Um...did that just happen?

Ok, so a ton of stuff has happened to me this week. Everything here is so different, but I still love it. So, anyways, during our last day of orientation, Thursday night, five of my friends got arrested in the middle of the night. It was insane, especially because I would have been arrested too had I gone with them, but at the last minute I decided to stay in the hotel instead of going for a walk with them. You see, Thursday night we decided to all hang out in my hotel room and we all bought wine since it was the last night there. We had maybe twelve people in our room and we were all just talking and everything, and then my roommate Taylor decided to go for a walk, and a bunch of other girls went with her. When they were out walking in the city, they met up with a group of Chilean guys that were our age, and so they decided to talk to them to get the whole "cultural immersion" thing down. Anyways, while they were talking to the guys, a bunch of carabineros (chilean police) came up behind them and grabbed them and started to yell at them in spanish. Apparently, the guys they were talking to were in possession of weed, and so all of the others with them were guilty by association. So, my group of friends, having no IDs and looking obviously American, was brought back to the hotel in a cop car, where luckily our program directors were able to get them out of huge trouble. I am SO glad that I didn't go with them, but apparently Americans get picked up by the police here a lot for no reason, so we were all given a huge speech about safety on the streets and everything the next day. But it's been really scary, since the crime here is reeeallly bad, especially in the city where my school is. So anyways, after that eventful night, we went to a national park that was near the hotel and we went on a huge hike up a mountain and went into copper caves that were pretty awesome. So, yeah, orientation was pretty eventful and freaky, but I'm still so happy to be here.