Dunkin'

I have been really enjoying Valdivia! Shout out to the blog post that I read that recommended Valdivia. I think Valdivia is not super popular for tourists outside of Chile but there are lots of Chilean tourists here right now. It is still summer break so there are lots of families and couples traveling and hanging out here. Last week I worked all week and some of the students were challenging. I also went to a coworking space during the week because the Wi-Fi at my Airbnb is not the best. And then on Friday it was Valentine's Day! My motivation all week was to make it to Friday and then I could go to Dunkin' Donuts. I woke up and jumped out of bed. I went to Dunkin' and got an iced vanilla latte and two heart shaped donuts. I went to a nearby park to read and enjoy my treats. While I was in the park a man walked up to me. I had seen him on the corner selling flowers for Valentine's Day. He started talking to me and motioned to give a rose to me. I said no thanks because I thought he was selling them to me but then I'm pretty sure that he explained that he wanted to give it to me for free because he set it down next to me and just walked away. Made my whole day! Then I spent the rest of the day cracked out on all of the sugar and caffeine. 

This weekend I explored more of the city center, and I also discovered a botanical garden. There's a university campus here and I ended up walked around there. They have a rally large botanical garden on the campus, so I spend a while on Sunday just hanging out there. It was really cool! Because I didn't have to work on Monday due to President's Day, I went on a boat tour. It left from Valdivia and then we went to Corral and Isla Mancera. It was kinda fancy because we got lunch and afternoon tea while on the boat so that was really fun. When we went to Corral, we watched a reenactment of a battle. This cracked me up because it was a bunch of teenage boys dressed up in old soldiers' uniforms and then they were all pretend fighting each other and pretending to be wounded. I literally couldn't help but laugh out loud. Then in Mancera we walked around this historical site that had some ruins. It was pretty cool! It was all in Spanish, so I did not understand all of it, but I think I got a lot of the general ideas. And I was sat at a table with two Chilenos. They were from outside Santiago, and they were really nice. They made me realize what is hard for me about the Chilean accent; sometimes they omit the s sound. For example, when asking "te gusta" they would say "te guta". I have also noticed this when people go to say "gracias" they often times will say "gracia". So interesting! And it's not everybody or all the time, just sometimes. Enough to keep me on my toes. But the boat tour was really fun and so worth it to get to go on a boat and explore the area a bit more. 

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I am going to be in Valdivia for the rest of this week and then I am headed to a different town in Chile. Valdivia is such a surprising win. I didn't know why I felt like I wanted to come here so bad, but I am glad that I have. I feel like I've gotten a chance to see what life is like here and it is my first town in this region that is not super touristic. Like there is still tourism but there's a lot of local, normal life as well.