It's raining today and I really don't have anything to do so I figured it is a good day to stay in bed and read/write/etc. The last week has been a blur. For three days and two nights EAP (the program) took all the students to Algorrobo, a beach town about an hour and a half from Santiago for a big orientation/get to know everyone event. The town is pretty small and cute although pretty much dead right now because its the winter and nobody really wants to be at the beach even though it was significantly warmer there than in the city. Algorrobo seems to be mostly full of summer homes and condos owned by wealthier residents of Chile and Argentina. There are five huge unique pyramid-like resorts right on the beach full of condos that people own. On an interesting side note, this is actually where the biggest swimming pool in the world is located. We tried to go see it but weren't allowed in the resort so we could only see part of it. It is pretty massive though from what I could see. The beach was fun though overall. They gave us a lot of good information and everyone got to spend some time getting to know everyone else in the program.
Since returning to Santiago I've just been trying to get out and explore the city a little bit with the other students in my program because we have a long weekend this weekend and classes start Tuesday. I must say though that my motivation to go exploring largely disappeared with the arrival of the rain last night, hence why I am writing this in bed right now. Yesterday before it started raining we walked around a bunch through various parks and craft markets and we visited the cultural center at La Moneda which is where the president/government works. Our program also asigned a Chilean friend for each group of 8ish students so that we can learn "Chilean spanish" in addition to formal spanish in school and my friend, JuanFra, has been taking us out around the city. Mostly he's just introduced us to the nighlife thus far although he has some pretty cool activites planned (going to a winery, touring la moneda, etc.) for the next few weeks that I am looking forward to.
Other than that, it is still just very cold here. I can't wait until it gets warmer so I can do more outdoors stuff here because there is so much to do with the beach and the Andes so close. The Andes are gorgeous, even through the winter smog. And I am trying to get used to the food. It is all good but super full of starch and often coated in butter or mayo. Every meal has at least one form of potato... mashed, home fries, french fries, fried balls... and some hearty meat. Salads will sometimes accompany that but are often small and heavily salted. They eat palto, or avocado, on everything though which is awesome. They even put it on hot dogs that they call "italianos" with fresh diced tomatos and, less to my liking although its pretty easy to wipe off, a big glob of mayo. And the empenadas are so good. They are just little fried dough pockets filled with meat or cheese and tomato or veggies and eggs. The eat a lot of eggs here. And a lot of fried food. Another staple food is the "sopapillas" which are just fried balls of dough. They are tasty but all the fried food is already taking its toll on me.
I'm excited to start up school although pretty happy to have a day to chill today too.