Pisco sour, por favor

After our invigorating romp through Olmue yesterday evening, and yet another multi-course meal, we all headed out to the nearby karaoke bar for pisco sours, Chile's national drink, and some good old-fashioned socializing. I've become a quick fan of the lemony concoction, and an even bigger fan of the fact that bar nuts are replaced by bar popcorn here. It was splendid. Today has been jammed with orientation overload. We talked about "shock cultural," safety in the city, academic themes (parts 2 and 3), identification, various meetings and plans for next week, and how to avoid being American. I feel duly oriented. In between all the listening, we get thoroughly stuffed with food, and take trips back and forth between our rooms in search of more layers of clothing. Silly winter. Where did my summer go? On the bright side, our beds are super comfy and piled high with several weighty layers of blankets, which makes us all very happy come nighttime. So things here are good, though I'm officially sick of orientation. I want to be on my own, with my family, inundated by Spanish, figuring out how to navigate the area, and meeting Chileans. I also want to be able to hike, but I guess I'll have to take things one at a time (I'll be confined to the hotel pool while the rest of the group goes hiking tomorrow before we meet our families). In the meantime, I guess I should enjoy the lovely hot showers we all get to take.