patience and exploration

What I learned this week was that living in a city as big as Santiago means that, while there is a plethora of stores, restaurants, and things to do, actually FINDING the thing takes some dedication and listening to many mis-directions.
On Tuesday, Jenna and I had a hankering for Thai food, so we left school early and went to the internet cafe to look for some. We located restaurants online, and figured out which metro stop to get off at. When we got off, we went on about a 40 minute walk in the hot sun, fantasizing about what we were going to eat, curry, pad thai, spring rolls, mmm. We saw the numbers getting closer to our destination and we were ever more excted. Its only two blocks away! So we get there, of COURSE it's closed. So we go next door to another internet place and look for another restaurant. Apparently there is one down the street, so we continue on our journey, knowing that our destination will be worth the hot sun and sweat. On the way, we found a cool street with Mexican food, an organic grocery store - with Quinoa, soy patties, grains, tofu, sauces, mmm!, some cool looking bars, and finally our thai restaurant!! of COURSE, it's closed!!! We happened to get there during their 3 hour break. hmmm. So we continue walking, wander in to a thrift store and spend some time debating whether the clothes there are too 80's or if we could pull off the padded shoulders and sequins. Then we got to a street corner with lots of nice cafes, sat down had a salad, coffee, and amazing ice cream, and realized that even though we didn't find exactly what we were looking for, we found 100 other cool things a long the way!! So that goes to show that, it's worth trying to find new places, because every time I find a new street corner in Santiago I fall more and more in love with the city. There are just soo many places!!! But of course, at times this can be frustrating because in Austin I know exactly where to go, I can drive there, and find whatever I need. Here it seems like I go into store after store and the salesperson's response is always "No, No. (with a finger wave no)", some days this really annoys me, like yesterday I spent about 3 hours trying to gather things for my upcoming trip. Walked about 15 blocks to find the "inglish bookstore", when I get there the store consists of 20 dictionaries and some kids books. Thanks. I go in to 5 different pharmacies looking for travel size bottles of shampoo and bandaids for blisters, "No, No." I search for the other English bookstore, find it, and pick out 3 books that look semi interesting. As i'm getting ready to pay, the sales person wants to make sure that I know what i'm buying. Little did I realize that the english books are $40 each here!!!! WHAT. I miss Bookpeople!!!! I am desperate for more reading material! And yes, I know I can read in Spanish, but the difficulty takes away some of the pleasure I get from reading.

So anyway, on Thursday night we went back to the Thai restaurant, and it was everything I had ever hoped for!! First, I started with a Thai Pisco - oh my, Pisco liquor, coconut milk, fresh basil, with ginger crust, served cold - so incredibly delcious and you couldn't even taste the pisco at all. Then, I had Tom Yum soup, which was also good. For my Pad Thai, I actually had the option of chosing how spicy I wanted it! from level 1-5, and I picked 4. It was incredibly, literally the spiciest most wonderful feeling Ive had in Chile. Oh, how I had missed Thai food!!! So now, thankfully, we know where the thai restaurant is and we know their hours. So, Bo and Mark, I will be thinking of yall!!

Another thing, every time I ask for directions here, no one seems to have any clue about where anything is. People will point you in 6 different directions. Either that, or they will say "noooo, es muy lejos!!" Which means they are too lazy to walk the 5 blocks to get there. But walking in this city is great, and I love to get off at metro stops and just walk around the area and explore. Now if only the temperature would drop a couple degrees.