Blogs from Viña del Mar, Valparaíso Region, Chile, South America - page 21

Feliz Día del Amor!! So last night was my last one in Viña del Mar, and we didn't waste one minute of it sleeping. We started the evening with a dinner at the program director's house...Easter Island dancers came to do a show for us; the pisco sour and Chilean wine flowed like water; we watched slide shows of the trip with sappy background music, and did group dances until we dropped. Then dancing till 6...one more outing with Gabriel and Eduardo, our two wonderful Chilean teaching assistants/hired Chilean friends. Fun! I guess it's been a few weeks since an update...let's see what I can highlight 1. Trip to Santiago! Stayed with Adrienne! Man, so good to see her and catch up. On Friday, we toured the American Embassy...sadly, it's a big ugly building in the ... read more

It's about time for another update from sunny Viña del Mar... Last weekend the Santiago group came to enjoy the beach with us in Viña, and you know what that means! Adrienne! She stayed with me with my host family and we had a blast. Friday night we explored some of my neck of the woods in Viña and then of course we went out dancing. I don't think I've ever had more fun dancing in my life than that night (well, maybe some nights in Madrid with Tia rival it). amazing! Our late night was followed by an early morning; most of the Vina group headed to a girls' home about 15 minutes away in Vaparaiso where we played for a long time...reading, joking around, jump roping. What an experience. These girls (about 40 live ... read more

Wed. 21st. After a good scout round the city, the jury is still out on Mendoza - surely, we can't be going off Argentina. Thurs. All set to go to Parque San Matin on the trolley bus, when the hotel receptionist panicked about taking valuables with us. She even insisted we leave the camera behind, so therefore I'm convinced we're going to get murdered at the very least. Consequently we missed the chance of some fabulous photos. The place was as safe as houses, thank goodness. The park is reportedly the largest in the Americas, and is well worth a visit. The tourist bus cost one pound for an hour's trip, and it doesn't even scratch the surface. The highlight for us was the Liberty Statue on Glory Hill. The most striking monument we have ever ... read more

So my last day is today in Chile (and my last travelblog-for this journal at least-in South America--for the time being!)...and im super sad. I leave at 3pm to go to Santiago and then take the 8:35pm Delta flight to Atlanta, then to LaGuardia, take a taxi to JFK and then a 3pm flight to Burlington, getting in around4pm. It has been a stressful week trying to pack--im still not finished and am leaving a ton of stuff here :(, saying my good-byes---wayyy too emotional, and my exams. Turns out I only had one final, instead of two, which was a 10min oral exam--i just had to prepare a subject and talk about it-super easy, I studied for a whole day for the second one, only to arrive too early and then find out that I ... read more

It's hard to believe that if I hadn't changed my flight ticket to stay longer, I would only have six more days in Chile. In saying that, I have six days left in the house I am currently living in with Ema, Roberto, and Jennie before I move in with Marlene. I stayed the night over at her place this week to translate a paper for her Master's study in Psychology that is in English. She got teary eyed when we started talking about me only having one more month left here in Chile. Then she sucked it up and said she wasn't going to cry yet because I will be living with her and we'll get to spend more time together and have a "Spanglish" style house. She's become a really good friend out of ... read more