Santiago!

I'm here!

26 hours and three flights with three different airlines and going through security three times, my bag and I eventually reached Chile early this morning. On that note... time here is 2 hours faster than East Coast ( so 9am in Pittsburgh is 11am here). Since Chile is actually due South from the East Coast, it means that sunrise is at about 7am and sunset near 9pm, which makes a lot more sense to me than the 5:15am sunrises that American time creates during its peak of summer.

I cashed in some Kharma almost immediately upon arrival... made friendly with another tall blond who is from somewhere in South America, but has been a student in Santiago for 6 months, and he basically escorted me directly to my hostel. I thought it would have been challenging to bus to the hostel alone -- I probably wouldn't have ever made it here if not for him. Since I don't have a cell phone, we unfortunately parted ways after finding the hostel. So I guess I'll just pay it forward.

I spent a few hours today wondering around the Bellavista section of the city where the hostel is located just trying to get oriented. Tomorrow I'll probably be a little more bold and take a camera with me to go see some of the big sights.

It's strange to be surrounded by a language I can't understand (reading is okay though), but stranger to be here with out any plan and no companions or affiliations at all. But, new expereinces are why I'm here in the first place. Anyway, time to go make friends/ learn Espanol / and find some delicious empanadas for dinner.