5 days in Chile: Things we´ve learned

We finally made it to Santiago de Chile!  After a long plane ride with a short diversion in Brazil, we landed in Santiago.  Our friend´s mom picked us up at the airport and brought us to her lovely home in the El Golf neighborhood.  We are currently living in an apartment in Nuñoa (a jump, skip and hop away from the National Stadium i.e. GOOOOOOOOAAAL).  It´s a great place, but a little far from the center of town.  So, our main order of business at this time is to find an apartment.  It´s strangely difficult to find an apartment in a city you´ve never been to and don´t speak the language in.  But, we will persist!!!

Everyone we´ve met has been extremly friendly and inviting.  We learned our first (and maybe most important) lesson on Friday:  We were invited to a party at a girls house in La Reina.  Being New Yorkers, we thought we were night owls.  OH NO!  We were picked up at around 11pm, went to another guys house for a piscola or two, then headed over to the party at around 12:30.  There were about 5 people there; we´re saying, ok, small party.  But, the party didn´t START until 2:30 in the morning.  Getting home at about 6 in the morning was a bit shocking for us.  And, yes, it happened again on Saturday night.  Chileans like to party and they like to do it very late at night/very early in the morning.

We´ve been walking around a few different neighborhoods, trying to get a handle on the layout of Santiago.  There are many beautiful parks, lots of very good-looking stray dogs, and a shit-ton of people on the subway during rush hour.  Tomorrow, we are hanging out with our friend Charlie and his polola (girlfriend), Val.  Then, it´s continuing to find apartment, learn spanish, and eat more seafood paella. 

We don´t have internet in our apartment, so we are writing this from a cafe near the Plaza de Armas.  Once we have internet in our home, we will post pictures and include more humorous stories of the two lost gringos in Santiago.

Ciao ciao!