La Serena & San Pedro de Atacama-Life outside Santiago

These past 8 days have been some of the best I've spent in Chile thus far. As much as I enjoyed my first month in the hustle and bustle of Santiago, I have to admit it was nice to step out of the city for a bit and test my traveling abilities. So here's a lowdown of the adventures, with pictures to include...

July 21-24-La Serena & Pisco Elqui 

Pretty much right after our last day of  class on Saturday, a group of EAPers and I took an afternoon bus to La Serena, the second oldest city in Chile. We got in by about 9 p.m. and arrived at our awesome hostel. It had a pepper theme going on, since every room had a name of a spicy pepper stamped on(our's was Jalapeño). This was actually my first hostel experience and I really loved it! We were there with some Germans, who sound pretty interesting when they speak Spanish. A couple of them took us out to a local discotec, which I enjoyed more than the one in Santiago. Being underage in the U.S. I haven't done any clubbing there, but from what I've heard you are expected to hit the clubs looking your finest, with heels and all. Some places won't even let you in without heels.But in Chile I come in with the outfit I wore on the bus(thermal shirt,jeans,running shoes), barely an ounce of makeup, and it's still a blast! Don't get me wrong, I enjoy getting glammed up every once and a while,but I just thought it was a little refreshing how the locals here were really just making the experience about the music and dancing.

The next day was pretty relaxing. We woke up late and just explored La Serena,but seeing as it was Sunday it was pretty quiet. The main square has "La Recova," a market with restaurants and a labyrinth of souveneir shops. I got myself a really comfy llama patterned sweater. I swear our whole program will be sporting these babies by the end of the semester...

On Monday we took an hour bus ride to Valle de Elqui, which is known for its pisco...But I went horseback riding instead.An activity like this seems more worth the money than a tour of a pisco factory.It was so beautiful to ride through the valley and take in the sights. My horse was definitely the feistiest of the bunch though. It kept wanting to push to the front of the pack. By the end of the ride, when we got back into the ranch gates, my horse and a couple others were galloping towards the stables! It was kind of scary,but super fun at the same time!

On my horse, with a nice photobomb from my friend Amanda

On the bus ride back to La Serena, we hung out with two Chilean girls who were incredibly thrilled to meet gringas. They begged us to teach us some English,so we had a nice trade off going on. This somehow led to a chorus of the theme song for both "Spongebob Squarepants" and "Bob Esponja." It was definitely an eventful moment in Chile! Here's a the Spanish version of the show's theme song. I actually enjoy it more than the English version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpMh9H7-odw

Tuesday started with a last morning of exploring La Serena/shopping before we departed on a 16ish hour bus ride to San Pedro de Atacama. The bus ride wasn't as bad as I thought. They played movies the whole time, plus I slept for about 6-7 hours of it. I watched Hugo,understood the whole thing, and really enjoyed it! The weird thing was they had it dubbed and it had Spanish subtitles, but the subtitles didn't exactly match what they were saying. It's like different companies did the dubbing and subtitles or something...

July 25th-28th: San Pedro de Atacama

We arrived into San Pedro the morning of the 25th and got settled into our hostel, which was owned by a family. The first thing I noticed about the town is that while it has the small "pueblo" feel, it is kept alive by tourism. Every street is filled with tourist agencies, hostels, money exchange centers,souvenir shops, and restaurants with slightly elevated prices. The streets are also flowing with "extranjeros" (foreigners), like myself. We managed to find a restaurant for lunch that wasn't expensive and didn't have waiters flagging you down by the entrance with their menus. It was a simple place, owned by a couple I believe. The owner even called us "mis niñas/niños" and sat down at the table when he took your order. I got an amazing,huge piece of grilled chicken, rice, and salad for 2,500 pesos...that's only about 5 bucks! It was a relief compared to the 8+ dollar plates of food around town. The rest of the days in Atacama were full of excursions which we took through the hostel. We got a special discount the moment we told the hostel owner "hmmm well we may look around town for lower prices," and bam...she lowered the price. Here's a little photo gallery of each activity, with a couple facts about each place sprinkled throughout. Every activity "vale la pena"(is completely worth it)!

