Hola todos,
Another great weekend in Chile...I can't believe time is flying by so fast. It was a relaxed weekend. The 19 of us (plus Kristin's boyfriend Nick) went to Valparaiso on Saturday. We left in a bus at 9am. When we arrived, we toured around the city. Valparaiso is right next to Vina del Mar (where I went last weekend). Vina del Mar is the tourist location, but Valparaiso is the port city and it's where Chile has its cute little Naval base! They could probably hold off a shark attack but not much more.
We stopped at one of Pablo Neruda's houses. He has three. One in Santiago, one in Valparaiso, and the other in Isla Negra (going there in March). It was really interesting. We took a tour with a portable telephone type device that talked to us about each different location in the house. Pictures weren't allowed inside and it was a really foggy day so the ones I have aren't very good sorry. My favorite part was the map he had of the Americas in his office. It was really funny.
The map was made in the 40's I think. According to the map, the northern U.S border is Virginia (Canada gets the rest) and California is a long separate island. There was even a name for the ocean in between the U.S and California...how does that happen?
We all went to a VERY nice lunch on the coast with a nice view of the ocean. The school paid for everything. We had appetizers, wine, and some very nice seafood entres. I chose some random fried fish that was recommended to me by my bus driver. I talked with my bus driver for about an hour. I asked him about American stereotypes and differences between our countries...it was a very interesting conversation. He said Americans have a good reputation for the most part, but they know very little about Latin American culture...specifically differences between the countries. To them, Argentina is a completely differernt world from Chile. And Uruguay is very different from Ecuador...but Americans tend to clump everything together. The language between countries is even different. A Chilean could say a sentence and an Argentinian would have no idea what they were saying. I think my bus driver was right...especially in my case. I'm happy to have this experience to broaden my view on the world.
We spent a few HOURS trying to find a hostel because some classmates wanted to stay in Valparaiso for the night, but a couple of us just went back to Santiago and hung out at Esteban's. He had some Chilean friends over...they were really nice and cool (no surprise there).
We all went out to dinner on Sunday to get Nick some American food (he has been here like three days and he is already going crazy). I had calamari...very very good. We talked about our plans for February.
We want to take a bus to the north of Chile (20 hours) hang out up there for a few days. Come back to Santiago, take a bus/fly south...then tour our way back up through different cities. Maybe go to Uruguay? Apparently they have some of the nicest beaches on the planet. We have some work to do this week on planning that since our vacation from classes starts FRIDAY! We have over a month off (close to a month and a half). I will keep you guys updated on my plans and try to keep up with this more frequently this week! Thanks to everyone supporting me and checkin in!
Buenas
P.D...I'm growing a mullet to better fit in with the locals... I'll post some pictures of my hair once it starts getting ridiculous in a month or so!
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