hmm, so basically my life here consists of going to maybe 3 classes a day tops, then heading out on little adventures to see the city of santiago. thus, it has been hard to keep up with the blog. monday was my frist day of classes and based on what ive had so far i think everything is going to be pretty relaxed, minus my art history class in which my professor is a super speaker. im pretty sure the man barely breathes when he talks because hes going so quickly. obviously this makes my life as a spanish speaker wayy easier. not.

with that being said, yesterday for class we went downtown to La Moneda to see an exhibit of the culture celebrating Rapa Nui (aka the people of Easter Island) and got a guided tour in spanish. its pretty lunchin i was able to pull any information from the tour, but i guess my speaking has certainly improved and thus i was able to find out some interesting things. i.e. that those famous stone men on the island have certain characteristics that indicate a degree of importance. the bigger the ears, and the presence of a tattoo, the better.

after class on tuesday, a few o' the other students and i went to los leones to hit up the mall aka buy chile jerseys because some major soccer (ahem-futbol) games are up and coming. on saturday, chile plays venezuela in santiago in the preliminaries for the world cup. im seriously looking forward to a good time because i live in santiago (in case you may have forgotten).

also tuesday--we went down to baquedano for our first dance class which started with a lesson in merengue (btw, i know i spelled that wrong, but im not really interested in looking up the correct spelling). obvi, i loved it and kept trying to dance with the chilean men over the guys from the US because the chicos here have wayy more practice...and wayy more rhythem. what, what. afterwards a few of us went and got drinks down is Bellas Artes, a super cool section of town with all sorts of restaurants and pubs.

today i was finished with classes at 12:30ish so i moseyed (again, a misspelling) around campus for a little, then went to Plaza de Armas with two of the other students. Plaza de Armas has all sorts of stores and little vendors selling paintings, jewelry, whatever you like. theres also these coffee shops in chile referred to as "coffee with legs." in these shops, generally visited by business men, women sirve coffee wearing next to nothing. its a mix between hooters and a diner, but theres not really a place to sit down. youre in, you drink coffee, you enjoy the view, and then its time to go. interesting yeah?

while we didnt order coffee with legs this afternoon, we did end up at Mercado Central--a mix of food/restaurants/fish. something similiar to the Lexington Market in Baltimore. one the guys i was with wanted coffee and we sort of stumbled across the market, so we walked in. the waiters and people at the different restaurants more or less harass you in an attempt to get you to eat their food. great, i understand this. but i wasnt trying to get coffee where fish is whats up. and the people i was with thought that was weird. am i wrong on this one? regardless, we ended up at one of the restuarants and i ordered cafe helado, which is a dank mix of ice cream and coffee (and which i obvi had as my lunch. good choices)