I made it home! I arrived home Sunday morning at like 5:30 in the morning after a 10 hour flight. At least I had a friendly seat-mate...he was headed to the states as an exchange student for the next year. Even though his English was probably better than my Spanish (maybe?), we spoke in Spanish the whole time. It was nice to sit next to someone friendly and talkative!
Santiago was great! I really loved the city, although that might have had something to do with how absolutely beautiful the weather was. It was around 65 degrees and sunny the whole time we were there! Argentina had been so cold compared to that. When we arrived in Santiago (after our 10 hour bus ride through the Andes), we had been planning to go straight to Valparaiso. The bus was so late arriving, though, that there weren't any more buses to Valparaiso. So, we found a hostel and decided to stay in Santiago for 4 nights as opposed to the 2 we had originally planned. And I'm so glad we did! It's a really great city.
Our first day, we went on a four hour walking tour all around the city. It was an incredible way to learn about the history and politics of the city. There've been a bunch of protests going on for education reform. One protest involved calculating how much it would cost the government to pay for college for the country for an entire year. After the determined the number, they promised to run around the government building for that many hours. So you'd see people running by carrying black flags or Chilean flags.
Day 2 we spent going back to some of the sights from our tour: Pablo Neruda's house (the Nobel Prize winning poet who had an obsession with boats so designed his houses like boats), the Pre-Columbian Museum, the churches, etc. The weather was beautiful again, and the city was great! That night, we decided to go see Captain America...or Capitan America. It was in English with subtitles. We were running late for the movie, and the only place we could find for food was of course a McDonalds. In true American fashion we had McDonalds and a movie...a movie called Captain America no less!
Day 3 we spent taking a day trip to Vina del Mar and Valparaiso. As soon as we got to the bus station, some tour company managed to convince us to go with them and ride around in their bus. We fell for it far too easily, but it was a good way to see both cities! It ended up being kinda hilarious. We drove around with a group of mostly Brazilians (Portuguese speakers), some Spanish speakers, a few French folks, and us. And every time someone new got on the bus, the guide re-introduced us all and where we were all from. And then he explained that the Americans in the back understood Spanish perfectly, so no one should worry! He then proceeded to speak Spanish, throwing in a Portuguese word every now and then, and throwing in an English sentence when he felt the need. All in all, I liked seeing the cities, but I probably would have preferred to wander through them without the funny tour guide! Oh, also, this tour did not let us stop for lunch until 4:00 in the afternoon. Seriously, fat Americans cannot handle that nonsense. At one of our stops, Jay and I ordered empanadas, but as soon as we'd ordered them, it was time to go! The guide said he didn't mind waiting, but we ended up holding the whole bus up for like 5 minutes. Then I had to walk onto the bus with a bag of steaming hot empanadas that smelled up the bus and made everyone jealous. Fat Americans, fat Americans, fat Americans. Don't mess with our food.
For my last day in Santiago and in South America, Jay and I went on a wine tour at a really cool vineyard! Concha y Toro was the vineyard, and it was beautiful. We also did a tasting section of the tour that involved 4 different wines paired with some delicious cheeses! As a part of the tour, the vineyard gave us each a wine glass that says Concha y Toro and also gave us the cutting board that our cheeses were on that has their name on it as well! Of course the tour lasted longer than it was supposed to, so then Jay and I had to run to get a taxi, to take the metro, to run to the hostel, to wrap his shirts around the wine glasses, to pack those and the cutting boards, to call a cab to the airport and GO!
So I made it home safely! It's been a bit weird being back in the states. I'm used to wearing the same clothes over and over again, so I get a little freaked out every time I open my closet door. Not that I have THAT much clothing....but I do when compared to living out of a backpack for 2 months. I also hadn't driven in 2 weeks.
So no more blogging for the next few weeks! I assume no one really cares about the excitement of my life in Covington, GA. But have no fear, I will pick it back up once I arrive in Spain! I fly out on August 31st for 3.5 months in Seville, Spain.
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