Cerro San Cristobal

Yesterday I went to Cerro San Cristobal, a hill in the centro of Santiago, to see the sunset.  To get to the top of the hill, you have to either take a funicular, or hike up.  Since we had a late start, we took the funicular route... after I was up there, I realized JUST how much smog is in Santiago.  It's pretty visible every day, but when I got up to the top and the sun had gone down, there was an orange haze that covered the entire city.  It was still a beautiful view, though, and from up there I could see the entire city of Santiago, the Andes, and the mountains that border the ocean to the west.

At the top of Cerro San Cristobal is a giant statue of the Virgin Mary that lights up at night.  I can see the statue from my house during all times of the day.  The pictures shown above are (in order):

1) The Virgin Mary, lit up at night

2) Santiago at night

3) Some people from my program and I standing in front of the Virgin Mary

4) Santiago right before sunset (I'm not sure why the pictures were uploaded with this one near the end, but I'm too lazy to fix them)

5) The only flower on the top of Cerro San Cristobal :)

Let's see... in other news, about 40 of the people from my program and I went to a restaurant called California Cantina last night to celebrate the 4th of July.  Needless to say we all had a really good time, and it was nice to have some good food...!  California Cantina was established by 2 California students who studied abroad in Santiago a few years ago and loved it so much that they stayed and opened their own restaurant!  Although I asked if I could get a discount for being an "authentic" Californian (I even had my license!), the waiters wouldn't oblige. 

I'm starting my second week of Spanish class tomorrow.  The class I'm taking is actually helping me a lot, although it's hard to be in school when I feel like I'm on vacation.  I have definitely been noticing an improvement in my Spanish, though, which I'm super excited about.

Hopefully my next post will include some pictures of my host family and house for everyone to see.  I tried taking a picture at dinner tonight but it's just hard to get everyone together!  I am really enjoying living with them, but I think I am going to move out at the end of my language program to find a cheaper living situation... because, after all, my intention is to travel as much as I can after this semester before I go home, and I'm going to need to save as much money as I can!

That's it for my update!  It's short, but I have a pile of homework that I need to finish before tomorrow!  Happy 4th of July to everyone in the states! :)