31/05/2011
At one stage of the flight, there was three and a half hours to go and around this time I realised that I had the option of watching Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King which is a similar length - I then set about watching the film.
And as I expected, by the time it was coming to a close our flight also was and in fact I missed the very end scenes as the pilot turned off the monitors about fifteen minutes before landing. Spoilsport.
There was a slight delay in leaving the plane as someone needed medical assistance and had to be seen to/whisked away before we could leave. But eventually, I got off and took the tram down to immigration and baggage reclaim.
And my bag finally turned up, and I left the room and made my way for the exit where my mum would be waiting.
And there she was, with my sister as a nice bonus surprise. I managed to get through the doors without them seeing me and then surprise them by tapping on the shoulder from behind.
And at this point my trip was over. Abnormality had become normality, strangers had disappeared and been replaced with my family, South America was replaced by England. I was back in my home country, where I belong, and the culmination of the last sixteen weeks was complete.
All was back to normal. All was well.
Signing off for the final time - JG
Tuesday, 31 May 2011
#118 - The Return: Part 2
30/05/2011 (posted 31/05/2011)
I got up early to leave but unfortunately, Ann and Katie had gone elsewhere before I could properly say goodbye.
I had some raisin and nut bran and then headed out with Andrew to get a taxi to the airport.
I got there fine, checked in fine and headed to Dunkin' Donuts but there was only one person working at the time so a massive queue had developed. A combination of a craving for donuts and having some time to waste led me to wait in line. I felt immense sympathy for the woman who had been sold out by her employers having been in a similar position myself at Starbucks - the only person there when a queue starts developing. It's unbelievably stressful, and happens more and more where I work as they are constantly cutting on labour but to the point where we have too few people and our quality of service greatly suffers.
Anyway, I got a coffee and a donut and then paid with a $20 note - I gave it to her and she looked at me like I'd abducted her children. It's money for goodness' sake.
I then got on to the airplane and the Panama football team were also there - in fact, players were sitting either side of me which was cool in a way. That said, being slightly famous doesn't excuse you from being an idiot for not blowing your nose and repeatedly snorting and that is exactly what the tool sitting on my left did.
What was quite funny was listening to an American guy behind me trying to chat up someone a lot younger than him - some of his winning lines included "you're 20 right? no way are you 30!" and "wow you're slim, you're only taking up half the seat". If he wanted good chat-up lines, he should have come to me.
I got to Miami fine, ordered a Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks which I have never tasted nor had before and it was damn delicious. I hope they introduce it to England.
While I was waiting here for four hours for my next plane, it fully hit me that I will be home very soon indeed. Thoughts of seeing first my family and then all of my friends put something similar to butterflies in my stomach - after so long away, I am finally coming home to where I belong.
I have talked at great, some would say exhausting, length on this blog at certain times where I have felt particularly homesick but I have felt very very much so for these past couple of weeks. I have constantly been thinking of and preparing for home, and now I am on the way there.
I boarded my flight, and got down to watching Friends.
JG
I got up early to leave but unfortunately, Ann and Katie had gone elsewhere before I could properly say goodbye.
I had some raisin and nut bran and then headed out with Andrew to get a taxi to the airport.
I got there fine, checked in fine and headed to Dunkin' Donuts but there was only one person working at the time so a massive queue had developed. A combination of a craving for donuts and having some time to waste led me to wait in line. I felt immense sympathy for the woman who had been sold out by her employers having been in a similar position myself at Starbucks - the only person there when a queue starts developing. It's unbelievably stressful, and happens more and more where I work as they are constantly cutting on labour but to the point where we have too few people and our quality of service greatly suffers.
Anyway, I got a coffee and a donut and then paid with a $20 note - I gave it to her and she looked at me like I'd abducted her children. It's money for goodness' sake.
I then got on to the airplane and the Panama football team were also there - in fact, players were sitting either side of me which was cool in a way. That said, being slightly famous doesn't excuse you from being an idiot for not blowing your nose and repeatedly snorting and that is exactly what the tool sitting on my left did.
What was quite funny was listening to an American guy behind me trying to chat up someone a lot younger than him - some of his winning lines included "you're 20 right? no way are you 30!" and "wow you're slim, you're only taking up half the seat". If he wanted good chat-up lines, he should have come to me.
