Last week

I only 4 more days! ahhh. I think my next post will be a list of things that I will miss about Chile.
So last week I got to see two of my friends from home within three days. Sean came visit in the evening on Wednesday with a girl who is staying at the same hostel as his group. We walked around and the girl got a chance to see Valparaiso at night which is something really beautiful if the sky is clear. On Friday, my dear friend, Kayla came to visit. She was with a big group of students that are all studying for the Fall semester in Santiago. We went eat and then went to a bar for a little salsa dancing. It is so fun to see good friends when you are so far from home. It is just fun to think about how big the world is, yet still get a chance to meet up with friends.

This weekend we took a day trip to a vineyard and Isla Negra, the most famous of Pablo Neruda¨s houses. The vineyard was cool. They make Vina Mar wine in the Casablanca wine valley. I learned all sorts of information about the crafting of wine. As I think I said earlier, Pablo Neruda is a famous poet/diplomat here in Chile. He died in ´73, but Chileans still hold a great deal of respect for him. He was a bit eccentric and had losts of cool collections that we saw at his house. For example, 8 ship figureheads, 40 colored glass bottles, and a hige colections of shells including a norwhal tusk (gotta love them norwhals, google if you don´t know).

After we returned to Valparaiso, I went to a 5 year old´s birthday party with Shivani. I think the child was her family´s nephew. All the adults sat around a table telling stories and eating different sorts of food. It reminded my a lot of my memories of hanging out as a kid at my greataunt´s house, where we had a big Italian family.

Last night Shivani and I went to the Casino for a little bit just to see what it is like. Some of our friends go a lot, but I don´t understand all the fuss. Then again, neither of us know how to gamble, but the bingo was fun and the building is very pretty with original art work.

That is all for now. Chau.

My spanish has definitely improved and there are certain things that I can handle pretty well without thinking. Since Chileans have such aweful Spanish, I am hoping that I will understand even more in other countries where people don´t slur and drop syllables for fun.