La Moneda

La Moneda is the Presidential palace of Chile. You could say it is like the White House, except the president (currently the Chilean president is Sebastián Piñera) does not live there. We got to go on a tour of La Moneda, which was really interesting.

La Moneda got its name because it was originally constructed as a coin mint (and La Moneda literally translated means "the coin"). In 1845 the president decided he wanted to live and work there, so he did. In 1973, La Moneda got bombed by the Chilean Air Force due to the military coup d'état, Salvador Allende committed suicide there and delivered an on-a-whim amazing speech (translated: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Salvador_Allende's_Last_Speech) (again, due to the military coup d'état), and from then on presidents were not allowed to live there. It has an interesting history, although I gave you the most interesting tidbits. You can read more about it on wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Moneda_Palace.

Now here are some pics:

The entrance. It did not have gates of any sort. However, it is really hard to get into (like, we needed to show our original passports to get in (they wouldn't even take copies).

One of four courtyards. This one is called "Cannon Patio." It houses 2 historic cannons.

One of many halls. I think it was for when the president held parties or something. Each hall had a different purpose; for example, there was a hall simply for meeting with other presidents (and important people like the nation's soccer team when they came back from the World Cup).

The press room.

Each president gets a coin made after there presidency. Pinochet does not have a coin.

The big coin in the middle is a coin of Santiago.

A model of La Moneda.

A chapel inside. Chilean law seperates church and state but La Moneda was originally built with a chapel inside because that's how the Europeans wanted it and it has remained that way since. They hold Catholic and Evangelist (as those are the 2 most practiced religions in Chile) services there once a week that La Moneda employees can attend.

Santa Lucia

I while ago I visited the other hill in Santiago. It's called Santa Lucia. This one is considerably smaller and took only 20 minutes to climb. It has a great view of Santiago. There is an artesania (or handmade crafts-is artisans a word in English?? bc if it is, it means artisans market) market very close by, so I obviously checked that out, and, in fact bought many presents there.

There's not much to say so I'll just show you the pictures.

Fountain at the base of the hill.

Patio half way up the hill.

At the top of the hill.

View of the city.

On our way down.

The handcraft market.

Valparaiso and Viña del Mar

For our long weekend, a few friends and I went back to Valparaiso and a city close by called Viña del Mar. After weeks and weeks of classes, we thought it'd be a nice relaxing weekend.

Our trip started off with a 1.5 hour bus ride to Valpo.

On the bus!

When we got there. We took a bus and walked in search of our hostel. It ended up being near a plaza we had visited when we went as a class.

On our way to the hostel, which ended up being just up the hill.

We set our stuff down and just walked around the city. We got hungry walking around and bought various snacks. Not following the rules one should while they are abroad, we decided to buy street food. Various vendors were grilling outside, probably because it was a holiday and many restaurants were closed. We bought choripans, which is basically a chorizo sausage on french bread.

Choripan!

After walking around, we went back to the hostel for a quick siesta. It was a pretty nice hostel.

Alcina taking her pre-dinner siesta.

As it was a holiday, many places were closed, like I mentioned before. We ended up eating at a pretty touristy restaurant for dinner. After the choripan, I wasn't that hungry so I ordered the Chilean version of a salad, which came with lettuce, cabbage, beets, shredded carrots, and rice (each had their own section on the plate). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.

The restaurant

After dinner, we asked a man at the hostel what we should do at night. He suggested "El Huevo," which is a hip club. Being the educated college students we are, we previa-ed (pre-gamed) in our hostel room and then walked to club.

Our drinks: Piscolas, Pisco and juice, wine, and a drink called "Pop Wine," which was basically pineapple soda (or pop) and some sort of alcohol.

The club was fun but like the other clubs I've been to in Chile. We paid a $6-ish cover and got a free drink, I chose beer. I went to the corner and drank my beer before hitting the dance floor. I'm not a very good dancer so I need the boost. Everyone was smoking, Chilean guys were dancing with us. The one I was dancing was smoking and I'm pretty sure his cigarette burned a whole through the sweatshirt I was holding in my arm. He, like all the Chilean guys I've met here, was very forward and kept trying to kiss me. I was getting annoyed with the situation so I walked home shortly after.

The next morning, we ate our complimentary breakfast of bread and jam with coffee or tea. We packed up our things, and made our way towards Viña. We hopped on a bus, which took no more than 15 minutes, and searched for our next hostel. Viña is very different from Valpo. Valpo is a port city that isn't very city-like. Viña had many buildings and had an actual beach. After walking in the opposite direction for 10 minutes, we eventually found our way to the hostel, dropped off our things, and made our way to walk around the city. We walked towards the beach, passing by the famous "Reloj de Flores" (flower clock). We walked to a castle that used to help ships find their way to Valpo. We kept walking down and found a casino and clubs, which we planned to go to later.

Reloj de Flores

The beach and the city

Notice the woman in the coat in the foreground but the shirtless kid in the background. Weather in Chile is weird. It is winter but during the day it can reach up to 60 degrees. I'm blaming my 3-week cold on the weather.

The water was freezing but it was fun to have a glimpse of summer during this Chilean winter.

