I am currently waiting outside a classroom while Beth teaches an English class! We showed up for her interview with an English academy here in Santiago, and she has been thrown into the fire to test her teaching skills. This is my first opportunity to write since arriving in Santiago late Monday night. I figured I would give my first impressions of the city.
 
1) Awesome topography
 
Santiago's terrain was the first thing that stuck out to me; it is hard to miss from the airplane even in the middle of the night. The snow-capped mountains surrounding the city are truly majestic… and they sneak up you. You might not notice them at first glance thanks to the smog (which I hear is worse during these winter months). Then you look more closely and realize that there are huge mountains in the distance. No, those snow-caps are not actually floating in the air.
 
Another interesting thing about the topography is that — while walking around Santiago — it seems to be on very flat land, and most of it actually is on flat land. Turn a corner though, and all of a sudden these huge steep hills jut out of ground abruptly. They remind me of the hills that you would see in the background of Super Mario Bros. 3 game for original Nintendo…
 
 
2) Interesting weather right now
 
It's the middle of Chile's winter, so the weather fluctuates a lot. When we woke up this morning it must have been in the low 40s F, but by mid-day, it was a gorgeous mid-60. Now that the sun has gone down, it has dropped severely. 
 
3) Less English spoken than I expected
 
Not much more to say on this. It just means that learning Spanish will (have to) happen much faster.
 
I'm realizing now that the three things I listed above each have to with a different human sense — specifically sight, touch/feel, sound. I'll try to work in some things about taste and smell in my next couple of posts.