First Day in Chile

Well we've made it to Chile just fine and safely made our way to our hotel at Viña del Mar.  It's so much colder here than I ever would have expected.  I don't think any of us packed enough warm weather clothing, and I myself am freezing half the time.  During the afternoons when the sun is out, it's quite comfortable, but the mornings and evenings are nearly unbearable.  I wish I would have packed at least one heavier jacket!  Oh well, live and learn.  After making our way to Viña del Mar, we had lunch at a restaurant called Guantón, apparently meaning more or less "big belly."  The food was pretty good, and the portions were very generous.  It gave us all the opportunity to joke around and relax a bit after our long flight.  After lunch we spent some time walking around the area around the hotel, spending a fair amount of time along the shore.  The ocean breeze and sunny skies were a nice change from the western Pennsylvania weather to which I've grown accustomed.  After our bout of adventuring, we returned to the hotel for some down time before dinner.  We went to a tex-mex restaurant nearby the hotel and enjoyed a nice long, laid-back dinner.  After dinner we got our boots that we will need later this week when visiting the mushroom factory and LAN, and after several people tried on several different pairs of shoes, we got that matter all worked out.  For a bit of dessert, a large number of us made our way to a gelato shop just up the street.  The gelato was delicious even if it was freezing to eat.  All in all our first day in Chile was pretty easy going and relaxing.  Tomorrow we will spend basically the whole day at the University, and start in on the true substance of our program here.