News

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"I'm really not that different, you just made me think so."

What's up?

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mood: blegh
now playing: bad 80s music
vocabulary: castigar

My yesterdays....

• Que paso? - 2006-09-10

At this moment I am sitting in the VIP lounge for LanChile airlines. It cost me 15 dollars to come in here. Granted, if I were so inclined, I could drink as much wine or liquor or juice or chardonnay or coke or coffee and eat as many muffins or brownies and the likes, but I do not have the desire to do any of those. What I would really like to do is leave the damn airport. But, I am not about to pay 126.00 to do it. Yes, there is a 100.00 reciprocity tax because America charges Chileans that much to enter, or something like that. So, for a seven hour layover I would have to pay 100 reciprocity and 26 airport tax just to leave the airport, regardless of duration of time.

This lounge is not so bad. There are obviously computers with internet and the whole free beverages/snacks and tvs with cable and tons of couches(my roommate is sleeping on one right now), and there is a Time magazine in English and USA Today and the New York Times. I am excited. I can do the crossword puzzle now!

This airport has skittles and starburst, which is amazing since we have not seen those in three months. A starbucks would be too much to ask for. But maybe, just maybe in this place somewhere there is a bagel just calling our names. Too bad I am not hungry with all this free food. We have a voucher for a free lunch as well, but I doubt either of us will use it. Damn, I hate Chile.

In about 7 or 8 hours I will be arriving in Peru. I do not think the full realization of this has hit me quite yet. It was interesting when I saw the Andes out the window on the plane(it was another thing trying to keep my food down on the landing). I sat next to a man from Colombia. I think my roommate and I had assumed he did not speak English. I do not think we said anything rude around him, that I am aware of. When they brought us out our food there was a fruit on the tray that I was not familiar with. I just asked him what they were and then he answered me in English so we talked in English and as soon as we got to the part of why I am in South America(to learn Spanish) he said, "Oops, I should not be speaking in English then. No more." And that was that. For the next hour and a half we were Spanish only. I did not mind because if I did not know a word then I just said it in English and he could tell me it in Spanish, but surprising that did not happen but two times perhaps.

Have not really tried to converse with any people in the lounge. I know some of them speak English, but it is kind of like, "Gees, let the people suffer through their extremely long layovers in peace." Man, 15 dollars to sit in a room... This is mildly amusing..do you know how many Chilean pesos is the equivalent of 15 dollars? 9,333. That amuses me. A muffin costs 600 Chilean pesos. They have an interesting money system. These computers are very nice flat screen monitors and the CPU is very small. I dig it. I wish they had instant messenger though so I do not have to use AIM Express. Such is life.

One of the most exciting things I found is that I will be in Eastern time the whole time while I am in Peru. So, if I happen to make it to an internet cafe, it will not be extremely late when I talk to my friends in Central and eastern time zones, well, no later than it is for them anyway. Much better than this 3 hours ahead crap.

Ok, I just keep typing and typing because I have 3 hours to kill. I think I should stop now because no one has probably even made it far this anyway.

God I hope I can adjust to the altitude in Cusco. I guess I have a day and a half to figure that out though. I will keep my fingers crossed.

Check you later,

Jenn