On Saturday, my friend Andrea and I went to Reñaca to go hang out at another friend’s (Agustin) apartment. On the bus, we weren’t sure which stop to get off at, so we asked the bus driver to let us know where the end of “Ositos” was…he didn’t. He was kind of rude, and so when we asked how far away we were from the stop, he said we had just passed it. So we got off at the next possible stop and asked directions. Luckily, we were only a couple blocks off so we walked on the downward slope of the hill (almost everywhere is a hill here). When we passed all of the tall buildings, we could finally see the ocean on this beautiful, clear, sunny, perfect day. It was breath-taking. I still can’t get over how incredible the ocean is here; indescribable! Agustin’s apartment is located on the side of this hill facing the sea. You could see the curve of the coast, all the hills, the picturesque beaches and I even saw seals surfing! (I think I might ask them to teach me…I want to learn.) We stayed out on his balcony all afternoon until the sunset; nothing compares to an ocean sunset.

 

Pure serenity.

The next two days were solidly dedicated to a paper in one of my classes at Rodelillo, where I take my classes completely in Spanish with other Chileans. It said it could not exceed 11 pages…which meant there was a lot of material to cover. I spent the next two precious, ideal/ days of warm sun and clear skies inside working on this paper that I could have been doing over my week long break. Such are the typical mistakes of a college student. I do believe I’ll take advantage of my ability to make these mistakes now and learn from them later. At least it’s done and over with now.

mi equipo, mi familia; my team, my family

Tuesday, my UVM team and I went against another university, DUOC, and absolutely dominated. I didn’t get in this game it being the first one of the season, but it was incredible watching them play. I suppose I’m an aspiring bench warmer wanting to play with the reigning regional champions of Chile: challenge accepted.

That night, I had the Skype meeting with the Valparaiso University International Office which was awesome to be able to talk about Chile straight from Chile. I followed the questions that Julie Maddox gave me and talked a little bit about each point…okay, a lot. To be honest, I just couldn’t stop talking about how much I love it here and how everyone should come here. Got a bit carried away I suppose…but I do believe that’s a good sign 😉

Burnt some cookies with Andrea on Wednesday; used our creativity to make some cool shapes like a cat that looked like Pikachu and Charlie the Unicorn and, to finish off our dough, a snowman (the carrot nose burnt…) They didn’t taste so bad with a little honey. My host brother, Axel, loved them, so that’s a good sign. I’m not a complete failure in the kitchen, but I’m not so great.

Then yesterday went a little something like this: woke up late, went for a jog, found the post office (finally), went to my meeting with the orchestral director, soccer training, went home, got ready, birthday party for a Mexican amiga here, danced at the casino club.

I’d say, I’ve had a decent past few days. Loving my life here.