Places I saw today.

In Viña: La Quinta Vergara, Plaza del Reloj, Castillo del Mar y Wulf, the beach.

In Valparaiso: one of Pablo Neruda's houses, a very old ascensor, Museo Naval, top view of the city and a LOT of stairs.  Also Plaza Sotomayor (has the museum and monument to copper).

Went by Casablanca valle and Curacaví valley, valleys of wine and agriculture respectively.

Lots.  Of.  Pictures.

Irony.

I still am a little amazed as to why my cousin is a midwife, due to her own birth being a forceps delivery.  Not like I could have a homebirth anyway, because last I checked, no midwife would be able to tell me right away if my kid had my problem.  They simply don't have that sort of training, nor can they give Caesareans in emergencies.
Today I helped with the seven year olds.  One of them wanted me to tell her my phone number.  That was funny.  There was one girl that seriously doesn't understand the concept of chairs.
But overall, fine.

Mi día.

I just realized that the girl who died in Gville in the hit and run was on a freaking bicycle.  What.  A.  Horrible.  Way to die.

I went to the school today, to help teach.  According to the host mom, only the bad schools permit talking while the teacher is talking: her husband and her daughter are both teachers and don´t allow it.  This school, at all the levels of English (and everything else) allow talking when the teacher is talking, or at least, the teacher isn't that effective in getting them to shut up. Last time I checked, there was no country that allowed talking while the teacher was talking. Especially not in Asia, or even in parts of Europe. But some of the older ones speak English quite well.  The younger ones, naturally, have more difficulty.

Granted, this wasn't my original project.  And frankly, I knew I wasn't going to enjoy it as much as I would have enjoyed the original, which was giving medical care to kids at the Don Francisco house.  But since there was something going on this week, and I'd already paid for the trip, there was no point in not going.  At least I can see the center.  And the surrounding areas of Chile.  Valparaiso, Viña del Mar, etc.
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I officially think during my trip to the Viña I will ask for navegado sin naranjas.  Hot mulled wine sounds great.  That and yerba mate.
If it´s warm, I´ll ask for cerveza Cristal.

Because I do need to have some drinks, even if I can´t have pisco.

¡Qué maravilla es Santiago!

I am officially in Santiago.  Because there are teacher conferences all day today, I don´t start volunteering until tomorrow.
Yesterday I came in at 8 am, dropped my stuff, and then toured the city a little bit with the country coordinator.  I saw La Moneda, where the president works, and the old place where people used to work if they were president.  I also saw one of the old cathedrals, the Plaza del Centro, and the Teletón, where I was originally going to work. I also passed by one of the oldest historical museums that I plan on going to after my thing is done.
My host family is very nice, barring one extremely strange older boy that thankfully doesn´t live in the house. I think he wants a chica.  I made it clear that there are certain characteristics that define man, and that boys were the same everywhere.  I didn{t say what they were though.
The two main gripes I have are the food consumption, which I knew in advance my options were limited: nothing that hasn´t been cooked, and nothing like juice or yogurt or other stuff like that....... and the fact that the other volunteers are going next week, not this week, so I´m pretty much on my own.  I´m sticking with breads, dried things, and tea right now.  Which is fine since it´s so cold anyway.