First day in Chile

After today, I can officially say that I am in love with Viña del Mar. Not including the ten hour plane ride from Dallas to Chile, this day has been a great start to our trip. We were greeted in the airport by two Chilean students and Jorge and traveled by bus to Hotel America in Viña del Mar. After getting settled in, the whole group walked down by the water and went to lunch at the Taco Bar where I got an amazing meal of shrimp tacos. The weather has been amazing (a lot warmer than I expected it to be). After lunch, we walked down by the water and took in the breathtaking scenery of water, palm trees, and beautiful restaurants and hotels. The sites were amazing. It was such a great place to walk through, and I can't wait to see more of it! It's such an exciting place with a lot going on. There were street performers, people laying out on the beach, vendors that lined the water, and a lot of stray dogs. I was told we would see a lot of them, but I didn't expect there to be so many. They liked to follow us around wherever we went.Tomorrow we are going to the University for lectures and then at night we're having karaoke! Tonight, a few of us are going to walk around Viña and find something to do, and tomorrow we will go to Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria for a lecture. I'm really excited to see the school and what classes are like for the students there.