All day Tuesday I did my last minute errands and finished packing. Everybody drove me to the airport, Connor and Megan following behind. I have never seen an airport so empty. There was no line for checking my baggage or to go through security either. This proved to be really beneficial because I forgot the Chilean money that my grandma had given to me for my first few days in Santiago. Mom and Dad drove it all the way back up to me and the guards didn't make me go through the whole x-ray process again; they just passed it from mom to me. Two of the girls from my program recognized me from facebook and came over to talk for a bit. But I wasn't feeling social. It seemed as if this trip just transpired out of nowhere. I had so much down time that Chile always seemed out of reach, always in the future. I was sitting in the airport, eating my surprisingly under-priced, unsurprisingly crappy hot dog thinking, how did I get to the airport... Holy crap, what am I doing here... Santiago seemed like just something I talked about, something intangible, so it was very odd to actually be doing it.
My seat was at the back of the plane and I was sat next to Ana, one of the girls that came to talk. The flight was 9 hours, and after we were served food a movie came on. Nights in Rodanthe. Diane Lane film. Pretty bad. Chick-flick category, but not a respectable one. Anyway, horrible seats. We both tried to sleep after the movie but they were so vertical and I forget how close the rows are with one another. After about 4 hours of on-and-off sleep, Ana and I woke up, had breakfast and waited for landing. For a while all we saw were clouds beneath us, but then the Andes began to peak through.
Went through immigration and got our luggage and headed out to the buses. I was afraid that I had packed too much and I was going to have an unnecessary amount of bags, but most people had a travel backpack, a suitcase and a regular backpack. Some people had an extra suitcase.
The drive to the hotel was very welcomed. Large seats, air conditioning, beautiful sites. The Andes surround Santiago, but because of the smog, they aren't always visible. So there are moments when you are looking around and realize there is a mountain range right there that you didn't see at first.
We had a welcoming meeting and an introduction to the city, PowerPoint style. Then we had some free time so we went out to exchange currency and try to find prepaid cell phones to buy.
After more meetings we all decided to go see the night life. Unfamiliar with the public transportation, we ended up walking for like 30 minutes to the mall where there was a karaoke restaurant. A group of us sang Bohemian Rhapsody and then a few of us attempted a TLC song but got off somewhere and mutilated the ending...
Felt like the longest day ever since sleep on the plane wasn't very successful.
