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I had a window seat on the plane, so I was able to see the shape of the land as it swelled up from the pacific ocean to the great bowl-shaped valley that holds Santiago. The area to the west of Santiago that is not covered with fertile-looking farms appears to have mostly scrub on it, with very few trees, although from the height of the plane it was hard to tell how tall the plants were. There was also what looked like a pit filled with gold, that had smaller pits of silver around it. I don’t know if I’ll ever find out what that was, but it was really interesting. Soon enough, the plane landed in Santiago. it appeared that water was covering everything. The tarmac was covered in water, the air was so foggy that you couldn’t see more than 50 yeards (have to get used to describing things with the metric system), and there was that kind of “slow rain” that happens when the air is completely saturated with moisture.

The taxi to the residence didn’t show much of the city especially because visibility was so low, but I eventually arrived and got settleed without too much trouble. The other Chicagoans and I are staying in a 25-room boarding house on the border of residential Ñuñoa and commercial Providencia. The bedrooms are small, but there is a nice living area, a dining room under a translucent roof, a tiny kitchen and a computer lab. The caretaker, Ines, helped me bring in my suitcases and offered me some coffee. I was glad to have something to warm me up and I love coffee anytime. I thought that Chilean coffee would be some of the world’s best, because of Chile’s relative proximity to Colombia and Peru, so I was surprised when Ines handed me a little packet of Nescaf� instant coffee. Needless to say it was terrible. The first thing I am going to have to do is find some decent coffee around here.