Segundo City Tour

Tuvimos el segundo tour de la ciudad hoy (we had our second city tour today, for all you gringos). I've been called a gringo a few times now. I've been told it's not a negative thing, it's just what they call white people. I'm fine with it, I embrace my gringo-ness.

Today was a great day, minus the cold weather. I caught a micro into town as soon as I got to the bus stop, then I went to my first class. Wasn't the greatest, but I'll live to see another day. I've noticed the professor is real up and down with how nice he is to us. Today he kept asking us who some well known leftist Latin American people were. We obviously had no idea since no one was responding, but he kept waiting for us to answer. This wasn't the first time he's expected us to know just as much about Latin American history as he does. I think that's what irritates me the most about him. I'll deal with it.

For our second class, we met in a different building, and then we all walked to an open air market to explore and observe, and then interview one of the vendors. On our way there, our professor kept saying "caca" (poo poo) whenever we walked by some dog poop on the sidewalk to let us know so we wouldn't step on it. There was a Chilean man in front of him though who kept turning around everytime he heard it because he didn't understand why he was saying it. Then, he proceeded to point out a dog and say "perro" (dog). He started laughing and quietly said to me "mujer" (girl) when a girl walked by. I noticed a hobo sitting along a gate a little further down and once again he quitely said "homeless" to me and cracked up. Such a funny professor, I wish I could bring him back with me. After looking around a bit, I interviewed a nice old lady who has been working as a vendor for 48 years. She said she's in her 70's and wouldn't change a thing about her life. It was really neat and I plan on going back in the future to get some fresh fruits or vegetables only available in Chile.

After class, we had our second tour of Valparaíso. We hopped on a bus and headed to Cerro Bellavista (one of the 42 hills in Valparaíso) and took a tour of Pablo Naruda's house. He is the most famous Chilean writer and won the Nobel Prize for Literature way back when. His house (one of them) was absolutely amazing though! He purposefully found a house on top of a hill with a view of the entire city. Each of the four floors of the house had big windows stretching around the sides of the house, allowing him to view the ocean and city from his dining/living room on the 2nd floor, from his bedroom on the 3rd floor, and from the 4th floor where he used to write, his study. I would love to wake up every morning and see the view he had, magnifico! In his study he had a legit map of the America's from around the 1500's. Sadly, I was unable to photograph any of the unique furniture or pieces of art he had collected over time. He even had some artifacts from the I and II centuries; I was impressed. I was, however, allowed to take photos looking out the windows on each floor. You can check them out on my facebook if you'd like.

After his house, we hopped on the bus and went to another hill that is a very touristy place, but has one of the best views in the entire city. We were able to see almost all of the 42 hills or so found in Valparaíso. I took many pictures here as well, so feel free to check them out. Afterwards, we hopped on an ascensor (the second one I've been on so far), and headed down the hill to get on the bus. This ascensor was far larger than the last one though. We had about 15 people on it compared to the 8 we had last time. Once we got back to the University, I went over to the street where the micros come by, and was able to catch one within a minute. Shortest total waiting time for micros for the whole day so far? I think so.

After arriving home, I had my leftover lunch that I missed earlier, and then watched a Zorro movie on TV. I've found I enjoy TV so much more when it's in Spanish. I feel like I'm not completely wasting my time since I'm having to work to understand what they're saying.

Oh, there's a soccer team here called Everton that's celebrating it's 100 year anniversary this year, and they had a game tonight. That has nothing to do with my main point that I could hear the crowd cheering and chanting from inside my house during dinner. It was really cool even though I'm not much of a soccer fan. I would definitely like to go to a game, hopefully I'll have the chance to.

Well my thoughts are getting more and more scattered as I go. It's late, I'm tired, and I'm cold. I miss sun.

Buenas noches amigos, chao.