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Published: March 4th 2008
Hola amigos!
So I´m here in Valpo! Its AMAZING! Beautiful weather, beaches, and awsome people. So we spent some time in Santiago getting to know our new friends. The group is really amazing, everyone gets along really well and has a lot of fun together. While in Santiago we stayed in an apart-hotel (haha) it was really nice and my roomies were awesome. Janet runs track and CC for her college in Iowa so we're gonna try to run together (I'm sure she'll whip me into shape) the other two girls Brett and Liz are way cool, from Cali and Virgina respectivly (I always wanted to say that!). So yea, Santiago was pretty cool. Its completely surrounded by mountains and we actually went to the top of a hill to see it all. Its pretty amazing. We went to bunches of museums, the presidents house (who's name is Michele Bachelet..look her up shes a pretty alright gal), the site where the city was founded, and numerous markets. The only downfall of it all was having to pay for meals and we didnt get to pick where we went so we often ended up and these semi pricey places. But the
food was all alright and you alwasy got TONS of it. A group of us went out the last night and had sushi and went to a small club. It was good times!
We left Santiago 2 days ago and took an hour bus ride to Viña del Mar/ Valparaiso. The cities are called twin cities...being so close togther, on the water, and the same populations (about 300,000 each). The first thing we noticed from the bus windows when we got close to the cities was a forest fire! The entire sky was filled with smoke and the sun was glowing red through the clouds of smoke and ash. It was crazy! The cities are all coated in a thin layer of ash and appearently this is normal for the summer. It has slowed alot today which makes the view much much nicer. The afternoon we arrived we met our host families at the university where we will be studying. It was too cute seeing everyone meet for the first time. My whole family (mom, dad, 2 sisters age 15 and 22, and 1 brother age 7) met me there! It was so much fun! The house is really
Baby Cupid
I liked this statue alot... in the presidents housenice, I have my own and bathroom, and the family is too cool. They love wine and my host dad loves whiskey... they are just a laid back bunch. My host mom also cooks so great food so thats good for me! The strangest thing is the eating routine in Chile... Breakfast, HUGE lunch, and Once, which is a small snack in the evening. Howvere, my host mom throught I would like dinner AND once. I told her yesterday I really only needed three meals a day and she was totally shocked. Poor thing. OH! They only speak to me in Spanish which is great! My host dad lived in D.C. when he was young so he helps me out when I'm confused. I live in Viña not too far from the beach and near Zach! He really likes his family too.
As for school... I took my placement test and am in the middle level for everything except writing which I'm in the lower level (fine with me because I NEED IT!). We start classes next week and I think I'll be taking only spanish and culture. Which will make for an easy semester. The University (PUCV or
Pontificial Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso) has some AWESOME course for people with high spanish levels (aka Zach!!) Like wine and vinyards and lots of Oceanography classes at the beach! The classes are spread out all over the cities in really cool, but complicated, bulidings. I've riddin the bus oooh 3 times now and I think I'm getting the hang of it.
The cities are really cool too... weve been on like 2 million tours. We took a boat tour of the port yesterday! SO MUCH CARGO! Its rediculous... we even saw a sea lion! Totally awesome! We went up to the top of a hill and looked onto the ocean (the beaches were PACKED with peopl when we arrived but empty yesterday). Today we have MORE tours and tomorrow we have class registration.
So so far so good! PS I hear its snowing in Sherman! March+Texas= Snow? WHAT!?
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