Valle de la Luna

NASA officially named this place, because it really does look like the moon! We also got to explore an old salt mine, have a toast with pisco sours at sunset, and run down a giant sand dune. What this tour made me realize is the lack of waivers in this country means that the tour guides really put a lot of trust in you. There were some points in the tour where our guide would drop us off at one point he couldn't drive through, tell us to walk for 20 minutes or so, and meet him at another point in the valley. I feel like this would never happen in the U.S. They would have a second guide to lead you along or something, but here part of the experience is this mutual trust. In fact, it made the experience all the better!

Our guide encouraged the classic touristy photos...

I'm falling off a cliff!!...not really.

Laguna Cejar-30% Salt, 10% Lithium, Lots of Floating! 

The next day we had the same guide(number Juan!) for our much more relaxing,but equally enjoyable trip to Laguna Cejar. I could put my hands at my side and bob up and down like a cork. Another weird sensation was that it was warmer near the bottom of the lake than the top. It had something to do with warm currents coming from the lake bed. I just expected that the sun would be warming the surface,but in reality my feet were super warm and my arms were freezing!

Floating Free!

Geysers del Tatio

Our last full day started with a 3:30 am wake up call! We were loaded into the van by 4, to head out on an hour and a half journey to the geysers. The only redeeming factor of waking up so early and driving down an incredibly bumpy, dirt road was getting to see the sky full of stars....that is definitely something you don't see in Santiago, or L.A. and Irvine for that matter. We got to the geysers before sunrise and it was freezing! We're talking -15 degrees celsius, or 5 degrees fahrenheit!Even when the sun came out, it wasn't much better. It didn't stop me from enjoying the large expanse of geysers though.

The group in front of a big geyser

The geysers stretched on and on!

Pretty colors and funny smells

After seeing what we wanted at the geysers, we drove towards the hot springs. On the way we spotted vicuñas! They seem like a  mix between a deer and a llama to me. 

Lone,proud vicuña

The hot springs themselves should actually be called "the lukewarm springs, with one corner where everyone crowds by the warmer water." It was actually pretty comical how a bunch of strangers were huddled together by the warm part. It felt pleasant, then all of a sudden a rush of boiling water would come pouring out of a hole from below! Since it's such a touristy place, I got to hear curse words in many languages in response. 

All the people, crowding towards the warmth. I'm on the far left!

After the springs, we stopped in a little town called Machuca,where I had the best goat cheese empanada ever! They also were grilling vicuña meat, which I didn't get a chance to taste. A couple people in our group weren't feeling well from the altitude,so we headed out pretty soon.

Machucha:There's a system where 25 families rotate who stays there what week,because families can make money selling food to tourists there.

We spent the rest of the day completely relaxing, because we were pretty beat after the early wake up.  It was just a lot of relaxing in the hotel hammock...

The next day, but before hopping on the bus, we stopped at an interesting ice cream shop. They had flavors made from different nuts, weird fruits, roots, and other stuff I can't remember. I had quinoa with milk and raspberries. It was tasty! 

As we were eating our ice cream, the wind started picking up, blowing dust all through the streets. A dust storm in a desert town wasn't a nice send off, but at least we were leaving before it got worse. But anyways, I survived a 23 hour bus ride back to Santiago. The most eventful part is when they played a bootlegged DVD of The Avengers. The sound was all weird, it had random Chinese subtitles throughout, and I swear I could hear the audience behind the camera laughing at one point.  The rest went by super slow, but I finally got in by Sunday afternoon. It felt so good to sit down to a big lunch and crash early that night. 

After this trip, I think I've caught the traveling bug! It's exciting to pull together a trip with a bunch of people your age and see where each day takes you. Still, I'm glad to be back in Santiago, even if it has been hectic with starting classes. Once I sign up for classes, I'll keep updates on what exactly I'm taking. But Chao for now!

