The Day The Sun Disappeared!

This post will cover many topics.

Preface
Today was the first day since we've been here that I woke up and their were enough clouds in the sky that the sun wasn't visible. Everyone was walking around outside dressed like it was a cold fall morning. It was still very warm out. People tended to glance up at the sky with a mix of disdain and fear as if to say, "Hey clouds! How dare you come out before June! You're not going to rain on me are you?" Do not fear Chileans! For the sun was back out by noon.

Part 1: Dogs

There are stray dogs everywhere in Santiago. They are usually smaller-medium sized dogs and tend to roam in small numbers. People here walk right by these cute little animals like they are a tree: just part of the decoration. Most often you will find the pooches sleeping in the shade or looking in buildings for food. Santiagans believe the dogs to be filthy and disease ridden. The truth is that, yes, they are filthy but many of the dogs are actually quite healthy. There are several vets who also try to rescue dogs. They clean the dogs and check them for disease and try to find a nice home for ol' Spot.

One day when walking home, a young dog began following us. We were through with interviews and activities so we were taking a rather long walk home. This dog proceeded to follow us for nearly 20 minutes. He would run up ahead then stop and wait for us, and when we'd cross the street he would follow us to wherever we were going. Occasionally he would take off and explore a water fountain (There are TONS of fountains in Santiago) or sniff out some food but eventually he would come bounding up behind us. It seemed that we had found a new friend! We hoped he would follow us home so we could take him to a vet and find him a nice family. When we were relatively close to our apartment our little buddy ran across the street when we were going to turn right instead. He slowed a bit and looked back as he was running as if to say, "are you coming?" But then a car honked at him and he got scared and took off. We saw him watch us go the other way but I think he was too scared to cross the street again.

Now the dogs are usually very astute when crossing the streets. It is actually very cute. They look both ways several times, wait for there to be no cars and they cross. Just like humans. Usually they only cross at crosswalks as well. Sometimes there will be 15 people and 4 dogs waiting for a signal to cross the street. The dogs will also help each other. This video is actually in Santiago. A women who saw this video came to Santiago to do a documentary about the stray dogs here and to help set up adoption centers. We see the dogs acting like this all the time. They don't have humans to look after them so they look after each other.

Part 2: Phones

For the first time in my life technology baffles me. I can not, for the some reason, figure out how to make a call in Chile. Depending on where you are and if you are calling from a cell phone or a land line to a cell phone or a land line, you have to put in different codes. This is the most frustrating thing ever. I have tried 8000000000 different combinations of codes and nothing seems to work! It appears that in order to call I need to insert a + before any number. However, my phone doesn't have a + option that I am aware of. So, I can not call anyone! This proves to be very difficult when, say, you have a number of a prospective employer and can't call them! I will be forced to only talk to people through email.

Part 3: Guitars

Finding a suitable guitar in Santiago has been laborious. First off, finding a store that sold guitars was far too difficult. The first store I found was a tiny little hole in the wall that sold about 10 guitars, 5 electric and 5 acoustic. The problem being that the acoustics were all classical guitars. I don't mind a classical guitar it's just not my playing style and I'd prefer a folk guitar. This little hole in the wall had 1 folk, which is actually the same model Ibanez I have back home. That said the price of this particular Ibanez is a bit hefty for a guitar I'll only have for a year.

The second guitar store I found was a Yamaha store. They had a bunch of acoustics and only 3 folk guitars. The first I tried the frets stuck out so far off the neck it hurt to slide up and change chords. The second I tried buzzed constantly. The third I didn't even bother playing. It was a blue Squire. Not something I need.

After feeling quite dejected at my inability to find a proper instrument I returned to the Yamaha store to try out guitar number 2 again. I was dreading the inevitable disappointment this guitar would bring. Until I realized that the Yamaha store was actually in front of a shopping plaza that only sold instruments! set back in this building I found a very awesome guitar store (full of Taylors which I had to pry myself away from). The guy working there was very helpful and actually spoke English. I ended up settling on a Memphis, or El Cheapo as I called it. I am very excited to have finally found a guitar and maybe I will teach these Chileans a thing or two about music.


Part 4: Cars

Santiago, for all of its great public transportation, has a ton of cars. Too many people drive. I guess that would be because the grid pattern of the streets is incredibly easy to navigate and the roads are wide. This leads to smog. smog smog smog. Santiago would be a beautiful place, if you could see through the smog. Sometimes we can see the Andes from our apartment, most of the time we can't. People also drive relatively safely here. Other than when you cross the street. They accelerate and honk annnnd then slow down. Or if there is a pretty girl walking down the street, then traffic slows and there are lots of honks. At both the car slowing down and at the girl.

The biggest problem with cars comes with the car alarms. For some reason people in Santiago don't understand how to get in their car without setting off the car alarm. For example, yesterday, a women got in a car to our left, set off her alarm, and then went in reverse and tried to run me over. I would say that at a 95% confidence interval every fourth car started in Santiago sets off the alarm. I repeatedly hear Dane Cook's car alarm song.

Conclusion
Things are going pretty great down here. I've been keeping busy trying to find a million part time jobs. So far I'm at 2. Maybe if I get 2 more i'll be able to work 40 hours a week! We extended the apartment we are in now until the end of March while we get ourselves settled into jobs. We will begin looking for a new apartment next week or so. Most likely we will be taking a trip to the beach this weekend. Originally we were planning on going to Patagonia for a week but it is expensive and difficult to get to. Bree also now has to work on Tuesday morning so it has put a hamper into the distance we can travel. A friend here is having a birthday party at a salsa club on Friday so we will be learning how to salsa dance. I'm sure there were a lot more things I was planning on talking about in this post but oh well. I'll have to have another ramble again soon.