Santiago

Ohhh so much to tell.  I've been trying to put my finger on what makes Santiago so different from any other city I've visited.  One of the first things I noticed is that there are very few tourists here--I've only seen two, after three days all over downtown.  That might be because there aren't too many actual sites to see here.  You could easily cover every guide-book-y spot in a day or two.  But there are so many little details to drink up, like all the beautiful old buildings and shaded streets (and colorful graffiti--separate photo post to come soon once I get them documented!).  

And even though there are no tourists, the streets are teeming with Chileans themselves strolling to get ice cream or watching street performers or just generally taking in the lovely evening.  And there are street vendors selling everything from empanadas, to freshly squeezed orange juice (literally, shopping carts full of fresh oranges with a little fruit squeezer station affixed across the top), to socks, to jewelry, to used books, to tarot card readings, to clothes, to weird trinkets.  In any other city that I've seen, the locals would rush past this kind of thing without a second glance, but here it seems that they regularly frequent these little carts.  They form huge crowds to watch anything interesting going on, from puppeteers to magicians to student marches.  Any of you guys who know me well know that I am a devout people watcher, so I absolutely LOVE being here--and it's made even better by the fact that the Chileans living in Santiago also seem to cherish the details of their city.  It's so unique!  

So while I've had a limited amount of free time here, I've been wandering as much as possible to take it all in.  And I went out for drinks to try the pisco sour (delicious) and terremotos (also delicious), popular Chilean drinks.  Luckily, my Spanish has been working out great!  I've already noticed it coming more easily.  There's a lot of new vocab specific to Chile that will take a while to pick up.  But everybody is patient and helpful.  I haven't run into any real problems understanding or making myself understood.  In fact, I talked to some Chileans at a bar and ended up singing Journey with them, which is all the communication Maddie Boots needs!  I'm really looking forward to getting to my host family next week, partly because I know that's what will help my Spanish most. And just because I can't wait to meet them!