La Chascona + A Germanish Lesson

Hola Chiquillos(what my Profesora always calls my class),
I have to be honest, this is the first week where I've felt some of the pressure of schoolwork. Today I had a group presentation,tomorrow I have a chapter guide to turn in, and Saturday(yes saturday...ick!) I have my final exam for the Intensive Language Program. ¡Muchas cosas para hacer! On top of that I've been planning my trip to La Serena and San Pedro de Atacama, which I'm leaving for this Saturday with some other EAPers. The hostel we booked for La Serena looks great(still working on Atacama) as do the activities around both cities, so I'm getting pretty pumped.I'll definitely keep you all updated on those adventures! This is my first big trip in Chile...8 days!
 Despite the busy week I had a chance to visit one of Pablo Neruda's houses(he has 3 total,in different parts of Chile) with my cultural group on Tuesday. For those who need some filling in Pablo Neruda was a Nobel Prize winning poet, known for love sonnets,surrealist poems, historical epics, and political pieces(he was involved with the Communist party). He was also close friends with Pablo Picasso and other famous artists of his time, but according to our tour guide(who by the way was rocking a perfectly sculpted handlebar mustache) he absolutely hated Salvador Dalí. They had different political inclinations, plus Dalí had a dark and mean-spirited personality and Neruda, well... didn't. He was a man who liked to throw a quite a few parties back in his day. However for a man who in my opinion has such a kind, grandfatherly look about him, he writes some sad pieces.

Neruda(on the right) and Picasso, after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.This picture was in the house.

Now, the house itself  is called La Chascona, named after one of his former love's abundant red hair...yeah I still don't quite understand how that translates. But anyway, it was FILLED with knick knacks, paintings, and the entire house is modeled after a boat and a lighthouse. There was even a secret passage from a dining room,to the windy stairs leading to the second level. I want to live there!The guide told me I definitely wasn't the first to say that. Apparently this isn't even the house with the most stuff in it, because it was vandalized and damaged during Pinochet's right-wing dictatorship(since Neruda was far far left). I forgot my camera,but we weren't allowed to take pictures inside anyway(wink wink). Here's a photo of the outside sign that I took on a Santiago tour a few weeks ago. That was the blog post where I promised to return for an indoor tour...and I did!

When I visit the other houses in Valparaíso and Isla Negra, I will definitely want to snap a few shots of his odd collections. It's more fun to show them and explain, then to blab on about something people can't see.

And now...here comes a lesson in Germanish!  Chile has had German immigrants that have influenced everything from skin color to language. And the German word "yeah" means yes, or sí. So. when the Germans immigrated here, Chileans started becoming accustomed to saying "yeah." Overtime, as they used it more and more, and the phrase "po" was added on. It's almost just like a phrase of confirmation. Sípo, nopo, ya-po...now the Chileans po it all. And my host mom told me that of all the po's, ya-po is used the most, thanks to the Germans. I've noticed it walking down the street, in my house, and in class. My host mom is always saying "yaaa-po," on the phone. Also, whenever my profesora is transitioning to a new topic she'll say "ya, chiquillos..." which is like "ok guys..." Just thought it was interesting to learn this little bit of history behind a heavily used chilenismo. 

And on a side note, Chileans  swallow their letters as much as they eat bread...a lot! Suddenly the phrase "más o menos(more or less)," becomes "maomeo"...hence my perpetual confusion while communicating with the locals. It's hardest with people who are either a)young adults(slang everywhere) or b)elderly people(different diction, often throaty voices). So this definitely isn't some recorded tape provided by Mc-something publishing you listen to in Spanish class two or three times in a row...this is real life. It's like a combination of Taboo and charades for me. Grammar isn't my downfall...it's vocab. I don't have a wide range,even with common household items.Thanks for ingraining that in my brain Spanish 1-2...not.So I have to get people to say a word, but I can only use a limited number of words for description...that's where charades comes in.For example, I had to ask my host mom how to say "the thing, that is like a blanket, but more*demonstrates thinness with fingers*...oh a sheet!(sábana I believe). But I'm learning new words everyday with this "game." 

So this may be my last post in a while. Next time I write, I hope to share lots of traveling adventures! ¡Chao mis amigos!

This Chilean Life

Hello All!
Wow, so much has happened in the last few days! Life is definitely speeding up here! I've had a chance to get a taste of new aspects of Chilean life. So here's the breakdown,because I have a feeling this will be a long post.

• Wine tasting
• La Moneda
• Big Mall
• Skiing 

Tuesday: Wine tasting at Viña Concha y Toro. We took a trip with our cultural group to a vineyard about an hour outside Santiago. We got to see how they irrigate the vineyards and had an abbreviated wine tasting.I felt so silly swirling the glass around and smelling the wine the way the guide told us to. I might now know what good wine tastes like now though.

