Free!

ahhh yes, Intensive Language Program completed. Friday was our last day, which for me consisted of a walk-in-the-park final exam followed by a PowerPoint presentation about my groups adventures to Valparaiso, specifically the problems that exist in the fishing industry between commercial and artisan. We rocked it and in return received many a'compliments afterward. Now begins a 10 day vacation and then student's attending La Chile University have a registration day on July 28th to discuss what classes we plan on taking. I was planning on using this time to travel outside Santiago, and I still might, but I have the Muse concert on the 26th and that in turn hampered my plans. It is alright since I would like to explore more of Santiago and the immediate surroundings before bolting to Machu Pichu, Beunos Aires, etc. I will have plenty of time in the coming months to take care of those trips. A buddy of mine and potentially a few others would like to rent a car and drive an hour of two outside the city, but we have not established firm plans. Seems better to keep stuff flexible.


As for the last week in recap, Tuesday afternoon, half the group got the opportunity to tour the inside of La Moneda (a.k.a Chilean White House) and see many things that normal visitors do not. In addition, President Bachelette was coincidentally in walking through during our tour and I got to see the back of her head...woohoo...as well as the Minister of the Interior. Strange culture down here considering that no tour group would ever be able to be within 50 feet of the president in the U.S., especially these days. I am not even sure if they still do complete tours of the White House anymore, but it wouldn't surprise me.


That evening, a good portion of the program went out to celebrate my birthday, especially since it was a national holiday the next day: Carlos Olin Montalvo III day, j/k. Two holidays, one religious and the other a northern South America deal. Anyways, we had a lot of fun, watched a bit of the all-star game and went late into then night. Too bad that it took so much out of me that I slept through my alarm the next day to go skiing at Valle Nevado, the highest altitude, best skiing around. Shewt. That's alright though, once again I will have many a chances to ski and since it was a holiday, ticket prices were raised to around 60 bucks and it was more crowded than usual. Heard the fellas still had a lot of fun.

Friday evening I was able to see the new Batman film, The Dark Night or El Caballero de la Noche. It was kind of like a learning exercise since the film had Spanish subtitles and I could learn some new vocab like El Guasón or the Joker. I really enjoyed the film from start to finish and Heath Ledger matched Jack Nicholson in his portrayal of the Guasón. Hope he gets the posthumous Oscar he deserves.


That's all for now folks, be back in a couple of days. Cheers.