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!