I got to Miami fine, ordered a Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks which I have never tasted nor had before and it was damn delicious. I hope they introduce it to England.
While I was waiting here for four hours for my next plane, it fully hit me that I will be home very soon indeed. Thoughts of seeing first my family and then all of my friends put something similar to butterflies in my stomach - after so long away, I am finally coming home to where I belong.
I have talked at great, some would say exhausting, length on this blog at certain times where I have felt particularly homesick but I have felt very very much so for these past couple of weeks. I have constantly been thinking of and preparing for home, and now I am on the way there.
I boarded my flight, and got down to watching Friends.
JG
#117 - Pilates and Fifa
29/05/2011 (posted 31/05/2011)
Slept really well - yesterday was a long day and spending so much time at airports and on airplanes is really tiring.
I went with Ann, Bill, Katie and Andrew to their local church which is just down the road. It was a little smaller than Myton and had a great atmosphere - the worship band were really tight and nailed each song and the sermon was in English which was a welcome change from recent experiences. The message was spot on as well - about missions funnily enough, and how we should all get involved whether it is abroad or right on our doorstep.
We then returned for homemade hamburgers which were truly delicious, accompanied with fried sweet potato.
The afternoon was spent just chilling out, listening to John Mayer and doing pretty much nothing. I Skyped Amy and my good friend Jacob who filled me in, so to speak, on all of the gossip from Harbury. But except for these conversations, nothing really happened.
Until, that is, Katie jokingly asked if I wanted to do some pilates and I had nothing better to do so accepted. What followed was both excruciatingly painful and embarrassing - stretching and moving around like a gimp on a carpet as various members of their family walked in and out laughing. My body went through turmoil but it was some exercise for the day which is always a positive. It has to be said that I felt very camp afterwards though.
Dinner was a nice salad accompanied by a London Pride beer which Ann had gone to special lengths to get and I appreciated greatly. We then had some freshly-made cake for dinner which was absolutely scrumptious.
After that, some of Andrew's friends came over and we all hung out playing Fifa - my skill level has decreased dramatically through not playing it for months, and it was depressing to be so playing so wretchedly badly. That said, I scored a beautiful goal with Benzema after a counter-attack with him and Ronaldo.
I leave for home tomorrow. Crazy thought.
JG
Slept really well - yesterday was a long day and spending so much time at airports and on airplanes is really tiring.
I went with Ann, Bill, Katie and Andrew to their local church which is just down the road. It was a little smaller than Myton and had a great atmosphere - the worship band were really tight and nailed each song and the sermon was in English which was a welcome change from recent experiences. The message was spot on as well - about missions funnily enough, and how we should all get involved whether it is abroad or right on our doorstep.
We then returned for homemade hamburgers which were truly delicious, accompanied with fried sweet potato.
The afternoon was spent just chilling out, listening to John Mayer and doing pretty much nothing. I Skyped Amy and my good friend Jacob who filled me in, so to speak, on all of the gossip from Harbury. But except for these conversations, nothing really happened.
Until, that is, Katie jokingly asked if I wanted to do some pilates and I had nothing better to do so accepted. What followed was both excruciatingly painful and embarrassing - stretching and moving around like a gimp on a carpet as various members of their family walked in and out laughing. My body went through turmoil but it was some exercise for the day which is always a positive. It has to be said that I felt very camp afterwards though.
Dinner was a nice salad accompanied by a London Pride beer which Ann had gone to special lengths to get and I appreciated greatly. We then had some freshly-made cake for dinner which was absolutely scrumptious.
After that, some of Andrew's friends came over and we all hung out playing Fifa - my skill level has decreased dramatically through not playing it for months, and it was depressing to be so playing so wretchedly badly. That said, I scored a beautiful goal with Benzema after a counter-attack with him and Ronaldo.
I leave for home tomorrow. Crazy thought.
JG
Saturday, 28 May 2011
#116 - The Return: Part 1
28/05/2011
I was up at 2am this morning - after three hours of sleep, I didn't feel great.
