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Published: February 12th 2008
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Isla Negra
A group shot of us waiting for our tour to start! The guy in the front middle is our Chilean professor, Roberto Onell. Dear the internet,
I´m sorry I haven´t written in quite some time. I bet you´re wondering what I´ve been up to.
*I discovered a really awesome vegetarian restaurant in Santiago! It´s called "El Huerto" (The Garden) and it´s fantastic. They have lots of different world foods, like Mexican, Italian, and Indian, and obviously everything´s vegetarian, so it´s all good! My favorite is definitely a dish called the Nuevo México that has a black bean burrito, a quesadilla, rice, lettuce, tomato, and the best guacamole ever. They also have amazing jugo de limón con menta (lemonade with mint). I wish I could transport this place back to the United States with me.
*Right after my last entry, we went to Isla Negra and Pomaire for the day (Friday). First we visited Pablo Neruda´s house in Isla Negra, which was the third and final one for me--now I´ve seen them all! It was beautiful, with probably the best view of all three (although the Sebastiana in Valparaíso had a great vista too), and it showcased a lot of his collections (like bottles, sea shells, African masks, etc). We got to relax on the rocks outside his house and watch the ocean for
View from the house
Wouldn't you love to live here?? So beautiful! a while, which was very pretty and calming. We stopped in Pomaire, a small town famous for its ceramics, on the way back to Santiago. Walking up and down the main street, we got mobbed several times by publicity guys trying to get us to go to their empanada restaurant. That was interesting. Browsing the stores was fun too. We found some, what´s the word, interesting things (see the photos).
*Saturday, after talking to Jordan on Skype (it was our anniversary--how happy/sad), our mamá took us to the Pueblito de los Dominicos, a little town on the outskirts of Santiago where there´s a little church and a big market of handmade crafts. We had some delicious empanadas and I found some gifts there. Later, we met up with Lauren and Becca at the San Cristóbal hill, rode up the funicular to the top, and then checked out the view from the telefórico, which takes you across and down. Then! It was Dr. Cass´s wife´s birthday several days before, so we met Saturday night for tapas and drinks and then us students took her out to some bars while Dr. Cass took their daughter home.
*Megan and I went to mass
House at Isla Negra
The third and final house of Pablo Neruda! in the beautiful catholic cathedral in the Plaza de Armas on Sunday. It was interesting, and way less formal that I expected. Four people (I counted) had phones ring and/or answered them during the service! Ridiculous! And of course, since the cathedral is somewhat of a tourist spectacle, there were people wandering around taking photos throughout as well. After mass we went to our Nona´s (grandmother) house for lunch and to swim in her apartment complex´s pool, and later we had a Superbowl fiesta at Dr. Cass´s apartment with all the students. Overall, it was a hectic and fun-filled weekend!
*Last week was our last full week of classes (thank goodness), and we did some fun stuff during the afternoons, such as visit a Chilean friend of Megan´s uncle for dinner one night (and speak Spanish with him and his wife for like 3 hours!), tour the palace of the Cousiño family, have dinner at our friend Libby´s house near Bellavista, and go to a happy hour welcoming Dr. Allen when he visited on Thursday.
*This past Friday, we visited the museum Bellas Artes and got ice cream with Dr. Cass and Dr. Allen (Dr. Allen is the new head
"Interesting" souvenirs
This is one of the things we found in a Pomaire gift shop. It's a wooden casket that says "soy lo que tu cuerpo necesita" (I am what your body needs) and has a penis inside. Confusing. Gross. of the modern languages department, and since he speaks French he has never experienced a Spanish study abroad--thus he came to visit us for a few days). Later, I went to the Santa Lucía hill with Becca and Megan, climbed to the top, and then browsed the market. I really like that area of town. For dinner, a big group of us met at the Giratorio, which is a revolving restaurant near the metro stop Los Leones. What a cool experience! I had been wanting to eat in a revolving restaurant for a long time, but I´ve never been in a city that´s cool enough to have one. Thanks for fulfilling my dreams, Santiago.
*Saturday! Tren de Vino! We got up early to start drinking wine! Ha! But seriously, we rode an antique steam-engine train through the countryside for like an hour and sampled perhaps five or six different wines, all before noon. When we arrived at the Emiliana vineyard, we had a nice lunch on the lawn (with more wine, goodness) and a tour of the grounds. I was pretty excited to be there, because they were an
organic winery! Awesome! We visited a museum on our way back
Pomaire
A typical artisan shop along the main street in Pomaire. to Santiago, and when we arrived back at home, Megan and I basically crashed (after Nena made us some delicious omelettes of course). Great day, but quite long and tiring!
*Today was the last day of classes!!!!! Our final exam wasn´t too hard for literature class, and for grammar all we had to do was write a four-page paper reflecting on our experience in Santiago and present for five minutes in class about what we wrote. Also, Mabel (our grammar teacher) is amazing and let us sing along to all our favorite Spanish songs when we finished our presentations. So, naturally, we sang "El baile de los que sobran" (Los Prisioneros), "Vuelvo para vivir" (Illapu), and "Color Esperanza" (Diego Torres). I´m going to miss that class. It definitely kicks Furman winter term´s butt.
Right now we´re headed to meet friends for ice cream, and tomorrow is an early morning because we´re going to Pucon!! We´ll be there for five days, back in Santiago for four, and then back home to the states. I can´t believe the time has gone by so quickly!
Much love to everyone reading this, and I will see all of you very soon!
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Kate
non-member comment
Hola, Chica!
And there we have the extent of my spanish...and I probably spelled it wrong. I just found your blog, and I love it! I've been reading Blam's, but I wish I'd known about yours sooner. I'll have to back-track. Y'all are so lucky that Dr. Allen came to visit you! Isn't he the best ever? I was actually just in Atlanta last week...so sad that we're crossing paths. I got to see Megan and Crawford, but it would have been great to see you too! Ciao!