Casillero del Diablo. 

Thursday: Visit to La Moneda a.k.a the Chilean White House.However, the president of Chile doesn't live there, he just works there. It was a pretty short tour,but we got to see a few downstairs rooms. There is also a "president's door," which is the president's personal door. It wasn't used for a while after the death of president Salvador Allende.He was found dead on the day of the military coup,but the details of his "assassination" aren't clear to me and are even debated today. After that we ate at a restaurant in Plaza de Armas, where I ate my first pastel de choclo. It's a Chilean dish that's basically like really sweet corn bread filled with meat, eggs, onions, and an olive. It was a bit undercooked and way to sweet for me. My host mom told me that if you're gonna have pastel de choclo, it has to be cooked well. I didn't have such luck with my first one.

Hanging out with a serious guard

Our cultural groups inside La Moneda

Pastel de Choclo. Good at first, then gooey and over sweet

Friday: I went to the biggest mall I've ever seen! There were about 6 levels full of fancy stores and a grocery store called "Jumbo," which was huge too. We picked up some snacks for our trip to the Andes. It was the first time I saw sliced bread in Chile,but it's quite expensive here, as is peanut butter. Chileans do love their mayo though. It came in huge bags and I spotted it in at least 3 different aisles. The food court was full of food you would see in the U.S. too, like Taco Bell, Dominos, and McDonalds. This mall was an interesting place to see "hybridization." There were obvious signs of globalization,but there was still signs of uniquely Chilean things. It was like a Chilean twist on U.S. culture. 

Saturday and Sunday: The Andes!

We formed groups this weekend to do a cultural project for our class, so two of the groups chose the Andes. To be honest, ski resorts are not what most people would consider "cultural," but you can definitely make a social commentary on them. The people up there were from everywhere from Australia to Brazil, and it's definitely a place for the richer level of society here. There were families with little kids decked out in fancy snow gear. It was my first time skiing on Saturday, and I have to admit it was incredibly frustrating and exhausting. One of my friends in the program is an experienced skier from Oregon,so she helped me get my bearings. I fell down a lot and it took me over an hour to get down one slope, while 5 year olds zoomed by me. By the last hour and a half I finally was getting the hang of the technique.I learned how to gather speed and stop without crashing. Plus riding the ski lift was fun,because you get a chance to chat with new people. I even got a few recommendations for other places to check out in Santiago.I'm definitely feeling the sore-ness though! But at least I can say that I skied in July, in the Andes...sounds like a bucket list item to me!

In my skiing gear. I look way more legitimate than I actually was here...

On Sunday most of the group, including myself, opted out of skiing the second day.It's expensive! We relaxed at our hostel, found random wooden sleds to use, and snacked on the pb&j we brought up, since the hostel provided only breakfast and dinner. The hostel manager also came out and chatted with us. He drank a tea called "mote," which was disgusting, but he said it helps curb hunger and claimed it helped him lose weight. Plus, he kept the tea leaves in a beaver pelt. Interesting... but he was very nice and recommended some Chilean and Argentinian bands to check out. This is because we mentioned how we were surprised how the night before the live band performing sang a lot in English. My personal favorite was a rocked out version of "Take me to the Funky Town." Don't know where "the" came in, but it was funny to me.And the crowed was really enjoying it.So anyway he shared different groups, from all regions of Chile, and gave a little historical background to each one. That was definitely something we could use in our presentation. Just when we were getting pretty bored, the two people in our group who skied/snowboarded returned and we headed back down the mountain. I came back home to a hearty steak,empanada, and rice dinner and a clean bed. After eating, I slept for almost 10 hours! That's the most I have slept so far in Chile!

