Monday

While we're in Valparaiso we are running a summer camp for a school up the street.  The kids are 8-13 years old and super cute.  Monday we had our first day.  The school itself is really cool.  You basically walk into a giant courtyard and the classrooms surround it.  There are basketball hoops and soccer goals and some bleachers.  Soccer is really popular here and most of the kids were playing it when we got in.

We went into the library (that University of Maryland helped build) and introduced ourselves and the kids introduced themselves.  The kids basically picked us from a line-up like a kickball game.  Mi amigo is a really cute little boy named Jesus.  He was wearing dress pants and a dress shirt with a vest.  All of the girls had on really cute outfits and were really pretty.  Definitely not what I looked like at 13.  We all played dodgeball outside for a long time.  There is certainly a language barrier but the kids are pretty understanding and try to help us.  The day went really fast and the kids left around 2.

Our professor is good friends with a man named Christian who owns a glass shop in Valparaiso.  He is a really cool guy and is helping us make some mosaics for the school.  Christian brought us all to this restaurant that was really good and really cheap.  3,500 pesos (about 7 dollars) for a 4 course meal.

After food Christian took a few of us all over Valparaiso.  I can't say enough about how pretty this city is.  The hills are basically straight up and down.  We did so much walking.  Our thighs are going to be ridiculous when we get back.  They have little trains that go up and down some of the mountains but the one we went to was closed so we walked up.  The top had a great view of the city and got to see a lot more of the cool graffiti.   A man at the top of the hill played the accordion and sang we no speak americano to us.

Last night Christian and our professor got us tickets to this modern dance show.  I'm not very artsy and I guess I didn't really "get" it, but the dancers were really talented and the music was cool.

More pictures!