take me on a trip I'd like to go someday

To be completely honest, I wasn't eagerly anticipating this weekend for the simple fact that I lacked even acquaintances my own age--but, I actually had fun this weekend and (shockers) went out both nights (last night until 3!)  For the past few days, I've been setting up my apartment with Sally--procuring furniture and other random things for my bedroom/office.  I've spent three nights here so far, and, while the apartment isn't perfect, I'm pretty comfortable here.  We don't have an oven or a dishwasher yet (these will be coming once we have our third apartmentmate) and yesterday I noticed that 1) when someone is taking a shower the kitchen sink doesn't really work and 2) when you run hot water in the kitchen sink small flames come out of the gas range at first, but neither of these problems appear too serious at the moment and they will soon be resolved.  Gosh, I'm making this place sound like a dump; it's really just fine, plus, the price leaves me with a good amount to play around with/travel.  There are a bunch of little grocery stores on my street as well as a cleaner's; I am only a fifteen minute walk from the history building/center of the city as well as fifteen minutes from the train station and ten minutes from the mall; furthermore, I can catch a bus at the end of my street and there is a nice park a block away.  As promised, I will post pictures once I get the rest of my furniture...my real desk and a small chest of drawers.


Anyways, when I was looking for an apartment I e-mailed a woman with a spare bedroom who, as it happens, is one of the few Americans in Santiago.  Her free room was already taken by the time I got in contact with her, but she said that she'd love to meet another American so on Friday night I went out for drinks and tapas with her (Karen) and her roommates from Poland who speak better English than I do (Kasia and Ti-ti).  sidenote: Ti-Ti is not her real name, her real name is something Vietnamese that she didn't bother telling us because nobody in Poland can pronounce her real name.  Anyways, throughout the night our group gradually expanded to include three Spaniards and the only other American Karen knows (Andrew, who will soon be leaving to join his wife in Italy).  I haven't been too adventurous with Galician cuisine yet or with sampling tons of wines because I've been alone here and, until I moved into my place, eating a lot of Doener Kebabs and ice cream, but on Friday night I finally tried pulpo (octopus), boob cheese (aka queso de tetilla--it is called boob cheese because it is, in truth, shaped like a boob), and some really awesome mussels.  Karen and her roommates/friends were all very fun and it was the most English I've spoken in the past week aside from Skype conversations with my parents and sister.  One thing that kind of put a damper on our evening was when we received the bill at this one really nice tapas place--our bottle of wine was only 13 euros, but they charged us for it three times, as well as 5 euros for the bread they brought us.  We brought this mistake to the attention of our waitress, who smiled and apologized, correcting the error, but Kasia was certain that it was done intentionally.  Even though Santiago isn't known for pickpocketing or otherwise swindling tourists, even in nice restaurants the servers like to try to see what fast ones they can pull on foreigners.   


Sidenote: one of the Fulbrighters in Madrid has already been pickpocketed.  During orientation, we had a safety briefing from an American consulate person, who told us that out of all of us, at least 8 of us would be pickpocketed or mugged, particularly in the bigger cities.  He told us that one of the most common scams used by pickpocketers is to ask for directions and, while you're giving the directions, to rob you or your friends.  Despite these warnings, the scam worked.  Apparently, a group of Fulbrighters in Madrid were having lunch when a man approached them and asked if they knew where the Palacio was.  My acquaintance told me that the man who approached her was standing uncomfortably close, so she pulled her purse into her lap while she turned to give him directions, but the whole table focused their attention on the man and, while they were giving him directions, his accomplices pickpocketed her friend across the table.  


So, on to Saturday night.  I spent most of yesterday reading in preparation for my meeting with my advisor tomorrow (I spent some time in the park, which was very pleasant), but then I got distracted by the possibility of watching episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation online and spent a few hours watching Canadian TV shows geared at 13-15 year olds.  Sally went to the beach (it's only a half-hour away; I'm pretty excited about this) and, when she returned, we had a candidate for our third apartmentmate.  His name was Davi and he was Brazilian and really didn't speak a lot of Spanish, but he was not ugly, if you get my drift.  He has decided that he doesn't want to live here because it's too far away from his department, but he invited me to come out with his Brazilian friends.  I agreed, probably because the prospect of a second Spanish Saturday night watching TV online seemed a little bit loser-ish, and, as it happens, his friends were a good time.  They didn't really speak English, they were a little bit better at Spanish than Davi (though not above my own level) so we had no problem communicating.  We hung out at their apartment, which is crazy huge (12 bedrooms) and drank a little bit before hitting the streets around midnight.  The night ended up in a dance club of sorts, but around 3 I decided to call it a night and took a cab home.


Something I have noticed about myself is that I have been becoming a little more outgoing and a little more trusting of strangers (because, really, this whole experience has been an exercise in trust).  It is completely weird for me to meet people and then go out with them or decide to live with them, and, of course I still have to be careful, but there's really no other way to survive here.   


Today the weather is kind of dreary and gross, but I have to read a lot anyway... so, perhaps it's for the best.  Until later...