Thursday was another beautiful day in Santiago. Chase and I got up had a nice breakfast and headed back to the pre-columbian Art museum. This time we actually got to go inside and look around. It mostly Indian art from Mexico down to South America. It was interesting but now our favorite.

Some art from the museum

After the museum we walked around downtown Santiago, it was incredible crowded with people but fun to see. We soon realized how hungry we were so headed back towards Los Leones, our Metro stop to find something to eat. Chase saw a Domino, the most popular hot dog place and had to try one. So we sat down and he ordered the Italian hotdog. I could not figure out why it was called that for the longest time because it came with Mayo, tomato, and avocado, none of which seemed very Italian to me. John, later told me that call it that because it has the Italian flag colors.

Chase eating his Italian hot dog

After Chase's we walked to Fabella, which like a Dillards so I could get a hair dyer. It is incredible too cold here not to dry my hair and nothing every really dries. For instance our towels never seem to dry so they are always damp. We made it home just in time for the most beautiful sunset which we got to observe from our balcony.

After a quick dinner of rice and chicken we headed out to meet up with Andrew for his conversation class. We arrived at the Traduc office and were greeted by three men of all different ages and professions. Andrew had prepared some questions and for an hour we discussed them. It was so fun to hear their answers and learn about their lives. While they were speaking Andrew would nicely correct their English and help them out with they seemed to get stuck. I really enjoyed the class and look forward to conducting one soon.

Friday was a very interesting day for Chase and I. Because it has been raining so much in Santiago, it means that the mountains have been getting lots of snow. So on Thursday chase and I decided we were going to go Skiing. We woke up early Friday morning ate a quick breakfast got all our ski gear on and began our brisk walk to the metro. we got on the metro rode it the last stop got off found bus number 406c got on and rode it to the last stop. All the while we were never really sure if we were going the right way. Once we got off we found this little ski shop we walked in hoping that someone, anyone might understand a little English but no one did.

So through some gestures and the use of our dictionary we finally told them we wanted to rent some skies and ride the bus up to the mountain. An hour later we were finally ready to go we walked out side the bus was gone! Luckily right at that moment there was a very nice man who was also a customer who offered to translate for us. He explained that the bus had left and we could either take a Taxi or a private bus which would cost about $100 each. Chase and I looked at each other with utter dismay we were not going to pay that much just to get up to the ski mountain.

With a lot of help from the nice gentleman we convinced them to let us come back on Monday to try again. So we got back on the bus, then the metro to walk home. I can not tell the you the funny looks we got because we were all decked out in our skiing gear.

Chase in front of the ski shop

They wrapped our stuff in plastic, I guess so it is easier to carry

Merrill inside the ski shop

Instead of skiing we walked to the grocery store which is about 3 miles away and found local place to have lunch. We were a little nervous about it but it ended up being delicious. we had some grilled chicken and pappas frites (my favorite).

Once everyone was home from work and other things we are hung out then set out for dinner around 9:30. John and Claudia took us to a traditional Chilean restaurant called Laguria. We started with some parmesan mussles which I tried but did not really enjoy. Chase then had some delicious ravioli and I had steak and mashed potatoes. Not much different then what you find in Texas.

John, Bastin(Claudia's cousin) Chase, Merill and Claudi

As far as today who knows what we will doing!