Hi!
Last two days in Santiago—
Our hostel in Santiago was filled with Brazilians… the 3 of us were the only “gringos” as far as we knew. But it was fun to be surrounded by Brazilians and it was fun to attempt to talk to them. We stayed in a 6-person dorm room and our 3 other roommates were Brazilian and they were very fun!
On Tuesday we went to a giant outdoor market and did some damage… in Chile we all went a little earring crazy… but that’s ok! I was worried about theft so I didn’t come to south America with any jewelry, so its like I am starting a whole new collection! Tuesday night we met up with Eva (my friend from UCD) and we got drinks at this bar called The Clinic. I’m not totally sure about the whole story behind the bar, but I guess it is pretty famous in Santiago… the clinic used to be a newspaper. But anyways, Noey and I decided to order teremottos, (which means earthquake) these drinks were crazy! Its pisco, pineapple ice cream and some other thing mixed in. haha it was exciting!
On Wednesday we took a tram up Cerro San Christobal (which is where a couple of the photos below are taken). The View was gorgeous! From the top of the hill you can see all of Santiago. I tried to get a good as a photo as I could, but Santiago has pretty bad air quality you don’t really notice it until you are that up high and all you see is smog! Wednesday night we met up with matt, a friend we made at out hostel in Valparaiso who is living in Santiago… we met up with some of his Chilean friends and got drinks and it was fun! I really like that we have hung out with some many Chileans!
Thursday was our last day in Santiago, and by then we kinda felt that we had seem what the city had to offer. It is a great city, but there’s only so much you can see and do. So we decided to sleep in, do laundry for the first time and look around and some shops for the last time! For dinner we met up with Eva again for one last goodbye!
Today, we left our hostel at 4:20 AM… so early. Our flight to Sao Paulo left the Santiago airport around 7 am, we had a quick layover in Sao Paulo where we had to go to baggage claim, go through customs and immigration then re-check in and check our bags again… not really sure why we did it in Sao Paulo instead of Salvador, that didn’t make much sense to me… but really nothing has. As soon as we got on the plane headed to Sao Paulo, we knew it was going to be a battle trying to communicate. None of us know Portuguese… so trying to navigate from Sao Paulo to Salvador then trying to get a taxi from the airport to our hotel was an experience! But we did it!!! We got in to Salvador around 5pm and didn’t make it to our hotel until 6ish, by then it was already dark so we really haven’t been outside of our hotel at this point.
When we checked in the hotel, we were kinda shocked, there wasn’t anyone from EAP anywhere to be found and we had no info about any schedule of what to do or where to be… but we found a bunch of students in our program and joined them for dinner at the hotel. So far, everyone seems really cool!
The plan for tomorrow is to have breakfast at the hotel and then have “orientation”… our host families will meet us for lunch at the hotel and then take us home with them after! I am so excited to meet my family, but SUPER nervous because I only know 5 words in Portuguese… hello, thank you, yes, no and sorry…. All pretty important I think. Haha but it wont get me very far with my host family!
Its technically winter in Brazil right now, and it is gorgeous! As soon as I stepped off the plane, I would say it was about 70 degrees… so nice! And this was in the late afternoon; I am excited to have my first full day tomorrow!
I just can’t believe I am finally here! I’ve been waiting since Christmas and now I am finally here!
Haley! So happy to hear that you've made it safe and sound!
ReplyDeleteHaha I laughed out loud when you said that nothing has made sense so far. Trust me, that won't cease. But that's what I loved about Brazil....everyday was an adventure. Good luck with the bus system too! Oh, and the reasons you had to go through customs in Sao Paulo was because that was your first stop after entering from a different country.
And do NOT let the taxi drivers rip you off. Or even buying stuff off the street (and even in some stores!). They love to haggle and it's pretty fun after awhile too. Can't wait to hear who your host family is! Do you live in Vitoria??