The World Cup.

This is the best shot I got of the crowd. Of course, I haven't charged my camera and it died before we got to the plaza.

Women leaving the bank the work at the cheer on the crowd.

So first of all, CHILE WON!!!!!! WOOO!!

The game started at 7:00 a.m. here, but yesterday you could tell people were ready for the big match. This has been 11 years in the making and after the victory thousands, literally thousands of people flooded the streets, were on the rooftop waving flags, honking their horns, yelling, chanting Chi-chi-chi-le-le-le!!

It's patriotism I have never before seen ever in my life. Roads were closed for all the pedestrians, people were singing the national anthem, everyone was wearing a flag, people were climbing out of their cars, flags were draped over cars. Flags everywhere. Confetti covering the streets, floating from everywhere. It was insanity.

Normally at 7 a.m. the streets of Santiago are more empty than at 3 a.m., but today I woke up before my alarm at 6 a.m. because of all the people honking in anticipation. Some people were excused from work, or their work brought out the big screens for employees and provided beer (at 7 a.m.). Daniela, Stephen, and I watched the game over breakfast, and the commentators were saying that Suazo (a key player kept out because of a bad shoulder) was needed to assist some goals, but Chile won even without Suazo.

We walked to Plaza Italia and the streets were overwhelmed with people. People were spontaneously cueca-ing in the plaza. Today, everyone was all about the Chilean pride! It was incredible to see. People were deliriously happy. Those who had to be at work left to cheer on the crowd or leaned out windows to watch the pandemonium.

But after a few hours, I assumed things would resume to normal. It is a Tuesday at 10:00 a.m., after all. So I went for my usual run down Parque Forestal, where I have to cross Plaza Italia. That's when I saw the police tanks shooting out tear gas down my running path and a group of 10-year-old boys chased me (teasingly. I was never in any danger family in the United States. Don't worry.)

At some point people got out flares, were throwing each other in the air, and the police decided that was enough for game 1. And I have two more matches left to witness (departing June 27, and game 2 is the 21st against Switzerland; game three 25th contra Spain).

Let's hope Chile keeps it up!!!

-- Lauren

El Cuida Autos.

Today is Aneya's last day in the country, and we won't be seeing posts from her for a while, but I still have two weeks in the country and I intend to continue to share all the things I find interesting/different about Chile.

The cuida autos is one of these things. The job of watching over other people's cars in suburban neighborhoods is a common job for homeless people, and I find it totally fascinating.

Car theft or vandalism is very common here, people will take the mirrors off your car and sell them back to you at La Vega (a place that really deserves a post of its own). I actually know someone who had the tires taken off their car during the day while they were in church (in church!) for a few hours.

Usually after dark, someone will come up to your car and slip a little piece of paper under your windshield wipers and you pay them when you return. And it seems that the service isn't optional. You cannot refuse the cuida autos. If there is an homeless person there, you will have to accept these services if you're parking in their area. In suburban neighborhoods! Fascinating.

-- Lauren

Aneya: Lessons Learned from Living in Chile

Adios, Chile! Hola, USA!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the time has come. I'll be leaving Chile for good on Monday. Yes, it's partly due to the robbery, and the fact I feel less safe now (not to mention I have no readily available money). And it's also just time to move on. It's sad, but true. Lauren and I were planning to leave in a few weeks anyway, I'm just speeding up the process. I've been thinking a lot about the past 6 months I've spent here, and about all that I've experienced, and most importantly, all that I've learned. Here's a few things I've discovered:

1. I'm not as good at languages as I thought: I've always thought of myself as someone who can catch on to a new language fairly quickly, who has a good ear, a fairly good accent. I learned French quickly in France, why wouldn't the same happen in Chile? Because in France I was 13, and here I'm 23. There's a major difference between learning a language as a kid and as an adult. Yes, my Spanish has greatly improved, but I'm definitely not fluent.

2. I need diversity to live. Diversity in all aspects of society. Racially, religiously, socially. Being in a country as homogenous as Chile has made me realize how much I love the States, just for the diversity of its people.

3. Kindness is relative. Lauren told me the other day she never realized how mean people were in LA until she came to Chile. And it's so true. People here (for the most part) are so warm, kind, compassionate, generous and it's heartening to see. It also makes you realize how rude people are in the U.S. (especially in LA).

4. After visiting Buenos Aires for a week, I came back to Chile with a new appreciation for it's public serves. The streets of Buenos Aires were filthy at night, open garbage bags spilling out onto the street. The buses and metros were older, rustier, and there was no such thing as a Bip! card, you had to use coins (and there was a national shortage of those) which was annoying and time consuming. Being in Buenos Aires reminded me of a what a clean, modern and efficient city Santiago is.

