arrival in general is appropriate...

Flight to Atlanta was fine. 8-hour layover in Atlanta...estaba bien. I walked up and down escalators a lot and spent too much time in the Zimbabwan art exhibit between terminals A and T. My last taste of Sbarro´s for a while, I reckon. I ran into three other Santa Cruz students on the same flight (Yay wearing my UCSC sweatshirt!). The 10-hour flight would have been less terrible if I´d practiced sleeping upright near crying children, but I my seat-mate was a pediatric surgeon from Santiago who was good company and a good giver-of-advice on Santiago and Santiaguinos.

The four of us (me and Santa Cruzians) slowly figured out the logistics of exiting the airport. One of the customs golden retrievers pointed out my bag, but apparently the agriculture administration, not drug law enforcement, employs the puppies at the airport. Who knew accidentally leaving an orange peel in my backpack would be so stressful. We got to the hostel (We´d all made reservations at the place recommended by the University), put stuff down, drank beer on the patio, and then left in search of lunch en el Centro, where there´s kind of a pedestrian-mall-type-thing composed mostly of bank buildings, Dunkin´ Donuts, pharmacies and ice cream stands. Word of warning: NesCafe is big here, as we figured out after about five minutes of confusion while a waiter holding a teapot of hot water stood waiting for us to spoon out our own coffee crystals, which we mistook for cinnamon. More wandering, me being kind of cranky for being dehydratedish and not having slept or showered much during the last 48 hours, then chilling at hostel.

MAn that wasn´t particularly interesting at all. I´ll get to the good stuff, I swear.

Next day, family matching, where we stood around, hoping that we wouldn´t be left, familyless, on the steps of la Católica´s Campus Oriente. My host mother, Sonia, didn´t recognize me from my six-month-old, photocopied black and white picture, but she finally drove me home in her Toyota to her small, classy apartment in La Providencia (the neighborhood). I have my own room that opens out to a terraza, my own bathroom, and a guard at the door of the building who finds me amusing. Luckily she eats really healthily (low-sodium salt? What?), but I had to eat my first banana with a fork and knife...Meals have become less proper, but they´re still more European than I´m used too. Too many unnecessary plates.

They stuffed all the students in living situations near Campus Oriente, where the UC study center is, and they´re all super classy neighborhoods. To get a feel for La Providencia, think East Sac. Lots of trees, dog-walking, lawn-watering, signs for Pilates. In el centro de Providencia, above the metro station is a massive mall with a Starbucks. So much for the foreign experience. On clear days, though, the Andes to the East (house prices go up the closer you get to the mountains) take up like a third of the sky, and while the cordillera closest to Santiago isn´t snow-capped yet, it´s still pretty incredible.

Except for sheer size of the mountains, I could honestly mistake this for Sacramentoish area in the summer: kinda scrubby hills/mountains, dry weather in the 90s, flat. That and the pizza huts and burger kings all over the place.

I´ll write more later, and hopefully it gets more exciting...I´ll plan on doing something illegal and/or dangerous.