Tarjeta por el metro

Two trips into Viña today, on with Javi for some excellent ice cream, flavored Mil Hojas and Frescado (raspberry), and a trip on foot to buy a metro card. A metro card is like a prepaid phone card; every time you enter and exit the metro, you swipe it and it deducts from your prepaid pesos. The process to get the discount student one is simple, but the people in the metro office made it complicated. I had to talk through one of those ticket things, and it was nearly impossible to make out anything. Eventually I made it to the office, and it was so funny. The first man sort of freaked out when I talked to him, and tried to find someone who spoke English. I understood quite a bit of what he said, but he handed me off to someone else anyway. The next guy was really nice and used lots of hand gestures to make sure I knew what he was talking about. Satisfied that I somehow got the card and had made a scene while doing it, I had some time before dark to get to know Viña. It is busy and interesting, and I much want to explore every inch of it. I came across a market on a sidestreet and found postcards, finally. When I showed them to my host mom, she took one and circled our apartment building on it, among hundreds of other buildings. Now everyone can see exactly where I live, apparently.