Santiago City Tour

Today we visited the city of Santiago. Upon arriving, we toured the Santiago Stock Exchange. I was surprised to learn that the Stock Exchange was started over one hundred years ago. After we were lectured about the history and relevance of the Santiago Stock exchange we visited the trading floor. There was next to no one down there because they have an electronic system. I was expecting to see a scene similar to the New York Stock Exchange, but this wasn’t the case. We really didn’t stay at the exchange for long, so afterwards we began our tour of the city. Our first stop was at the Chilean White House where the president works. Afterwards we went to the main square in Santiago, which was the origin of the city. Whenever Spain would create a new city, they centered it around a main square. The square was beautiful, and there was a very old and ornate church on the square as well. We spent a good twenty to thirty minutes in the church looking at all the details. It really reminded me of a church in Europe. After that we visited a museum that outlined the history of Chile. The museum was interesting but everything was in Spanish and there wasn’t anyone around to translate it for us. Its times like this that make me regret not being able to speak a foreign language. Anyway, the museum was fun and we went to a nice restaurant in a small market place for lunch. It was an all sea food establishment, and I’m not really fond of fish. So I ordered some shrimp, and just ate a bunch of rolls—all of the places in Chile have delicious and freshly made bread! After lunch we walked around the market place for a while to shop for some souvenirs. Then we rode off to this mountain that is located in the middle of the city and rode a very sketchy incline up to the summit—and I was quite nervous on the ride since I almost died on one yesterday! But I survived, and the view from the top was breathtaking—even with all the smog covering the city. It really in a shame because the city is so beautiful, but you can’t really get to appreciate it. We spent a good hour or two up there before heading down to a local street with a bunch of boutiques and shopped and got ice cream. Then we returned to the University for our first dance lesson. We learned how to dance rigatoni tonight, it was honestly like participating in a workout video, but it was a lot of fun. We then headed back to the hotel and I’m currently blogging and waiting to head out with the Chilean students later tonight.