recent events

Our group took a tour of La Moneda, the Chilean White House. As someone who lives in DC and has never been inside of the White House, I'm glad we were able to accomplish this during the semester.

This is the place inside La Moneda where President Salvador Allende was killed during the 1973 coup. It's now preserved as a memorial to him.

Of course the Chilean White House has a special room for official masses. Of course.

We all continue to learn how to be more Chilean with each passing day. Exhibit A: using more condiments. Dan has perfected the art of blending mayonnaise, mustard, and ají (kind of like Chilean hot sauce...or as hot as you can get in this country of very bland food). Yum.

On a similarly food-related note, we are also continuing to take advantage of the Chilean exchange rate. This past week, we bought an entire cake for the equivalent of 3 dollars. And look, it looks like a donut! A win-win situation.

Last week, we had trouble concentrating in our classes because there were giant parties going on outside. It was kind of like a school spirit week at our university, which included skits and choreographed dances and loud reggaeton music that completely drowned out our professors' lectures. Sitting through class was a painful experience, especially because every single Chilean student magically had the week off and could join the fun. On Friday, the festivities culminated in a giant dance party (complete with FOAM and FREE BEER) on the quad. Anyone want to pitch this idea to our student government at AU?

I'm finally able to associate Santiago with more adjectives than "freezing"! Lately the weather has been beautiful and sunny, which means we can spend hours in parks working on our pre-Christmas season tans.

Unfortunately, amidst the school spirit week and the gorgeous weather, we've finally had to get serious about our final projects. Our semester ends the last week of November, so the proverbial shit is starting to hit the fan...and this picture conveys my emotional state after spending an entire week doing nothing except trying to write a research paper in my second language.

This past weekend, we took a field trip to Villa Grimaldi with two of our professors. Villa Grimaldi is a huge property tucked away in the corner of metropolitan Santiago, and during the Pinochet regime it was turned into a torture and detention center for political dissidents. The original structures have since been destroyed, so now the property exists as a memorial to all the victims of violence and torture during the 1970s. This wall lists the names of the desaparecidos, the people who "disappeared" during the military dictatorship.

Now, Villa Grimaldi is a peaceful place full of grass, gardens, trees, and fountains. It's hard to imagine that it's the very same place where terrible things happened just a few decades ago. These are images of some of the victims.

The memorial garden includes bajillions of different types of roses and plaques with the names of the victims.

And despite classes and papers and getting up at the crack of dawn to go on depressing field trips, we've still been managing to have some fun! I'll leave it at that...and I'll try to get better at taking more pictures. Vamos a ver.