The Call to Chile: Viña del Mar

(8/24-8/26) Friday was Eli’s birthday! Katie and I woke up early and decorated her desk, it was pretty cute! We also bought her a dark chocolate candy bar and Starbucks coffee. I even made a banner out of recycled paper. We are the best exchange students. After that Friday took a turn for the worse. Katie, Claudia, Eli, and I went to lunch with some girls in the ministry downtown. By the way, I ate KFC, I think that’s relevant. About 30 minutes into our lunch Katie looks down and realizes her book bag isn’t there. Someone stole her book bag while we were eating. It had her i-pod, driver’s license, credit card, bike lock, cash, water bottle, and other various items. It was pretty sad. I felt very helpless. We went back to the El Oasis house and just hung out for a while and Katie contacted her parents to tell them what happened. After that we did Pilates, well kind of, it turned into nap time. Then Claudia gave Katie a chocolate bar because she was getting really sad. We were going to go dancing with Eli and some people for her birthday, but since Katie didn’t have money and I was feeling pretty sick we skipped and went to bed. I don’t regret it. Saturday was fun. I went to student’s football game, and yes I mean American football and that was really awesome. His team won so that was exciting for everyone. I went with Brent and it was cool getting to hang out with him. After that I came back to the El Oasis house and watched some Criminal Minds while Katie did homework. I got to skype my family back home which was really great to see them and after that a student randomly came over, her name is Camila and she is super sweet. We talked with her for a while and then she, Katie, and I watched a movie. She left after the movie was over so then we went to bed. I’ve been exhausted. Sunday was super fun! We woke up super early to go to Viña del Mar which is a really famous beach here in Chile. After Katie and I almost missed the bus, we met up with everyone else going with us to the beach for Eli’s birthday. It takes two hours by bus and it’s worth it. We got there and had a little breakfast off bread and cheese brought to you by Lider. Then we walked around for a while and went to the ocean. After about an hour or two of that we hopped on a small bus to the next town over which was Valparaíso another famous city in Chile. In fact, it was one of the first cities in Chile. It has a huge port with a ton of boats. We climbed a hill that over looked the ocean and the city, quite beautiful. Then we had to find a place to eat lunch because we were famished. Nothing super exciting about lunch, I got a sandwich and some fries, none of the good places to eat were open because it was a Sunday. After that Katie, Jorge, and I climbed further up another hill to check out this museum and house of a famous Chilean poet named Pablo Neruda. The house was pretty awesome looking (we didn’t go inside because you had to pay for that). It had a cute little garden too, a lot of statues of him as well that I took stupid pictures with. It was great. After that we went back to Viña to meet back up with everyone. They were lying on the beach watching the sunset which was quite beautiful. Katie and I decided to hit up some little shops nearby and I bought my sister a present! I bet she doesn’t read this, but I still won’t say what it is just in case. Merry Christmas Breanne! It was time to go back to the bus station after that, but we did stop by Starbucks which they managed to spell my name “Teka” I don’t know how that happened. Then we got on the bus and slept the majority of the way home. Once home, we did Insanity, I showered, did laundry, and then wrote this blog. It was a pretty good weekend.