The fall is upon us.

The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting cooler, and the jackets are finally getting their first showing of the year; the summer is starting to wind down...and I'm going to miss it!

I found that in Chile, people are more house ridden when its cold, but quite the contrary in the summer. Everyone has been out-and-about the past few months in Santiago. My favorite thing to do when I had a free moment, was to take a stroll through a nearby park and "people watch." It was always very relaxing and heart warming to see the families pushing strollers, children eating cotton candy and riding rented go-carts, couples kissing in every grassy knoll...and speaking of couples, i went with Felipe, mi pololo, on a picnic a few weekends ago to make the most of the beautiful weather we are having.

So we sure have been blessed with sunshine, alright. Except for last Friday when a "monsoon" hit Santiago out of nowhere.

Last Friday, I had plans with Felipe to make sushi. We needed to head out to pick up a few more ingredients to start cooking, but just before we left, it started to rain.

Felipe voiced his annoyance of the rain, while I shouted with glee. He said, "No, you just don't understand. When it rains in Santiago, everything falls apart. It was not built for rain"....I couldn't imagine how the mixture of rain + Santiago would be anything abnormally bad, but I would find out soon enough.

Regardless of our feelings about the rain, we went out. We walked happily under our umbrella and when the rain started to fall harder, we ducked under a covered entryway. oh boy did we think we were clever! We even laughed at the "losers" that got stuck in the downpour. Everyone was completely drenched.

When the rain slowed down a few minutes later, we decided to take the chance and continue walking towards the supermarket. Now, granted, the only reason we decided to leave the house in the rain was because the supermarket is only about 4 blocks away. However, I started to realize what Felipe was talking about regarding the rain when we found ourselves stuck in the median of the main street we had to cross...

We didn't make it all the way across to the other side of the street. The rain had turned the main road into a muddy, street-juice river but of course, we didn't notice until we were halfway across. The other side of the street had accumulated a deep puddle the size of Texas on our direct path. There was no way around it. There was no turning back at this point. So we were stuck at the median and thus had to wait.

So if you use your creativity, you can picture these "sloppy seconds". With every passing car (the drivers weren't considerate enough to slow down), we were hit with a muddy splash. And we were hit on both sides. It was unmerciful.

But we kept going, determined to make sushi. We took the path through the metro tunnel instead, so that we could reach the other side. (Apparently, Felipe had suggested this route beforehand but i didn't hear him...so it made everything feel like my fault) However, when we came from underground, we were again surrounded by an endless, muddy puddle. We had been trapped by the rain, people, and angst in the air.

So i learned my lesson about the rain and i will never laugh at the unprepared people without an umbrella again...

And now that summer is leaving for good, this busy-bee (me) may just turn into a house ridden Chilean after all.