Holaaaa! This weekend we had a long weekend because we didn't have class on thursday because it was the Dia de los Trabajadores (Day of the workers). There were a bunch of marches going on to better workers rights and drawn awareness to the fact that there are still a tonnnnn of inequalities going on. I was in Valparaiso on Wednesday night for the the birthday of one of Francisca's old housemates and when we woke up we heard all the marches protests going on but we didn't actually see them ha. Valparaiso was beautiful once again and the houses are sooooo cool inside. Their house was completely wood and just had a really cool design. I can't really explain it but it was beautiful. We also went and walked down near the port and there is a place where you can watch sealions and it reminded me of home and made me really happy :) That whole floating thing in the picture below is COVERED in them and they were also swimming around and it was really entertaining watching them jump up there.
I also went on a "field trip" with my exchange program that was really really interesting. We went and explored four of the poorest neighborhoods with a man who is from one of them and is really involved in bettering the situation of the poor working class in Chile. He fights to claim land for them and get the government to build better parks, houses neighborhoods in general for them. It felt weird to drive through these neighborhoods with a big purple bus as if we were tourists looking at the poor areas like they were some type of rare tourist attraction or something.... my friend and I brought this up with our director who was on the trip and he explained that this was the first time they were profiting from this and that in reality they were happy about it because they wanted to spread awareness about their cause. Lastly he brought up the point that we were with a community member as our "guide" and that in reality that was the only way we could do it. In one of the neighborhoods we couldn't get off of the bus at all because he didn't have a "contact" in the neighborhood and our director explained that in these parts of the town it can be seen as a threat to show up in a different neighborhood with a bunch of people, especially a bunch of gringos and that it would actually be dangerous for us because we would be such a huge target for pick pocketing or jump aggression. Anyway I thought that was incredibly interesting. We also saw the difference between the community government housing made by the Pinochet regime and the presidents that have come after him compared to the community housing made by Allende before the coup and it was truly incredible to see the difference. I wish I had pictures but the Pinochet houses looked like jails and were 30 square meters while the Allende houses were 150 square meters I believe and looked like actual houses with porches and dignity... it was crazy!
Also went to dinner at the Del Rio's house which is the family that Grandma Bertie put me in contact and they are just so nice and fun to be around. Their oldest son Martin is still my best chilean friend that I have haha. Its incredible to me that Grandma's random contact ended up being my best chilean friend. He is also hoping to move to the states next year and is PROBABLY coming to the bay area so that is really really exciting!
Lastly, had some good solid time with Fran and Nerea which was great :) (In case I haven't talked about her yet Nerea is one of my housemates who is also studying at my university and is from Murcia, España.
Cuddle time :)
Las abuelitas spent our saturday night with hot chocolate, knitting and Harry Potter
Then this morning we started a tradition of Sunday Brunch and went to a cafe we'd heard about from some people. We went because we heard that they had........ BAGELS!!!!!!! They actually had real bagels! I ate a bagel with locks and tomato and I was oh so very happy. We also got nutella cheesecake and it was SOOOOOOOOOOOO good. I was in heaven as Im sure you can all imagine 
This is Nerea with a mocha that was almost completely chocolate haha. 
Love to you all!
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