Ah, I've been here for almost a month. It's definetly different, I'm getting to know more about cultural things and people (here and in general). It does make me sad that it's rare to have just guy friends anymore. I mean even if you're straight up with them the whole time you're hanging out, they still keep this little hope until something happens, they get the guts to say something and then wish they never did. Ay yay yay. My mom here cooks crazy things to utilize what we have here, she just like throws whatever in a pot and it turns out to be dinner. I have definetly eaten some very interesting, but some very good things. Dinner last night for her birthday turned out well, I had just enough, due to my "malcalculato," and my family had never eaten shrimp scampi or oriental chicken/apple/cilantro...salad before, but I guess they really liked it because they kept saying "Qué rico, qué rico..." Every time I'm with my "cousins" here I feel like they're like making fun of me over everything I say of something, because suddnley it gets really quiet and they just look and each other, but it could just be me.

Ah live music at "La Playa" last night, typical chilean I guess. I had a lot of fun besides the fact that my chilean friend got kind of drunk and stupid. Everyone laughs whenever I have tea at a pub. I'm the abuelita. Ha. Yeah right, I don't thin abuelitas go to bed at 6 in the morning. So I lost half the day waking up at 12ish and went to el centro today with Kevin Dalit, one of my buddies and neighbors here. Poor guy, stressed out because there's another student moving into his house. I wouldn't want to have classes and live with anyone especially if that meant I had to be with them 24-7. I woulsn't be a happy camper either. So what did we do??? We drowned his sorrow in empanadas and fries. So healthy. When we looked at the time, it was after 4! Such a lazy day today! For some reason I've been constantly hungry and craving sweets since Santiago when Chandi gave me that peice of rich and moist chocolate with majar cake. It's probably because I keep looking for it's equal. Now we have to go back just to find it.

Oh yes, I have a lot to say about Santiago. You know, just in case you want to visit. I have a lot of pictures, but I have to figure out how to connect my laptop to the internet.

Santiago is the capital of Chile wonderland of 4.8 million people, 1,739ft abovesea level, and has an average of 47 degrees F this time of year. Santiago is only 50km from the ski slopes, and 100km from la playa (beach). Santiago is also know as Santi-asco (asco= gross) because of the polution compared to the rest of Chile. But there is definetly less polution there than Tokyo, Katmandu, and Bangkok. There is a magnificent view of the Andes mountains from pretty much every part of the city, and if you'd like to call anyone, the country code is 56, and the area code is 2. The city was founded February 12, 1544 by Spanish Conquistador, Pedro de Valdivia. The archetecture is european influenced and has a lot of histoy.

Places to go, people to see...
La Chimba Hostel in Bellavista, the happening part of town. $12 a night, super cute, top hostel in Chile.
Recoleta Bar, mid-priced for Chile, super cheap for everyone else. Super good Seafood Spaghetti with cream sauce. Watch out for the suchi though, there's cream cheese in it.
The Victoriana, Peruvian restaurant for the locals. Hole in the wall.I had an amazing seafood platter for $5,000 ($10) that could have been split between two people. Try the Ceviche. Amazing!!!
Le Pot Pouri de Gourmets, international food. Good, mid-priced. Very close to hostel.
La Vega Farmers Market, a vegetable China town.
El Mercado Central, fish market. Get a girl to buy your fish, it'll be cheaper.
Cerro Santa Lucia, the heart of the city. The most wonderful place, probably my favorite part of the city.
Museo de Bellas Artes, great exhibits. Free on Sundays.
Muestra Vida, salsa dancing, bring a partner unless you want to dance with strange old men (35-60ish).
Antonia Lopez de Bello calle, one of the only places to buy your oriental cooking staples and get good oriental food.
Jo!-Tul, cool, strange vintage shopping. if you want ot buy a fanny pack, there are strangly a lot of strange ones.
Zoo, San Cristobal, not as unimpressive the lonely planet guide said it'd be. Go with someone fun, bring change for cotton candy.

Tip- Bring your student id card everywhere!!! It will save you money!!! Get an ISIC card!

Journal entry from Santiago-
8/20/06
Ah, SAntiago, Santiago, mi amor. I have decided that I'm pretty much a city girl. I love the city. As soon as we got into Santiago from the train station, I fell in love with it. The first thing we walked into was some sort of protest, something about segregation, I'm not really sure. It was very interesting. The directions I wrote down for the hostel were perfect, and I'm glad it wasn't confusing, besides crossing river, dodging colectivos, and reading all the street names. As soon as we stepped into the hostel, we were so happy that we chose it instead of the one with the free bikes. The atmosphere was amazing and colorful, very artsy. Lots of photos and paintings. We got to meet so many cool people there. We ended up going out and exploring the City, Santa Lucia, El Centro Artesanal, and the other indigenous art place below the cerro. Pretty much everything the vendors sell are very touristy and typical. There were some things I wanted to get like gifts and postcards. The Cerro was definetly my favorite part of the whole city. I walk around it and it just seems so magical, like anything could happen. My imagination just runs wild, thinking about how it was bult, who was here, trap doors... The sculpture and the architecture is beautiful around the city, but especially here, with its many pools, plants, staircases, and everything else in it. There's tons of couples here. Crazy. I guess they like the atmosphere too. Fabian came over and we went out to eat at Le Pot Pouri or Gourmets. He was adorable, with his vintage Argentina fútbol jersey... Ok, enough about that...While we were watiting for him to get some beauty sleep before going out, we met a bunch of cool people at the hostel bbq, Oliver from London, Martin from Sweden(?), Jen and Rachel from Oregon, and a couple others. It was super cool, we played Rummy, talked, saw a few pictures from a tour that we're thinking about taking to Northern and Southern Chile. It's going to be amazing!!! We ended up going to Maestra Vida Salsa Club with Rachel and Jen. Fun but tiring since I've never danced salsa before. A Greek lady from the table next to us asked me (in spanish) if I would ask her friend to dance because he was shy.

To be continued... when I wake up...