Day one

Well the first day in Chile was quite interesting. it started witg me being woken up by the flight attendants kicking my foot so they can maneuver their cart, then asking if I would like some breakfast. I have never been on a plane that large before in my life nor being served an actual meal. I didn't take the offer of the breakfast because at that moment in time sleep was a little more important, so I just hit my mental snooze button so I could sleep for maybe another hour. Once we were off the plane ride, we had to go through the customs and pay our entrance fees, it was like a zoo in the airport trying to figure where we needed to be and in the correct order. Once we figured that out we were met by JOrge, our trip advisor and he showed us to a little machine that I thought would be easy to use because I have used them many times in the US, the ATM. Once I slid my card in, I was in for a rude awakening. It took me a ocuple of times and I still ended up taking out the wrong amount. With everything done at the airport we were on our way to the hotel (hotel america) which is a nice little quant place where there will be for sure some trip member bonding since we all have rooms near eachother and we will be seeing each and every one at all hours of the day. Once we were all settled we ate at Tiki Taco. I had a blast there, I got to eat what was called the Paila Brava and it was delicious. Also it was an experience to try to order something in Spanish for the first time and it was a real culture shock because for the first time I was the one out of my element and at the discretion of the natives, but everyone I met today greeted me with a lot of respect and made it a very comfortable first few hours. Once we all finished our ginormous meals, we were escorted by one of the Chilean students, Javier, to a soccer match. Now this soccer (futbol) match was one of the craziest and most interesting soccer game I have ever witnessed. The home team (Everton) won the match 3-2, coming back from a 2-0 deficit late in the first half. At the end of the game there were a total of 4 red cards, 5 yellow cards, and the referees had to be escorted out by guards with riot schields. The crouwd was going insane and it was a great atmosphere to watch a game in and I even caught myself getting into the game, rooting for the home team, just as if I was another native that bled blue and gold (team colors). One of the most entertaining parts of the day though was being stalked by all of the stray dogs that lived around the city. I guess we decided as a group that every dog that we came across was going to be called Howard. By the end of the day I had probably became friends with 17 Howards.