Santiago!

Hola!

Santiago was beautiful! We arrived on Tueday morning and had the day to play. We had visits on Wednesday and Thursday, and then checked out of our hotel on Friday morning to head for Vina del Mar. While in Santiago, we explored the city, rode the metro, took taxis, saw the temple, went shopping, and visited Banco Santander and the U.S. Embassy.

Our first company visit was to Banco Santander--the fourth largest bank in the world.

This is a picture of me and Brittney in the cool bridge/building connector thing between Banco Santander business buildings...

Banco Santander is on the left. That bridge/walkway thing is awesome! We went and stood inside it and took a gazillion pictures.

Lunch break!

Lauren, Eddie, me, Kristina

Sam, me, Lauren, and Derrik riding on the bus from Banco Santander to the U.S. Embassy... and playing cards. :) It's so fun to ride the bus throughout the city, we get to see some amazing things. I love just looking at everything in the city as we drive along--there's just SO much to look at!!!

Maren and I after our visit to the US Embassy in Chile!

That was one of my favorite visits so far.

Eddie and I on the way to a company visit.

We ride this sweet bus everywhere we go. We have this great guide named Marcello who is a Chilean native and tells us these great things about the city, etc.

We visited this mineral production/manufacturing company to see their operations and processes. This company produces rubber and its products go to mines and fisheries. We took a tour of their plant, and listened to a presentation. They were awesome hosts and it was fascinating! This is Sam and I sporting the safety goggles at our visit to Weir Minerals.

Safety first.

ai lot yu!

The view of Santiago, from the hill of Cerra Saint Lucia.

Cerra Saint Lucia, where Santiago was first founded.

During some free hours, we walked to the Santiago temple!

It took like 30 minutes to walk there from our hotel... and 10 minutes and 500 pesos to take thet taxi back home afterward, haha! It was way cool. It was on the side of a busy Santiago street, but it was awesome because as soon as you stepped onto the temple grounds, you just felt peace, quiet, calm, safety. There were tons of cars and traffic etc all around, but everything was peaceful on the temple grounds.


The back temple grounds were my favorite, soo pretty!

Jake, Chris, Jaquie, Maren, me, Lauren, Will

Dinner at the pizzaria!

Maren's pizza had bananas and mine had cherries. Way good.

Brent got some crazy pizza... with fried eggs on top!

It must have not been too bad cuz he ate the whole thing!

Jaquie and I had a blue bathroom. :)


Santiago was amazing!

-darcy

Chile Day 1!

Derek and I on the way to Salt Lake airport!

It's 4:30 a.m., but we don't mind. Look at the excitement! ;)

Team #1 is awesome! :)

Justin, me and Rob at the Salt Lake airport.

We bombarded the bag check around 6:30.

Me and Kyle in the LA airport before we head to South America and he flies to Asia! :)

Lauren and I at the LA airport before flying our separate ways. :)

Maren and I on the plane!

We arrived in Santiago around 5:30 Tuesday morning.

Me at the airport, just off the plane. Finally! :)

Lauren and I with our stamped passports!! :)

Our first day we went around the city and went on this cool cable-car thing up a mountain.

Matt, Derrik, Shannon, me, Lauren, Eddie

Chris, Sam, Ross

When we got to the top, we could looked over the entire city. It is HUGE and beautiful.

This is a huge statue of Saint Mary on top of a huge mountian above the spot where the city was founded. Cool! It's beautiful. It lights up at night. We hiked to the top.

Santiago.
Santiago.

Cool building.
There was actually a huge group of people protesting outside. We saw like three separate protests on this Tuesday--I guess Chilleans like to protest about anything.
The architecture here is beautiful!

And the palm trees are great also. Love them!

Hello! We went to a little restaurant for lunch and look what we found! License plates from various U.S. states, including IDAHO! :) Lauren and I are Idaho girls, so hello, we were very excited. Idaho plates in Santiago, Chile!! :)

Eddie and I tried this mysterious hot sauce!

I was scared, but it was way good! muy bueno! :)

Um... first day was successful! :)

This is is awesome!

-darcy-

HEY! So, I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm trying out this whole "blog" thing for the summer. I hope it works! :-D

So, this summer I'm participating in a study abroad program. I'll be traveling with a group of about 35 other students and faculty members for five weeks throughout Chile, Brazil, and Peru. I gotta try out this "insert picture" thing, sooo here's a picture of South America... ;)

Cool. Okay sooo, we start the adventure in just a few days! On Monday, May 25th at 6:30 a.m., I'm flying to LA, then to Santiago, Chile! It's a 12-13-or-14 hour flight from LA to Santiago, which I'm trying not to think about, because it totally freaks me out!! :-/ That being said, I'm super excited for the amazing experiences we'll have this summer! This is something very new and outside my comfort zone, so I'm excited to really learn, grow and expand my thinking, skills, education, and whole sense of self.

Anyway, YAY! I'm excited. Love y'all! Wish me luck!

xoxo

-darcy