This chapter presents Americans' arrival to Chile and their first impressions: the country was supposed to be a quiet, trustworthy one, but a strike jeopardized the entire mission. This event shows an interesting cultural gap; through the eyes of the scientists we can see the 1900s Santiago, while astronomers chose the place to build the observatory, and work began. This chapter expands on the idea of this story as one of mirrors, reflecting habits, lifestyles and mentalities of two different societies. These societies behaved very differently, but oddly had similar landscapes, and even a similar seismic pattern. While the Americans were getting used to the southern country, they were also making impressive progress in astronomical science, mainly to solve the so-called sidereal problem.