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Published: February 7th 2008
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Isla Negra
The view from Neruda´s house Hola a todos! I can´t believe that I leave Chile in exactly two weeks! The time here has been flying by, but at the same time, when i think back on what we´ve done, it feels like we´ve been here for a year.
Let´s see...where did I leave off? Last Friday we went together as a group to Isla Negra. It´s a beach town where the Pablo Neruda´s third house is located (and where he and his third wife´s, Matile, graves are). I think out of all three of his houses that I´ve seen (I feel like a Neruda professional now) I like Isla Negra the best. It was RIGHT on the rocky coast and was absolutely amazing. From all of his windows was the perfect view of the ocean crashing against the rocks. It was breathtaking. Inside the house he had more of his wacky collections. Apparently he really liked the the female figurines that are on the front of ships (sorry, i´m having more and more trouble remembering enlgish names for things) Inside the house were about 40 of these wooden women, all from different places. He also had a bug collection (gross), an African mask collection, little
Pueblitos de los Dominicanos
This is the Dominican church where our mom took us on Saturday. Unfortunately, you could only look inside at certain hours, so I didn´t get to see it. ships in glass bottles, sea shells, and miniature guitars. talk about random. it was really cool though. After the tour we walked around outside for a while and went and sat on the giant rocks by the sea. No wonder he was such a famous poet; with a view like that I could even be inspired to write poetry!
After Isla Negra, we drove to another little town called Pomaire. This town is known for it´s ceramics. You could by pots and pans for about three bucks. Crazy. That night we went back to Santiago and hung out with some friends at Parque Arauco, where they have live jazz music and tons of restaurants.
Saturday our mamá took us to a place at the edge of town called los Pueblitos de los Dominicanos. It is a Catholic church with sort of a miniature art town next to it. We looked around ate some delicious empanadas. Later that afternoon we met up with two of our friends at Cerro San Cristobal. This is one of the giant hills in Santiago and a huge tourist attraction. We´d been to the zoo there, but we´d never taken the funicular up to
Neruda´s house
Part of the house, this one wasn´t as crazy as the the others. the top to see the Virgin Mary Statue that is on top. It was fun riding up in the giant wooden car, and then we took a ski lift kinda thing across the hill (when I say hill, I´m talking like one of our miniature mountains). We didn´t get a whole lot of time to look around cause there were really long lines and we were afraid we wouldn´´t get down before it closed, but the rides across gave us some great views of the city. After that we met up with the Furman group at a restaurant called El Txoco. It was a Spanish tapas place, and the food was amazing. We were celebrating Dr. Cass´ wife´s birthday. Afterwards, she even came out to a bar with us!!
On Sunday I went to mass in the Cathedral in Plaza de Armas for my trip project. (I´m doing mine on Chileans attitudes toward the Catholic Church). It was a pretty mass, but it felt like a zoo. People milling around everywhere, wearing shorts, taking pictures- one woman sitting across from us even answered her phone and had a conversation during mass!!! I couldn´t believe it! It was definnitely an
Telefórico
The view from riding across San Cristobal. At first, we all thought we were going to die. But luckily, we didn´t. experience.
Sunday night we all went to Dr. Cass´ apartment to watch the super bowl! It was so much fun cause we got to eat pizza and chips and fatty foods and speak in English the whole night! The only bummer was we didn´t get American commercials. It was kinda ironic that the ONLY commercials they would play were Chilean soccer commercials, and during an American football game. So, I didn´t really pay attention that much till the last minute when the Giants scored and things actually got interesting! I was pullig for the underdogs, so I left happy!
Monday started our final full week of school. I only have two more days left of classes!! haha. Monday night, however, Emily and I went to some Chileans´apartment for dinner. Some of you know my Uncle John. He lived in Santiago for a month one year and befriended a Chilean named Cris (although he´s actually Argentinian and lives in Chlie) and his Chilean wife Suzanna. He told me I should get in touch with them while I was here. At first I was a little hesitant cause I thought dinner with random strangers might be a little awkward. Then
Virgin María
This is the giant Virgin MAry Statue on top of the hill. At night it glows blue. There is also a chapel on the hill, and while we were there, there was a army wedding. So cute! I realized that everything I do in Chile is with random strangers, so there was nothing to fear. And there wasn´t! Cristian and Suzanna were so incredibly nice!! They fed us an amazing meal of pasta (i don´t eat as much pasta as i´d like here) and we got to see their adorably chubby baby Joaquín. The best part was, we spoke Spanish with them the entire night and there were able to understand us and we could understand them. At one point, Suzanna asked us if we were having to translate from English in our heads what we were saying. We both kinda stopped for a second and realized we hadn´t been thinking in English at all, just speaing Spanish!!! It was such a great moment. I felt like I´d achieved something. silly, i know. but a BIG deal here.
Tuesday we had our final tutora group with our tutor Ana María. We went to the sketchier parts of town; a fish market, a flower market, and a clothing market. I was glad we went together cause I probably would have never ventured there on my own, but it was important to realize that not everyone in Santiago
Emily and Me
This is me and my roommate Emily when we thought we were going to die on the Telefórico. Good times! lives like my Chilean family. There are plenty of lower class areas as well. It was a good experience.
Yesterday Emily and I went with Charles to the Palace Cusiño. It was the home of the richest family in Santiago in the 1800s. We got there right as the last tour had started, and it was in English. We had wanted Spanish, but that was ok. It was funny though cause we had to wear these booties over our shoes so we didn´t mess up the floors and our tour guide spoke as if she had learnt English in Ireland. It was bizarre. The palace was very grand and beautiful though. Sadly, a fire had destroyed a lot of the original things back in the 60s.
This weekend will be our last weekend in Santiago because next Wednesday we leave for Pukón. It´s a town in the South that has lots of outdoor adventure things to do. Also, this Saturday is the wine train. We basically are getting on a train in the morning, trying wine, visiting a vineyard, drinking more wine, having a lunch, drink more wine, and then come home at 8 at night. Should be great!!!
Hope you all are doing well!! I miss everyone and can´t wait to see you!
Megan
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