I ended up derping around
until 3 AM AGAIN last night. YAY ME.
I was delirious with
sleepiness this morning all through CCE and chapel. It started off with
drinking a Kem Extreme (like Vault in the States), then it was compounded by a
cappuccino vainilla from the school snack shop. I started thinking I was having
heart palpitations, and Neely dropping her desk table made me jump straight out
of my seat.
Then, and I don’t remember
this, Dorris was going to speak some in chapel, and the way Neely tells it, I
sounded like I was in complete awe of him speaking, a la “Is Dorris gonna speak to us?” and proceeded
to have a sloppy awestruck grin at this new finding. I don’t really remember
this morning at all.
After we got all of our
journals checked and everyone got out of Global Justice, we walked to the mall
again for stuff for our big Patagonia trip on Friday. This started off with a
trip to Yogenfrüz for Dorris, of course.
I didn’t need much here,
but I did want to get headphones. So let me tell you how that went.
So, they had some
Skullcandy earbuds like the ones I had that broke when we were in Viña, but
they were in this locked cage looking thing. So I asked the guy if he could get
some out for me, and he said his boss had the key and would be back in like a
half hour.
So that was fine. I just
wandered around the mall for a little bit looking for Dorris and Rachel and
didn’t realize that the second floor of the mall is actually the first floor?
Well then.
Anyway, I came back to get
the boss to open the box, and he told me to pick out some from a different
rack, because he didn't want to get the keys. Really?
Whatever, I found some
others that will suffice. Thanks for nothing.
So now that I had picked out a pair that
I didn't really want, there was only one person working the cash
register who kept leaving to register someone for a Falabella credit card or
something. This proceeded to take about 30 minutes, until finally the other
girl there realized that I’d been there for almost an hour just trying to buy
one thing. Muchas gracias, dama amable.
Side note: It's
interesting that "the customer is always right" mantra is NOT a thing
here. Not that that's a huge deal, but for example, if you walk up to a
counter, they are not going to engage you until you essentially get in their
face. It takes some getting used to, especially compared the US where service
industry is extremely customer-focused.
Anyhoo.
[THIS IS THE MOST STRESSFUL SHOPPING EXPERIENCE.]
We wanted to get some
snack foods like Chewy bars, etc. for Patagonia since we’re going to be far and
few between towns, meals in the parks we’re going to visit are going to be
grossly expensive, etc. and so we did that.
However, while we were there, this very
nice lady came up to us while we were contemplating trail mix and asked if we
were from the States, and was not surprised to find that we were. She asked if
the walnuts she was holding were pecans and was disappointed to learn that they
in fact were not. Her name was Marcela and she used to live in Texas! She asked
us about our trip and studies, etc. and invited us over to her house so that
she and her daughter can practice English with us, since they've only
been here in Chile again for the past few years. How exciting! Get this: she’s
from Easter Island! That made our night.
We ended up walking back
so that I could find somewhere to recharge my phone. If your prepaid phone runs
out of money, it texts whoever you’re trying to call that you are trying to
call them, so that they can call you, because incoming calls are free. Clever,
but annoying for sure.
I found this little kind
of junk shop where there was just an old Asian man working with a sign that
said I could recharge it there. So I did. Then I realized that he had tweezers
in his shop. And I needed tweezers. So I bought tweezers. Random, but hey, when
the opportunity arises…
Once we got back, I got to
Skype Hannah for a bit, but a lot of us had been thinking about trying the Jazz
Café that’s right outside our metro stop. So why not now?
The three of us went and I got their promo
of a cortado and torta de mil hojas (thousand-layer cake). However, my cake did
NOT have a thousand layers and I was VERY unhappy. Not really—it wasn't my
favorite, but it was solid.
I just love cafes, y’all.
SO MUCH.
Well, after we stayed
until the cafe closed, Rachel needed to get some baking soda to put in the
shoes that she washed that were starting to smell pretty raunchy. We went to
Ekono and couldn't find any, so Rachel and I asked an attendant if
they had it and we tried to describe it, first like sugar, and then like sand.
She was thinking we meant artificial sweetener, then salt, and then flour… it
was getting hard. We tried telling her that you use a little bit in baking…
still nothing. She finally said “Ah, ¡polvo!” (literally, powder) and we were
really excited to figure it out! So we bought a little packet and left feeling
pretty awesome about our success.
I had also bought some green tea that had
writing almost exclusively in Chinese on it and proceeded to nurse my poor
throat that is feeling more and more raw these days while Rachel began to treat
her shoes. She said it didn't really smell like baking soda, nor did
it really feel like it either.
That was when we realized
that the label said “Polvo para Hornear.”
Literally, Powder for
Baking. How the heck did we not realize that it said baking powder right
there on the freaking label? Then, we learned that baking soda is
called “bicarbonato” here
(bicarbonate, from sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO3).
I even KNEW that that was
the formula for baking soda.
Lipscomb is NOT going to
let me have a chemistry degree with their name on it.
[I can’t facepalm hard enough right now. Best part: Rachel snapped
this during real, unposed facepalming. I’m so disappointed in myself.]
After rethinking my whole
life/career plan, I finally got to meet Neely's boyfriend on Skype! We’re
basically already best buds anyway.
I also found out that Rachel is in
barbershop singing which is probably the most interesting niche hobby I've ever
heard of and now I’m legitimately fascinated by it. The Barbershop Harmony
Society moved in next to my high school, and I thought it was the weirdest,
most random thing ever. Yeah, Rachel interned there. I know this part is random—but
really, like how many people do you know that do barbershop singing?
I thank you greatly if
you’re still with this post at this point. I recognize that this one has been a
tough one to follow.
Until next time, ¡chao!
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