Arrival in Chile!

I've made it to Chile!

After the red eye flight from Dallas to Santiago, I've finally arrived in Chile. The flight itself wasn't that bad at all, it was just sitting in a chair for nine or more hours. No crying babies, so it could've been worse.

After landing, I had to go through customs. They just as stringent rules about fruit and nuts as we do about guns and knives. They have "no apple" and "no nuts" picture/signs all over the place. It made me chuckle.

Anywho, I stayed in the plaza de armas hostel the first night. If you ever find yourself in santiago, i greatly suggest this hostel. It has a beautiful view of la plaza de armas(I'll post pictures in a little bit), and was a great deal(12$ per night). While it is cheap, it is like a dormitory, I stayed in a room with seven other people. But clean sheets and a comfy bed, I am not one to complain. There were a lot of foriegn, actually all foriegn people there. It was an interesting experiance to say the least.

My first "dinner" is one that I will be sure to remember. There are all sorts of food stands near la plaza de armas, so I naturally approached one and pointed at the food I wanted. It essentially was a hot dog. But a chilean hot dog is far from our beloved ball park franks. they take a normal hot dog and lop on chopped tomatoes, guacamole and hot mayo(which i thought was cheese. Quite wrong) It was tasty, but a bit overwhelming.

Right now I am staying with other International Studies Abroad studies in a suite in different part of Santiago, going through a four day orientation before my arrival in Vina del Mar, the city I'll be living in the next five months. Rioght, well I've got a long day tomorrow, so I'm off to sleep. (we're two hours ahead here in Chile.)

-Brian

P.S. I'm going to refuse to type read, you're just going to have to take the hard cold facts. And typing mistakes.