Another busy day...

The view from the restaurant last night... a little glare from the window, but in real life, it was beautiful

Today was a bit warmer than my first two days in Santiago. I've learned that in Chile, it's all about layers. Not all buildings are heated, so you must be sure to wear enough clothing to keep yourself warm. And you must be sure to be able to remove clothing if it gets too warm wherever you are. Luckily, today I felt comfortable walking around the city in just a sweater, but I brought my jacket so I could have it for when I was eating in cold buildings...it's still cold when you're not moving around.

We went to Pablo Neruda's house in Santiago this morning. I would never want to live there, but it was still very interesting, and we finally had a guide that I could understand! He was very interested in the ocean and sailing, and there were many parts of his home taken from boats. Also, he had symbols of all different parts of Chile decorating his house. And the view was amazing!


The view from Neruda's balcony


Kendra, Sarah, Jenn, Jeff (of Chambers fame ;)), and Byron in front of Neruda's house


The dog that followed us to Neruda's house. One thing that has been difficult to get used to has been the dogs wandering the streets. Chilenos tend to believe that it is wrong to remove the cajones of animals... in other words, there's no fixing the dogs here.

After the tour of Neruda's house we went to the Mercado, the street market, for lunch. I had a seafood soup that was a bit strong and took some bravery to eat, but wasn't bad. We went to the National Museum of Fine Arts for a little, where I just crashed on a bench for most of the time and watched some weird modern art video with sound effects that I must admit were a little unsettling.


About half of the group sitting in el mercado

After the museum, we returned to the hotel and learned about our families. I am going to be living in Viña del Mar, which is the resort-ish town, with a woman and her three daughters. She is a school bus driver, and her daughters are all students, two at universities and one in secondary school. Their ages are 22, 20, and 14. I'm moving in with them tomorrow, so I hope it goes well!

We were free to go where we wanted for dinner, so a big group of us went out for sandwitches at a local cafe. Afterward, we picked up some ice cream at the Big John, a convenient store on the way from our hotel to the main restaurant area.

I need to be awake early tomorrow to go to Valparaíso and meet my family, so it's bedtime for me. Hopefully I'll be near some of my friends from the program, because we've been having a lot of fun so far!