Mintun blogi vaihtoajasta Santiago de Chilessä: Finally in Santiago.

After 26 hours of traveling we finally arrived to the airport of Santiago de Chile at 8 AM. It was the most beautiful blue moment when the plane started the landing. You could see the snowy Andes between the foggy morning clouds. By then I already knew I would fall in love with the country.

I shall tell you a bit more about my first day in Santiago and especially the first impressions of the city and the people.

After arriving we waited for a few hours at the airport, arfter which we took a taxi straight to our new flat. The driver dropped us off in front of our house on our street Ramón Corvalan. We neither saw our landlord nor Laura, but we didn't have to wait for a long time until we heard the landlord calling "Pia, Pia" from the balcony of our apartment (which is "by the way" on the 22nd and the highest storey). We entered the gates of our yard and saw a doorman waiting for us at the door of the house. In Santiago almost every apartment house has its own doorman and reception desk. At the door of our flat we finally met Laura (oh yes, she's alive and having the time of her life). When we finally calmed down - after hugging, screaming and catching our breaths because of the unbelievable view from our balcony - we signed the lease. The communication with the land lord was poor but funny, because Roberto (his name) was very delighting person and patient with us. We all were very pleased with the apartment and from the Finnish point of view it was incredibly cheap (imagine a flat with the city view surrounded by Andes for 700 euros).

We were dead tired and hungry after traveling 30 hours all in all. We decided to go and catch something to eat and do some basic grocery purchases. On our way to the eatery we were beseted by a bunch of crazy and loud football fans who started hugging and squishing us. After several pictures taken with them they finally let us go. I would say the first contact with the locals was quite a funny situation - especially because of our tiredness and newbie-kind of feeling. Finally, after the incident we found a place where to get some food. It was a local casual "restaurant", where they offered churrasco sandwiches (churrasco= thinly cut strips of steak). We managed to order our portions with our poor Spanish - thanks to the lovely and helpful old lady who had nerves of steel with us. Me and Pia ate our first meals in Chile with an good appetite. Laura, being a vegetarian, had some problems with the communication: instead of a veggie sandwich she got a hot dog.

Satisfied, we returned to our flat and went to bed. We all slept for several hours. When we finally woke up we confronted some unsatisfying facts: none of the electronic devices worked anymore. This meant that our fridgerator didn't work anymore, there was no warm water, no internet, no electronic heating, nada. Furthermore we couldn't call the land lord cause the phone didn't work. After processing the facts for some minutes, we forgot all our problems because of the unbelievable view - again. It was already a evening and dark so we could see the city in its full regalia, with thousands of glinting lights. After admiring the lights we decided to take a freezing cold showers and get ourselves ready for the evening. Oh yes, Laura got already a plan for our first evening: we were supposed to go out with the other people from our Spanish course (which had already started on 1st of July). So at 10 PM we took a metro and met everyone in front of our school Universidad Mayor in Manuel Montt. We continued our way to the Bellavista district, which is famous for its' bars and restaurants...and tourists. We spent the evening in a bar, eating, drinking (the local alcohol called pisco) and getting familiar with the other students, who are from Brazil, Germany, France, US, Denmark and Taiwan. Some of the people are staying in Santiago just for the language course and thus leaving after July. Some of them are staying the whole semester, just like us.

Me and Pia started to feel a bit tired at the point when crazy brazilians started the dancing. We left the bar around 1 AM and walked back home. Our flat is situated perfectly in the heart of the city so the distances are short, no matter where you are. When we arrived back "home" we had to encounter the coldness again. There's no central heating systems in the Chilean houses so the temperature inside can be sometimes even lower than outside. We decided to rely on the human warmth and instead of sleeping in our own bedrooms we all three shared the double bed and it turned out to be a perfect idea. I had the best sleep I've had in a long time. I slept incredibly tightly and it wasn't cold at all, thanks to the two socks (normal ones and the woollen ones), the two shirts (a normal one and a woollen one) and the two pants that I wore. Not to mention the sleeping bag and the warm blanket in which I wrapped myself. The first day in Santiago was behind and we all thought the feeling was still a bit unreal.