Fracaso

Life is not perfect. Sometimes that is hidden behind numerous successes and joyful moments, but other times it is quite clear. The other morning reminded me that there are times when plans do not work out and ideas never move past the idea phase.
My day started out with a 10:45 meeting for my internship at the Juan Gomez Millas campus in ñuñoa. I had a class downtown at 12 so I had tried to move the meeting up but I was assured that we would be done by 11:20. I budgeted an appropriate amount of time to get to the campus and I arrived 5 minutes early. I figured that nobody would be there because Chile does not run on time so I found a seat and waited. After 20 minutes I started worrying that I was confused and had not understood the email in Spanish. I started walking around and I ran into my boss. She was just arriving and she called to see where the other girls were. The other two, who work in the building, were just running late. The meeting finally started at 11:15. I had to leave at 11:20 so that was not very useful for me.
When I left the meeting I asked the girls for directions. They are Chilean so I figured they might have better directions then the ones I found online. False. They told me to take any micro south front the front of the campus and then to get off at Irarrazaval and take the metro. I hopped on a micro in the right direction and asked the driver if he could tell me when to get off. Turns out this micro did not go to Irarrazaval. So I asked him if it went to any metro stations. My answer: “Más o menos.” (more or less.)Very helpful. A nice lady asked me where I was trying to go and when I told her she looked surprised. She said that she was getting off near a metro and that I could walk with her. She was very friendly and we chatted about different getting lost experiences. I never would have found the metro without her help because we were on the micro for at least 20 minutes and then had to walk several blocks in a Santiago neighborhood that I was completely unfamiliar with. We ended up at a metro station that I had never heard of and she warned me not to talk on my phone or look lost. I thanked her and headed towards el centro.
When I got to my class building I got a text from a friend that said that class had been moved and that it was now on the 3rd floor. I went to the 3rd floor and started looking for a dance room but I only saw offices. A women asked me what I was looking for and told me that to get to the other side of the floor I had to go down to the 2nd floor, walk across the building, and then go back again.
I am very familiar with the Spanish verb fracasar. Fail. But not every fracaso is a negative experience. This time I got to meet a really nice Chilean woman and see a neighborhood that I would not otherwise have seen.