Overall it was a great trip outside Santiago. I probably would have planned the transportation differently,because I'm pretty sure our van driver ripped us off a bit. Right when we got dropped off Saturday afternoon he told us we needed to give 8,000 more pesos on top of the original rate to "reserve" our spot for the next day.It just seemed wrong that he didn't tell us before, like he was worried we'd find other arrangements. It was really unfair to me that he did that on the spot to us, but now I know that stuff like that can happen when you travel and you just have to be sure to know the details to prevent stuff like that happening. But on a happier note, it turns out I'm not only dreaming but also talking in my sleep in Spanish. My friends told me I was speaking Spanish in the middle of the night at the hostel...I'm proud of myself! Now, it's time to meet up with my group and figure out what aspects of the trip we want to present on. Chao amigos!

chilenismo # i don't remember: sacar la chucha: basically means to fall and eat it. which I did a lot while skiing. In a phrase you would say something like "ohhh you're covered in mud... sacaste la chucha?"   

La Piojera/Cerro San Cristobal/Life in General

Hello friends!

New stuff has been happening everyday, so lately I've been kind of busy to stay updated and put time into a long post. But now I'm back, to write about some of the fun times that have gone down right in Santiago.

Saturday, July 7th:La Piojera a.ka. Santiago's watering hall, to celebrate some people in our EAP group that had birthdays last week. Let me just walk you through the experience, otherwise I'm not doing it justice...

The entrance is a narrow passageway. My friends and I hesitantly made our way through the open doorway where we were immediately greeted by a group of rowdy Chileans shouting "FOTO! FOTO!" So I hopped in a photo with a random group of Chileans. After entering my first impressions were: loud, smoky,and "oh man we kind of stand out here.No we really stand out here."...But another impression was "This place is awesome!" There's something about hole in the wall places that I enjoy. Maybe it's because you have to surrender to the loco-ness and enjoy people watching. And there were plenty of interesting characters to watch. The birthday girl in our group went through several loud choruses of "Cumpleaños Feliz," courtesy of the locals.There was a man passing out toilet paper at the entrance to the bathroom(which by the way, was nasty.I tried my best not to touch anything) At one point a creepy clown walked between tables selling balloons. It was like a real life joke(So this clown walks into a bar....)Upon entering we bought  these drinks called terremotos, which means earthquakes. They're made with fermented white wine and a scoop of pineapple sherbert. They also sold aftershocks(don't remember the name in Spanish), which ended up just being a terremoto in a smaller glass...I mean plastic cup.This place was beyond classy!Our group managed to snag a table, where we were directly in the  foot traffic of many Chileans who struck up a variety of conversations with us.My previous judgement of Chileans being closed off,shy, and unapproachable were disproven. Many of them were open to chatting, mostly in Spanish, although some attempted broken English. All in all it was an eventful time at La Piojera. I never expected I'd have so much fun there! This just proves that so far the best times in Chile have been  the places I would have never guessed. 

This man just went down the line pouring terremotos

Outside shot.Who knew what was within...

The next day, a group of us hiked to Cerro San Cristobal, a giant hill topped with a statue of the Virgin Mary. Even with a layer of smog, Santiago looked beautiful from up there, especially with the dramatic back drop of the snowy Andes. Plus, we got to catch the sunset, which was amazing! We headed back down in the darkness,but it was ok because the city lights kept it from being pitch black. 

The Virgin

Sunsets over Santiago. The best!

Santiago by day...

At the bottom I bought my absolutely wonderful new pair of knit gloves...they're the kind that are gloves, then you flip back the glove part and wallah!My fingers stick out and can wiggle!I brought a hefty pair with me(thanks Dad!),but these are perfect gloves to do stuff in like type and dial phones.Maybe I sound silly going on a paragraph long ode to warm gloves,but it has to be understood how incredibly cold it is here,especially at night. Electricity here is super expensive, because the only natural energy source comes from the rivers down south. That means imported electricity, which is pricey. It also means most Chilean homes don't have a central heating system. My house has one gas powered heater. There's even a gas canister delivery truck for them. So my outfits have basically consisted of leggings under jeans, two pairs of socks, longsleeve, zip up, fleece, and parka. Oh, and I'm pretty sure my scarf is just another body part now. So if you're in California, enjoy the sunny warmth for me!

As opposed to the temperature everything else is great. I'm keeping myself busy exploring with friends, blogging, journaling chatting with my host family, etc....anything  to distract myself from the coldness! Also, I decided to stay with my host family for the duration of the first semester! It's the best situation I could have here and my host mom was  happy to have me stay. Mi casa en Chile=mi casa in the U.S., she told me. Plus I couldn't leave  the nice neighborhood I'm living in, even if it's going to be farther from the campus I'll be taking regular classes in starting August 1st...it's much calmer compared to the rest of Santiago!

