Week 17

Finals week! Most of my free time this week was spent studying and preparing for my final exams, so I can't say that I did anything amazingly exciting, but it was still an enjoyable week in Santiago, surrounded by wonderful friends.

On Thursday after class, a bunch of friends and I went to a newly opened mall. The claim to fame? It is the tallest mall in South America! The building was extremely overdone, but really cool in its modernity: highlights included store assistance with iPads, electronic directories that looked and functioned like an oversized iPod touch, and fountains that fell in colors as well as designs, ranging from simple circles to dolphins to words. It was really expensive so I ended up only making one purchase: a McFlurry at the food court. Typically I am not an advocate for buying American products in other countries, but this was unique, because the ice cream was mixed with the standard M&Ms, as well as manjar! (A Chilean food.) It was quite delicious.

The weekend brought a bit of a heat wave, so on Saturday when I went out to check out some stores I dressed more appropriately for summer than winter, but being from the East coast I didn't feel cold. However, a concerned abuelita stopped me on the street to lecture me about wrapping up in the winter! (She had on about 3 sweaters herself, in 70degree weather.)

Sunday I officially finished any official activities for classes with my chorus concert! It was a lot of fun to get to sing in the temple on campus and hear the acoustical difference, as well as listen to the other sections. We finished it off with the entire 7 sections of chorus singing "Cuando Calienta el Sol" in unison, a feat that sounded awesome.

While I'm happy to be done with the burden of classes, it's really sad for me to think that I won't see the majority of the friends I made in class again, since I typically only saw them during class. However, with any luck we'll be able to meet up once vacation starts!