Day 13 - Friday

Our last day in Chile!!! This was such a sad day. My roommates and I attempted to wake up semi-early again in order to pack and take another walk around Vina. We succeeded this time in finding the flower clock without any workers to block the clock from us. We also visited a cool castle looking thing on our way to the clock... i have no idea what it was! but it was really pretty. After our sightseeing we went back to the hotel to finish packing and head out to the airport. This was so sad! I will miss Chile and all the people I met!!! This was the most amazing experience of my life, and I will never forget it! Me encanta Chile! :D

Day 12 - Thursday

Thursday... our last full day in Chile. We went horseback riding through sand dunes and along the beach. It was absolutely breathtaking! I had an amazing time. It was like something out of a movie. The dunes were high and steep and the beach was amazing! I got to gallop on the horse as well... that was a first for me. It was pretty unbelievable. After riding the horses we had a barbeque. Everyone was so exhausted! People were falling asleep at the table. After lunch it was back to the hotel for some r&r and then dinner with the Chileans. We went to Diego's pizza for dinner which was the weirdest pizza i've ever seen. No pizza sauce, guacamole on top of the pizza... but not too bad. After dinner we said goodbye to some of the Chileans and saw a few more later that night for our last night out!

Day 11 - Wednesday

Wednesday we had the morning free. So my roommates and I got up semi-early and took a walk around Vina del Mar. We went to visit the flower clock (a neat landmark in Vina) and to our surprise actually found it... the only problem was they were planting new flowers when we got there. We took a few pictures anyway, then headed back into downtown Vina. We stopped by a chocolate store for a yummy snack and a few other little stores. Grace and I were on a hunt for a frisbee while in town because Wednesday was a day where we played games on the beach with some of the Chileans. We wanted to show them how to play ultimate frisbee and no one had brought one, so we went into a least five random stores looking for a toy that the Chileans don't often use. We found no such toy :( After shopping we went back to the hotel and out to lunch with everyone. From there we said goodbye to Mimo... our first goodbye, and a really sad one!! Then it was off to the beach. We played various games and had a lot of fun with our Chilean friends! After all that we had our last salsa class. At this class there were a lot of Chileans in it with us. They pretty much showed us all up! But it was definately a lot of fun learning how to salsa...now if only I was good at it or any kind of dancing for that matter!! :)

Day 10 - Tuesday

Tuesday we visited la Isla Negra,Pablo Neruda's house and museum. Neruda is a famous poet from Chile and we took a tour of his house (1 of 3) that was turned into a museum. His house was very eccentric and interesting! My favorite part of la Isla Negra, though was the beach. It was gorgeous; the water was so blue!! I couldn't believe how beautiful it was there. On our way back from the museum we stopped by the world's largest pool. The pool was right on the beach, which made me wonder why the largest pool is next to the largest ocean. It was preety cool to see it though. While everyone was looking at the pool, some of us hung out on the beach next to the pool. I never wanted to leave the beach! One of the things i'll miss most about Chile is the beaches!! And the people of course! Its all been unforgetable

Day 9 - Monday

Monday we visited the city of Santiago. Santiago is the largest city in Chile and is home to around 6 million people. This is nearly half the population of Chile. The city is huge! At first in Santiago we went and visited the Santiago Stock Exchange. This was the last company visit. It was interesting to visit all the companies we did and see how they operate differently than in the US. Also while in Santiago we visited el Plaza de Armas. The plaza was at one point the center of the city. It was really pretty. After visiting the plaza we went to lunch at a seafood restaurant. It was very interesting. Some of the shellfish was good, some (like oysters) were disgusting! It was cool to try a bunch of different seafood native to Chile. From lunch we went to the top of one of the hills in the city. From the top of the hill we could see the entire city (massive!) and we could see the Andes - unreal! It was gorgeous on the top of the hill. I could have stayed there and looked out at the city for hours!

Day 8 - Sunday

Sunday was our second and last free day... but it was still pretty busy! I woke up early with Lisa and Grace, my roommates, and went to church. Let me tell you, mass in Spanish is not easy to understand. We went to the church that we saw the day before that was damaged by the earthquake, so we had mass in a little side room. There were not as many songs in this mass as back home, or as much organization. I wonder if part of that is due to mass being held in a room besides the main hall. After church we went to the shops along the beach again... they were just setting up when we got there, so we went back to the hotel and got ready to go watch the Chile vs. Mexico game on TV. Everyone was planning on going out to a bar to watch the game and eat lunch, but no one in our group knew where to go. After wandering around for 30 min. we ended up going to a place 5 min from our hotel. We ate lunch (empanda's - delicious!!) and watched the game. Chile lost :( I was pretty dissappointed! After the game we went down to the shops on the beach yet again! I have bought so much here its ridiculous. I need to stop going to stores. After shopping was a starbucks run where we met a couple of US girls in high school who are doing exchange program here. We talked to them for a while, they were really sweet. Then it was off to take pictures of the sunset on the beach... AMAZING! I really can't get over how beatiful the ocean is. Then dinner and bed. A pretty relaxing weekend...