5. Just because people tell you it'll be easy to get a job, doesn't mean it's true. That is a lesson I learned the hard way. Everyone I talked to in the States, in the TEFL program I took, told me how easy it would be to find a job. "Just start speaking English and they'll hire you on the spot!" How wrong they were. Never take anything for granted.

6. I can survive an 8.8 earthquake and live to tell about it. This was another hard lesson to learn, since for a few weeks there Lauren and I were both super sad, lonely and scared. But we never once said we wanted to go home. We fought through our sadness, we joined the Red Cross, we helped where we could, and we moved on. I'm proud of us for that.

7. Being unemployed is fun....until it's not. We tried to make the best of our unemployment, and for a while, we did. We made separate trips to the South, we went to Temuco, we did little trips to Valparaiso, to Vina del Mar, we went to Mendoza, we discovered everything that Santiago had to offer. And then, there was nothing else to do. Our money was running out, and it was getting cold. That's when things slowed down, and we both wished more than anything to get a job. But it never happened. And that's when we realized that being unemployed....kinda sucks.

8. I realized that I cannot date anyone who has the following attributes: self righteous, condescending, misogynistic, self pitying, preachy, extremely stubborn (extremely anything, for that matter) small minded, can't think for themselves, easily influenced, and most importantly: I can't date someone who wants to fundamentally change who I am. Not. Gonna. Happen.

9. This one is really for Lauren: Don't talk to strangers! Just because they look normal, or they look like they need help, doesn't mean you need to be "nice" and talk to them. Just ignore them. It may sound mean, but it can help you avoid ugly situations (such as crazy gypsies attacking you). In other words: Trust no one.

10. And last, but not least. Never, I repeat, NEVER put anything valuable in backpack, in a large city, in any kind of public transportation. If you insist on using a backpack, turn it around so it's facing the front of you (you'll risk looking an idiot, but that's fine. I looked like even MORE of an idiot when my bag was stolen). Also, never let your guard down. Not for ONE minute. Not even when you're exhausted and hungry and completely out of it. Stay alert. As Mad-Eye Moody liked to say "Constant Vigilance!"

All in all, these past 6 months have been an emotional roller-coaster, to say the least. I honestly came to Chile with no expectations, I had no real knowledge of the country and its people, no real agenda (apart from getting a job and exploring). I never would have imaged half the things that happened, both good and bad. I met some amazing people, I experienced both beautiful and sad things, and I lived to tell about it all. What I loved most about this trip has been this blog. It's been our baby, and we nurtured and cared for her as best we could. I hope you all enjoyed reading it, because I truly loved writing it.

Thanks for reading, and so long, for now!

-- Aneya

Aneya & Lauren: Getting Robbed.

Lauren: It's happens to the best of us. In a big city, it's almost expected. And it finally happened to us. On our way back from Buenos Aires, about two blocks from our own front door my better half on this blog, Ms. Aneya Fernando was the victim of a crime. Amid the commotion on the bus when we were least expecting it someone opened her backpack and took her purse.

Aneya: I don't even really know what to say at this point, I'm still in a state of shock. It was especially surprising given that we've been living in this city for the past 5 months, have used the metros and the buses countless times, have had such faith in the people and now....this. It was also weird because we'd just been to Buenos Aires, a city we both found way more intimidating and scary than Santiago. This city was our home, nothing bad could happen here. Right? Wrong.

Lauren: In retrospect, other passengers on the bus were trying to warn us. They were indicating certain passengers with their eyes, silently indicating that we should be aware of these men, but after an exhausting international flight we weren't picking up on these cues. All we wanted was to be back home and someone saw their opportunity and took it.

Aneya: It's hard because I keep reliving the moment and thinking, what I could I have done differently? Well, obviously I shouldn't have put my purse in my backpack. But I was carrying three different bags and I thought I'd be easier. We were exhausted and hungry and just wanted to get home. Lauren asked a man next to her for directions and suddenly three men surrounded us, each of them telling us different things, distracting us. It made us both really uncomfortable and we just wanted to get off the damn bus. People were shoving and pushing and when I finally jumped off Lauren realized my backpack was open. And my purse was gone.

Lauren: And really, things could have been so much worse. It's a terrible feeling to have someone take something from you, get that close to you, but the robber didn't attack Aneya. We got back to our front door unscathed, albeit a few emotional scars. If we were in Buenos Aires, largely unfamiliar with the city and only knowing Eric it would have been far worse. Instead we came back here, to our apartment rather than a hostel and started putting things together. It's a hassle to get all new things, but not the end of the world.

Aneya: I've traveling quite extensively throughout my life and nothing like this has ever happened, it's really quite shattering, emotionally. Of course the material things I can replace, it just sucks because I had more in there than usual, since we were traveling. First of all, the bag itself was Coach (so was the wallet) and not cheap. In the bag was everything I hold dear.

