Getting back in the swing of things

Hey all,
Today I'm in a very good mood, as for the first time like all we week we have some sun!!! The weather here was really starting to get to me, every day constant rain, with little breaks in between to trick you into closing your umbrella. It's funny, when I read in the Pre-departure packet that we should wait to get to Santiago to buy a really strong umbrella, I just figured they were being overly-cautious. Wrong. Everyday I see umbrella casualties as I walk around town after our most recent bout of rain/wind. Yesterday I broke down and bought my second umbrella, as my first one was literally collapsed on one side, and it was just becoming too difficult to avoid being jabbed in the face by one of it's many broken rods. So yes, I invested in like a 11 euro umbrella, hopefully it will last me longer than a week! In any case, as I said the last week has been really gray, rainy, and chilly, pretty miserable weather. Plus, the lack of real heating in Spain makes it all the more harder, as you return home unable to warm up or dry off, sigh. I just can't wait until we get out of the rainy season! Other than that not a whole lot going on here, during the week my days are dominated by class and random meals with friends, or on the go. I didn't really go out much during the week, unlike Paris; I'm a lot more chill here, catching up on my reading and staying out of the rain. Thursday night, however, was really fun; almost all of us went over to Fattin and Katie's apartment, which they share with there french roommate Rodain, for dinner. Fattin is a really good cook, and they made some delicious seseame chicken, a nice rice dish, with some really good sauce consisting of just Mayonnaise and honey mixed together. We spent a long time hanging out at their place, consuming copious amounts of wine, before about half of us headed over to this bar close by called "fusion". It was a really cool place, VH1 music videos playing in the background and reminding us of home. The bar is known for having these huuuuge drinks called "confusion", very strong, so a bunch of us girls split about a vase worth of one, haha. It was fun, by the end of it we were all feeling it, and Laura and I eventually headed home together, stopping for a hot sandwich on the way back. It's nice we live so close together, I never have to walk home alone at night, so that's all good. Yesterday (Friday), I had no classes as usual, but the weather was horrendous. I decided to just spend the day doing nothing, and started reading Twilight (thanks Samantha!), and spent the day reading and sleeping. Eventually I got up and went into town to get some food, so I went and sat in a cafe close to my house, ordering a coffee to see if I would like it (I didn't, screw it), and reading more of Twilight. My friend Laura called me and invited me over to Florette's place for dinner, which I happily accepted, and then I went out and got myself my new umbrella (ditching my old one in a trash can on the way, sigh), and a bottle of wine for our dinner. It was a really good dinner, I was very impressed by their cooking ability, Laura even wants to go to cooking school and everything. Laura and I headed out at around 10:30, as Laura thought the bus stopped running at 11 and we didn't want to miss it. At this point, the wind was insane, there was a storm rolling in to Santiago, the rain earlier had been atrocious, but we huddled under the bus station and waited...and waited...and waited...Turns out the bus stops running at round 10, argh! We started the somewhat long trip home, wind whipping around us and the power flickering on and off around us, pretty scary! Finally, we both made it home safely, but the wind kept up all night.
In any case, it's looking like it might actually be a nice day in Santiago today, so I'm going to go out and enjoy it. Love you all, hope everyone is doing well!
Brit