Bienvenido a Chile

Wow. Too much has happened in the last 24 hours to write a blog entry instead of a novella. First and foremost, I made it. I am in Santiago, staying at this hostel which is appropriately named in hippy fashion the "Happy House Hostel". It looks like it used to be an old mansion, but has been very meticulously restored. The Lonely Planet guide did not lie about this one.

After a very long (9.5 hours) and thankfully uneventful flight, I arrived at Santiago's modern airport. From there I took a taxi to the CIEE program office to drop the big suitcase off. I got my first intro to Latin American "circumstance-based" culture at the entrance to the building. The security guard told me that everyone who worked inside was on vacation. I knew this was not true as I had been in contact with the office staff personally and was told I was more than welcome to drop in the office to deposit my luggage. I kept explaining to the guard "Exchange student office, exchange student office!" but he would not let me in. Finally, he asked me whom I needed to see, and it clicked....aha! Name names in Latin America, and ye shall get far. When I stated the name of the director of the office, it was as though I had waved a magic wand. I was let through the gate and personally escorted to the office.

In the office, I recieved a crash course on Chilean bureaucracy. Tomorrow I have to go register with the national police and file to obtain my national ID card. The woman at the office wrote everything down that I need to do, but she kept mentioning things like "long line" and "100 windows, none of them labelled". Great. I think this shall be an adventure.

I walked around this afternoon and was quickly reminded what heat feels like. The sun was beating down on me all day and so I had to buy some sunscreen. How strange it is to be wearing shorts in February! I saw the Plaza de Armas (main plaza in the city) and climbed Cerro Santa Lucía, one of two hills in Santiago that are parks. The view was amazing....the Andes on one side, the coastal range on the other, and skyscrapers in between.

I promise that pictures will come soon to the blog. Now I need food.