I had a shower, packed up all of my last things and left Alan's flat at 3am. There were plenty of taxis around so I hailed one and got him to take me to a place which I had been told a shuttle bus runs to the airport fairly regularly. The driver had his reservations, saying that the buses may not run at this strange hour and he was unfortunately right so I asked him to take me straight to the airport. This turned out to be a good thing as we talked at length about a wide variety of subjects: football, faith, the negative influence of the Vatican, drugs and more. He was a nice guy and really open and honest, and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.
At the airport, I was very bad and got a Starbucks though at 5am I really did need the coffee. I also got some freshly-squeezed orange juice simply to get rid of my Chilean money as it is no use to me anywhere else. The machine that made the juice from the fresh oranges was really cool, and I took great delight from just watching it being made.
On a more serious note, in the passport control queue a guy slightly in front of me passed out right in front of my eyes. His young daughter was by him crying her eyes out and he really seemed in a bad way - the room was fairly humid so it could have perhaps been lack of oxygen. All I could do to help was give him my bottle of water, so that I did and he seemed to be conscious which is certainly a positive.
The flight to Bogota was pretty pleasant - I had a TV screen on the back of the seat in front of me on which I watched episodes of Two And a Half Men, Friends and The Big Bang Theory as well as My Sister's Keeper (managed to avoid crying, just) and No Strings Attached, a slightly more light-hearted movie. He gets some bad press but Ashton Kutcher is good at comedy acting to be fair to him.
I then got to Bogota and had a bit of time to kill so got a cheeseburger as I waited, and was then off to Panama City on a nice one-hour flight. I still had a TV screen so listened to a bit of music and also slept a tiny bit and then I was there.
Upon arrival, I learned about Man United being outclassed by Barcelona and then got a taxi. The driver was nice enough but when we got to the business end of the ride, he went the wrong way and then got frustrated with me telling him to go the right way - he clearly had the place confused with somewhere else.
Anyhow, I eventually arrived back at Ann's house. I am staying with her and her family for a couple of days before I fly home which will be great as I had such a great time staying here in April.
Upon arrival, my stomach was in several places due to the high intake of coffee and different foods and fizzy drinks during the day so I just opted for an Earl Grey tea, checked Facebook and got to bed.
JG
I was up at 2am this morning - after three hours of sleep, I didn't feel great.
I had a shower, packed up all of my last things and left Alan's flat at 3am. There were plenty of taxis around so I hailed one and got him to take me to a place which I had been told a shuttle bus runs to the airport fairly regularly. The driver had his reservations, saying that the buses may not run at this strange hour and he was unfortunately right so I asked him to take me straight to the airport. This turned out to be a good thing as we talked at length about a wide variety of subjects: football, faith, the negative influence of the Vatican, drugs and more. He was a nice guy and really open and honest, and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey.
At the airport, I was very bad and got a Starbucks though at 5am I really did need the coffee. I also got some freshly-squeezed orange juice simply to get rid of my Chilean money as it is no use to me anywhere else. The machine that made the juice from the fresh oranges was really cool, and I took great delight from just watching it being made.
On a more serious note, in the passport control queue a guy slightly in front of me passed out right in front of my eyes. His young daughter was by him crying her eyes out and he really seemed in a bad way - the room was fairly humid so it could have perhaps been lack of oxygen. All I could do to help was give him my bottle of water, so that I did and he seemed to be conscious which is certainly a positive.
The flight to Bogota was pretty pleasant - I had a TV screen on the back of the seat in front of me on which I watched episodes of Two And a Half Men, Friends and The Big Bang Theory as well as My Sister's Keeper (managed to avoid crying, just) and No Strings Attached, a slightly more light-hearted movie. He gets some bad press but Ashton Kutcher is good at comedy acting to be fair to him.
I then got to Bogota and had a bit of time to kill so got a cheeseburger as I waited, and was then off to Panama City on a nice one-hour flight. I still had a TV screen so listened to a bit of music and also slept a tiny bit and then I was there.
Upon arrival, I learned about Man United being outclassed by Barcelona and then got a taxi. The driver was nice enough but when we got to the business end of the ride, he went the wrong way and then got frustrated with me telling him to go the right way - he clearly had the place confused with somewhere else.
Anyhow, I eventually arrived back at Ann's house. I am staying with her and her family for a couple of days before I fly home which will be great as I had such a great time staying here in April.
