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Sarah broke the 50-free record! Twice! She got 2nd place, which really counts as first with Katie Radloff there. She got on the podium and I wasn’t there to see it. It makes me sad to know that I’m missing the last big swim meet of her college career; even if she makes it to NCAAs I won’t be able to see it. I’m going to wear green and yellow this whole weekend in honor of her swimming. The Gold rush T-shirt is my PJs.
the whole no internet thing makes it hard when that’s the main way I was planning on communicating. I definitely have a little bone to pick with ContactChile.
To those who want to visit me down here or send a package lemme know so i can figure out the whole chilean mail thing. I would LOVE some 4x6 pictures for my little picture album, I was rushed leaving and not only forgot my confirmation papers for transport from the airport, causing slight complications, but I didn’t print out that many recent pictures. While I have a TON on my computer, if I travel or just in general I would like to have pictures of those I love.
I’ll buy my own cheap watch down here, I’m never quite sure of the time.
Forest Gump and Home Alone 2 were on TV last night, dubbed over in Spanish. It was fun to watch them, knowing the scenarios and hereing the Spanish translation. American Pie was also on but it was called “Tu primera vez” or “Your First Time”.
Afternoon
I went on a nice stroll through the parks and monuments, they are very well taken care of and while some monuments are graffitied some areas are quite nice. I enjoyed the 80, maybe 90 degree weather and soaked up the sun’s rays. My shoulders got a tad pink but coming straight from winter what could I expect.
I took a good amout of pictures with my little duck. Explaination: When K and I were down in Carytown w/ Suz’s family before ringdance, we went in a soap/bath shop that had all these rubber duck characters. K bought one for each of the sisters, Fashionduck for herself (it was the only one that had pink), Quickduck for Sarah (with racing stripes), and Surferduck for me.
Right now he is my companion through my travels and has fun posing for pictures with all the monuments; he was even able to swim in a few mini-monument-ponds. I was the total tourist, with my rubberduck and camera.
I should’ve brought my longboard, there are so many skateboarders out today, but it’s also the last Friday of summer. I’m guessing that was the reason there were so many teenage couples mauling face in the parks. Hay mucho PDA here in Santiago.

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Unfortunately at least for the first week the family I am staying with does not have any internet. The printed ticket I had said the flight would be boarding @ 10:55 when in reality they weren’t boarding the plane until 11:55, unwanted stress as I navigated the International Airport in Toronto. Since there were less than 10 flights after 9:30 when my plane landed, there was no way to bypass customs going into Canada the way I was instructed to. Rather, I had to go through the entire customs process (meaning going out into the regular Canada airport, find an open security gate from the closed ticketing counters, go through security again, only to navigate my way back to where I was 30 minutes before.The flight to Santiago wasn’t so bad, I had an central aisle seat and watched Juno and August Rush. There was someone who had to leave the airplane because a kid under 16 showed up late and so couldn’t be left at the airport. I felt bad for him, he seemed really calm about the whole thing, plus he was kinda cute.
Then customs in Chile...apparently cacahuate isnt peanut in Chilean spanish. They were the only thing i declared but hey it worked out.
The family is Miriam, her mom, her spouse, and her 2 working age sons; I don’t know why I got them confused with Isabella and family who had the young daughter.
This weekend I plan on visiting the US embassy in Chile, to register as a US citizen, maybe go to the Policia Internacional to officially finish the process of my student visa, and possibly visit the Museo de Bellas Artes. I will also buy a cell phone.
I need to buy a watch so I can know what time it is.
Sarah will be swimming in about 30 minutes or so, she broke a record today. I want her to podium so badly. Unfortunately I can’t remember the word for record in Spanish and I’m an idiot who forgot to pack my Spanish/English dictionary.
Night:
They have “How it’s Made” in Chile! The cable channels have some in English in case I get language-home-sick but tonight I turned on Home Alone 2 en espaniol before bed. Que divertido!