Good things to know when you're in Chile:

Hellooooo,

So i'm sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but I'm going to be honest I haven't done many interesting things this past week. On Monday I had photo class at 9am and I was 45 min. late because I took 2 wrong buses which was very frustrating. I got on one that said in big bold letters MIRAS FLORES, but after being on the bus for about 20 min. I asked the bus driver if we had passed Miras flores and he just replied "no, no, no" and he dropped me off at the mall. Not going to lie for about a minute I contemplated just taking the morning off because the mall here is fantastic and huge (4 stories) and very fun, but I figured I'd start the week off right and go to class. So I asked a lot of people around me, in spanglish of course, how to get to Miras Flores and everyone just replied "al frente" and I had no idea what they were saying... like in front of what?? (apparently

it just meant other side of the street) So then I finally got on another bus, but after 10 min. everyone got off and I was the only one left so the driver asked me where I was going and I said "plaza de miras flores" and he replied "no no no no" and honked at another bus which pulled over on the side of this really busy road and I changed busses while in the middle of the street and finally, finally made it to class. Very stressful, but on the bright side at least it made class go by faster because it was 45 min. shorter than it would've been.. right? right?

Another interesting class experience was on Wednesday when I tried to go to class, but after waiting outside the room with all the other gringos for awhile someone came up to us and said class was cancelled becau

se the students are on strike or something. Then on thursday history was cancelled because it's the 100th anniversary for the history building so they're preparing for a big ceremony. So basically I've been to 7 classes in the past 3 weeks... but a lot of Chileans haven't actually been to class because we are still in the add/drop period so you don't actually have to come up with a final class schedule until Aug. 27th. Hopefully though I'll have a few more classes this week because honestly all this free time is driving me a little nuts. I spend a lot of afternoons at Starbucks with my friends or just sitting outside because it's been nice. Also I sleep until 2pm and can't stop. I told this to Axel today and he said that he woke up at 6pm today so I guess I shouldn't feel too guilty...

Okay so besides taking the wrong bus and preparing for student strikes and lots of free time here are some other good things to know when you're in chile...

1. It's chilly in chile because it's winter here. It doesn't really compare to Lake Forest or Gambier, but it still gets rainy and in the 50s which makes it really hard to motivate myself to walk around and explore.

2. They love mayonnaise, which personally I'm not a huge fan of. They put it on everything! My host mom put a huge glop on her salad the other day. Also they have these things called "completos" and they're so popular/really popular late at night and they are hot dogs with tomatoes, a pound of mayo, and avocado on top. I haven't had one yet and am pretty intimidated, but I'm sure my time will come eventually.

Got this picture from google image, but you see what i mean. Yummmmm?

3. Also they love avocado and so do I. They put it on everything, like avocado sandwiches, hotdogs, everything.

4. About 99.99% of coffee is instant. My family will whip out some hot water and instant coffee at "once" what they call dinner and just pour in the coffee mix and then 8 spoonfuls of sugar.

5. The bus here, or "micro", are honestly like riding on a roller coaster! That one day that I got on 2 wrong busses, one of them was roaming through the hills and i was the only one on the bus and I seriously felt like I was at six flags or something.

6. There are millions and millions of stray dogs. Some of them are sooooooo cute and it's so hard not to touch them, but they likely have fleas so probably not the best idea.

7. They love facebook and facebook chat, american television, american music specifically 90s music (I heard hansons' mmbop the other night and spice girls!), graphbook paper (it's so hard to find normal notebooks), smoking (its gross and everywhere and anywhere smoking is acceptable), twilight, staying up until it's absurdly late, and many other random things...

Hopefully I'll have more interesting things to write soon. I'm honestly having a great time and my friends here are the best. (i made friends! wahoo!) It's been really weird recently thinking about everyone moving back to Gambier, OH. Makes me a little sad, but I know that I have many awesome chilean adventures to come. This weekend I might go skiing, which I'm excited/nervous for because it's been awhile! Also, I'm going to a dave matthews concert and maybe a regina spektor concert in october! So random that they're coming to Santiago, Chile of all places but I'm so excited! Hopefully things will pick up and I wont have all this free time because it gets a little lonely :( but it's okay. My family is very independent and always doing their own thing so I'm often left downstairs in my room (they all live upstairs), but I still have a great relationship with my brother! He's the best!

Hope everyone has a good start to school and fall! I'll post more later!

Chauuuu, besossss, cuidate, adiosssss, bye!