litte town girl on a big city metro

So this is where I spend two hours of every day. I take a bus (a micro) from my neighborhood into the
city, where I get on the subway going west. Then I change subway stations to head south, and then get off at the stop for San Joaquin, my campus of the Universidad Católica.
It takes about 45 minutes to an hour each way! But that's not too unusual. Most of the students live between 30 min to an hour and half away from school, but the time lost in transport is just taken as a given. It is a little draining, and honestly sometimes I just don't feel like going through the whole process. The air underground is dingy and dusty, and sometimes the people just kinda push you around. They still don't seem to know how to wait for those on the train to get off, before pushing their way own (i tried to video tape some of the flow of the people...but I turned it on a bit late so you don't quite get the effect of the TONS of people). The system is actually pretty new, apparently all the routes changed a few months before I got here, and now many more people take the subway than before. It's a good system though, since it's connected with the buses. You only have to pay once, and then you can ride bus-subway-subway or whatever combination you like for the next two hours before having to pay again. And it's easy (but to super cheap) to pay too, you buy little plastic credit cards called Bip! and then just literally "beep" them at the sensors to get on the bus/metro.

The first few days I definitely paid really close attentions to all the stops and changes, and tried to make sure I wouldn't get lost in the whole web of streets and shuffle of people. But that I'm used to it, I can read or study, which passes the time and which really, I enjoy. The minute I feel tempted to resent such a long transit time or all the people, I think about aalll the money I spend on gas in the US, the hassle of looking for parking anywhere in Austin, and just the hassle of having to take care of a car in general...and I kinda prefer the metro. It's nice to get somewhere on your own two feet, take a bus, and then when you get there you just have yourself to take care of. Plus even though sometimes everyone on the metro is so zoned out and gloomy looking it's depressing, and sometimes the sheer amount of people is just intimidating and draining, there is always something funny to see or something interesting to notice.
I've been collecting some of the things that make me crack a smile...like these goofy metro signs. They are supposed to encourage courtesy, and I think they are kinda clever. This one says "In bad times I put on my best face" haha...and the other one below it has one man (who looks like a stereotypical liberal hippie) saying "I take the right...on the escalator because I'm not in a hurry" and the other man (who looks like a stereotypical right-conservative businessman) is saying "And I take the left...when I'm running late." Haha!
Plus there is contemporary art scattered randomly around the metro, if you're looking for it. I like the iron horses, they are marching down the wall above the stairs on my last subway station on the way home. Kristina pointed out they are like the herds of people flowing through, haha. And then in the first picture, do you see the man at the top?! There is this huge fake log right over the tunnel, and this statue of a man walking right over the train roofs. When you're up on the platforms to take the stairs to the street, you're about eye level with him, it's actually a little creeepy.


My favorite part of my daily trek is in the second leg of the metro trip, right after station Ñuble: the train breaks out of the tunnel and into the day, chugging up over the buildings instead of beneath them. The first time it happened I was surprised, I didn't realize the metro went above ground! And even though that part of town is kinda dingy and broken down, on clear days I can see the mountains...and I love that. I tried to capture a little bit of it on video on my camera :)
I was also very surprised the first time two men with drums jumped on the micro, and starte rapping! Then at the next stop, two men with guitars, and a man with an accordian, jumped on and starting singing Chilean folk songs. Then they walk up and down the cars asking for donations. It makes the rides go much faster, and the best part is that it wakes the people up from the public-transit-stupor, they start crackin smiles and tapping their toes, and maybe even applaud if it's really good.
One time, when the subway was really crowded, a pregnant woman got on, and immediately someone else gave up their seat for her. When the train lurched before she could get to her seat, four or five hands sprung up to support her back and keep her from falling, and everyone smiled and nodded afterwards. There was another time when a friend and I were talking in english and obviosuly looking a little confused, when a man stopped very kindly and in slow, over pronounced and thickly accented english said, "Are...you...lost?" And even on my first day riding the bus alone, a stranger helped me find my stop. I hadn't even said a thing, when the bus stopped and this girl leaned over and said, "Esto es Escuela Militar!" - how did she know that was the stop I needed? I guess it's the stop most people take to get into town for school, and I suppose too since I looked foreign and had my bag like a student, and kept watching the stop names attentively, this girl knew which stop I was looking for.
And if I can't find anything funny to cheer me up, and I haven't brought anything to read...my friends and I just entertain ourselves. Here are some photos of us playing a silly game on the subway. You stand with your feet really close together, and try not to fall over when the train lurches...of course you can't hold on to anything, and if you really want a challenge you do it on one foot! We figure people are already looking at us anyway, and when the train is half empty it's too much fun. Last time we played we even made some people laugh ;)
One last thing...the best part is how ridiculous I looked gathering all these pictures and photos! As if I dont' look strange enough or conspicuous enough already...filming random crowds of people and taking time to admire the artwork certainly doesn't help :)