Day 2! - Blogabond

Today has been a great day so far in Santiago! Luckily, because of our schedule, we were able to explore a little more of the city, and I am loving every second of it! This morning, we all woke up bright and early to go visit the U.S. Embassy. Before we left though, we grabbed a quick bite to eat in the hotel. One thing, I've noticed is that their breakfast is very different from the American style breakfast. Yes, they still had eggs and sausage, but they had also had a lot of fruit, toast, jam, and a few sweets... oh, and some cold cuts. But the best thing so far has been their coffee! It is much better than ours' back home.

Anyway, after we all ate, we started our walk to the Embassy, which is only a few blocks away from our hotel. Once we arrived at the gate, we waited outside as our guide spoke with the people at the Embassy. As it turned out, we were unable to visit at our schedule time because of an emergency town hall meeting called by the Ambassador. Yesterday, the Embassy had a breach in security in which a man that had gun powder and cell phones all over him attempted to entire the building. We left the Embassy and returned when their meeting was finished about an hour later. Drew, a foreign service officer, spoke to us about the relationship between the U.S. and Chile, in addition, to his own experience working in an Embassy. It was extremely interesting to hear is point of view about the Chilean-American relationship and how strong and mutually beneficial it is. We also asked him about how Chileans view Americans, and he said for the most part they don't really take notice in Americans all that much and that there isn't really a negative or positive view of us. However, as we've walked down the streets of Santiago we have encountered some very very nice people but have also received a few glares here and there.

After our visit at the Embassy, we left and a small group of us broke off to go eat lunch and explore the city more! We went to the top of San Cristobal hill, which was absolutely gorgeous! It overlooked the entire city, and we were able to really see how big Santiago is... 6 million people! We all just took pictures and hung out at the top...it was so serene and peaceful. Unfortunately, the sky was filled with some smog so it was a little difficult to see everything. To get to the park, we had to go through the university neighborhood, which was very different from the business area we are staying in. It was definitely interesting seeing another part of the city.

Now, we're just getting ready to go to our Welcome Dinner here. Then another full day of company visits and speakers! We'll keep you all update!!

Night from Santiago,
Bailey

written by

SantiagoFellows on May 11, 2010 from Santiago, Chile

from the travel blog: SantiagoFellows's Travel Blog

Send a Compliment

comment on this...