My 1st Trip to Santiago

On Monday morning, 1 day after I met my host family, we took a 8 hour long bus ride to Santiago to get my host brother's VISA. There is so much I want to say! But I don't want to be here super long, so I'll cut it short.

1. Buses here in Chile are really nice. Think business class on a plane... without the free food. 
2. Water to drink, is "Agua con Gas". Meaning that unless you ask for "Agua sin Gas" you will get bubbly water.
3. It gets really wet here, and fairly cold. Especially if you go south. So you will need a decently thick "parka" or coat that also protects from rain.
4. I live in the "Zona Sur"
5. They do not speak Spanish at the USA Embassy in Chile. That makes us (as in the USA) look really great. 
6. If you are a tall, skinny girl with long arms like me, you will probably have to buy guy's jackets and limit your shoe purchases. No joke. Because, even in the XL women's "parkas", the arms were not long enough, and it was way to big everywhere else. Also, in shoes, I am a women's 10 in US sizes, but a 42 here. And stores have a women's 42 in about 0 pairs of shoes. I did have more luck in the "zapatilla" section. Or sports shoes. 

#5 led to an interesting, but expected, problem. Because the dude at the VISA counter did not speak Spanish (how do you even do that when you have lived in Chile for God knows how long?), and my brother speaks fairly good but still limited English, it was bound to be interesting. I was able to double check the answers mi hermano gave, and badly translate some of the questions the dude asked, and all was well.        

Here are some pictures.

Santiago. The capital of Chile.

The outside of the US embassy in Santiago, Chile. This building is basically a security room and they took my camera. So no pictures of inside, even though it was super cool.

Me in my new "parka"in the Santiago mall with a replica of what they used to rescue the Chilean miners.

New shoes. A present from my host family along with the parka.