Big Step!

I just got home from the farm and, big news, I drove myself back! All alone! And I went to the grocery store! This sounds ridiculous because most of you know me as terribly independent and fully capable of driving and shopping alone, but what you may not know is that I have ZERO sense of direction, and also no driver's license here in Chile. So technically I'm not supposed to be driving anyway, and if I did get lost, which was likely, I wouldn't really be able to ask for help. All that said, I felt confident enough to undertake the endeavor.

The first part of the trip was pretty easy. There was almost no traffic out by the farm, which is not entirely surprising for a Saturday in February. Saturdays are normally fairly quiet out there, but February is the traditional vacation month here, so it was especially vacant. I got a little bit of a sunburn on my left arm.

I managed to get on the right highway toward Santiago and entered the city without incident. There is a complicated series of highway turns to undertake that involve getting off and on about 4 different freeways because no one here has apparently heard of interchanges. I made the first 3 just well. It was the last one that tricked me. Somehow I ended up getting off of the highway in the wrong spot and being unable to get back on. I was on the southwest side of the city and we live on the northeast, so I was completely unfamiliar with the area. I didn't recognize any of the street names, and they all seemed to only go one way and not northeast, of course. I drove straight for a while hoping that the street would magically start going northeast (to be honest, I actually have no idea what direction I was going... I was trying to use the sun to approximate it but it seemed like every time I turned, it was still slightly above my and to the left). They didn't, so I turned a couple of times and became utterly lost. I had not a clue where I was...

Luckily, here in Santiago, if you drive long enough, you run into a highway. Eventually, I did. It turned out to be the first highway I was on when I got into town! So I had to do all of the crazy turns again, but this time I did it right, and I got all of the way back to the right side of town.

I had to go to the grocery store after that because there was no food in the house, and that turned out to be the most frustrating part of the day, but only because shopping on a Saturday afternoon is mayhem, as it probably is anywhere. However, I made it out in one piece and here I am back at home with the car and food and everything!