Chileans love their Futbol Alot!

Friday was an incredible exciting day for me because I received my first package in the mail from my awesome mother-in-law. After having a down week from all my clients canceling their classes it was such a treat. Many of you might be wondering why Merrill is in her workout clothes and I want you all to know that Chase and I have taken up running. We have so much spare time we decided to try to do something useful. We have found a running trail close to where we live and hope to keep running. We will see how long I can last!

Thanks Julie can't wait to open it on the 15th!

Friday night we at our favorite local Pizza place Tiramisu. Some how we got seated in the fumar (smoking) section, could not find the hostess to correct her mistake so we just sucked it up and ate in the smoke. Hopefully we do not have cancer now.

We stopped for some ice cream right around the corner for some great Helado. I like both of our so Chase had to fight me to get his back after taking the picture.

We knew that Saturday was going to be raining so we decided to sleep in and hang out in the apartment. We had some great leftovers and watched part of the Chilean vs. Columbia game. It was huge deal here in Chile because it determined if Chile was going to go the World Cup in South America. This was such a big deal that they already had a replay of the game on TV today, which is Monday two days after the game. Luckily Chile won the match.

Chase following Baylor game online while watching Chile

Chase's view

Since neither Chase and I are huge futbol (soccer) fans we thought it would a great time to head to the mall to look for some shoes for me and watch a movie. We walked to bus station and realized that Chase did not have his bip card and while we waited for the bus for about 15 minutes and eventhough we waved for it to stop it didn't. So we took it as a sign and hearing honking from all the excited Santiago fans decided to head to Baquedano.

Saturday night was one of the craziest night we have had in Santiago. It was as if the minute the game ended everyone jumped up from their couches and ran to their cars with all the Chile pharafinalia they could find and hit the street honking and yelling. While walking down the street we took some videos.

Trying to take it all in, you can't really see but everyone is hanging out of their car and waving the Chilean flag.

Crazy Chile fans in the street

We walked down the street for a while then decided to take the Metro and boy am I glad that we did because even in the subway we ran into crazy chile fans.

Crazy chile fans on the Metro

We finally arrived in Baquedano to find around 50,000 people gathered to celebrate. My first impression was the police in the riot gear shields and all. The really looked like Ninja Turtles. I was too afraid to take their picture.

All the Chileans celebrating

After getting past the intimidating cops it felt like time square. We decided to try and cross the street and both Chase and I noticed what we both agreed to be water canons used for crowd control. We could not have been more wrong. At just the right moment the cannons starting shooting red confetti in the air in celebration.

There were people everywhere! Chileans climbing up light posts, Chileans climbing up streetlights and standing on them, and Chileans jumping on top on the bus station stands. Of coarse when they started shooting the confetti all the chileans started rushing the hill. It was incredibly entertaining to watch the police push them back.

Crazy Chilean on traffic light post

After an hour we headed to dinner for some great Mexican food at la Mordida. As we headed back to the apartment we had to walk back by the plaza so we could see what was going on. In Chase's words "they took the Hill." The Chileans had finally beaten the police and were all over the place. It was really a shame because the day before I noticed they had just planted the most beautiful flowers around the statues.

Chileans have taken the hill

Most intense Police vehicles I have ever seen