Back to Santiago!

Well - Spring Break is officially over and I'm really glad that I took the time to go home to the states. I got a lot done around the house, took care of some administrative tasks at the university, did my taxes, and of course got to see a lot of different people. I feel like I accomplished a lot and it was really great.

I had some adventures on my way back to Santiago. I had three flights to catch: Minneapolis to Chicago (50 min layover) to Miami (1 hr 5 minute layover) to Santiago. If all the flights would have been on time, I wouldn't have had any problems, however that never happens. My flight from Chicago was delayed 45 minutes. When we landed in Miami, I had 30 minutes to get to the plane to Chile. Then we sat on the runway for 15 minutes, because another plane had mechanical issues and was blocking the alley we had to go down. Once we finally got off the plane - I RAN faster than I have ever ran before to get to my gate. A couple from Germany and another from Chile were running with me. It was so scary, because they had shut the door and the plane was going to pull away. When the airport guy saw us, he quickly opened the door and ran down the hall to catch the plane. Finally, we were able to board the plane. I recieved 4 phone calls while I had been running. It was crazy. Sorry Erin and Jenn - I wasn't able to talk really. I was so stressed out by the time that I got to my seat. I did manage to send a couple texts when I sat down, but the attendant made me shut off my phone.

Anyway. The flight was fine for the most part. In the middle of the night, a woman in the row over from me was really sick. I don't know what she had - she wasn't throwing up or anything. She was just moaning a lot and then fell asleep after a while. The flight attendants even had to interrupt the entire plane (trying to sleep) and ask if there was a doctor on board. It was crazy, and kept me awake for a while. The flight wasn't all bad. I sat next to a really nice 27 year old grad student from Chile who goes to Harvard/MIT for some engineering degree. We ended up chatting on the whole flight, because I couldn't sleep and he had work to do on his computer. He was really interesting, and told me stories about how he has a presentation for the U.S. Secretary of Energy next week, because he is working on a huge research project for the states on how to build more energy efficient systems or something. He was visiting Chile for a wedding and had been delayed an entire day by canceled flights. He also gave me a bunch of places that I have to visit in Santiago and lots of advice about traveling back and forth between the two countries. Like how to make sure I can bring some wine/pisco home to the states. His dad was picking him up at the airport, so he insisted on giving me a ride to the metro station. It was going to save me like 30 bucks, so I was incredibly thankful. His dad was so nice and drove me all the way to the Borquez's apartment. I saved a lot of time and energy. Chileans are sooooo nice.

Anyway. I slept yesterday from 8 am to 6 pm, then from about 2 am to 8 am this morning. Then I came home from school today and slept from 3 pm to about 7 pm. I hate jet lag. I'm still tired.

Tomorrow I have class for six hours instead of three, because my teacher is getting married on Thursday night and wants to have no class on Friday. She insists on making up the extra time. I'm thinking it is going to be a LONG and tiring day. So I'm going to go to sleep. Talk to you all soon hopefully. Emily