Upon arrival, my stomach was in several places due to the high intake of coffee and different foods and fizzy drinks during the day so I just opted for an Earl Grey tea, checked Facebook and got to bed.
JG
#115 - Double dose of Starbucks
27/05/2011 (posted 28/05/2011)
My morning was spent fairly leisurely, besides a walk to collect my laundry. On the way back, I was nearly hit by a car for the umpteenth time on the same bit of road.
It is the definition of stupidity: when the Green Man starts flashing, this obviously indicates that it's ok for pedestraisns to cross the road but at the same time, cars are given the green light to exit the adjascent main road and drive right across the pedestrian walkway. If that's too much imagery to picture, essentially there is a green light for both pedestrians and cars at the same time on the same bit of road. Doesn't make sense to me, and it is extremely dangerous. The numpty who designed the cretinous system should be fired on the spot for gross misconduct for being a general idiot.
My taste for good coffee reignited, I returned to Starbucks for lunch and had a pretty tasty toastie to go alongside my Caramel Macchiato.
After this trip to my second home, I went back to El Oasis to hang out with the guys. Greg, who did the talk in Spanish but is in fact from Kentucky), showed me round the house and the local area as well. I was a little disappointed: as soon as he said he's from Kentucky, I quipped "I've enjoyed a lot of your fried chicken" but he didn't buy it. Obviously wasn't enough of a 'zinger' of a joke, or maybe he 'chickened out'.
Sorry, enough puns - they were both poultry attempts at humour anyway.
But yeah, he explained that the whole place is run purely on donations that the staff receive from friends/family/sponsors and then all pool together. It's an awesome concept, and so encouraging to see a place like this running and if you had seen how much the guys who came last night were loving it, you'd be as grateful as me for this place.
The one unfortunate thing is that they are going on a retreat for the weekend but I can't go as I fly tomorrow morning - it sounds like it will be absolutely brilliant but it isn't possible for me to go so that is, unfortunately, that. They were all working hard preparing for the retreat so I left at around 4pm as I didn't want to be in the way, not that they ever made me feel like I was.
I went to an internet cafe to check emails and Facebook and stuff, and just sat watching some beautiful conversation unfolding between Piers Morgan and several other famous people on Twitter. He essentially uses his Twitter account to mock or jibe celebrities such as Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen and Alan Sugar and started on Wayne Routledge yesterday before declaring "would love to continue intellectually lacerating England's second-rate footballers but I have to go and record America's Number 1 news show". Although he's incredibly smug and full of himself, he is also hilarious to follow on Twitter.
For dinner, I went to a place which offers an all-you-can-eat buffet but my stomach certainly wasn't up for anything like that, so I went for a Caesar Salad which was still massive. For an after-dinner dose of caffeine, I went back to Starbucks. May be overdoing them if I'm honest.
When I got home, I packed up my stuff and with my new purchases (more presents, I have a lucky family and friends) it just about all fitted in. I then went to get a few hours of sleep before my early start tomorrow.
JG
My morning was spent fairly leisurely, besides a walk to collect my laundry. On the way back, I was nearly hit by a car for the umpteenth time on the same bit of road.
It is the definition of stupidity: when the Green Man starts flashing, this obviously indicates that it's ok for pedestraisns to cross the road but at the same time, cars are given the green light to exit the adjascent main road and drive right across the pedestrian walkway. If that's too much imagery to picture, essentially there is a green light for both pedestrians and cars at the same time on the same bit of road. Doesn't make sense to me, and it is extremely dangerous. The numpty who designed the cretinous system should be fired on the spot for gross misconduct for being a general idiot.
My taste for good coffee reignited, I returned to Starbucks for lunch and had a pretty tasty toastie to go alongside my Caramel Macchiato.
After this trip to my second home, I went back to El Oasis to hang out with the guys. Greg, who did the talk in Spanish but is in fact from Kentucky), showed me round the house and the local area as well. I was a little disappointed: as soon as he said he's from Kentucky, I quipped "I've enjoyed a lot of your fried chicken" but he didn't buy it. Obviously wasn't enough of a 'zinger' of a joke, or maybe he 'chickened out'.
Sorry, enough puns - they were both poultry attempts at humour anyway.
