finally, Estoy aqui!

So I made it to Santiago Chile! After 8 months of planning, an earthquake, confusion, uncertainty and about 11 hours of air travel, I have finally made it:) The city is very very beautiful.  I really like it here, it sorta feels like a large European city but with a lot of car/bus/taxi/moped traffic and some serious smog issues.  You can sometimes see the Andes and hills around the city but the buildings are really tall and it's difficult to get a good view, and when you do finally get that view, it's like a foggy, hazy shadow of a mountain.  There's a lot of old and new buildings right next to each other which is totally cool and the national library is in the hugest and most beautiful building of them all!!!!! pictures to come of course.  So the first day we got here we checked into our hostel, had some empanadas (delish) and then hit the streets.  El Centro de Santiago is the downtown area and VERY walker friendly and super super super crowded with Chilenos taking their long lunch breaks in the early afternoon.  So many people on the streets constantly.  We discovered the Plaza de Armas (think the equivalent of Jackson Sq) but it's bigger, all cobblestoned, fountains, benches, artists painting and selling, pigeons, palm trees and lots and lots of chilenos.  On one side of the park there is this beautiful church that rivals the most beautiful ones of Europe.
Wednesday was essentially our first full day in orientation which was totally exhausting, as was Thursday and Friday.  Friday we went to the American Embassy via metro which was a really cool experience.  I'm not actually entirely sure why it was so cool/interesting to go to an American Embassy, in fact it was rather boring.  But maybe it's just the fact that only certain people are allowed in and/or it's just not someplace I've been before. hm dunno.  I was extremely impressed with the metro, it was awesome, clean, easy to manage and the metro literally came every 5 minutes!!!!!!! i just think that is amazing! certainly better than the DC metro i think.
Ugh, I'm so worn out.  My lifestyle of going to bed at 3am and waking up at 11am is really making me struggle right now! I hardly slept on the overnight flight to Santiago, no surprise there, and since then I've had a lot of trouble sleeping for some reason, probably because I sharing my room with 4 other people and one bathroom! crazy.  and stuff is all disorganized, not unpacked but not really packed neatly anymore either and if anyone really knows me, they know that when i travel i literally unpack everything immediately, into a huge pile on the floor! and since i have no room and 4 roommates and im confused.
anyhoo, earthquake: so there's not that much visible damage here in Santiago, or at least in el centro.  there are some cracks in some of the buildings and caution tape marking off areas where falling parts of building could be possible.  But I'm really interested in seeing other parts of the country.  The region around Concepcion was hit terribly bad, and the earthquake has affected 2 million people which is a huge proportion of the Chilean population (16 million i think in the country).  All of the area between Santiago and Concepcion to the south were severely affected.  I will be doing more research about the facts and about how to help out and donate! I don't think the earthquake got enough press in the states, in fact i would say that after 3 days, information about the earthquake was hard to find, which is really really frustrating! There is a lot of help, donations, and money needed so when i get the information, i'll bring it to ya so if you'd like to help out, you'll know how.  It just reminds me so much of Katrina and it just breaks my heart because I can feel like i relate with these people affected.  I hope that i can assist in some way as things get organized and worked out.  Who would've thought that my life would include more disaster recovery!? maybe this is a sign.....
anyhoo, i'm going to try and update this more frequently so that i can totally capture chile for y'all to understand and somewhat experience.  but know this, a decent bottle of chilean wine can go for a cheap as 1,990 chilean pesos, ie. 4 dollars!!!!  living the life.
also, went out for the first time last night to experience the way chileans party, and they rival new orleans, i'll be honest. bars don't close, certainly a plus.  lots of reggaeton, also a plus. pisco sour, superbig plus. we went to pio nono which is a street sorta comparable to bourbon but with car traffic and outdoor seating, and less douche-y.
battery dying! chau!