It's crazy to think that I arrived her in Chile only a month ago! In some ways it feels like the time has flown by and in others it feels like it is crawling by, normally the former. This last weekend we went to Santiago for an overnight for a cultural class with our program that included a trip to El Museo de Bellas Artes - The Museum of Beautiful Art, and my CIEE short-story class met with a Chilean author who is starting to become well known - Alejandra Costamagna. She is a very interesting person and her stories tend to interconnect with one another, she recently finished a novel that branched off some of her short-stories that have already been published.
When we first arrived in Santiago we had the option to visit either Pablo Neruda's house there or to take a funicular to the top of one of larger hills to see the view of Santiago, the Andes, and the smog... I may get a picture up showing the view - pretty much once you get up to higher ground you can see the very thick layer of smog that covers the city and it only goes away after it rains and sometimes in the summer. With all of the hills around Santiago and the mountains the smog doesn't have anywhere to go for it to disperse. Makes me glad that my friends suggested that I study in Valpo instead of Santiago, I could not imagine what it'd be like to breathe that air every day for five months. Gross.
We'll see!While I was in Santiago I had the opportunity to finally meet one of my Chilean friends, Lucho in person after years of meeting and talking to them online through my friend Maggie who has also lived here off and on for a couple years. We didn't do anything really exciting, just hung out and drank some piscolas with two of his roommates and my friend Kareen. I'm hoping to get a chance to meet my other friends as well, either I'll visit them or they'll come here, maybe even both. :)
Other than that I tried to find an art store when we were there to find some decent sketchbooks since there isn't any stores like we have at home here, makes me really appreciate and miss Blick, Utrecht and Michaels. Anyway, after a thirty or so minute walk to find the nearest store we got there at about four to find out that it had closed at two - leaving me super bummed. Despite the failed adventure to get sketchbooks and any other art supplies, we kept it positive knowing that we got to know a little more about Santiago. :) I'm hoping that next time I'm in Santiago it'll be more convenient to get to the store while it's open, although it probably won't be for a few weeks when Courtnie and I plan to go to Brazil during what we *think* is a week off of school. We'll figure it out before we go of course, and while we do that we'll be working on fitting in a couple other trips around South America like Machu Picchu and Argentina - all depending on how crazy life gets here...
So, that's my update for you all at home and as always lots of love to you :)
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