Off to the South...School starts on the 5th of March!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting Valparaíso which is Chile's main port city.  I went with a couple of my friends from the program and met up with others in the group at a hostal in Valpo.  The first thing we did was sample Chorrillana which is the dish Valparaíso is known for.  It is french fries, meat, onion, and egg basically but it is incredibly delicious, probably not the best for you though.  I also had the opportunity to walk around the city and ride the acensores, which are the old early 20th century lifts that take you up the hills of the city because they are so steep.  Some people refer to the city as the San Francisco of South America.  I returned to Santiago Sunday night after struggling to find a bus because vacation time is over for the Chileans and they are all headed back from the beach to Santiago to get back to work and to school.  This week we finished up our introductory seminar class (except for the essay I have to write) and visited the Historical Museum in the Plaza de Armas which has basically every artifact from the history of Chile including Salvador Allende Gossens glasses that were broken during the coup in 1973.  I had the pleasure of encountering the Chilean bureaucracy this morning when I went to the Registro Civil to apply for my cédula de identificación (basically the Chilean green card) for my time in the country.  I arrived at nine and left after noon, so it was quite an occasion.  I am now preparing for my trip south to Valdivia with some of the group as it is our last weekend before school starts.  Classes begin at la Católica March 5 and la Chile March 10.  I still don't have a set schedule but will later this week so I will be sure to let you know all my classes when they are available, and pictures from my latest journey.  Also, I am only posting some pictures on the blog (they only allow five per post) and the rest are in my Picasa album http://picasaweb.google.com/jbp12005/Chile