Settling In
It's nice getting into a routine after the first two weeks of whirlwind travel. My classes are a lot of fun and I think my Spanish is coming along nicely. The school is also great at organizing fun activities. As I mentioned before, we went to a disco last week which was great. However, the nightlife in Chile doesn't get going until at least 1:30am, even on a Wednesday which is when we went. Makes it tough to get up for 9am class the next day.
Thursday we watched "Mi Mejor Enemigo", a film about the southern border dispute (in the pampas) between Chile and Argentina. Very good film. That night I got to jam on the conga and bongo drums with my neighbor's Salsa/Funk/jazz band. Definitely enjoyed that.
Friday night I went to the Modern art museum here and saw some very interesting stuff. I posted some pictures to give you an idea. For example, one piece consisted of several piles of toast.
Saturday the school had an outing to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar (about 1.5 hours west of Santiago). Valpo is a big port city with tons of huge shipping vessels. It's interesting but a little dangerous. At least 7 different locals told us to be careful with our bags and cameras. Turns out they were right as one girl in our group had her camera snatched (broken wrist strap and all) out of her hand. The rest of the group was ahead of her so we didn't see it, but luckily there was a good samaritan nearby who chased the thief down and was able to recover her camera.
The beach at Viña del Mar was nice, but the water was freezing. That night, back in Santiago, we went out to a Brazilian Samba bar that had a live band. We all danced until the wee hours of the morning.
Sunday I went to a free outdoor concert with some friends. Not knowing what to expect, I wore flip flops. Turns out the bands were a little more hardcore (Eric, check out Papa Negro - like Chilean Linkin Park) and it was kind of like one huge mosh pit. If I'd had sneakers it would've been great, but my feet kept getting stepped on. Oh well...it was still a lot of fun.
Last night we had a soccer game which pit the morning classers against the afternooners. I managed to score 5 goals and we won. Very sore today though, as I haven't done much exercise recently.
Right now I'm off to Punta del Este in Uruguay with a friend for the weekend. It's supposed to be a cross between Miami and St. Tropez, so I'm pretty excited.
Adios.
Thursday we watched "Mi Mejor Enemigo", a film about the southern border dispute (in the pampas) between Chile and Argentina. Very good film. That night I got to jam on the conga and bongo drums with my neighbor's Salsa/Funk/jazz band. Definitely enjoyed that.
Friday night I went to the Modern art museum here and saw some very interesting stuff. I posted some pictures to give you an idea. For example, one piece consisted of several piles of toast.
Saturday the school had an outing to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar (about 1.5 hours west of Santiago). Valpo is a big port city with tons of huge shipping vessels. It's interesting but a little dangerous. At least 7 different locals told us to be careful with our bags and cameras. Turns out they were right as one girl in our group had her camera snatched (broken wrist strap and all) out of her hand. The rest of the group was ahead of her so we didn't see it, but luckily there was a good samaritan nearby who chased the thief down and was able to recover her camera.
The beach at Viña del Mar was nice, but the water was freezing. That night, back in Santiago, we went out to a Brazilian Samba bar that had a live band. We all danced until the wee hours of the morning.
Sunday I went to a free outdoor concert with some friends. Not knowing what to expect, I wore flip flops. Turns out the bands were a little more hardcore (Eric, check out Papa Negro - like Chilean Linkin Park) and it was kind of like one huge mosh pit. If I'd had sneakers it would've been great, but my feet kept getting stepped on. Oh well...it was still a lot of fun.
Last night we had a soccer game which pit the morning classers against the afternooners. I managed to score 5 goals and we won. Very sore today though, as I haven't done much exercise recently.
Right now I'm off to Punta del Este in Uruguay with a friend for the weekend. It's supposed to be a cross between Miami and St. Tropez, so I'm pretty excited.
Adios.
posted by Jordan at 6:34 AM
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