Hoy

Today....heres the short of it. 


Went to an orientation (this one was useful) 
Then were were shuttled to El Mercado Central which was named one of the top markets in the world by National Geographic. It was super super cool but smaller than expected. But the fish, it was delicioso! It was easily my favorite food I've eaten so far. 

 I forgot what the fish is called but it was wonderful!

This was the restaurant we ate at inside El Mercado Central


Went to la plaza de armas (the plaza where they keep the weapons) It was super sick! They had a catholic church (which was sad to see all of the Chileanas looking so solemn while they were "spending time" with Christ, which should be a joyous thing!) I hate that its so legalistic but its been hard to explain that to people here who don't know much about religion or Christianity. But I did have a great discussion with a girl named Megan tonight about CCU so I got to throw in some of our belief systems that we all follow as a whole (at least to some extent). That was legitimately the first time I have ever felt like I was doing "mission work" or just talking to someone you barely know about Christ. It was awesome and I did it as we sipped pisco sours. And lets be honest, I totes felt "like Jesus" because so many of His stories involved drinking wine as He conversed with people about his ministry. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

                            The church in La Plaza de Armas

 A statue created to stand for all of the indigenous Chilenos that were robbed of their rights during the reign of the country's last dictator (I forget his name...it starts with a P...Pinochet!)

              Kami, Mary, and myself (we're all roommates at the hotel) on the steps in front of the church

This cop totally caught me taking his picture outside of the church...he doesn't look too happy about it

After La Plaza de Armas we went into the Presidential palace to get a tour and our Chilean IDs. This was super cool because I was not expecting this at all!

 Changing of the guard

 The orange garden inside the palace

 Standing at the same podium where the president of Chile gives his speeches at press conferences. I look like I was born to bark out some orders to the little people lol

 I made a new friend

The palace. But this really doesn't do it justice, there are fountains in front of these pools and there is a MASSIVE Chilean flag waving in the breeze in front of the fountains and pools. It just looks so much more royal than the white house


Then we went back for more orientation about safety and about communication with our families. 
Next we went out to dinner at a pizza place and we had cheese pizzas, pisco, and me and Megan had our legit convo. Then we went to a bar called California (none of us were happy about the name but we went inside anyways.) We had a ton of fun and we all did our best to speak to each other in spanish. But really it was spanglish with me saying a ton of "como se dice..."(which means "how do you say...") But overall I would say it was a wonderful evening of bonding, learning spanish, making friends, and doing as the romans do. Also, I was the one who asked our waiter for the bill (la quenta por favor) and I felt incredibly accomplished!