I made it!

Well, I made it to Santiago last Sunday, the 20^th. My flights weren’t too bad…got to fly through Canada…fun, eh? I made it to the hostel..got somewhat settled and took a walk and hung out with some fellow teachers. 

Monday, three other teachers and I took a bus to Viña del Mar/Valparaiso. The two cities are very close to each other and right on the Pacific coast. It was cloudy, but we went to the beach to hang out..and I still managed to get a sunburn. We left the beach and after looking up and down the city for an open liquor store, we drank some beer for the rest of the afternoon/night. We were pretty proud of ourselves the following day because we did something educational- we went to Pablo Neruda’s house in Valparaiso, “La Sebastiana.” If you don’t know who Neruda is check out this link: http://www.fundacionneruda.org/en/pablo-neruda/biographic-chronology.html

Wednesday, we took a bus to Con Con, a town a bit north of Valpo, also on the coast. Our mission: eat empanadas at Las Deliciosas. If you’re familiar with Anthony Bourdain’s show on the Travel Channel, No Reservations, then check out his show on Chile. Las Deliciosas was featured on his show.

At Las Deliciosas

The rest of the day was spent at the beach and the evening was spent at a bar and a club in Valpo with some Chileans.

Left- white wine and strawberries, Right- Pisco sour

Empanada that I ate

Thursday, we were lucky enough to receive an invitation to go to the house of a family member of one of the fellow teachers in Algorrobo, another small town on the coast- this time south of Vina. We arrived in the early afternoon and were lucky enough to have a huge typical Chilean lunch- the first course was an empanada  and a pisco sour and a drink of white wine and strawberries. The second course was a soup with a bunch of seafood and onions and tomato. We finished with fruit and a nap followed that. It was such a huge and delicious meal and it was great company with Spanish all around.

We spent the night at their darling house. Friday, we took a long walk on the beach (check the vid), had a smaller lunch this time, and went back to Santiago to find the rest of the teachers that have arrived while we were gone. 

On Saturday morning, we met the TeachingChile coordinators and went over some information. This week is a week of training and classes start the 7^th of March…so soon!

With any hostel, internet connection is hard to get sometimes, so my addiction to Facebook and technology is getting better…I have a cell phone here but I don’t use it too much at all. It’ll be nice when I have a routine when school starts…I’m so used to using my planner and having a schedule. Overall, everything is going well…met some great people and had some great times. We’ve given each other nicknames (apodos) already….Mine is “patita”…little duck in Spanish because I’m usually with 6 foot girls who walk a lot faster than me…I’m always in the back. 

For all of my study abroad amigos- Pio Nono looks the same, I saw the pregnant lady on the Nono, I've visited the school (still the same) but have not walked over the bridge that we walked over many times or visited La Dominica yet. 

That’s about all for now. Feel free to comment! :) Hasta luego!