I can't believe I'm just beginning my last week here in Chile. It's actually less than a week since my plane leaves at 9:00 pm on Friday. The next few days are going to be taken up with studying for finals, and then we will have a day or two to enjoy the city and hang out before heading back. Although it has only been 5 weeks, I feel like I have experienced a lot of Santiago and other parts of Chile, and I can only think a few things I kind of wish I could have done but didn't.
Anyway, time to recap the week that just passed. We went to the Museo de Bellas Artes on Wednesday, which was nice but a little disappointing. Honestly, Santiago does not deliver in the museum department. The Pre-Columbian museum was small and uninteresting, the Rapa Nui museum from Tuesday was ok, and the Bellas Artes was small and really kind of strange. Next year is Santiago's bicentennial, so there was a big exhibit in the museum with art depicting the last century of Chile's history. Either Chile has a very depressing and violent history, or the artists in the exhibit were just depressed and violent, but either way I didn't find most of the art very appealing. Actually the best part of the Bellas Artes were the statues in the entry square. The sculptures reminded me of the Rodin exhibit I saw in San Francisco a little while ago. There were also some modern sculptures, including one made of metal which I really liked. Too bad we weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum.
Thursday was a hangout day with the major effort being planning and executing dinner for 31 people at a Mexican restaurant. It was actually the same restaurant that I went to with all the drunk people a couple weeks ago. So I was excited for a repeat of good food but not so much for a repeat of escorting people home on the metro. Fortunately when we went over to make the reservations, Cristhian told the owners that we wanted a couple small tables instead of one large group table, and that really made the evening not terrible in the end. That way, the people doing tequila shots and being ridiculous could stay at their tables, and the people enjoying food and conversation could be elsewhere. Anyway, the chicken tacos were even better than the refried bean tacos, so I was a happy camper that night. Thursday was also supposed to be a night for going out, but all of Cristhian's friends were busy, and the travel group's momentum was killed when we went back to the hotel after dinner instead of just staying out. A small group went out to the salsa club around 1 or 2 in the morning, but by that time I was too sleepy and just stayed home.
Friday was another fun day. On Wednesday, we discovered a really good Italian restaurant within walking distance of the hotel. Whoever owns the restaurant had the brilliant idea of having Happy Hour food in addition to half-priced drinks, so I got a giant plate of spaghetti for only 1800 pesos (like $3.50). Anyway, Desiree and Trisha and I liked it so much we went back again on Friday and I got some really good ravioli. The food in general is not that good in Chile, so it was nice to find something affordable that also tasted nice. After dinner we hung around for a while before going out to a bar around 12. The plan was to just have some drinks and come back around1:30 or 2, since we had to get up early to go to Valparaiso the next day. It didn't quite happen that way though, since a couple people decided they wanted to go to a dance club after the bar. It led to the entire group of like 15 people going to a club, and at the first one they wanted to charge us a lot of pesos for entry, so we had to take a taxi across town to a different club where we could get in for free. By the time we actually got there and got in it was 3. Long story short, everyone stayed up way too late so we were all half dead the next morning for our trip. But it was a fun evening nonethless.
The trip to Valparaiso was nice, although I wish I had been running on more than 3 hours of sleep. Our bus actually arrived at Vina del Mar, which is 10 minutes away from Valparaiso. We went down to the ocean and walked around there for a while, then we visited a couple parks and found food. I ate the second largest hamburger I've ever seen, with really good cheese on top. Anyway, I really liked Vina del Mar and would have enjoyed spending more of the day there but we went to Valparaiso around 3. In Valparaiso, we walked to the port where all the exportation happens. We took a little boat ride all around the harbor and saw trade and military ships as well as having a nice view of the city from a slight distance. After the boat ride, we basically just walked around for a while and then had dinner in a little restaurant. The only thing they served (to my knowledge anyway) was this dish called Chorillanas which is french fries with onions, meat, and scrambled eggs on top. This is a really good idea, and I can't believe it is not more popular in the States. Anyway, we ate huge amounts of that food and by that time we needed to go to the bus station and see about return trip tickets. So we walked to the bus station, through downtown where there were a lot of food and trinket stands and street performers. Basically, our whole trip was a lot of walking around and just seeing the city. A lot of people in the group really liked Valparaiso, but I think I like Santiago better. Valparaiso is more artistic and bohemian, but it also seems rougher and more expensive. It's a nice place to be a tourist but I wouldn't want to live or work there. So we got back to Santiago around 11, and I was all set to go to sleep but Cristhian's friend called to see if we wanted to come over and hang out. It sounded fun at the time, and Fernando and Herman were really nice and funny, but after about an hour my brain got too tired to keep up with the Spanish. They probably thought I was an idiot since I mostly just sat there with a confused look on my face, but at least I tried. If I want to have any hope of becoming more fluent I guess I am just going to have to keep trying to talk to people, or at least understand what they're talking about, even if it involves years of looking stupid in the process. Still, the most frustrating thing about being a Gringa here is that most people I've met probably think I am boring or stupid since I can't really talk that much. I feel like it makes a bad first impression, which I really hate. Even so, it was still another enjoyable evening.
So after another 3-hour night's sleep, we had a tour of the Vina Concha y Toro, a winery about an hour from Santiago. It was kind of cool to see the fields of grapes and all the barrels in the aging cellar; somewhat less cool to watch everyone drink their wine while fielding the same questions over and over again about why I didn't have a glass too. Honestly, I knew things would turn out that way, which is why I was sort of dreading the wine tour this whole time, but at least I got to see the place and Matt drank my wine so I could keep the souvenir wine glass =) After we got back from the winery, I went to lunch and had a truly good plate of chicken and rice for only $5, then I took a giant nap until 9:30 at night. I woke up and was social for a couple hours, then went back to sleep. I am still tired today too, so I think I need to catch up even more. It seems like I used to be able to sustain myself on only a few hours of sleep a night, but clearly I can't anymore. Maybe I am just getting old...
So that was last week in a nutshell. There's only a few days here, so I have to make sure I do my last few special things I want to do before leaving. So far the list only includes one more dinner at the Italian restaurant, getting a big ice cream cone at this special cafe downtown, and going for a walk on a particularly pretty and old-fashioned street that Cristhian wants to take me to tomorrow. And I have to study for finals, which are tomorrow and Wednesday. Someone decided it was a good idea to give all the little parts and spores of each type of fungus different names, and someone else decided it was a good idea to test us on this material, so I have my work cut out for me today and tomorrow. It will be worth it though when we are finally done with the class.
Look for an updated photo album sometime tomorrow; I don't think I will have time to upload photos from Valparaiso until I am done studying.
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