So along with me, and Mara, my roommate who went to school at UNC, our other 2 roommates that just moved in are from Colroado, along with a guy in our Spanish class, Nunu, from Denver and another dude from Longmont! I guess Colorado is just cool like that-

Well yesterday was a whirlwind of a day. We were at the International Center by 9:30am where we met Nunu, Michael and Peter; 3 guys that are apart of the program doing different internships in the area. We had an orientation together to go over schedules of work, classes etc. and then we took a bus to the Casablanca region for a tour at Vina Mar (apx. 40 mins away) The tour was led by my soon to be director, Diego- and Holy Shit! I have never heard anyone spit out words faster than Diego. Not to mention that Chileans have decided to just drop the ‘d’ and ‘s’ from their vocabulary, they must not think those letters of the alphabet are necessary…on the contrary I DO! This makes understanding Chilean Spanish pretty difficult. And when someone like Diego speaks Super rapido, it’s even worse. Luckily I understood some of the wine vocab he was using and the processes he was describing so I could hang on pretty well. After the tour, we tasted their Reserva Especial Sauvignon Blanc and their Reserva Especial Cabernet Sauvignon. Both were really nice. It was a deliciously structured SB that held up in your mouth with savory flavors of tropical fruit and notes of citrus rind. It didn’t fall flat or short. It lingered with crisp acidity and left your mouth watering for more! And since it was hot and sunny out, it was a definite dos thumbs up. (was that an annoying enough description for all the anti-cork-dorks out there?) I could have stayed to finish a bottle myself out on the white balcony of the beautiful winery…but moving on: I am still working with my director from the language center and Diego to see when exactly I will start working at the winery. It could be as early as Monday or in a few weeks in late February.

            Today, Tuesday, was our first day of classes. We were there for 3-4 hours going over tenses and Chilenismos, (local terms and expressions only used in Chile) -like how to say ‘drunk’, ‘blacked-out’ or not to use ‘to eat’ in a reflexive tense because it means ‘to have sex with’ or other dirty things…ya know, very important day to day precautions and crucial vocabulary. We finished around 5:30 and I have been relaxing at the casa. I finally got the hang of Picasa, an online photo viewer by Google, so I am going to upload all my photos to that. There is a slideshow area at the top right of my blog and if you click on it, it will take you to Picasa and you can see all my web albums there. It is about 9:00pm and I am getting ready to go meet up with some amigos from class to check out this all you can eat pizza and sushi place that we saw by the beach…wait for the reviews on that hot spot tomorrow!

            Anyway, another day and things keep getting better (except for the fact that I have started to see more male mullets than I would like)

            CHAO!