End of the first week of classes

On Friday, we had our last Spanish class and then another one before we left to go trekking in the mountains. It was actually a really neat little hike with plenty of amazing views (I think we stopped and got pictures at each one of them) with wooden swinging bridges, two waterfalls, and dogs that followed us the whole way. (Apparently one of the dogs only follows Americans and never with the Chileans, something I found interesting...maybe we give them more attention?) I didn't get in the water at the waterfalls because I just didn't want to be soggy the rest of the way and on the long bus ride.

When we got home, we slowly got ready to go out to a salsa club. Most of our group went and Enrique taught me how to dance, but I just laughed hysterically out of embarrassment and my flip-flops didn't really help either. I never really got the hang of it, but it was fun to try and learn anyway. We got back at 4 am.

This morning, I went with Michelle and a group of girls from another room to go to this nice park to lay out at a pool and go to a market. We took a sky cap ski-lift sort of thing up to the halfway point of the mountain, then paid a ridiculous 5000 pesos to use the pool area, laid out until it got cloudy, then walked up the roads (more amazing views!) until we finally got to the top of the mountain. There, we found more steps up to this giant statue and a cute stray dog that I became a little attached to. It followed us up so many flights of stairs and sat at the base of the statue while we took pictures. When we headed down, I whistled and it was right there with us again. It ended up finally getting distracted though and then it was gone.

We took a little train thing back down and got in a cab, then came back to the hostel where I hunted down my vestido that was in the laundry so it would be clean for dinner. When I finally found that, I got ready and we all went out to Los Buenos Muchachos, a dinner and show place. The show was neat and you could dance afterward, but we were so disappointed in the cost of it and the food we got. We had three choices of meat, which came alone with no sauce (I had a steak that was too well done) and a pile of fries. So American. Then they brought us ketchup packets. We have been disappointed with the lack of Chilean meals so far I think, and feel like most of what we eat can be found easily at home.

After dinner, I didn't really dance. We got our bus back home and I talked to Greg for the rest of the night on Skype, and now it's super early in the morning. We are leaving for Concepcion and Pucon tomorrow, so I finally get to meat my homestay family.