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O hey!
So today was the first day we had to commute into Santiago centro to la casa de SIT. Mi padre works muy cerca de la casa SIT, entonces, he took me on the 403 bus into the city. The whole trip took about an hour and I was trying really hard to remember land marks because the signs that say the stops are so small and you sometimes have to get off the bus in the middle of the road if there is a lot of traffic and it can't pull to the side. So I'm not so sure I could do it by myself. ay dìos mìo, In la mañana we had a spanish evaluation to determine our level of expressive and receptive spanish (i'm such an SLP). This only took a few minutes so afterwards five of us went to a cafe cerca de casa SIT. Fue muy lindo (cute, nice, pretty). Despuès de almuezo, we had el drop-off. Basically Alex and I were given a place- la estaciòn mapocho- certain modismos or idioms and two foods. We had to find the place by ourselves, observe there, and then ask a stranger the significance of the place and find out what the idioms mean and find out what is in the foods. Well, yesterday, I asked mi abuela sobre la estaciòn. She drew me an extensive map of how to get there from la casa SIT so Alex and I were all excited when everyone else had to find their spot with maps but we already had a hand drawn one. ha ha. Here's where it goes wrong. Mi abuela me dijo (told me) to be very careful in la estacion. She said dont eat the fruits that are sold there or any of the food because they are not safe and clean. Also, there are a lot of lodrones (robbers) there (don't tell mi madre americana) so keep your bag in front of you. So Alex and I set off expecting to find a big market place with tons of people. We get to what my map says is the place and there are literally two stands selling water and chips next to this giant building. So thinking we were lost, we walked around the area for probably and hours hoping to find a big market place and lots of people. The building said Centro Cultural de La Estaciòn Mapocho so we thought it was the cultural center of the lugar (place) que se llama La estacion mapocho. So finally we said that mi abuela must be wrong and we asked like five guys that kept saying- ask the guy in the blue jacket he knows- o algo asì. Finally we found a crazy little man that knew about the significance of the building- turns out la estacion is the building not a market place. He said that it originally served as a train station from 1910 hasta 1991 when it was turned into a cultural center. He said a lot more than that but he talked so stinkin' fast that I was only able to write that much down. He answered all of of crazy questions and then proceeded to aks us if we know spanish swear words. We both said no, feeling more an more uncomforatble as this man old enough to be my grandfather said that the first thing we should have learned after leaving the airplane is swear words in spanish. He the continued to tell us the swear and explain what it meant. We told him we had to go and he brought us to the subway and told us how to get home. The more I interact with chileans the more I learn how amables (friendly) y hospitable (hospitable lol) they are. Crazy but friendly.

So that only just begins my adventures of the day en Chile. I took the bus into the city but I wanted to take the subway back because I wasn't sure if I could recognize my stop on the bus. So around 5:15 I went on the subway with my friend who lives a few stops down on the blue line and I thought o good mi abuela drew another map about how to get home from the subway stop. (disclaimer: you can read on only if your name is not Kathy Oaks and you promise not to tell mi madre americana, she will not like it). So I am all confident and get off the subway at Simon Bolivar. I walk up the stairs and si Salida Av Ossa and Salida Av Alguno differente. So two exits. I pick one go up the billion stairs. Walk a little bit. I don't recognize anything, nothing matches the map. ok. dont panic. I went bakc down stairs and asked the lady selling PIB cards and she says up the stairs to the right. OK back up the billion stairs. Finally I find Av Simon Bolivar and I see the movie theater that is near my house. so I start walking down the street when I realize that quizas I am not going the right way. So I go back and go into HOyts to call mi madre. She told me to walk down Bolivar away from the mountains and my street is off of the about 6 blocks away. I walk 7 or 8 cuadras (blocks) away from what I thought were the mountains although it was dark and foggy so I could not see the mountains which might have been an issue. Then I call mi madre otra vez and I said i'm on Parque Tabalaba. A street she had never heard of. O good. SO i walk in the other direction and finally come to a street she recognizes. I am approximately 15 blocks away. o good. It's dark by now. I should have been home an hour ago. O good. So finally after a few more wrong turns and 15 blocks later, I get home. Here's the thing: I should have gone out the other exit :-). But I learned a lot about Ñuñoa and now know exactly how to get home. So needless to say my 2 hour adventure home exhausted me a little bit. So I'm off to bed now. Our first day of classes is tomorrow. Also I played mis hermanos in Wii basketball and kicked their butts. haha.

Also, on another note. Sorry if my blog is hard to understand. It is sort of stream of conciousness and I realize that sometimes I use spanish so sorry if it un poquito confusing. After speaking in spanish all day my brain has trouble switching to english so it comes out as just a bad mix of english with some spanish words thrown in. So...sorry. but my brain hurts. a lot. it's mush... and this is what comes out. :-)

Con cariño (love, affection),
Kim