Today a few other EAPers and I bought bus tickets to San Pedro de Atacama and La Serena which are the central valley and the northern desert region of Chile, respectively.Chile has an amazing, relatively cheap long distance bus system. And these are the buses with the far reclining seats, not just regular ones thankfully!  Our 9 day trip is after ILP, in about 2 weeks. I can't wait!

That's all for now.Gotta prepare a debate for class tomorrow, then we get to go wine tasting with our cultural group! Cuídate! 

*chilenismo: filo-the equivalent of nevermind, but only to be used with fellow young people(as my host mom kindly pointed out.) As in your trying to explain something, someone is just not getting it,so you say "ah filo..." 

Also, I apologize for the funky formatting on this post. I don't know how to fix the big empty space to the right. Oh well...

and by night...

Settling In

Hola todos,
It's been a few days since I've blogged,but it's because life here is picking up and I'm beginning to settle in. Again, I can't believe I've been given the opportunity to live with a Chilean family and study in one of the most beautiful, respected schools here...it's feeling a little more real everyday. So here's a summary of what's been going on, with longer descriptions below.

• Fútbol!
• Intensive Language Program begins
• Immigration....
• Yo no Americano 

Monday was a pretty relaxing day. After a lazy morning, I met up with a few friends at a metro station. From there we were trying to figure out what to do, because it was kind of a spontaneous meet up. We decided to head over to Barrio Brasil, which I don't think is the official name for the area. It was a little sketchy and had some strange restaurants, like a Vikings Restaurant. It had viking helmets and goblin statues in the window and everything.We wandered a bit and found an Irish Pub, where we wanted to "chill out" and watch the U de Chile vs. O'Higgins game. Well, in Chile there is no such thing as "chilling out" when watching fútbol. We walked in as a an awkward group of foreigners upon a pub full of stone faced locals, transfixed on the multiple t.v. screens showing the game. We got seated, up on the  stage actually which we thought was funny, because there was all the Chileans around the pub and us in front of the whole crowd on a raised platform. Tonight's performance "Gringas!" Anyways, we got to catch the last 20, action packed minutes. Every time there was a goal, the pub went wild! The chef even ran out of the kitchen multiple times, to catch the exciting parts. This video is an aftermath of the excitement. The two men at the beginning of the video are the chef and owner joining in on the excitement.  Sorry for the poor quality....

On Tuesday our Intensive Language class began. My professor is really sweet and patient. She sure doesn't speak Spanish like the rest of the Chileans, a.k.a one hundred miles per hour and dropping the letter s everywhere. We're beginning to learn "Chilenismos," which are uniquely Chilean slang words.Some of my favorite are "bacán," which is like awesome/cool and "guagua" (pronounced wawa) which they call babies. Guagita is also a cheesy term of endearment that "pololos" (boyfriends and girlfriends) use for each other. I could go on forever about Chilenismos,but maybe I'll just add one to the end of each blog post!
Yesterday, I had to get up early to go to immigration and finish the visa process with half the EAP group. I don't want to taint this blog post with the story of my 6 hours of torture there. Let's just say I will never ever ever ever complain about the DMV again!
But on the plus side it was independence day for AMURICCA. By the way, we don't call ourselves "Americano" here,because the U.S. is not the only America...helloo South America! So we say "norteamericano" or "estadounidense." We were gonna go to a place called California Cantina but it was PACKED with gringos. That's where they hide in Santiago! Instead we settled on a place which had happy hour all night and where I gorged myself on the most amazing cheesy empanadas. It wasn't very United States-ish,but I still had lots of fun!Well, I have to get going to class soon. They've been starting at 2 this week,but it's going to move to 9 a.m. soon. I'm actually looking forward to when that happens, so we can get out sooner. What can I say, I'm  a bit of a morning person! Chau for now!

A Day in the City of Santiago

Yesterday(July 1st) was definitely one of my most fun days since I've been here in Chile! I still can't believe it has only been 8 days since I've been here! It feels so unreal!
Here are some bullet points of the day. Read whatever seems interesting to you, because this is a pretty lengthy post!Each area is accompanied by a picture.

