Friday

Today was our day at the spa; we got to sleep in a little, which was nice, and had some time to sleep on the bus too. The spa was really nice, but not what I expected. It was pretty fun, but it would have been significantly better it if hadn't been cold and rainy. We played soccer shortly after we got there, before it started really raining. It was actually a lot of fun, and so I was glad that I didn't stick with my original impulse to sit out. It started drizzling a little, which made the concrete pretty slippery; I had the honor of being the first to fall, of course, but several others followed me lead.

After soccer we had lunch, which was really good; there was an extensive buffet with tasty mashed potatoes. Unfortunately, we couldn't swim after because it was bring your own towel (which we hadn't) and you needed a swim cap (which we chose not to purchase from the lobby).

When we got back we hung around for a bit, before heading to dinner. Almost the whole group ended up going together to the Chinese place right next door to the hotel (different Chinese place than before). It turned out to be a really fun dinner, and my food was great! I had ordered the vegetable chop sui, which I mostly didn't recognize (it looked like vegetables, just not ones I could quite identify - maybe leeks and bean sprouts and some other things). I was skeptical, but it had a really good sauce.

We were looking for this one place called Stingray, but we couldn't really find it at first. It turns out we had walked past it multiple times. We definitely got there too early because there was almost no one there and they were still setting up and they had no change at first. After a while it picked up and we found the second dance floor, which was better than the other... The music was a lot of stuff that we all knew, different from what they were playing at Huevo.

Tomorrow begins our free weekend, which looks like it might be dampened (both literally and figuratively) by the weather :(

Thursday

Thursday was the visit to the vineyard, Vina Indomita. Both the buildings (inside and out) and the area surrounding them were gorgeous, and our guide was really good. We walked between the rows and she let us taste some of the few remaining merlot grapes. I really liked this one cave area off of the barrel room that doesn't have much oxygen, which I guess is good for the wine. Towards the end of the visit we had a wine tasting with a white and two reds. Our guide helped us out by explaining the proper tasting techniques and whatnot. Personally I liked the white, but I usually do prefer white to red. When we had finished she also brought a few glasses of a chardonnay for us to try, which I thought was pretty different from the chardonnays we have in the states (which was, in fact, a comment she had made).

After that we headed to the airport to visit LAN Chile, which was a pretty cool visit. We got to go into two maintenance hangars and see some airplanes that were being worked on. We were also allowed onto one where we got to play in first class! I think we were all having a ton of fun with the snazzy seats, and I was excited by the sturdy and versatile tray tables. They also had pretty big tvs...

Lunch wasn't great... it was a pretty meat heavy menu so I ended up with a "vegetarian plate", which basically means lots of vegetables - there were beets, avocado, lettuce (shredded), cucumber, tomato, celery, cheese, string beans, egg, and some unidentified orange thing. Anyone that knows me can probably see I ended up eating the cucumber, some celery, some string beans, and two hunks of cheese. Luckily, I had Ritz bits in my purse, which I munched on when we got back to the bus. Despite the less than satisfying food, the restaurant itself was pretty cool.

At night we went to some place called Huevo, which was a lot of dancing and a ton of fun. When we got back to the room I could hardly walk because my feet and hips were so sore! I think that hours of dancing doesn't go well with days of standing and poor foot construction, since my feet were quite swoolen and bruised :( Still worth it though :)

Wednesday

It was a somewhat early start, but we had the chance to sleep on the bus, on the way to Codelco. All this time I've been fighting between my desire to look at all the scenery and towns we pass and my need for sleep - so far it's been about half and half. Codelco was a surprisingly interesting visit, made all the better by our florescent vest, glasses, and hard hats. It was my company, but I kept getting shuffled away from our guide, and the visit seemed much more engineering than business, which was slightly disappointing; overall, though, it was a good visit.

Following that we headed to Centauro (canning) which was a really cool tour, but I ended up getting sick :( I think it was just a combination of exhaustion and dehydration (and other such factors) since it passed as quickly as it had come.

When we finally made it back to the hotel we had an hour for dinner, so a group of us went to this Chinese place right down the street, but actually ordered empanadas (I got a cheese one - again: good, but kinda bland). After rushing through dinner it was back to the university for lectures and another salsa class. This salsa class was probably the most fun, since we were practicing almost an entire dance and the teacher really stopped to demonstrate and explain the moves we weren't getting.

It was definitely a long day, but it was still pretty fun overall.

Tuesday

Tuesday was more lectures at the university; it was really interesting to hear from a former Plus 3 participant living and working outside the US, which is something I'm hoping to do. Lunch was in the cafeteria again, but there was a little more that I could eat, and no server had to freak out on me :) We had about 1.5 hrs. at the university when we weren't doing anything, so some of us wandered around campus and hung out a little by the soccer field.

After another lecture it was time for another salsa class; I had fun at the first one, but there were definitely some things that I was just not made to do... I was definitely nervous for the second class because I was afraid it would be partners and I would make a fool of myself. In the end I probably made a fool of myself, but it was actually pretty fun; in my opinion, it seemed like my group was doing better than several of the others...

We didn't get dinner until after the salsa class, which was a little rough, but we all survived. I have to say, I was shocked to find out that the McDonald's here doesn't serve any filet o' fish; I tried to order a salad without the chicken (which was on the board), but they said they didn't have salads, so I tried to order a yogurt parfait (also on the board), which they also do not have. In the end I had fries and a Coca Light, followed by delicious raspberry gelato from a place across the street!

After that we stayed in, since we were warned of a rough day to come.

Catching up - Monday

So I've been slacking... we've been here for a week, and this is my first post. Anyway, Sunday was fun, but relatively uneventful. I got no more than half an hour of sleep on the plain, which was incredibly frustrating, so it felt great to finally arrive! I showered right when we got to the hotel, and then had the chance to chill for a little before some of us went to lunch. After wandering for a bit, we ended up at a place called Cafe Unplugged, where we had a strange, but good pizza. Dinner was all together at La Margarita, where I think we all learned to not trust the waiter when it comes to portion size - he kept telling us that they were small when people said they were going to share, and so they each got their own, and the portions ended up being huge! I got shrimp quesadillas that were pretty good, but a little bland.

The next morning we headed to the university for some lectures; the campus is right by the ocean and it's so pretty :) While there, everyone also kept commenting that all the students looked really put together - they weren't sloughing it in sweatpants like we sometimes do... We also noticed that they all seemed to have cute jackets for whatever reason.

After a welcome and lectures we ate in the student cafeteria, which was an experience, though not the best; vegetarian options were definitely limited, and the serving guy freaked out on me because I was trying to serve myself something that was out that I guess we weren't allowed to take (I thought it was a vegetarian entree since the line I was in said vegetarian on the sign, which turned out to just be no meat - shocker).

When we were done at the university, we had a tour of Valparaiso, which was mostly from the bus it seemed. We had gotten out to take one of the ascensores (hill elevator things) and the view was really pretty at the top, but the ride up was a little scary. At one point on the tour we were in Plaza Sotomayor, where the street is separated from the plaza by only a single, faded yellow line.

On Monday, we also saw more about what Jo was talking about in regards to the whole "lots of dogs" issue... they're all over! Most are fairly friendly, but you don't really want to touch them, which is hard.

One spot of frustration during the day was that the weather had definitely said 73 degrees and sunny, and it was definitely not 73 degrees! It was also sunny only after around 2:00.

Dinner was on our own, and then we went to karaoke :)