El Primer Día (the first day)

The view from our balcony!

 At last we have arrived in Santiago, Chile!  Getting there was its own adventure in a few ways... let's talk about that flight.  That 10-hour flight.  Lucky Kelli and I were (un)fortunate enough to own two-thirds of that little island of seats in the middle of the plane, and I was blessed to have had the utmost middle seat, just feet away from a glaring movie screen, which showed not one, not two, but THREE movies which shone all sorts of flashing lights onto my closed eyelids.  In front of us was a playfully nosy toddler with a rather shrill scream.  Behind us two young kids from a strikingly bohemian family - all four of the kids carried skateboards onto the plane.  Rounding out our row was a man from Minneapolis who has flown the ATL-Santiago route upwards of a bazillion times due to his being involved in the Chilean salmon industry.  It was fun watching him mouth and gesturing along to the in-flight security movie and professing an unnerving interest in the star of the video, who apparently has been dubbed "Deltalina."

...smoking is not allowed.

Paula, Justin and the guy from the rental agency haggling.

So the long story made short is neither of us got really any sleep.  Which was an awesome setup for the rest of the day.  After going through customs and getting our bags, we were greeted by Paula, one of the residents from Santiago who was at UAB back in May and June.  God bless Paula and her husband Nelson, who managed to fit all our luggage and all of us in a tiny Toyota Yaris!  They also gave us a quick tour of the center of the city, and then we found our cozy little apartment!  We met a guy from the agency through which we rented the apartment, and he showed us in, but then informed us that we had to pay right then and there the remaining balance - all $912 - in cash, which neither of us had.  So thus started the quest to find someplace that would give us the money in dollars, not pesos, so we could pay the man by 5pm.  Easier said than done, especially on no sleep and in a foreign language.  That's all I'll have to say about that.  In the midst of scrambling to find a bank that would oblige us we did managed to sit at some hole-in-the-wall place and eat some nasty greasy mini-pizzas with cheese, tomatoes, and every olive south of the equator on top.

Thank goodness for the store just next door! Who needs olive loaded pizza when you've got fresh bread, nutella, wine and coke light?

After that ordeal was done we came back to our awesome apartment and crashed for a while, before the agency guy came back to collect our money.  We then went out to find some dinner.  We did do a little bit of exploring here and there, and managed to snap pictures of some really awesome sites that we passed by, such as the presidential palace.  We eventualy found restaurant called The Blue Jar.  Initially we were really excited because the menu had all sorts of reasonably-priced entrees... but then we were told those were only lunch entrees, and that the only thing we could order were tapas.  So our dinner consisted of a ham/cheese plate and some french fries.  Apparently the pisco sour we both had provided a little more protein intake (they are made with egg whites?).

So after a rather rough day with zero sleep (post-post call) and just a few bites to eat here and there, we now are back at the apartment getting ready to sleep it all off.  We start work at Hospital Sótero del Rio tomorrow, which is exciting!  So hasta mañana, and here's to a night full of sleeping very soundly!