Vina del Mar

The last few days of my trip are now here and I can hardly believe it!! Since my last blog so much has happened that it will be hard to put it into words. The rest of sunday and monday I spent packing and hanging out with my host sister and parents. Then it was monday night and time to go to the bus station. Our bus left at 9:30 at night to head back to Santiago but we all met at 8:30. The hour of waiting was such a mix of emotions. On one hand I was very excited to come to Vina and then be that much closer to home but I was also sad about leaving my host family and all of the wonderful people that I met in Valdivia. In the three weeks that I stayed in Valdivia I got to know so many of the students from Windsor and even many of the parents of the different host families. So standing in the bus station with everyone together it was hard to tell how I was feeling, along with the thought that I might never see any of them every again. I felt like Valdivia was just starting to become part of me and then we left. All of these emotions were taking over when we all had to load our luggage and get on the bus. As the bus pulled out of the station all of our families were waving goodbye to us. The entire experience was one that I will never forget.
We then took the 10 hour bus ride back to Santiago and then 2 more hours to Vina, where it was cold and cloudy. Because of the unfortunate weather we ended up going shopping at the biggest mall I have ever seen, with 4 floors! We also found a very good open market with home jewelry ad clothes. Also on the beach there are sand artists that make sculptures in the sand that look amazing. Today and tomorrow we will just be relaxing at the beach, hopefully if the weather gets better, and then friday night we come HOME!!!! YAY! Have a great week getting ready for Christmas and I can't wait to see everyone!!!
The family picture we took my last night there :)