Dat 2, Time for School

Yesterday we got picked up in a bus, met up with the professor who organizes and created the Chile program, and went to a delicious place in the foothills for lunch. On the way we passed through two of the neighborhoods that we'll be living in. My neighborhood, Las Condes, is super nice. Apparently, Santiago is organized sort of like Berkeley in that the higher you get as you go toward the mountains, the nicer the neighborhoods become. Las Condes is right at the base of the foothills. Driving past we saw a strange combination of Chilean billboards and American car dealerships. The houses and apartments looked had more modern architecture than the area near our hostel. My favorite feature were the telephone poles along the road that the city tried to hide by making them look like trees. They're a good 5 feet taller than any of the other trees around them, and they have wires sticking out.

We got to Mi Rancho and had a really delicious typical Chilean lunch. There were empanadas, pastel de choclo (which is like a pot pie with chicken, broth, and a really delicious corn top), and a Chilean warm, mulled red wine. It was nice to eat with the program organizer, Peter Winn, because he was able to answer our questions about all the strange things we'd encountered in our first 24 hours.

After lunch, we went up a tall hill to see the giant statue of the Virgin Mary which is a prized possession of Chile. We had a gorgeous view of the whole city and the Andes. The statue overlooked a beautiful garden that had seats facing a stage. We think they have special masses there, which would be incredible because you can see all of Santiago. The hill reminded me a lot of Mont Serrat in Spain, although it was way way less tall. When our program activities ended we all hung out at the hostel and then split up for dinner. 8 of us went to go eat at a delicious italian restaurant and then found gelato for desert.

Overall I'm still absolutely loving everything about Chile and all the people on my program. It's nice to learn a little more about the environment around me, and I have really great people to do it with. Today is our first day of orientation, which Professor Winn described as "intense." It should be interesting to listen to 5 hours of spanish lecture as we're all still adjusting to the time zone and everything else about being in a foreign country. Here goes nothing...