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I woke up this morning to the sound of people coming from the streets. I stepped out onto our private balcony outside the hotel room in Valparaiso, the largest port city in Chile. At sight, the spectacular hillsides were dotted with a variety of colorful houses. In a distance, the beautiful bay was sparked with a series of peculiar boats. I checked the date and cheered myself up immediately. Yay! It's Saturday. I really looked forward to cruising away in the afternoon. Oh no! I had to go shopping for a pair of goggles right now because I left them at home.

We headed for the downtown area shortly after 9 O'clock. Valparaiso was terrifically famous for steep rolling hills and seemed a lot worse than Lombard Street in San Francisco, CA. Funiculars ran around its historic quarter which had been designed as a UNESCO Heritage Site. What made me worry the most was that the entire city practically looked like an enormous 3-D maze with dead ends here and there. We backtracked twice while navigating the streets. A number of arterial surface roads radiated from the city center and stretched out along the coastline. Up the hills, we touched the sky. Down the hills, we dived into the bay. Apparently, there were no straight roads leading to any places in this world. One time, we had kept walking along a winding street and ended up almost in the countryside without even knowing it!

Finally, we arrived at the biggest department store Ripley in town and heard the worst news of the day. They didn't sell goggles!!! At that moment, I almost blacked out. I walked in despair back up the steep and twisting roads.

The taxi was waiting for us at the hotel and ready to send us off the port where our cruise ship- Princess Star docked. We packed and descended from the hillside to the seaside. As we passed through security, I watched a larger ship called Celebrity Infinity pull its cargo. It seemed at least two times bigger than ours!

As soon as we boarded the ship, hunger knocked me down. It was 2:00 PM and I hadn't had lunch yet! I ordered a chicken sandwich and gobbled it down so fast that I was not aware. Mom did not even have time to touch the fried marinated sole, one of her favorites. I was staring at crumbs in shock at a place where the sandwich had been moments ago. When I looked outside, I felt nostalgic and started to miss my home.

We went to play table tennis which I had been taking practice lessons in the past months. I competed against some other people and had quite close matches! A put-down about this place was that around noon, it got so hot that in a few minutes I must let out steam. My mom took an easy way and chickened out. Other than that, the ship had everything including a Jacuzzi. I probably needed it as the day came to the end.

【红霞译文】

早上被街道上传来的说话声吵醒，我推开房门来到专用凉台上四下观望：近处，五颜六色的土坯板房依山就势错落有致；远处，灰不溜秋的舰艇渔船傍湾靠港星罗棋布。嘿，今天是星期六！我喜出望外，早就盼望出海远洋这一天。糟糕！我得赶在登船之前上街买回游泳眼镜，家里现成的那副忘记随身带来。

九点过后我们出门朝闹市区方向走去，天堂谷素以山路陡峭著称，与加州旧金山九曲花街相比，恐怕有过之而无不及，称它为山城实无夸张之意，山即是城，城即是山。双轨缆车沿着大街小巷不知疲劳地爬上爬下，把“既处在一个地球板块漂移所形成的地理断层上，又完整地保留着世界海运变迁所留下的历史断层”定格在世界科教文组织《世界遗产名录》之中，最令我担心的是整个城市实际上像一个巨大无比的三维迷宫，稍不留意就会陷入死胡同，我们初来乍到人生地不熟，起码有两回彻底找不到北，因此走了不少冤枉路，如果以市中心为轴心，天堂谷山城如同一个圆形露天剧场，全方位向外伸展，蜿蜒狭窄错综复杂，我们上可登天，下能入海，脚下好像永远踩不到笔直平坦的道路。记得有一次，我们沿市区一条主要大街行走，本以为照直走下去肯定能到达目的地，结果花了老半天时间也未走到头，要不是感觉越走越偏僻，我们还不知道自己迷失了方向。

我们好不容易找到全城最大的芦苇甸百货大楼，哪曾想晴天霹雳，那里根本不卖游泳眼镜！！！听后我顿觉天昏地暗，差点没晕倒在地，回来的路上我情绪十分低落。

回到旅馆不久，出租车便来到门口等候我们，我们将行李打包装车，从半山腰盘旋而下，直入“公主·星辰”号游轮停靠的码头，过了安检部门我看到“精致·无极” 号游轮正在装卸货物，那艘船比我们的至少要大出两倍来！

一上船我才意识到自己已经饿得前胸贴后背，下午两点钟尚未顾得上吃顿午饭！我点了一份鸡肉三明治，三口两口吞到肚子里面，妈妈竟没来得及夹上一筷子自己喜欢吃的油煎偏口鱼。我盯着面前掉的残渣碎末，不觉倒吸了一口气，几分钟前手中握有三明治，眨眼间就变得什么也没有了，这时我转向窗外张望，思乡之情油然而生。

吃罢午餐我们一起去打乒乓球，我已有两、三个月的球龄，这回跟不少人交手，比分相当接近！说起来这个球场有一个缺陷，中午前后打上几分钟，我就会汗流浃背，妈妈见状躲得远远的。除此而外，游轮样样不错，包括水力按摩浴缸，今天临睡觉前我大概需要享用一下。

Today in History(历史上的今天):

2010: 二年级螺旋教学法(Spiral Approach)

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