But yeah, he explained that the whole place is run purely on donations that the staff receive from friends/family/sponsors and then all pool together. It's an awesome concept, and so encouraging to see a place like this running and if you had seen how much the guys who came last night were loving it, you'd be as grateful as me for this place.
The one unfortunate thing is that they are going on a retreat for the weekend but I can't go as I fly tomorrow morning - it sounds like it will be absolutely brilliant but it isn't possible for me to go so that is, unfortunately, that. They were all working hard preparing for the retreat so I left at around 4pm as I didn't want to be in the way, not that they ever made me feel like I was.
I went to an internet cafe to check emails and Facebook and stuff, and just sat watching some beautiful conversation unfolding between Piers Morgan and several other famous people on Twitter. He essentially uses his Twitter account to mock or jibe celebrities such as Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen and Alan Sugar and started on Wayne Routledge yesterday before declaring "would love to continue intellectually lacerating England's second-rate footballers but I have to go and record America's Number 1 news show". Although he's incredibly smug and full of himself, he is also hilarious to follow on Twitter.
For dinner, I went to a place which offers an all-you-can-eat buffet but my stomach certainly wasn't up for anything like that, so I went for a Caesar Salad which was still massive. For an after-dinner dose of caffeine, I went back to Starbucks. May be overdoing them if I'm honest.
When I got home, I packed up my stuff and with my new purchases (more presents, I have a lucky family and friends) it just about all fitted in. I then went to get a few hours of sleep before my early start tomorrow.
JG
#114 - Oasis
26/05/2011 (posted 28/05/2011)
I planned to visit the Virgin Mary statue which is on top of a hill this morning, but felt really ill so skipped that (although ironically, some Catholics would maybe say she could have brought me healing by saying her name a few times or something).
Instead, I went to an internet cafe to do something relaxing. The form my illness is currently taking is stomach cramps around half an hour after I finish eating, so I thought that one solution to the problem could be only drinking stuff for today. So I decided to try that out, and started the day with some chocolate milk and orange juice.
Unfortunately, these also gave me stomach cramps so I abandoned the 'no-eating' idea and decided to eat something at lunchtime.
This led me to think 'Where better to go for a decent sandwich and maybe a nice sweet hot drink than Starbucks?', and when I couldn't think of anywhere better I decided to go. I ordered my speciality drink - Caramel Mocha with a bit extra of this or that, not going to disclose the recipe to the public domain.
In the afternoon, I still was feeling far from 100% so went back to a cafe and had a Skype with Amy and my family which was really great. Makes home feel even closer - less than a week now til I will be there.
I met Rita again in the evening, though not after almost being crushed to death trying to ride the Metro system in rush-hour. Before I could board a train, four came and went and each time took on a few more people into the madness as a few people scrambled to get off which looked truly difficult.
But anyway, I met her and she took me to a group she goes to on Thursdays at a local voluntarily-run place where they have people working and doing various bits of ministry to the community. It sounded cool, and when I got there I was taken aback at how amazingly bouncy and happy everyone I met was - it was clear that this is both a special place and a special event. The atmosphere was contagiously positive and it was great to really feel surrounded by people and in God's presence at the same time - is probably the first time since Panama with this amount of fellowship and it was flippin' awesome.
The evening itself felt and ran very similarly to First Sunday, which is probably another reason why I loved it so much. We started by eating and just all hanging out, and I got chatting to a few people in a mixture of English and Spanish. There was then an open mic time and a few various individuals/bands came forward and performed some songs - 'You Never Let Go', 'Take It All' and 'Indescribable' were all played but in Spanish. There was then a talk given by a guy called Greg, which I partly understood (it was in Spanish obviously).
Afterwards, everyone hung out chatting and clearing away so I got talking to some more people. There are a fair few Americans here that are either studying at one of the Universities or are full-time staff here.
I got on so well with them, in fact, that I'm going to go back tomorrow and hang out with them and see more of what they do.
So I walked to the Metro station with Rita and we then went our separate ways. It has been really nice to hang out with her and for her to take the time to show me some of the city - although our link is through a third-party, we have got on really well and I hope to see both her and Jonny in the near future.
JG
I planned to visit the Virgin Mary statue which is on top of a hill this morning, but felt really ill so skipped that (although ironically, some Catholics would maybe say she could have brought me healing by saying her name a few times or something).
