It was a long trip- left Monterey at 11:00am on monday and arrived at this hotel at 2:45am wednesday. It was fun, however. Liz's place in palos verdes was awesome. I got to have a second good ol' american bbq party before leaving. we ran into LeAnna at LAX, but she was on another flight. In costa rica we got to leave to airport without paying any sort of tax... i guess there's a 12-hour limit. So we went into the small town by the airport (birthplace of Juan Santamaria- the national hero) and got plates of rice, fish, salad, beans and fried plantains for $2 each. It was very typical latin america- hot, tropical, lots of people hanging out in parks who have no qualms about meeting foreigners. And we could not have been more obviously foreign. we were sweaty and disheveled from the plane and had our carry-ons, which consisted of liz's over-filled backpack and purse, and my laptop and bassoon. despite the weight we were able to explore a little. Back in the airport we met up with LeAnna, who had just arrived after a lay-over in El Salvador. I tried to sleep on top of a coffee table, but liz made friends with two little mexican boys who crawled all over us for the rest of the hours we were there. After a short thunderstorm, we left for Lima, where we had a short wait before the final leg of the trip. Santiago was an abrupt change from Costa Rica... mid summer in the tropics vs. mid winter in the andes.
here at the hotel I have a room completely to myself that includes a king-sized bed and its own bathroom complete with a bidet. the three other guys in the program all share one small room. the first thing i noticed when leaving the building in the morning is the row of mountains to the east of the city. i'd describe it, but ya'll should just do a google image search. i explored for a few hours on my own. everyone i met was super friendly. i took the underground metro (which is cheap and comes all the time) to the university. the music school is on another campus, however. our coordinator told me that they received my audition CD.
I start spanish class on friday... in the meantime i have four days to find housing.