SANTIAGO

SANTIAGO

Last saturday we went to Santiago for the day, it was a blast. We left from the school at 8:30 and as soon as i sat on the bus I feel asleep and an hour and a half later I woke up in Santiago. We went to a few different museums that were really interesting and showed a lot about the history of the people of Chile. We then ate at the mercado which was scrumptious I had a shrimp empanadas (I need to learn how to make them because they are so deee-lish) Then we went over to San Cristobal which was really pretty and then hoped back on the bus to head back home. When I got here I went straight to church because the ward did a postre (dessert) activity and my roommate taught our mom how to make no bake cookies, they were a hit everyone loved them!!!! They also had some of the young men and young women share some of the traditional dances from Chile they were really cool.

 This is me in front of the municipal

 there are cool statues like this all over the city. this one happened to be in the plaza de armas

 This is also in the plaza de armas a huge Catholic Cathedral dedicated to non other than Santiago

 These kids were adorable there were feeding seed to the birds and the little girl cought one in her hand and she got duper ticked when it flew away she threw he hands up in the air like what the heak...you have got to be kidding me. It made me laugh.

 This is our awesome tour guide Carlos he arranges all our field trips and acvtivities. I thought the "follow the pinwheel" was a nice touch!

 This may have been the best picture find of the whole day!!!! these really exist who would have thought I wonder if Jack black will be there eating corn and wearing his estrechy pants?? I really want to go to one though, to bad it's on a Sunday.

 This is Olivia and me on top of San Cristobal which had an amazing look out of Santiago as you can see.

 This one I would classify as the second best picture find. It looked like a head fell off of some other statue so they decided to stick it on this rock...random right...I couldn't resist but give him a nice kiss on the cheek!!!

Here I am with the chilean flag....and a delicious magnum ice cream bar!!!!

Well this week has been another fun adventure in Chile!!! Here are some of the happenings....

• I got a nasty chilean cold which I think are way stronger than the ones back home. My mamita here tells me I have the "voz sexy" I guess thats one way to look at it...I beg to differ.
• My roommate got pooped on by a bird on our way home from the other side of town today. She hasn't found the comedic relief yet in the whole situation....give it a few days and it will come. 
• Wednesday we had no class, and the institute had activities going on all day so we thought oh how fun and since I was already sick we decided not to go so early and just meet them at the chapel because they started at the beach and it had been rainy and cold. So we take the micro (bus) to the stake center and then they say no go to the beach they wont be here for a long time so we decide ok so then we grab a different micro to the beach and then we get there and they are already gone, and while we were looking for them it started raining. So we walk back down to the bus stop and take the micro to the church. (and might I add almost every time i get on the micro they ask me where I'm going Im like really I know where I am going thank you. I know maybe I look like a dumb american but really why do they always ask just me...maybe they just want to talk to me because I am just so stinkin cute ;) ) finally we get there and then the group piles in the church a few minutes after then we played games and they fed us almuerzo, but in all honesty it wasn't very good, so i went with some gringos that are in Chile with the study abroad through the Navy and we went to a mexican restaurant that was pretty good. I was missing the side of Jalapenos. We then walked back to the stake center and of course it rained on us but then they had a dance and we got there at the perfect time it was way fun. 
• Below are all pictures from a surprise party we had for Valeska, It was way fun!!! we had some delicious desert kinda things and played an intense game of musical chairs and I owned at pictionary!!!! so on one of the words was tennis court (cancha de tenis) well I said tennis court first in English and then with all the excitement and my EXTREME competitive nature I blurted out cancha de tenIISSS...then I felt way stupid because the accent is most definitely not on the I....well it was a good laugh. Then it was my turn and I had to draw pulsera (bracelet) when one of the girls on my team said the right word I pointed the dry-erase marker at her with excitement and then the cap flew off and landed across the room. So then the guys were up and either Josue or Jonathan (there brothers and I always mix them up) imitated me and threw the cap across the room...real funny guys real funny...ok it was but still. 

Brittany, Andrea and Lindsay I thought you would apreciate the bro stash!!! 

 This is most of the young single adults in our ward they have been so nice and helpful to us since we got here!! I love them all

 I blend right in...hahaha NOT

 Nevenka and Conny were vicious with this can of silly string, I would stay far away....see picture below for prof.

 during the chaos of musical chairs with the lights being turned on and off and being sprayed with silly string

Well I have been in Chile for a little over a week now and it is amazing!!!! Im living in Vina del Mar at studying spanish for a semester at UVM. 

 My first glimps of Chile!!!!! BEAUTIFUL

We went on a field trip last week to Valparaiso which is a port city with an artistic bohemian feel to it....the pictures will help explain. We began our day there with a boat ride to see the Sea Lions and to get a great view of the entire city of Valparaiso.

 Theses are fishing boats

 los lobos marineros

After we went on our boat ride and walked around the city and when I say walked around I mean we walked up and down tuns of hills!!!! it was great though.

 awesome graffiti on the side of a building in Valpo

 you can take these elevator like thing to get up and down the hills here. I take one almost everyday to school, but the one I take is painted this cool.

Here are a couple of pictures from the top of the hills overlooking the bay. 

This is our field trip group

And this was probably the coolest house I have ever seen!!!! so awesome!!!

After a long day in Valparaiso we went to Camilas to throw her a surprise birthday party. this is us exhausted and attempting to help. haha 

 We also had an official welcome by the mayor or Vina del Mar which was cool they had a few speakers...kinda lame....then they had some of the traditional dances that they showed us those were cool and then they feed us some awesome raspberry juice and empanadas and fruit skewers.

Overall it has been a great first week. We have done tons of other things too, but I didn't take my camera so ill try to be better about that this week. I started classes yesterday, but not all have started yet, the other ones start next week which is nice because today I got hit with a cold and my mami sent me back to my room where its warm because we don't have central heating and oh yeah all you enjoying the beach and summer...its stinking cold down here!!! I had to buy a jacket yesterday.