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| View from the hill the Virgin Mary statue is on |
RJ came and visited me :) He arrived on Saturday of last weekend and left yesterday. It was great having him here to hangout and see what my life is like here. My family had a BBQ to welcome him to Chile and to meet everybody in the family. It was a little interesting to have that BBQ so quickly after he arrived because I would assume it was a little overwhelming especially because my family doesn't speak very much English and the relatives that were over, spoke only Spanish. He was able to understand a lot of the conversations but I translated a fair amount back and forth between him and my family and vice versa. After eating some delicious food (choripan, steak, potatoes, Chilean salad) we went out and meet a few of my friends for drinks. It was funny actually because the bar we meet them at was the same bar that I went out to with my family when I first arrived.
On Sunday we hungout and then met up with my friends out on the the beach and attempted to get some ice cream, however we were number 39 and they were only on number 10. So about 40mins later we finally were able to get our ice cream and attempt to eat it as fast as we could because it was melting so fast. Then we went and got some food with Sam and Julie Ann at a place called Domino. It was pretty good, and all of us ordered something similar to hamburgers. Afterwards we went back to my place and hungout with my family.
Monday: I had to go to class in the morning. I like this class, it is basically a class about short stories and my teacher seems like a good guy but he is kinda difficult to understand since he murmurs so much. After my class RJ and I went to my house for lunch and hungout with my family for a while. We then went and met my advisor Karla and talked with her for a bit. I wasn't feeling the best so we didn't do anything else very exciting. RJ made us some food and that was about it. He attempted to cook some chorizo like my family did, but it had a different flavor. It was still really delicious.
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| The worker showed us a skull! |
Tuesday: I had class again and went to it, it was boring but all in all not too bad. Then RJ and I went to a restaurant that the girls and I found and had some good Chilean food. It isn't anything special but it is super cheap and you can get juice, a soup or salad, your food and then a dessert. All of this for 1900 pesos which is about $4 dollars. Afterwards we went around and walked around the port and I gave a tour of everything that I have learned in tours. We walked through downtown, cerro alegre and concepcion, and went up a few ascensors. Also, we went to walk through one of the cemeteries but it was closed but the guard/worker there opened it for us and gave us a tour. It was pretty awesome and so nice of him! All of this took 5 hours so we were pretty exhausted!! But, I had to go to a new class to see if it was going to be good. It is called fonetica and I really liked it. We sang in the class and practiced our pronunciation of words. The professor is this cute old guy who is very sweet and super helpful. Then RJ met me at my school and we jumped on a micro and went over to my place for once.
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| The perfect company |
Wednesday: We didn't do much today since I didn't have any classes. We went to Vina and got some sushi which was delicious. We also visited the little cafe that I like to go to and had some delicious cortados, media lunas and strawberry juice. Then we went and sat in the plaza and ate our sushi while listening to some people play music for money. We also ran into my family which was funny while we were buying some juice. I have never run into them before, except for the two times that RJ and I ran into them! We then attempted to go out to a really good once place for once, however we left too late from my place and it was closed. That was a huge bummer but we found a different restaurant and split some Maui Maui and a Chilean salad along with wine. It was a cute place, the fish could have been better especially for the price, but the wine was good.
Thursday: We hungout in the morning and had lunch with my family and then figured out our plan for Santiago. We had kinda procrastinated all week which is nothing new and so then we had to figure it out. RJ had this app where you can see apartments for rent, hostels and hotels also. He found this one apartment which was pretty awesome and had a little kitchen and living room. We were able to book it and then leave for Santiago. It all worked out luckily because it could have just as easily not worked out. We took the bus to Santiago and got super lost! Thank goodness for this really nice old man who sat in front of us. I asked him how to get to the metro in Santiago and he tried to tell me but he talked too quickly. Then we got off when he did and he told us that he would help us. So he walked with us to the metro and then described which stop to get off on! It was so nice and he didn't need to help us but I am so glad he did because we would have had no idea which stop was ours. We got a little lost after getting of the metro but then we found the place. It was a cute little apartment and had a pool on the top of the building. We then went out to dinner at PF Changs because I have been craving good Chinese. That was such an adventure too because we took the metro and then walked but the map we had on RJ's phone only gave an approximate location. We ended up being just a little short of where we should be and got confused and walked back to a McDonald's to use their Wifi. I asked one of them where to go and we found out it was like 10 steps farther than where we walked too. It was pretty hilarious.
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| Us in front of the view |
Friday: On Friday we walked around Santiago and went to see the Virgin Mary on the hill. We were able to walk up to it. We tried to take an ascensor up but it wasn't working so we took a taxi instead and met a really cool guy named Eduardo I think. He talked to us about how he is travelling for 5 and a half months. We hungout with him for a while and stared at all of Santiago. The view was gorgeous. Afterwards we met another lady when we took a taxi down and she was pretty nice and talked about travelling a lot for her job in Finance. We then walked to the fish market and then took the metro home. We bought some bread and RJ bought a lot of alcohol for all of his friends/family from home. We then went back and sat up at the pool for a while eating some bread, cheese, avocado and had some wine. We just needed to sit and relax for a bit before going out to dinner. We went to a restaurant that was on the 16th floor of a building and went to a seafood restaurant where we the room rotated. It rotated super slowly but we ended up being able to see a 360degree view of Santiago. We had a really delicious dinner and some dessert. It was a great last night.
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| Us in front of the statue |
Saturday: We woke up really early and left at about 6:30 in the morning to catch the metro to the bus station. We ended up getting off at the wrong station and I just decided it would be best to take a taxi instead of walking and possibly getting lost. I talked to the taxi driver first and asked how much it would be to the airport, he told me 12,000 pesos which seemed great because it meant it was a flat rate for the whole trip. We definitely got our money's worth out of it because it took a good 20-30 mins from where we were and it would have been a lot more if I hadn't just asked at the beginning. Then we tried to get his tickets but the automatic machine wasn't working and so we had to wait in a super long line that wasn't moving. We seriously thought he wasn't going to make his flight but we got moved ahead because there was only like 50mins left til it was going to take off. He got his ticket and then we said goodbye, possibly for too long and he ran through immigration and security. It was hard to see him go, but we both knew that it had to happen.. Then I caught the bus back to the bus station and bought my ticket to Vina. I fell asleep immediately in the bus with my ticket in my hand and woke up to it not being there. It was actually pretty funny.
All in all it was an amazing weekend and I couldn't have asked for a better time or better company.
I went on adventure! Tess, Amelia, Tess's chilean dad and I all went to a beach in Zapallar. This is a town that is about 32miles north of Vina del Mar. Along the way we took the upper route so that we were able to see the views of the ocean from up high and all of the buildings that are characteristic of that route. We saw a copper mining site, a petroleum site, the ocean, trees, flat lands, horses and much more. The whole trip to Zapallar took about an hour. Maybe a little longer. Once we got there we drove down to a beach that Tess's dad really liked and he showed it to us. It was gorgeous and had the most beautiful houses near it. I bet those families love waking up to the views they have. We sat and enjoyed the view for a bit and then walked along a walkway for 20 or so minutes to see what was around the corner. Tess's dad told us all about this beach and how he loves coming here to watch the sunset because supposedly it is gorgeous. We then walked back and went over to a little restaurant to the left of the beach. At the restaurant, the girls and I had some delicious mango juice and the dad had an espresso. We then shared some little empanadas that were of seafood. It was kinda like a sampler tray and it had shrimp and cheese, crab and whatever 'locos' are. I think this is one of those words that only chileanos use and so translating it was difficult. I think clams or something similar to that. 
