Soy bandito de ping pong

This past weekend we went to Viña again to look for a practice drum pad. Unfortunately we found out that most stores are closed on Sundays so we hung out in the mall since it was cool inside and ate at Burger King. It was pretty good. It tasted pretty much like it does at home. Afterwards we walked along the beaches in the sand and tested out the waters. The water is surprisingly cold! The waves are huge and start close to the shore so no one actually goes swimming; they only wade. People only go about 50 yards into the water because the waves are so big. I think the lifeguard actually yells at you if you go any further.

We walked all along the beaches. The cold water actually felt refreshing after we stood in the sun for a bit. It was in the low 80s that day. Each beach had some sand sculptures artists had made. There was a mermaid, octopus, dolphins, Homer Simpson, and an elephant. They were really detailed.We went back to Viña the next day after class to go to the music stores and to go shoe shopping. Apparently everyone in Chile is a naturally gifted drummer because nobody sold practice pads. We did end up finding running/walking shoes though and for a decent price. We ate at a German place in Viña near one of the plazas. Their burgers were huge!!! We didn't know they were so big or we would have split one. I could only eat half of my burger and I was starving.
Anyway, today was my favorite day of class so far. We got to go on a field trip around town to the Caleta de Pescadores, Mercado de Mariscos, and the Mercado. Patricia, our teacher, and another guy that was her friend were our guides. We took the bus to Portales, which was a pretty scary ride. Then we walked to where the old school fishermen are near the beach. Patricia talked with a man and woman who were preparing for the next day. I found it very interesting even though the smell was hard to handle at first. I wasn't really paying attention to what the man was saying but Jeff and I talked with Patricia's friend about the fishing industry. I found out you don't have to have a fishing permit.

After interviewing the fisherman we walked along their boats, which were surprisingly small, and saw their catches for the day. They sell them right off the boat. Patricia's friend showed me a fish called Serrio that looked cool. It had sharp teeth and the fisherman showed me his mauled hand. Another fisherman there caught a huge one. Over a foot and a half long!

We then walked to the Mercado de Mariscos which was under the same roof as the Pescadores. That was my favorite part. It was basically a seafood market with a wide variety of seafood. If anyone comes down to visit us we can get super fresh seafood for a reasonable price. The market had serrios, reinatas, salmon, tuna, mussels, clams, and this thing called piures. At first I thought they were some kind fish gut but after I googled them I found out they were sea squirts. Don't they look delicious?
After the fish market we walked over to the mercado. It's basically similar to Pike Place Market except they sell only fruits and veggies. I was amazed at the quantity of each type of fruit and veggie they had and for really cheap. They had all these things I've never seen before too. Patricia's friend told me what a lot of them were called in Spanish and described how they tasted but I don't know what they're called in English. At the market they had two different type of corn on the cobs. There were Americanos, which were like the corn on the cobs we buy at our grocery stores. Then there were Humeros. These were basically Americanos but on steroids. They were about 3 times as thick and twice as large. I'm not really sure if they taste any different.

At the market on the third floor there were a bunch of restaurants so we all ate at one for lunch. I just got papas y mayo (a potato salad). It was good, but it just tasted like potatoes. I thought it was interesting that they sprinkled cilantro on it. After lunch we walked to Plaza Ecuador to take a collectivo. It was really nice not being in the classroom. I could talk to my classmates in English, though we did try to converse in Spanish whenever possible. At lunch we talked a lot in Spanish since the teachers were there. Our class: from L-R: Jeff, me, Emma, Marie, Robert, and Christian.

At Plaza Ecuador Patricia and her friend rode with me, Jeff, Christian, Emma, and Marie in a collectivo to Pablo Neruda's house. Pablo Neruda was a Chilean poet who won a Nobel Peace prize for literature and he was an ambassador for Chile in a lot of different countries. His house is now a museum and was quite interesting. I liked the way his rooms were designed and he had an awesome view from his living room. You could pretty much see the entire downtown of the city. His house was four stories and was filled with all kinds of paintings, statues, maps, and mosaics. He basically designed his interior and his friends built it. I was surprised at how modern it was.

Tomorrow we move into our new apartment and are excited. Though we will miss our landlord here, Alfredo. Once we move in we'll put up a video tour or something of our new place. I hope that our apartment will come with a tv so I can watch my new favorite show The Backyardigans. It's a kids show on Discovery Kids about these 4 animals and 1 insect who are computer animated and they basically imagine that they're in different places. It's all in Spanish but I enjoy watching it because I can understand a lot of what they talk about and I learn new words. Last night I watched an episode where the penguin was a ping pong bandit (hence the title, it was one of his lines) and the cricket sheriff had to beat him to win back everyone's ping pong paddles. Then they all sang together and went home for lunch. I think the show is very popular here because I see a lot of little kids with Backyardigan backpacks and they sell a lot of notebooks with them on the cover. Here's a clip from the show in Spanish: