Our first full day in Chile.

Today we were extremely busy. We started the day at Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria.  First, we had lectures from Professor Jaime, who is a Chilean professor who got his doctorate at Pitt.  Our lecture focused on the economy in Chile and other South American countries.  We also ate lunch in the cafeteria at the university.  This was a very different experience.  There were no options like at Market Central, instead you just picked up all of the parts of the meal as you move through the line.  We had sausage and mashed potatoes with a salad and bread. It was extremely packed in the cafeteria, so our group had to split up to eat.  It was only me and another girl who sat at a table full of Chilean students.  I felt pretty out of place since we were speaking English and obviously not a part of the University. 

Next, we went on a tour of Valparaiso, which was really fun. There were a lot of murals on walls and the stairs which were really gorgeous.  The houses were all really pretty bright colors.  While in Valparaiso, we met an Australian man who was running to raise awareness for cancer.  He was running all throughout Chile- over 55 kilometers each day, which by my rough calculations is about 35 miles every day.  We also went on an incline up a large hill in Valparaiso.  The ride was a little scary, but once we got to the top, there were a lot of little shops.

Later on, we got empanadas, which were my favorite food I have gotten so far on the trip.  I got an empanada with goat cheese and chorizo inside, which was really good.  These were also very cheap, which was nice.  I have noticed that food tends to be pretty expensive here.  Most meals cost about 8000 Chilean pesos, which is about 16 dollars.  When I eat out in the United States I usually spend about 10 dollars on a meal.  However, I really appreciate the patience the waiters have had with us so far on the trip.  When we go out for dinner we are on our own and none of us are fluent in Spanish.  I try to use my Spanish, but a lot of the words for food are different here than I learned in high school, which complicates things.  The waiters however are very patient with our giant group of 17 gringos and they typically can speak some English, so they try to help us too.  We also went out to a karaoke bar with some of the Chilean students, which was very fun.