Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Year´s Extravaganza

This will be brief because we already typed it once and the computer shut down...

We started our New Year´s festivities with a BBQ that we were unimpressed with. So, we made friends with the Swiss girls and headed out to find some beer. This proved to be more difficult than we imagined but we finally settled on some much too expensive beer from a street vendor. Cheers. We returned just in time to eat and drink ourselves into proper New Year´s inibriation.

Slighly before midnight we all left for the big square to watch the fireworks and apparently gain a champagne and confetti shower. People were screaming and cheering and having a grand ole time...a proper way to ring in the new year.

After the fabulous fireworks display, we returned to our hostel for more partying and some reggeton lessons from our drunken receptionist. LOL. The lessons must have gotten us in the dancing mood because before we knew it we were all leaving to go to a club. This is when Heidi lost her ability to read, even in english, and Callie fell down the stairs....twice. Haha.

We danced the night away and made it back just in time for dawn. Today was a national holiday so most things were closed and neither of us were up and living before afternoon anyways. Tomorrow we meet our group and we are very excited. Hope you all had a safe and fabulous New Year´s!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Lost in Translation

Last night was a good night, we met some of our fellow travelers and got thoroughly drunk on a Chilean drink called Piscola. It´s a combination of wine and cola. It sounds rather odd, but it´s surprisingly good. We met a bunch of people from Brazil, France, Chile, Japan etc. and remember none of their names today :)

Another BBQ is planned for tonight to ring in the New Year and we plan on watching the ¨artificial fire¨ aka fireworks at the Plaza de Moneda. Heidi and I will be donning our riddiculous party hats and masks. We are of course very excited.

Today we walked the entire length of the city to find that everything we wanted to visit was closed. How grand. Not to mention that is was an exceedingly nice, but roasting hot day. (note to fellow travelers...sunscreen sticks cause weird lines and patches, Heidi looks like she´s been whipped with preschool shapes) We settled on lunch at a small cafe where we made asses of ourselves for not speaking the language. Turns out we can´t understand a word they say here...none the less the owner was very patient. However, he was a rather strange man for he called me a niƱa mala which is Spanish for ¨bad girl.¨ Apparently I made quite an impression. LOL

Then we hopped in a cab and more tranlation issues ensued. Turns out no one can understand us either even if we are speaking correct spanish. We settled on writing things back and forth and eventually made it back to the hostel...with his phone number. Hahahah. It´s for future taxi services.

Now we are wasting time till the New Year´s festivities begin. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Avoiding Immigration

So Callie and I met up in Hotlanta and boarded our delayed flight to Santiago. Where Callie was promptly asked if she flew so much because she was a super model or movie star, by the flight attendant. I said ´both´ in an effort to get us into first class. It didn´t work but Callie is obviously a valued customer. haha. Upon arrival to Santiago Callie´s bag was immediately sniffed out by the security dogs. Apparently cheese and biscuits are not to be brought into the country. (Thanks for the nice gesture, mom) Then you get into more trouble if you didn´t claim them on your form. We thought Callie might be hauled away, for questioning. They take their cheese very seriously here.

We arrived at the hostel seriously jet lagged, then had to wander the city for 3 hours before we could check in. We enjoyed watching the random dog gangs work their corners in heavy traffic. A few of them were definitely dead. When we finally checked into the hostel we took a 4 hour nap. Then we wandered the city again in search of food (sin map), and new years party hats. Success on both accounts! This computer won´t let us get into our email, so that´s why you haven´t heard from us...moms. We hope guys are enjoying Winter, we´ll write again soon.