After about 12 hours of flying, we finally arrived Friday morning here in Santiago! Customs was fun, especially the $130 you have to pay when you get off the plane for being from a richer country (they only charge this fee if you are from Canada, the U.S., Australia, or Mexico. Go figure.) I was pretty stoked when the muchacho who stamped my passport was listening to Incubus and I pointed to his music player and said, "¿te gusta Incubus?" "sí, te gusta tambien?" "sí, mucho!" My first Spanish conversation with a real Chilean!
Our tour guide Jose took us to a pretty cool market where they sell little trinkets for gringos like us. I saw some pan flutes (LOL!), "vidrio soplado" (blown glass), and of course the typical shawls and scarves and such. They have lots of things made of alpaca wool, the alpaca of course being a common South American animal. I also saw a buckeye and asked the lady "¿cómo se dice esto en español?" The word for buckeye is "castaño.¨ Apparently they have lots of buckeye trees here too. How nice! We also went up one of the montañas here, where there is a large statue of the Virgin Mary who, as Jose told us, "looks over the city of Santiago." very photogenic.
We also went to a mall tonight, and the food court was so American that it was hard to believe we are actually in a different country. Kelsey and Jessica and I all ate a "completo," which is a hot dog loaded down with all kinds of Hispanic things. (Mine had guacamole, salsa, and mayo of all things.) It was pretty tasty!
Now we are chilling at the hotel and mañana vamos a Valparaíso. Jose nos dijo que podemos nadar en la playa. (¡quiero broncearme!)
I am getting to translate a lot, as 12 of the 16 people in our group speak no Spanish. This is cool, or annoying, depending on the situation (and the person asking of course.) lol! Hope to update again soon. leave me comments if you get a chance! peace
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4 comments:
Jules:
Great to see you made it!! Sounds like you're off to a great start! Keep the blogs coming...
Love,
Sal
Hey miss heckman :]
Its Hailey McKinniss form spanish 2nd period. it sounds like your having a REALLY good time. you should of danced when you were at that resturaunt . I think its so funny that the guys down there are rocking mulletts (i cant spell) and so there listening to music from the 80's
do they have any eminem or like 50 cent down there ??
well i hope your haveing fun :]
and we miss you in class :]
bye
hey hailey! Yeah i'm having a great time. they do listen to rap down here, but the most popular american music is like the 80s stuff, the beatles, and linkin park. haha!
Hola Sra. Heckman, ^_^
Suena muy divertido allí hasta ahora.
espero que fuera divertido en la playa. Deseo yo broncearme, consido pálido otra vez. Yo cansado no soy la traductor allí, yo sería muy malo. ^_^'
Estoy cansado tu aterrizó sin peligro. :)
Hasta Luego,
Samantha M.
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