Valparaiso and Vina del Mar!

Hey everyone! Hope you are having a great day! I had a fabulous weekend and just wanted to share a little with ya :)

First, some friends from my program and I headed out to Santiago on Friday in order to go to an orientation on our Winter Camps. It turns out about 5 of us are in charge of the Curico winter camp from July 21st until the 26th. There will be 60 kids and our days pretty much include having fun and speaking English so that shouldn´t be too difficult :) These students are chosen from among many who are really excited about learning English so those are always the most fun to teach! We get to do things like bowling, talent shows, cooking, watching movies and vocabulary lessons/games. I´m really looking forward to it even though I´m a little nervous to be one of the people in charge! At least there are a few of us to handle it :)

After Friday´s meeting I took a bus with my friend Stephanie to Valparaiso. It is a pretty big town along the coast line and about 4 hours north of Curico. The weather was so nice and the views are amazing! I took lots of pictures which you can hopefully see now. We got there around 730 so we just took a short walk to a cafe got some tea and headed back to the hostal before dark. Valparaiso is pretty but kind of dangerous during the night so we were extra careful. Our hostal was called Caracol which means snail so I found that entertaining :) It was really nice and no bed bugs which is always a plus! They provided breakfast the next morning so we definitely took advantage of that!

Throughout Saturday we did things such as hitting up the markets finding little treasures. We also headed to Vina del Mar which is a neighboring city and found a beach which was really beautiful! The first thing we did in Vina was actually find a pharmacy because I burnt my hand a little Saturday morning when I was making toast, not my finest hour lol. But hey another adventure to add to the list! I wish you could have seen me running around trying to explain to people how I hurt my hand and where could I find a pharmacy! But after that we were able to take in the beauty of the beach. The waves were huge and we definitely got soaked!

Later that day we took a little tram up a small mountain to take pictures of the city from above and let me tell you it was a great sight to see! There is only one port open to the public in Valpo and it was really fun to see all the ships. Later we took a small boat with a Chilean named Pablo. There was a lot of Reggaeton music blasting and fun was had for sure. He even let us drive the boat! You can pretty much call me captain Jessica now :) We also saw seals on our little boating adventure so that was pretty sweet.

We got some chow at a cute little restaurant where I got Paella (a traditional spanish dish). It was packed so full of so many different kinds of fish! I never actually knew what I was eating but it was delicious! Later that day we met up with other people from our program at their hostal and we went back to Vina to see the city at night. We had some fantastic Mexican food actually! That night we went out for a little but headed back to the hostal early so we would be ready for the next day.

Sunday morning we headed off to one of Pablo Neruda´s houses called La Sebastian. It was absolutely gorgeous inside and had an amazing view! It was crazy to think he was in the same room that I was at one point. Its also interesting to think that the view used to be nothing but land but now there are houses everywhere! One think I love about it though is how every house seems to be a different color, it adds so much character. We headed back to Santiago shortly after that last excursion and then to Curico. The buses were right on time which is always appreciated :) My family picked me up from the bus station and we had once when I got home and caught up on the events of the weekend.

Today and yesterday I had school. I started a new game dealing with putting sentences back in order. I have them break into three teams and compete. Let me just say these kids are really really competitive! It got pretty feisty! Thursday I´m teaching the English elective class a black eyed peas song which I really think they will enjoy so I´m looking forward to that! I also got interviewed for something today so we will see where that ends up lol. You just never know!

The debate team I´m helping out is going really well, they are starting to form their arguments on whether or not Chileans pay attention to animals rights. Its fun to see what they are coming up with :) The high school kids also put on a play for the younger kids in English today which was super cute! It was a combination of little red riding hood and I´m not sure what else but it was really fun to watch.

I walked home from school today which took about 45 mintues but I really enjoyed being able to explore a little! I´m also kind of excited that I could find my way back by myself! woot! Tonight will be pretty chill. Just getting ready for class tomorrow etc. I wish I could see all of you! feel free to come visit if you ever wanna get away :) And congratulations again to Brian and Nichole! I´m so excited for you guys!

Till next time!