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Wellll…. I finished up my Intensive Month on Wednesday the 23rd. It went really well and I loved both of my classes. In my first class, Chilean Conversation and Culture, we learned all about Chilean history, music and even took tours around Valpo for class. It was all really relevant information and pretty much everything you need to know if you come to Chile. The other class we took was just a grammar class that was a review of all verb tenses among other things. Overall I learned a lot and actually enjoyed going to class!
On Thursday (February 24th) all the February Intensive month kids and I left to meet up with all the semester kids in Santiago for the weekend. We all stayed in a nice hotel that had full kitchens so we took advantage of being able to cook some of our own meals for a change. Thursday we visited Cerro San Cristobal, which is a tall hill that has a church and statue of the Virgin Mary at the top. It's the second highest point in the city.
On Friday we visited the Palacio Presidencial La Mondeda. It's pretty much Chile's equivalent of the White House. It's where the President and First Lady, as well as other important people, have their offices. Although, no one actually lives there. We then walked downtown Santiago where we found an incredible church. From the outside it looks so small, but when you go inside it is enormous! We ended the tour at the Mercado Central and had lunch. After returning to the hotel, Austyn, Hallie and I walked around downtown and went shopping!
On Saturday we departed the hotel to go to a vineyard, Viño Cousiño Macul. We had a full tour and tasted some delicious Riesling and Merlot. I bought a bottle of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc for both around $8 USD. Wine is cheap and delicious in Chile! We ate lunch in Barrio Bellavista at an awesome restaurant. I had a chicken and avocado sandwich and they also had incredible sushi. We then took a tour bus to La Chascona, Pablo Neruda's second house in Santiago. He built this house for his third wife, Matilde Urrutia, and named it La Chascona (which means crazy hair) because she had crazy red hair. It was a beautiful house and even had this Nobel Prize in the library.
Our last day, we went to Los Dominicos which has a church and is filled with arts and crafts shops. After doing a little shopping, we ate lunch in one of the many little restaurants. I had a typical Chilean salad with avocados and tomatoes, with a chicken and avocado sandwich. Can you tell they put avocado on everything here??? We also had fresh juice, which is rare to find here. They put tons of sugar in absolutely everything so I was super stoked to find a place that had actual natural juice. The last place we visited was Cerro Santa Lucia, which is the place where Santiago was founded. It has a beautiful fountain at the bottom, and you can climb to the top to overlook all of Santiago.
I have orientation for my semester classes at Adolfo Ibanez tomorrow. I don't start classes until March 7th so I have all this week to do whatever I want! I am thinking some surfing and riding horses on the beach will be first on the list. :)
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