Football in Chile!

What is the best way to meet Americans in a foreign country? Find an American bar! Last night, I did just that. After receiving a tip a few weeks ago from a coworker in LA about a bar named California opened by two guys from California, I had to seek it out. Lucky for me, this bar is only 2 blocks away from the hotel that I have been staying in! So...last night, after a personal battle about whether or not I had the bravado to venture into a bar by myself, the Texan in me won the battle, and I found myself at California in Providencia. I never thought I would say this, but I am actually PROUD of myself for going to a bar. I know, that sounds strange, but if any of you have ever gone to a bar in country as you clearly stand out as a member of the 0.5% of the population with blond hair and blue eyes, you may understand more easily. Although the Texans and the Cowboys both lost, I met two American guys who both moved to Santiago recently. All in all, I would say that it was worth watching the Texas teams lose. I found the place to go when I am in need of some California fair. Hopefully next time I go there, I will have someone to share the nachos with.

http://www.californiacantina.net/index.html

It´s sad that I was the one to strike up conversation with the guy sitting next to me at the bar, but you gotta do what you gotta do. My weak attempt at make a friend went a little like this:

Guy at bar: (Completely oblivious that there is an American girl sitting next to him)
Cameron: (Awkwardly clapping occasionally to make it obvious that I was a) American, and b) watching the Cowboys-Patriots game)
Guy at bar: ....
Cameron: Are the Cowboys wearing pink?
Guy at bar: Yes - it´s a breast cancer thing. They actually auction off their stuff at the end of the game and donate the proceeds to charity.
Cameron: Oh, how nice.

After that, things got less awkward. Turns out the guy is a huge USC fan. When he asked me if I had a fantasy football team, I started thinking he might have thought I was a man posing as a woman, but whatever. I took off as soon as the game was over, sighting my first day of work as my excuse. It´s a good thing I did too, because I felt nauseous more than once today, and it had nothing to do with the number of beers I had at the bar last night (2, for the record). To give you an idea of why, without boring you with the details of accounting that I´m sure nobody in the audience is interested in hearing, all I need to say is that I printed a 150 page Annual Report for Corpbanca, a Chilean bank first thing this morning - in SPANISH. It wasn´t until after going on a run after I got home from work that my head was clear enough to come out of the daze that I was in all day. Stay posted for tales of the embarrassing situations I expect to get myself into in the week to come. I´m just hoping that Chileans have heard the expression "Dumb blonde" so that I have an excuse when I can´t figure out how to use the copy machine (ya...that happened today).