Day 7 - Saturday

Saturday was our first of two free days. We woke up after 9 am, a good start. A group of us went to check out some of the museums in Vina in the morning. It turned out the museums were closed because of damage from the earthquake. While we were finding this out, we took a detour and walked around inside an old church. The church had some pretty bad damages inflicted from the earthquake. After we realized we couldn't go into the museums we went to a main street in Vina, Valparaiso St. and walked around. We stopped at a bakery to get some really yummy desserts, we did a lot of shopping at some artisan shops, and just explored the city. Lunch was at this cute little Italian place near some of the markets. (On a side note, a bunch of us on this trip have noticed that vegetables are not a staple in the Chilean diet. Meat and carbs are pretty much all we've eaten.) After lunch we went back to our hotel and got ready to go shop some more! We went down to the beach and shopped along the boardwalk. There were a few really cute shops there... and shopping is one of my weaknesses! After shopping Alexa and I played volleyball on the beach with a couple of Chileans that we met, Nico and Fifo. We played (myself in jeans, gym shoes, and a long sleeve shirt by the way) until the sun started to set. Dinner that night with the whole group at an Italian place near our hotel. The food was, as usual, delicious!

Day 6 - Friday

Friday was a pretty relaxing day. We spent the day at "the farm" which really means we spent it at a resort (I don't know why they called it a farm?). We got free food all day, played football (soccer) with some Chilean students, talked for hours!, and did other fun and relaxing things all day! Some friends and I tried to get a massage from the resort, but they didn't have any appointments until after we were leaving...disappointing. We still had a blast though! For dinner we went to an Asian restaurant right next to our hotel. It was delicious. Its funny though, how asian food in the US is different than asian food in Chile which is different than real asain food. I got to know my classmates a lot better, and the Chilean students...overall a pretty fun day!

Day 5 - Thursday

We went on a couple company visits again on Thursday. The first was to a Vina Indomita, a vineyard. This vineyard and winnery was located on top of a hill in the Casablanca Valley, and was absolutely gorgeous! It had great view of the Valley, and the hills around it. We had a wine tasting after we toured the winnery which was also fun! The second company visit of the day was to LAN airlines. We went into a hanger there and got to see a huge plane! I have never seen anything that was mobile and that size before in my life! After the visits we went to dinner at the director of the program's place. He grilled out for us...it was the best food so far! At dinner we learned the dances to a lot more Chilean songs. This whole experience just keeps getting better!

Day 4 - Wednesday

Wednesday was a very eventful day. We started our company visits with Codelco and Centauro, went to lectures, and had some more salsa classes. So, we woke up early and headed to Codelco, which is a copper smelt, for a company tour. It was pretty neat inside. We saw various aspects of the smelting process first hand. Then, we went on another company visit, Centauro. Centauro is a food canning factory. Most of their canning is done for the season, so we didn't get to see too much, but we saw some bagging of pasta sauce and received free samples of the sauce. Everyone on the tours was sooo nice and helpful. I learned a lot and had a blast. The lectures were on more Chilean culture and were really interesting. Dancing was again, a blast! I think I got a lot better at salsa...hopefully at least.

Day 3 - Tuesday

Sorry I haven't updated in a while...i'll do my best to catch up. On Tuesday we woke up and went to el Universidad de Santa Maria again. We had many lectures about Latin America and Chile. Then, after lectures we went to another salsa class. I have decided that I was never meant to dance, but its too much fun to pass up! I had a blast, but wish I was actually good at dancing. That was pretty much it for Tuesday...relatively uneventful.

Day 2 - Monday

Woke up with a fever over 100 degrees, not a good start! But the day turned out to be pretty awesome. We took a tour of el Universidad de Santa Maria this morning and attended various lectures on Chilean culture, history, music, and natural disasters. The guy teaching us, Mimo, was really nice and funny. Mimo also took us on a tour of Valparaiso. It is gorgous! Then we went back to Vina del Mar and took a little tour. The best part of the day is when we were able to climb on rocks that took us a little ways into the ocean. It was incredible. After that we stopped to get some empanada's for dinner. Now we're back at the hotel, and tonight we are taking salsa lessons. I'm excited to make a fool out of myself, but hope I'm not too bad. I guess we'll see...

Day 1 - Sunday

Chile is gorgeous!! Our hotel is two blocks from the ocean, so we took a walk along the boardwalk today. There were so many things to see from the hundreds of stray dogs and the ocean to the bible verses written on rocks and the Chilean people. The Chileans are really nice. I had an interesting conversation with one who did not speak a word of English, so with my poor Spanish it was hard to keep the conversation going. Dealing with money will also be a challenge, but should get easier with time (I'm not used to having a bill worth 10,000 in my wallet - the equivalent of about $20).

Happy Mother's Day!!! I'm disapointed I couldn't spend mother's day with my mom, but Chile is a nice alternative to that. I love you mom! Happy Mother's Day!!