Valpo and Vina

Just thought I'd let you know how things are going...  Orientation is fun so far but VERY thorough, I think we're all kinda wishing that we could be a little more independent and start a "normal" schedule.  Still I guess it's good to help us out and create a support network.  We've been staying in Vina del Mar at a neat little hotel pretty close to the downtown area.  Yesterday we went into Valparaiso for the first time and we took a boat tour through the harbor which was an awesome way to orient ourselves to the two cities.  

Valpo and Vina are much closer together than I thought they would be the dividing line is relatively ambiguous and la Casa SIT is right on the 'border' between the two which will be nice.  While I haven't met my host family yet I got the address and it looks like I'm living about 4 blocks from the beach in Vina, pretty close to where we've been spending our time during orientation.  It's a little disappointing not to be in Valpo, especially now that we've seen Valpo because Vina is definitely more modern and not anywhere near as pretty, but getting back and forth seems like it will be easy enough and they split the group pretty evenly between the two cities so it's not like I'm alone.

Today we had a drop off which was basically an assignment where we had to go and learn about a place, a food and a couple chilean words that they gave us.  We were split up into groups of two and I got to go with Laura (who is also my roommate for this first weeks which was fun).

We found the place really easily it was the Ascensor El Peral which is actually a funicular like the ones in Barcelona, only older. We got to ride it up to the top for 100 pesos which is about 20 cents which is really great because we got to feel totally touristy for almost no money.  Valpo is known for its Acensores (there are 15, but only 8 are currently in operation) and it's neat because they are definitely used for transportation as well as tourism. Some have been in operation since the beginning of the century and they still use basically the same technology although they run on electricity instead of being powered by animals. Valpo/Vina del Mar has a really good public transportation system and I'm excited to get more familiar with it.