Second Day, May 10th

Today was our first full day in Chile. We woke up at 7AM and got ready to leave at 8:15 for Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria. WE had a formal reception and then had our first class. We spent about 3 hours learning about Chilean culture, tourism, History and Literature. Our teacher, Jose, was every energetic and very good at speaking english. We had lunch in the cafeteria, you buy a card to get in, and then there are about  5 items you can take: a drink, a main course, some bread, a side, and some fruit. It was very delicious. We had a tour of the campus, it is very beautiful with a lot of parks and all the buildings match each other very well; it is a gothic style arquitecture.
After classes we went on a tour of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. We saw the old buildings of Valparaiso, how it has a lot of banks because of the stock markets that grew to support the old ship companies. We saw the old port and the new port from atop of a big hill. Also at the top of the hill were some street vendors; we stopped and all bought some gifts for friends and family, and then took a picture at a beautiful overlook. We then went to Viña del Mar and saw the upperclass district; there were strip malls and shops targeting tourists, the prices were higher than in Valparaiso. We had dinner at Los Radones were they have delicious empañadas. I had a seafood one, and a carmel-queso one; both were very good.
After dinner we headed back to the university to have our dance class. We learned how to salsa alone and in pairs; I really enjoyed the dancing, and our teacher said we were very good, and that the rumor that ``White boys can`t dance`` was not true.
After class we headed back to the hotel to prepare for going out to a bar. I went to McDonalds with somefriends and then we got back just in time to leave (around 10PM).
We tried the native drink - pisco - and it was very good. It is a roughly 80 proof drink made out of grapes. We then did a lot of Karaoke and had a good time. We headed back  to the hotel at about 1:30 AM and stayed up for a little bit more just talking and having a good time.

Lessons Learned: 1. There is a flow of classes from Valparaiso to Viña del Mar, with the inner city being on the lower end, and the suburbs being higher class, just like in the United States.
2. Many Chileans speak english very well.
3. Pisco is the national drink of both Chile and Peru, and they fight over whose it really is.
4. Chileans love english music, our group of Chilean friends love the Backstreet Boys.