My passport, my wallet (with various credit cards and my American driver's license among other things) my iPhone, my Chilean cell phone, my iPod, my camera, my sunglasses, the book I'd just bought at the airport, my notebook, my keys to the apartment, basically everything that's important to me. The camera really hurts the most, because I took so many beautiful shots of Buenos Aires and I'm never gonna get those back. So that hurts. I mean, it all hurts. And it's a strange feeling to come home and realize you have basically nothing. No identity. No money. It's like I don't exist at all.

Of course, all these things are getting replaced. I've been wired money, so I'm not broke, I made a new set of keys, I'm looking into getting another cheap, Chilean phone. But it's just not the same. Nothing is. I have to go to the Embassy to get a new passport, which I guess is a good thing, since the pages in mine were almost all filled up.

This whole thing just really makes me lose faith in people, and that makes me sad. It also makes me overly anxious and suspicious now and my general attitude towards Chileans has changed. Maybe it's just a temporary thing. I don't know. All I know is I'm never using that damn backpack again.

-- Aneya & Lauren

Aneya & Lauren: Buenos Aires.

Since it's our last month here, we want to spend it doing as much as we can and enjoying our time here. So, for Aneya's birthday we're headed to Buenos Aires for a week. We'll post about all our amazing experiences complete with pictures when we get back.

Below are some of the places we want to visit that are on the itinerary.

-- Aneya & Lauren

Lauren: Coming Home.

So, Aneya and I are definitely coming home at the end of June. Tickets are bought, we've given our notice to our landlady and by the end of June we'll be moving back into summer -- again.

I didn't come to Chile with many expectations. I just wanted a different perspective, to know how feels to live somewhere else, maybe improve my Castellano. But the one thing I did expect was to get a job. I'd been applying to jobs since two months before we moved down here, and I thought undoubtedly, I'd get something. But I didn't.

Instead I got tons of really incredible memories, and I think moving without expectations only made it easier for living here to exceed anything I could have wanted to happen. I've made really good friends, lived through a major catastrophe, traveled all over this skinny country, and yes, improved my speaking and reading quite a bit.

Although Aneya and I initially thought we'd "try to stick it out" at least six months, once we flew by the six month mark we only wanted to stay more. Not having jobs though, really hasn't helped us make this happen.

I'll miss our new friends, and walking down the street and bumping into a 400-year-old building amid towering skyscrapers. I'll miss the libraries in the parks, people doing street art, and the general friendliness Chileans have toward each other that I've never seen in the U.S.

And unlike our initial voyage down here, we can't say that we'll be seeing these things in a short few months, because we don't know when we'll be back. We both have agreed though, that we're coming back. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

I am really sad to leave, but in every way living here has been (almost) entirely wonderful and I'm so glad that we made this happen.

-- Lauren

Aneya: Exotic Destinations

Would this be considered "exotic" to you?

When Lauren and I went to Mendoza we met more Anglos than Argentineans, at least in our hostel. The city is a tourist haven, what with the proximity to beautiful vineyards and all the cheap outdoor activities they offer (in the Andes, no less!) We met Canadians, Australians, Americans and Brits.

The Brits were quite chatty and we got to know two different couples, both of whom had travelled extensively throughout Asia. Lauren and I were shocked. You two went where? Oh, the usual: Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia. In Vietnam, the man said, I ate something that gave me a red, itchy rash that lasted the entire month we were there! He laughed about it, but Lauren and I were horrified. Never in a million years would I go to Vietnam on vacation. The thought just wouldn't occur to me.

That's when I realized something. "Exotic" means something completely different to different nationalities. For Brits, an exotic vacation would be somewhere in Asia. The other couple we met had gone on a similar route, but after Thailand had gone on to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and then Chile. (That end of the trip sounds great!) They told us that Brits love visiting Asian countries, because everything is so cheap, the landscape is beautiful, and it's always an adventure (to say the least).

To the average American, I'd say an "exotic" destination would be somewhere in Europe. The Greek Isles, the South of France, Tuscany, maybe Amsterdam, for the young ones who've heard the tantalizing rumors about it. Even England itself is exotic, for middle Americans that have never left Ohio. I can't imagine an American saying they'd rather go to Katmandu than London. It's just a different mentality altogether.

And what about South Americans? What's exotic to them? I'm gonna say anything North. The farther, the better. I've met a number of Chileans who have traveled to Canada, which I found odd (What's there to do in Canada?) Hey, at least it's far! Going anywhere in the U.S. is also exotic, as is Nordic countries in Europe.

It's interesting to realize that not everyone travels the same. Those Brits we met? They had taken a year off from work and were traveling the world, trying to hit up as many countries as possible. Although that sounds cool, it also sounds exhausting, expensive and downright stressful. Lauren and I both agreed we'd rather do it in bits and pieces, split it up and really take our time in each country. Hopefully, one day, we will.

-- Aneya