Los cinco gringos

So I didnt put up a new blog post yesterday because in all honesty I didnt really do anything yesterday. I was a little under the weather and the weather was pretty shitty so nothing happened. Today however was a great day. I've come to the realization that each day I am learning infinitely more Chilean spanish (which I'll talk more about in a bit) and I am really starting to understand where I am. We had an in depth conversation about Pinochet in class today and it really woke me up to the fact that I'm not just away from home but I am somewhere completely different. After class I had lunch with my mom and talked for hours about everything it seemed. But it was awesome. Then in the true Chilean way I met up with the cinco gringos about a half an hour after we were supposed to but whatever. There is absolutely no rush down here which is great. As for the cinco gringos, that is the name we have come up with for our group of IFSA Butler intermediate students. I'm so lucky to have a group as awesome as the four other people I am studying with. I could not have asked for a better mix of people. So I met up with the cinco gringos and we headed to the beach to explore our home town of vina del mar. It was a gorgeous day, the first real warm day of late winter early spring, and everyone came out today. We had our first encounter with gypsies as the program coordinator had warned us. Because it was such a nice day we had to stick our feet in the water, and although it was super cold it felt so good. It was crazy to see the different people on the beach, from skimboarders, to freestyle gymnasts doing flips off sandbags to urban bike performers, and of course the dogs. I dont know if I've talked about the dogs hear yet but they are everywhere. Tons of dogs live on the streets and follow you wherever you go. They arent bothersome they are just everywhere. Expect for the one dog that lives at the bottom of my hill. He is domesticated but still the most annoying thing ever. I have yet to walk past his house at any hour of the day without him barking like theres no tomorrow. Whatever. So the walk on the beach turned into an exploration of the town and all the backstreets through vina. Then we met up with some other DU folk and went back down to the water for the sunset. It was unreal. If anyone looked at my facebook pictures you can tell that I was kind of obsessed with the sunset tonight. Then we headed home for the night. More talking with the family and some dinner and that was the day. All in all a great day here in Vina/Valpo. Oh and one last thing. I am quickly learning that chilean spanish is nothing like Spanish Spanish, Mexican Spanish, American (high school spanish) or really any other spanish. They have different words for everything and its basically like I never knew anything. But Asi es la vida no? Yo muero de ganas ver los proximos cinco meses.