Distractions

I must say that I am quite distracted from writing this blog right now. For one, I meet my host family tomorrow and it is simply a nerve wracking experience. And second, I just bought the seventh Harry Potter book at a bookstore here and I am racing to finish it, while still engaging in the group, etc. So, disculpe the quick review of events.

Yesterday, we went to the Presidential Palace, where the President only works, not lives, to get a tour and see the changing of the guard. The changing of the guard is very elaborate, and happens every 48 hours. The Presidential Palace is very interesting because it was the center of activity during the military coup. Parts of it were destroyed and Dr. Allende, the president at the time, ended up committing suicide inside the Palace, in order to die with honor.

After lunch at the Mercado Central, we went to the museum of precolobian (before Columbus) art. The most interesting pieces were the mummified babies that were found in the desert and the string-recording method that the Incas used.

Today, we went to a vineyard to take a tour and taste wine in the morning. The vineyard is one of the oldest in Chile, and has very special wines. Still in the city, but clearly with a lot of land, it really left me feeling like I had escaped the city for at least a little while and was in a calmer place. The wine was very good, and the guide gave a good insight into wine tasting and new words in Spanish. (Uva is grape, but when talking about wine, it can also be a sepa, por ejemplo)

We the ate lunch in the Bellavista neighborhood, which is a very artsy quarter. It also has the house of Pablo Neruda, that was dedicated to his mistress and later his wife, Matilde. There were a lot of indications in the house of how much he cared for her, such as having the wrought-iron on the windows in the shape of their initials. The house has many of Pablo Neruda's belongings that were not stolen or destroyed by the military government after he died in 1973. The house also has the Nobel Prize that he won in 1971, the money from which helps fund the Pablo Neruda Foundation.

Both days we ended with three hour long orientation meetings that were saved only by the expresso break we got. But, I guess all that information is necessary.

(Again, pictures are forthcoming...)