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Published: June 16th 2013
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As I think I mentioned toward the end of my last blog, Katie was here for part of last week and into this week! In total, she spent 8 days here in Chile with me, and I had some awesome opportunities to show her around and show her what my life here was like. For a lot of reasons, it was a wonderful trip!
It started on Wednesday morning when I met her at the airport. As I was waiting I met a man also waiting for someone to arrive. We chatted for a bit and it turned out he had a really interesting story to tell. Though Chilean, he had spent over half his life living in the US, and just recently moved back to Chile. He was there waiting for his sister who, as it turned out, was on the same plane as Katie! One of the awesome parts about the conversation was that, though most of it took place in Spanish, we occasionally glossed in and out of English as well! I always have thought it so cool when people can switch from one language to another, even in the middle of a sentence, so (although my
API gives back!
The painted stairs. transitions were far from fluid) it was fun for me to be able to do that too!
Anyway, after arriving at the hostel and stowing Katie’s backpack (It is about as big as an elephant, and weighed about that much too), we decided to do a little touring of the city. We went to back to human rights museum, which I had been to once before. It was about a 30 minute walk from the hostel, and along the way we ran into a big public library. It goes without saying that Katie and I spent most of our time in the kids sectionJ I am not sure one can call the museum fun, but it was interesting, and I saw some stuff I hadn’t seen the first time around. Afterward, though, both of us were tired so we backtracked toward the hostel. By a lucky guess on my part, we stumbled upon this same plaza I had gone to before when I was in Santiago. I knew that there was a really nice coffee shop on the corner, so we stopped there for a while too. It was fun for me because I remember when I found the
place a couple months ago I thought “This would be a fun place to go with Katie if/when she comes.” So it was awesome that it actually worked out to go back there!
The next day we took a bus back to Valparaíso in time for me to get to a couple classes. Little did I know at the time, they would be the classes I went to while Katie was hereJ Though I may have a bit of catch-up work, I don’t regret the decision at all. It gave us plenty of time to do a lot of the little things and see a lot of the sights around these two cities where I have spent the last 3 and half months. Since explaining the entire week would be a long process, I’m going to focus on some of the highlights.
Food. We had some great food, and went to some really good restaurants throughout the week. We went to sushi place (I didn’t know I liked sushi before coming to Chile!), an empanada place with some of the best empanadas around, and an ice cream shop which is ranked by something or other as the one
Tasty tours.
We are basically professional grillers now. of the top 25 ice cream places in the world! That seems to me like it could be a stretch, but the ice cream is really, really good. As delicious as everything was, our diet often seemed to consist of maybe one too many sweets. Remember Buddy the Elf’s diet from the movie Elf? Something like candy, candy corn, candy canes, sugar, and syrup? Well, we made up our own that would rival that in the amount of sugar intake. Great at the time, less so an hour laterJ
Family. Though I was originally planning on only having one meal with my family and Katie, we ended up having 3! Though my host brothers were gone with their girlfriends for the weekend, Katie and I still had the chance to meet and have a meal with my host mom and dad, and even my host dad’s mom (my host grandma?). It was really wonderful for me to watch them all communicate even with a pretty big language barrier. At times, I was translator as well, which was a little self confidence boost! It was so important and fun for me that she met my host parents, as they have
Fruit market.
We enjoyed the sights, sounds, and smells of a couple different ones! been a huge part of my life here. Though it was also strange, like two different and very separate worlds coming a little bit closer together. On the one hand, my life and people here in Chile, while on the other, a person from my life and people in the US. Strange, but in an awesome way!
Friends. Throughout our little adventures, we met many of my friends as well. Friday, we had an activity called “API gives back.” We went to a neighborhood in Valparaíso which was a bit poorer and had been strongly affected by the earthquake a couple years back. There, to help brighten up the place and make it look a bit more appealing and inviting, we painted a couple sets of stairs. The leader of the group told us not to worry if we weren’t professional painters because we all have an artist inside of usJ awwww. That was fun not only because we were able to make some people really happy (one of the neighbors even bought us pizza!), but it also was a good chance for Katie to meet some of the people which have been a big part of my life
these last few months. On Sunday, we went to play Frisbee, like I do every Sunday. We had enough people there for a real game, which was awesome! We played until past sunset, and you could barely see the disc when we finally decided to call it quits! Then on Monday Katie and I went a tour called Tasty Tours. We went with Tijana and her boyfriend Tom who, coincidentally, happened to be here visiting the same week as Katie! We cooked some seafood over a grill and prepared parmesan clams and fish. Though it was chilly, I think we all enjoyed it a lot!
Exploration. I told Katie at the beginning of the week that there was a lot about these two cities that I still didn’t know and hadn’t explored. So we did some exploring together. One day, we walked out past the end of Valparaiso to a pretty beach and just hung out there for a while. We visited the oldest newspaper building in South America with a newspaper that is still in publication today, called El Mercurio. We wound our way through some neighborhoods up in the cerros of Valparaíso. And on the last day,
at the zoo.
this guy escaped from his cage:) we took the metro to a small city about 20 minutes from Viña and went to a zoo. My host parents said it was nothing compared to the one in Santiago, but I thought it was pretty cool! They had seals there which were making these noises (they were hungry, I think) which sounded like a cross between a gigantic burp and T-Rex roar. At least that’s how I thought of it. Maybe Katie thinks differently. We also went to Con Con, a city just beyond Viña, one evening. They have sand dunes there and it is a beautiful place to watch a sunset. Unfortunately, the clouds were not on our side that day, and the sun was hidden the whole time! Nevertheless, it was still a very pretty view of the sand dunes and the ocean. Though she was only here for a week, I feel that we fit a lot of stuff into it! We would leave the hostel early, and generally return late. All in all, we saw a lot, did a lot, and enjoyed a lot!
After Katie left here on Thursday, she flew on to Peru for the week. Please continue to keep her
Bus ride back to Santiago.
The start of Katie's next trip! in your thoughts and prayers as she experiences a little Peruvian culture!
As I read back on this blog, I realize there is still so much I missed. But, that seems to be true for just about every blog. I guess it will just mean I have more to share in person in a month when I am home!
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