• Plaza de la Constitución-Guard switching 
• Providencia-The Hunt for a Cafe
• Bellavista-Wall art galore
• Museo de Bellas Artes
• Eliza tries to figure out the "micros" (buses)

So, I met up with a couple of girls from my program in La Plaza de la Constitución to start the day with the changing of the guards.Every other day, the guards switch shifts, which is marked by a big ceremony. There was a procession, band, and everything. We asked a carabinero(policeman) why they did this, and he just told us it was something that has been done ever since Santiago existed.Check out the video of the guards coming out to switch shifts with the other set of guards...I had a longer video, with a procession of horses and everything but it was taking forever  to load.But this is pretty cool!

After, began our "hop on-hop off" bus tour of Santiago, which of course felt touristy. But it was a quick, easy and fun way to see where different parts of the city were in relation to others.Our first stop was an area called Providencia, where we tried to hunt down a cafe for a snack.Since it was Sunday, there was NOTHING open, except McDonalads and Starbucks! Just when we were about to give up hope and head towards Starbucks, we found a little cafe.Huzzah! I had café con leche and toast. The butter cost extra,which I found out after they gave me dry toast...oh well. 

Our bus! We sat on the top...until it rained.

After Providencia, we took the bus over to Bellavista, the place where I went to the discoteca Friday night. It was great to explore during the day and is definitely my favorite part of Santiago! There was really interesting wall art to check out. Also, one of Pablo Neruda's(a Nobel Prize winning Chilean poet) houses is in Bellavista. We admired it from the outside,because you have to go inside with a tour that wasn't scheduled for another hour or so...we decided not to wait and come back another day.

Me with some of the cool wall art. 

Next, we ate lunch at Patio Bellavista, a cute area with little craft shops and cafes. We split a plate of sopaipillas, which are like fried pieces of round dough, with piebre, which is like a Chilean version of pico de gallo salsa with aji, which are spicy little peppers. But don't call it salsa here! I guess my friend told me when she called it salsa they were like "NO." haha. For the main course, I had an empanada filled with corn,meat, eggs, and other things I couldn't identify thrown in. Also, I had my first pisco sour...a must have in Chile! It's made with a grape liquor, squeezed lemons, and powdered sugar. There are different variations of it too...I think some even have egg whites. 

Sopaipillas con Piebre y Pisco Sours

After lunch we stopped in Museo de Bellas Artes(Fine Arts Museum), which was huge and had beautiful architecture! One of the galleries featured an artist that seemed to really enjoy painting women with figures that were... exaggerated and men without faces.There was one painting titled "Piropos," which is the Chilean slang for "catcalls." The rest of the galleries were mostly sculptures. I definitely want to check out more museos around Santiago soon!

Museo de Bellas Artes

In between stops, we also passed by hot spots in Santiago, including Sanhattan, U de Chile, and the National Library, other buildings I can't remember the name of, and much more. Wow this city is huge!

National Library de Santiago

Painted bench!

We were all pretty tired after the museum, because we had been out and about since 9:30 and it was close to 6:30. After parting ways I tried to find the closest bus stop. Let me tell you, one thing you can't be prepared for before coming to Chile is the public transportation! The streets change their one way direction at different hours of day, and the buses operate differently on Sunday. One person I asked directions from just started listing off names of streets. After patiently waiting for these unhelpful directions I was like "Look, I just need the closest bus stop that can get me to Nunoa(my neighborhood)." Finally, after a few tries I miraculously made it to my front door. All I can say is that figuring out the buses/metros in Santiago will take some trial and error!

My host mom had a group of her friends over when I came back, who were very welcoming but talked sooo fast! Spanish is ok as long as I can listen to one or two people at once and when they aren't throwing out a bunch of slang. They were nice enough to stop and explain some parts of the conversation to me though and ask me about my studies,etc. After a while, trying to understand everything became too much, so I excused myself and headed off to bed.That day took a lot out of me!Today, I'm off to explore some parts of my neighborhood. I was going to check out a church service this morning around the area,but the two closest to my house were closed...on a Saint's Holiday!My host mom even said that was pretty strange to her. Well, at least I know where they are now. Chau amigos!