First week in Santiago...

We finally made it to Santiago, and after 2 days of being here without our luggage (a few people STILL don't have their luggage because the airport in Madrid lost it). We have settled in a bit and are living in a hostel/ hotel thing. We are searching for apartments currently which is one of the most stressful things I've done. The program basically just gave us a list of landlords who we had to call and attempt to talk to in our fractured spanish and set up appointments with (they don't speak any english...). I am still not sure where I am living. I want to live in the old zone, which is where the Cathedral is, but apartments (pisos to the Spanish), are slim pickings. Basically the pisos having anywhere from 4 - 20 people living in them and are generally small, run down, and cheap. They aren't what I expected. The city is though; it is absolutely enchanting. We probably have walked 5 miles a day since we've gotten here because even though the city is small, to get from one side to the other takes about 30 minutes. We will have to do this walk every day from the north campus where our morning classes are to the south campus where our afternoon classes are.

Learning about culture here is intense... For example, no one is overweight, and everyone is dressed up incredibly well (which may have something to do with how cheap nice clothes are.. its heaven). Even old ladies wear dresses and high heels. Also, no one yawns or stretches in public because its seen as uneducated, everyone smokes everywhere, no one smiles on the street, grades don't matter in Spanish education.. Meals are weird too. For breakfast, its just a roll or piece of bread at like 9 or so, lunch, along with siesta are from 2-4, and dinner starts about 9:30 and ends around 11:30- 12 (we started our dinner tonight about 9 and finally left at 11:30). Its a wonderful way of life, very relaxed. The Spanish like to enjoy their dinners and drinks and friends, and like to take care of their appearance. I am trying to adopt as many of their good habits as I can while I am here (none of their bad). Hopefully I will get some pictures up and write of more of my adventures in this fantastic city! (Adventures including getting stuck in a tiny tiny elevator for 30 minutes..)