Update from Chile

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I am staying pretty busy here between work and trying to learn the city. On Friday afternoon I went with some girls from work (one from Texas, one from Puerto Rico, one from Spain) to a part of town called Patronato. It's sort of like Chinatown in New York...the streets are lined with vendors selling all sorts of things. We went for the purpose of getting costumes (or "disfraces" in Spanish) for Halloween. My friend who is from Texas is having a Halloween party at her apartment on Friday...I hope I can get some good pictures because I think there are going to be some great costumes.

When I wasn't working on grad school this weekend, I got out and saw more of Santiago. Here are some pictures:
Fluor's main office is right in the middle of the picture - this was taken from my friend's balcony at her apartment

Feels like home, haha

Shoe shining is popular here - right in the middle of the street...this one charges 500 Chilean pesos, which is about $1 USD

View from my room

Part of my dinner Friday night at Piola - they serve avocado with everything here

The big news from today is that we had a small earthquake in Chile! I was getting ready for my trip to the winery when all of a sudden I felt the building shaking. I waited for a second, then it started shaking again. I heard the windows creaking while it was happening. I wasn't quite sure that it was an earthquake, but the staff at breakfast confirmed that they felt it too.

Today I visited a local winery just outside of the city. It was really neat, and I took plenty of pictures. I'll write about that early this week when I have some time.

Time to webcam with Zack and Sadie...hope everyone had a great weekend!

Ciao!