Arica

Hey everybody. Just so you know, we are alive and well, and are now in the town of Arica, the northernmost town in Chile. How we got here...

After the ski trip we all went back to the hotel with big plans for a last night out. Unfortunately we were all very tired and only made it out with about 8 people. Then, we realized it´s sunday night, and all the bars close around 2. Thus, we ended up going to bed pretty early. The next morning we packed up and said our tearful goodbyes to the group around noon. From there we went to the bus station and bought our tickets to Arica. At four the bus departed and... 28 hours later, here we are. Tired, fractious, but ready for our 16 hour bus ride that starts tomorrow at 7 a.m.

Pros about the bus ride:
Big seats that lean all the way back
We all got to sit together
Stretta snores less in an upright condition
Lots of Niquil (sp?) ensuring hours of catatonia
The occasional movie

Cons:
28 damn hours
a baby two rows up that felt the need for everyone on the bus to know everytime it awoke, ate, excreted, or took any action whatsoever
A dog in the luggage compartment directly behind us that took the same view as the baby
A faulty speaker above our heads that turned off and on, over and over, without settling on one or the other
Movies such as house bunny, the guardian, and angels and demons, all in spanish.

Just to give some perspective, If you set out and drove from Atlanta to San Diego, it would take you about as long as we just spent on a bus. We are all a bit tired, and, due to the seediness of our hospital and the fact that we have no alarm clock to wake us at six, we will be sleeping in shifts tonight. What an adventure!

As always we all send our love to family and friends. To all of our classmates in Chile, hope you keep up with us on the blog, and we´ll try to make future entries a bit funnier. Also, Megan, we all express our sincere hopes that your MRI comes back negative for a torn ACL. Best of luck with that.

Matt Bailey