Instead, I went to an internet cafe to do something relaxing. The form my illness is currently taking is stomach cramps around half an hour after I finish eating, so I thought that one solution to the problem could be only drinking stuff for today. So I decided to try that out, and started the day with some chocolate milk and orange juice.
Unfortunately, these also gave me stomach cramps so I abandoned the 'no-eating' idea and decided to eat something at lunchtime.
This led me to think 'Where better to go for a decent sandwich and maybe a nice sweet hot drink than Starbucks?', and when I couldn't think of anywhere better I decided to go. I ordered my speciality drink - Caramel Mocha with a bit extra of this or that, not going to disclose the recipe to the public domain.
In the afternoon, I still was feeling far from 100% so went back to a cafe and had a Skype with Amy and my family which was really great. Makes home feel even closer - less than a week now til I will be there.
I met Rita again in the evening, though not after almost being crushed to death trying to ride the Metro system in rush-hour. Before I could board a train, four came and went and each time took on a few more people into the madness as a few people scrambled to get off which looked truly difficult.
But anyway, I met her and she took me to a group she goes to on Thursdays at a local voluntarily-run place where they have people working and doing various bits of ministry to the community. It sounded cool, and when I got there I was taken aback at how amazingly bouncy and happy everyone I met was - it was clear that this is both a special place and a special event. The atmosphere was contagiously positive and it was great to really feel surrounded by people and in God's presence at the same time - is probably the first time since Panama with this amount of fellowship and it was flippin' awesome.
The evening itself felt and ran very similarly to First Sunday, which is probably another reason why I loved it so much. We started by eating and just all hanging out, and I got chatting to a few people in a mixture of English and Spanish. There was then an open mic time and a few various individuals/bands came forward and performed some songs - 'You Never Let Go', 'Take It All' and 'Indescribable' were all played but in Spanish. There was then a talk given by a guy called Greg, which I partly understood (it was in Spanish obviously).
Afterwards, everyone hung out chatting and clearing away so I got talking to some more people. There are a fair few Americans here that are either studying at one of the Universities or are full-time staff here.
I got on so well with them, in fact, that I'm going to go back tomorrow and hang out with them and see more of what they do.
So I walked to the Metro station with Rita and we then went our separate ways. It has been really nice to hang out with her and for her to take the time to show me some of the city - although our link is through a third-party, we have got on really well and I hope to see both her and Jonny in the near future.
JG
Thursday, 26 May 2011
#113 - Being educated by Rita
25/05/2011 (posted 26/05/2011)
I slept well until the alarm built into my new watch woke me up perfectly on time. Makes a difference from the piece of junk I bought for three quid in Bolivia - shame the hot springs finished that off though.
When I woke up, I immediately had bad stomach cramps again which were no fun at all.
They eventually went away, and I got up and ready and headed out to the city centre.
In one of those cool coincidences in life, Jonny (from the OM team)'s girlfriend, Rita, lives in Santiago and I added her on Facebook and we decided to meet each other and hang out.
So at 12pm, I went to our designated meeting point and couldn't see her anyway. Obviously, all I was going on was pictures of her on Facebook so I couldn't be sure, but I didn't see anyone remotely looking like her. That was, until one girl walked into an area very near our meeting place, sat down for five minutes and then went off again. That girl looked ever-so-slightly like Rita but I was far from certain and before I could do more research, she went. Her abrupt exit made me think it wasn't her as she would surely spend more time looking for me, but it still unnerved me slightly.
At 12:30pm, I knew something had gone wrong so I went to an internet café to see if she had been in touch. She had, ten minutes earlier, and said that she was waiting at La Moneda train station - I was at La Moneda palace, and last night we said 'see you at La Moneda'. I believed that this was where the mix-up had occurred.
So I walked to the station, had a look around, had to pay to get onto the platform as I thought she would be there but still couldn't find her. And then, finally, I looked up and saw her waving at me.
It may have been 1pm instead of 12pm, but we had met all the same. So she showed me a few cool places in Santiago including a 'cultural centre' building with some Mapuche stuff and Cerro Santa Lucia, a really awesome place. It's a hill right in the middle of the city and has some old buildings sort of built into it, and you can walk up to the top and get a view over Santiago. So we did, and it was beautiful.
