April 8th

We woke up today to our fifth incredibly minor earthquake, this one was the largest so far, although it might just seem that way being on the 9th floor.  The first two we’ve had Megan and i just sat looking at each other dumb founded at what was happening, this time we actually ran to a doorway arch. The weather is cloudy again this morning but that is very typical, it is usually cloudy in the morning and sunny in the afternoon.  We’ve been here just over two weeks now and are starting to make some impressions; firstly i think both of us have been surprised with the food, i think ignorantly of us we expected to be eating Mexican food.  Instead we have been eating almost the same as at home except for empanadas which are everywhere, and the menus at restaurants consist mainly of seafood.  We were warned about the dogs but it has still surprised us just how many there are everywhere.  I’ve also been surprised that people dress so similarly to the way people do at home, lots of the time the same name brands.  Another similarity would be the music, almost everywhere we go from restaurants to buses to the mall or in people’s cars they play north american music, i would have never guessed that i would have heard this much beatles, pink floyd and bob marley.  Culturally things are a bit different, for one thing when you finish a meal at a restaurant they never bring you the bill, instead it is up to you to decide when you want it, in fact they rarely even come to your table. They allow you to have peace and are always on hand but you have to make eye contact or wave them to come.  The bus was a bit scary, the bus driver opens the door way before he stops and doesn't close the door right away either. The shopping mall, grocery store and downtown core are all pretty much the same as every other city. One main difference is that they don’t really recycle here, only some glass bottles that you have to return to the store that you purchased them from. It was really confusing at first when one woman refused to sell us beer until we returned the bottles she sold to us last time.