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Published: January 21st 2008
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CEPAL
I promise I acted a little more excited to be there than I look ¡hola a todos! I am finally getting used to life here in Santiago. I am SO glad to finally be into classes and such. Both classes are really great and not too difficult. Usually, after class each day, I try to do something in the city other than just homework. Last week I went to a really cool museum, ¨El Museo Nacional Histórico¨ It was really well done and learned all about Chilean history. The coolest thing in the museum, in my opinion, were the glasses of Allende (Chile´s president in the early 70´s who apparently killed himself before Pinochet threw a military coup) The glasses were broken and were sitting in an empty white showcase all by themselves. To think that those were what Allende was wearing the day he die, it was very powerful.
This past weekend was great. I not only had fun, but I feel like I accomplished so much in getting over my fears of speaking Spanish. Let´s see, where to begin. On Thursday night, we had our first ¨carrete¨ (not sure if i´m spelling that right) it´s basically what the chilean´s call ¨the night life¨. Within our Furman group were are divided in to
El Diablo!
Can you see the devil? He´s the shadow on the back wall smaller groups of about 4 or 5 students. We have an assigned ¨tutora¨ (tutor) who is basically a Chilean student around our age. Their jobs are to take us out once a week so we can experience Chile from the eyes of someone our own age. My tutora´s name is Ana María, she is really sweet. At first, i was a little nervous about going out with everyone, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. Ana María took us to a lounge called ¨the Sofa¨ and invited a couple of her other friends. It was a really cool place- they had a patio outside with living room furniture painted all funky colors. We hung out there till about midnight just hanging out and talking to our new Chilean friends. After the lounge, they took us to a discotech where we danced till about 2 in the morning. Apparently, that was still pretty early for the Chileans and the place wasn´t even packed yet. (Crazy, i know, i don´t know how these people do it)
The next morning we had to wake up REALLY early (After a very long night) to go to CEPAL. It´s basically the
The Vineyard
Me in the vineyard with my first taste test. It was quite yummy. Not really sure why I can drink three tests of wine and be fine, but when I drink one piscosour at a club I get tipsy. interesting. United Nations of South America. It was interesting, but not gonna lie, wasn´t my favorite. Friday afternoon a group of us also went to vineyard right outside of Santiago called ¨Concha y Torro¨. Some of you may have even had this wine in the US. It was really pretty and they we got a tour, three samples of wine, and a complimentary wine glass to keep. Needless to say, it was fun. The one interesting story about this vineyard was that when it was first built the owner had some trouble with the towns´children stealing the winde. So, he made up a story that the devil haunted his cellar. That worked for a while, but then it started happening again, so he told the town (who of course were superstitious) that if you saw the devil in the cellar, you would have seven years of bad luck. That seemed to work. To play along with the story, the vineyard even has one corner of the cellar set up with red lights, and when you look down the hall, you can see the ¨shadow¨ of the devil. Cute little addition. Friday night, after a busy day, I went to a jazz
what...?
ok, i know this is not culturally significant, but it´s hilarious. this is what we were thinking when we went on the hike with all the crazy people. concert in the park. You had to pay to get in, but if you sat across the river that divided the park, you could hear and see the music all the same. So we just brought towels and chilled on the grass on the other side of the river. It was nice and relaxing.
Saturday was another adventure. I had read in my guide book about a place called Cajon del Maipo. I couldn´t really make sense if it was a city or what, but there was a park there with an all day hike in it that i decided would be a lot of fun. Emily, Lauren, and I met a the end of the metro Saturday morning to go. The first part was trying to find a taxi colective (a taxi that you share with other people and is MUCH cheaper) to take us there. Well, come to find out from this nice little lady, where I wanted to go you could only get there by bus. And there was only one bus that left at 8:30 in the morning. It was 11. So, we decided to change plans a little and go to a town called
Cascada de Animas
As the story goes, if i understood it all, there was an earthquake that killed all the animals and then the next day the water appeared. Appaerntly, people have also seen animals or the spirit of animals falling from the waterfall. i don´t get it either San Alfonso, where there was some more hiking. We ended up in a park called ¨Cascada de las Animas¨ (Animal Waterfall) It was kinda pricy for just a one hour hike and it ended up being kinda bizarre. I guess I was expecting quite solitude through the forest, but this hike was like a circus. There was about 40 people, babies crying, women wearing HIGH HEEL SANDALS as we are hiking up the side of the mountain. I just kept laughing the whole time cause I thought it was absurd. When we finally reached the waterfall, it was pretty. I´ll give them that. When we were done with the hike it was only 2 o´clock and we had told the taxi driver not to pick us up till 6. So we decided it would be an adventursome ? idea to walk from San Alfonso back to San Jose, where the taxi driver could pick us up there. HAHA, funniest thing ever. We walked three hours along a Chilean road through the mountainous country side. Not gonna lie, i felt like the epitome of the traveling college student. It was fun, though. We stopped at a playground, found some three week
Hiking back to San Jose
It was hot and long, but so worth it. Never felt more proud of myself. And my legs will be steel by the time I come back to the States. old puppies (which i shipped home to you mom, that ok?) and got to see a lot of the countryside. By the time we got to San Jose, it was 5:30. So we ought ourselves some well deserved ice cream (p.s. Chilean ice cream kicks butt) and chilled in the plaza till our taxi man came for us. It was a great experience. It made me finally get over my fear of doing things without the Furman group. I even talked to the taxi driver in Spanish for 45 minutes and he told me he could understand. It was very rewarding.
Well, that´s been all my adventures so far. Sunday I just hung out at the pool and did my homework. It was relaxing after such a crazy weekend. This coming weekend we are going to Valparaíso, which is a beach city. Can´t wait! Hasta luego!
Chao
Megan
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