While we were having lunch, I told her I work at Starbucks and she said there were some in Santiago. This made me more than a little bit excited, and we went and I felt like I had come home. Everything from the soft furniture to the smell to the aprons was just uplifting, and I had a caramel mocha which didn't disappoint - of course it didn't, as I specified the exact number of syrup pumps and espresso shots to put in.
Over the course of the day we covered a massive distance on foot, which was good as it meant we could talk about stuff and get to know each other more but it also meant I was knackered at the end of the day. However, the day culminated in a visit to a studenty pub where we ordered one of the best main courses I have ever had. It is called Churriana or something like that, and was a bed of chips upon which was fried chicken, chorizo, sausage and bacon. Imagine that, washed down with a beer containing honey and you'll conclude that it was a good meal.
The one negative of this meal was that it inevitably led to my stomach cramps making an unwelcome return in a significant manner. The nature of the pain leads me to believe that it is an issue with my digestive system in some way, but I can't be sure. If it carries on for a couple more days I will seek medical help but until then, I'll drink lots of water and try to shake it off.
JG
So that was the end of the day, and I am seeing Rita again tomorrow in the evening to go to her evening group at her church which shall be fun.
I slept well until the alarm built into my new watch woke me up perfectly on time. Makes a difference from the piece of junk I bought for three quid in Bolivia - shame the hot springs finished that off though.
When I woke up, I immediately had bad stomach cramps again which were no fun at all.
They eventually went away, and I got up and ready and headed out to the city centre.
In one of those cool coincidences in life, Jonny (from the OM team)'s girlfriend, Rita, lives in Santiago and I added her on Facebook and we decided to meet each other and hang out.
So at 12pm, I went to our designated meeting point and couldn't see her anyway. Obviously, all I was going on was pictures of her on Facebook so I couldn't be sure, but I didn't see anyone remotely looking like her. That was, until one girl walked into an area very near our meeting place, sat down for five minutes and then went off again. That girl looked ever-so-slightly like Rita but I was far from certain and before I could do more research, she went. Her abrupt exit made me think it wasn't her as she would surely spend more time looking for me, but it still unnerved me slightly.
At 12:30pm, I knew something had gone wrong so I went to an internet café to see if she had been in touch. She had, ten minutes earlier, and said that she was waiting at La Moneda train station - I was at La Moneda palace, and last night we said 'see you at La Moneda'. I believed that this was where the mix-up had occurred.
So I walked to the station, had a look around, had to pay to get onto the platform as I thought she would be there but still couldn't find her. And then, finally, I looked up and saw her waving at me.
It may have been 1pm instead of 12pm, but we had met all the same. So she showed me a few cool places in Santiago including a 'cultural centre' building with some Mapuche stuff and Cerro Santa Lucia, a really awesome place. It's a hill right in the middle of the city and has some old buildings sort of built into it, and you can walk up to the top and get a view over Santiago. So we did, and it was beautiful.
While we were having lunch, I told her I work at Starbucks and she said there were some in Santiago. This made me more than a little bit excited, and we went and I felt like I had come home. Everything from the soft furniture to the smell to the aprons was just uplifting, and I had a caramel mocha which didn't disappoint - of course it didn't, as I specified the exact number of syrup pumps and espresso shots to put in.
Over the course of the day we covered a massive distance on foot, which was good as it meant we could talk about stuff and get to know each other more but it also meant I was knackered at the end of the day. However, the day culminated in a visit to a studenty pub where we ordered one of the best main courses I have ever had. It is called Churriana or something like that, and was a bed of chips upon which was fried chicken, chorizo, sausage and bacon. Imagine that, washed down with a beer containing honey and you'll conclude that it was a good meal.
The one negative of this meal was that it inevitably led to my stomach cramps making an unwelcome return in a significant manner. The nature of the pain leads me to believe that it is an issue with my digestive system in some way, but I can't be sure. If it carries on for a couple more days I will seek medical help but until then, I'll drink lots of water and try to shake it off.
JG
So that was the end of the day, and I am seeing Rita again tomorrow in the evening to go to her evening group at her church which shall be fun.
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