It seems that Chile is the exact opposite of the UK when it comes to weather. In England, the further south you travel, the warmer the temperatures become. In Chile, I travelled 6 hours south of the capital and am now freezing my Royal Rastafarians off (or I would be if I had any)! On arrival at my home for the next ten months, a cute and slightly dated flat close to the centre of the city, my landlady greeted me with a kiss on the cheek and a lesson on how to fill the "top quality German hot water bottle" effectively. I guess I won't be needing all those beautiful sandals I packed for a while then....

The two German girls who are currently staying in the flat inform me that our landlady ,Teolinda, is absolutely lovely, but a little bit crazy. Indeed, it seems she felt the need to remind us not to do things that seem common sense to me (which I know I tend to lack at times before you say anything school friends) as number eight of the flat rules was "Do not let in stray dogs". At first this seemed extremely strange to me, especially as I live on the fifth floor of a tower block so it wouldn't be the easiest thing to do. However, when I think back to the sights I saw in Santiago, it makes a bit more sense. After a night out in the capital, we were walking home and were very quickly joined by two stray dogs who were flirting outrageously with each other. We couldn't seem to shake them and eventually it seemed like they were protecting us on our walk back to the hostel. Lots of taxis kept pulling up to offer us lifts home but we kept declining. After a while a taxi actually parked up near us. Instead of asking us if we wanted a lift, he asked if the dogs belonged to us! When he realised they didn't, he proceeded to ask if he could feed them. Out he jumps from the taxi to open the boot and before we know it he's tipping a mountain of food out for the dogs from a giant bag of dog food. Thinking about it later, none of the stray dogs seem to be malnourished, so I guess the Chileans take it upon themselves to look after them if they can. I think the RSPCA would have a heart attack if they saw them all on the street!

Stray dogs also accompanied us up the San Cristobal hill in Santiago. We kept crossing paths with them both up and down. It was quite a trek! The view from the top of this hill/mountain was incredible, and the beauty of it was that the view kept changing due to the smog. We sat there for about three hours, and every half hour a new snow-topped mountain would come into view as another disappeared from sight! Apparently the best time to go is first thing in the morning after it has rained the night before so that the smog has cleared. Fingers crossed for a rainy day next time I'm in Santiago.

Speaking of climbing mountains, I did just that my first full day in Concepción. There are tonnes of national parks in the hills just behind my university campus. I went for a little hike with my two German flatmates and two Chilean girls from the lab. The idea was to go up one side and come back down the route through the university. The only problem was that none of us had done it before and up on the hill there were no signposts telling us which way to head. So we went all over the place until we got to a dead end. Then another dead end. In short we were pretty lost. Luckily there were a group of guys doing a dirt bike competition on the same hill. One of the men took pity on us and as we started to head what we thought was back down again, he pulled up in the pick-up truck that he'd been using to ferry the bikers back up the hill and offered us a lift. So we all hopped in the back and off we went. Although he was going slowly, it felt like a roller coaster because of all the twists, turns and bumps. It really was fun! The woods we were walking in really are beautiful. They reminded me of Twilight to the point that when stopped for lunch I kept half expecting Edward Cullen to appear from behind a tree and declare his undying love for me. Nahh, only joking! Sort of.

I took a rather less exciting form of transport to arrive in Concepción than the pick-up truck; the bus. However, this definitely had its perks and interesting sights. First of all as taking a bus is the most common form of transport for getting around the country, it comes in different varieties. For example, when booking your seat you have to decide if you want a normal seat, a semi-bed or a full blown premium bed for those extra long journeys (bus rides here can last as long as 30 hours). We went for semi-bed or semi cama, which was extremely comfortable and had large foot rests and reclining seat backs. I'd already been warned that time keeping here in Chile was less relaxed for certain things than in Spain for example, and bus times is one of them. We left very punctually from Santiago and seemed to be keeping time until a stop in a place called Talca. We made a stop at a sort of bus depot that is only for drivers. It has beds and showers so that they can rest after long journeys. We were sat there for about fifteen minutes, which was obviously far too long for the other passengers. There was already talk of putting in a formal complaint and then all of the sudden the bus erupted with noise as the passengers started stamping their feet in chorus to try and get the driver's attention! It actually worked too! Maybe we should try that in the UK when National Express are keeping us waiting.

I better stop this post before it gets too long, but I have much more to tell from this week. I'll leave you with the strange coincidence that I discovered when registering with the police department here in Concepción. Despite my parents putting a lot of effort into picking an original and uncommon first name for me to distinguish me from so many other Smiths, it appears that in fact I am not the only Karina Anne Smith on this planet, in fact, I'm not even the only Karina Anne Smith in Concepción. Someone with the exact same name, and someone who is only three years my senior, has registered as a foreigner in this city! I wondered why they kept asking me if I had been here before! Spooky or what?!