One of the bands that was playing
IM Soccer game
view from ULS
Apparently the fast food is very good here.
from the bus along the road
Hola Amigos
This post may not have much punctuation because this keyboard is somewhat cryptic. We arrived in Santiago on Friday morning around 7am. The first thing I saw when I got off the plane was that the group´s flight from Miami was canceled which was slightly horrifying because I speak no Spanish whatsoever. I managed to meet up with Matt and Andrew and one other girl who actually speaks Spanish. The first thing that happens when you exit the terminal is you are met by forty cab drivers who scream ´Minibus? Minibus? Ok Minibus later?´ After fending off the cabbies and almost making a huge mistake of going to a hostel with them we found that the group´s flight was not canceled, they just got rerouted through Dallas.
When you walk out of the airport in Santiago you can see snow covered mountains in the distance, a slightly better view than that of South Atlanta at Hartsfield. We got on the bus with the group which took us to La Serena. Santiago lies east of the mountains in Chile so we had to cross through them to get to the beach on the west coast where La Serena is. The vegetation is similar to California on the coast. Scrubby vegetation runs up to the feet of green mountains on the right and the beach is on your right. The beaches along the highway looked beautiful, but unlike the US, the further away from cities you get, the poorer the population gets. This means that the beaches we drove by were littered with small lean to shanties with tin roofs. We stopped at a gas station for our first Chilean meal which was the equivalent of fast food. Interesting to say the least. The bus ride was quiet for the most part as would be expected after a red eye flight. We got into La Serena around 6pm, at which point Matt, Andrew, and I headed down to the beach (a two block walk) where we sat at a restaurant, drank a (bad) Chilean beer and watched the sunset. We had a short meet and greet dinner with the entire group then most of us headed back to the beach to hang out at the bar. Everyone got to know eachother over a couple pitchers. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the people on this trip are for the most part awesome. And they don´t all speak Spanish, which makes me feel like less of an idiot.
The second day started with us going to the University for a short tour. The Universidad La Serena is located up the hill from the beach and the buildings all over look the entire city and out to the ocean. The downside is that none of the classrooms are heated. After eating a lunch served with our first taste of Chilean wine we went to the ´IM´ fields (a big dirt soccer field) and watched an IM soccer game. The teams are comprised of the majors from the college and the game we watched was between the architechts (reigning champs) against the civil engineers. After an interested grocery store experience we went home to make dinner before going out to a folk dance festival. The festival turned out to be in a room about the size of a cafeteria with a few different Marriachi (I have no idea how to spell that) bands playing. We got some skeptical looks when we first arrived, but once the dancing started I think we earned a little respect from the Chileans. After the folk dance we were dropped off at a dance club with one of the students from ULS where we were let in in front of a long line of locals, which led to some very dirty looks. Chileans are under the impression that all Americans are rich so we were treated like royalty by the staff at this bar. We had a VIP area set up and got service immediately at the bar, leading to even more bad blood between us and the mullet sporting youth of Chile. After a long night of dancing, we all headed back to the hotel for late night hanging out. We came to be referred to as ´those Georgia boys´after our 3am swimming session.
Yesterday we took a trip to Coquimbo, a neighboring city. However my time on the internet is up.
Cheers!
This post may not have much punctuation because this keyboard is somewhat cryptic. We arrived in Santiago on Friday morning around 7am. The first thing I saw when I got off the plane was that the group´s flight from Miami was canceled which was slightly horrifying because I speak no Spanish whatsoever. I managed to meet up with Matt and Andrew and one other girl who actually speaks Spanish. The first thing that happens when you exit the terminal is you are met by forty cab drivers who scream ´Minibus? Minibus? Ok Minibus later?´ After fending off the cabbies and almost making a huge mistake of going to a hostel with them we found that the group´s flight was not canceled, they just got rerouted through Dallas.
When you walk out of the airport in Santiago you can see snow covered mountains in the distance, a slightly better view than that of South Atlanta at Hartsfield. We got on the bus with the group which took us to La Serena. Santiago lies east of the mountains in Chile so we had to cross through them to get to the beach on the west coast where La Serena is. The vegetation is similar to California on the coast. Scrubby vegetation runs up to the feet of green mountains on the right and the beach is on your right. The beaches along the highway looked beautiful, but unlike the US, the further away from cities you get, the poorer the population gets. This means that the beaches we drove by were littered with small lean to shanties with tin roofs. We stopped at a gas station for our first Chilean meal which was the equivalent of fast food. Interesting to say the least. The bus ride was quiet for the most part as would be expected after a red eye flight. We got into La Serena around 6pm, at which point Matt, Andrew, and I headed down to the beach (a two block walk) where we sat at a restaurant, drank a (bad) Chilean beer and watched the sunset. We had a short meet and greet dinner with the entire group then most of us headed back to the beach to hang out at the bar. Everyone got to know eachother over a couple pitchers. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the people on this trip are for the most part awesome. And they don´t all speak Spanish, which makes me feel like less of an idiot.
The second day started with us going to the University for a short tour. The Universidad La Serena is located up the hill from the beach and the buildings all over look the entire city and out to the ocean. The downside is that none of the classrooms are heated. After eating a lunch served with our first taste of Chilean wine we went to the ´IM´ fields (a big dirt soccer field) and watched an IM soccer game. The teams are comprised of the majors from the college and the game we watched was between the architechts (reigning champs) against the civil engineers. After an interested grocery store experience we went home to make dinner before going out to a folk dance festival. The festival turned out to be in a room about the size of a cafeteria with a few different Marriachi (I have no idea how to spell that) bands playing. We got some skeptical looks when we first arrived, but once the dancing started I think we earned a little respect from the Chileans. After the folk dance we were dropped off at a dance club with one of the students from ULS where we were let in in front of a long line of locals, which led to some very dirty looks. Chileans are under the impression that all Americans are rich so we were treated like royalty by the staff at this bar. We had a VIP area set up and got service immediately at the bar, leading to even more bad blood between us and the mullet sporting youth of Chile. After a long night of dancing, we all headed back to the hotel for late night hanging out. We came to be referred to as ´those Georgia boys´after our 3am swimming session.
Yesterday we took a trip to Coquimbo, a neighboring city. However my time on the internet is up.
Cheers!
View from the airport
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