The castle

View from atop the castle

Eventually we got hungry and ate at a McDonalds, as it was the only place in the nearby vicinity. McDonalds' abroad are always fun because you get to see the cultural twists; for example, Chilean McDonald have empanaditas as a side and make they're McFlurry's with a candy bar called Sahne-nuss. We walked back home, and took another pre-dinner siesta.

Viña hostel.

For dinner, the hostel was offering a "Mexican Nite." We were all excited for non-bland food (after a while all Chilean food tastes the same) so we signed up for dinner at the hostel. We got guacamole (which lacked lemon and salt) with bad tortilla chips, and beef burritos. It's the thought that counts, right?

After dinner, we pre-gamed again (well, I sat this one out because my cold decided to come back) and hit the casino! It was my first time at a casino. This one was kind of lame; it was basically a bunch of slot machines, and if you were really into it, you could go off into one of the side rooms for poker. We paid less than $8 dollars to get in and we got a $6 voucher to use at the slots. I ended up being pretty lucky that night and left with $10!

Casino at night

The next day, we ate the complimentary breakfast (again, bread, jam, coffee/tea) and continued to explore the city. We found a bunch of artesania stands by the beach where we spent a while shopping. Later, we ate lunch at a restaurant, got gelato, and headed back to the hostel to grab our things. We had to catch a bus to the bus station, where we almost died because this bus driver was crazy, also, we didn't really know where we were going. Luckily, we got there safely and made it back to Santiago in one piece.

La Mitad

I promise to put up pictures of my amazing weekend at some point tomorrow.

I just wanted to mark the day of my first run here in Chile. It was a bit chilly (haha, that will never get old) but I layered up and went for a run, even though I'm still sick. I like to run when I get stressed, also, I've been eating like a pig here so I'm sure my body needed. I did crunches and push-ups when I got back. Oh, boy was my body tired, after half of what I usually do too! I'm gonna try to at least do push-ups and crunches daily because they're easy and I don't have to run in the cold. Next time you talk to me ask me how this plan is going to make sure I keep it up.

Also, today/this past weekend marks my month-iversary in Chile. It also, sadly, marks the half way point of my trip. One more month until I'm back in (what appears to be VERY) hot weather!

I have a Spanish test to study for (hence the "stress") therefore this is the end of this post. Wish me luck, it's on the dreadful subjunctive (or should I say, el temiblo subjunctivo)!

Long Weekend!

I'm going to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar for this long weekend. As you recall, I already went to Valparaiso, but there was a lot left unseen. Viña del Mar is a city near Valpo and its supposed to be beautiful, and slightly warmer. Weather forecasts call for 0% rain precipitation this weekend!

I'll have pictures ready to post when I get back!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Cooking Class

Today we had a cooking class. We learned how to make Pebre (a pico de gallo type salsa), Sopaipillas, Pan Amasado, and Empanadas. Like an idiot, I forgot my camera, but I'll wait for people to put pictures us on facebook and steal them to post on this blog. For now, you'll have to live with these web photos.

Pebre

Sopaipillas

Pan Amasado

Empanadas

We were split into groups and I was in the Sopaipilla group. I'm not a pro but I have the recipes for all of them and would like to try and make some when I get home. Hopefully they'll turn out as good as they did today.

¡Buen Provecho!

Cementario General

The entrance to the cemetery.

Well, this week has been pretty lame. I have basically been going to classes, eating, sleeping, reading, and going to class. I've almost exhausted all of the free-touristy things to do in Santiago. On Friday, we finally had another field trip planned. We went to the general cemetery of Santiago. At first, it sounds like kind of a strange field trip; my host mom thought IES staff were going crazy and getting lazy with ideas to teach us, however, it ended up being really interesting. My teacher described it as the perfect way to teach us culture and history in one fell swoop.

There were so many types of tombs. There were various sizes of mausoleums, basic tombs, underground mausoleums, and walls of coffins (I forget what they are called).

The cemetary was built by Bernado O'Higgins, a Chilean independence leader. Initially, it was built only for Catholics, but later, they decided to open it up to the public. There is a wall that divides the Catholic tombs from the non-Catholic tombs, you can tell because the names on the tombs go from being very Chilean and Latin American to being really, well, not Chilean. There are names like "Frankenstein" and "Reudlinger" on the other side of the wall, as opposed to "Sanchez-Velez" and "Gomez-Jarpa."

An Aztec tomb.

A Jewish tomb.

There was one tomb that was particularly interesting. It is a tomb of a woman, who is said to have fallen down a flight of stairs on her wedding day, and died. She died in love, but never got the chance to get married, therefore, it is said, that if you leave her a present, she will help you find love. Many school girls come to the cemetery to skip class and leave gifts to this woman.

To learn more about this tomb/story, you can visit this website:

http://www.orlitaromerogomez.blogspot.com/

(I visited the cite, I don't understand it though.)

All but three of the former presidents of Chile are buried in the same cemetery. One, Bernado O'Higgins, is buried in front of the presidential builing (La Moneda, I showed pics of it in my Chile v Espana post). They moved his remains from this cemetery to his new place because he played such an important role in Chilean hsitory. I can't remember which was the second president and why he isn't in the cemetery, but the third is former dicator Pinochet. His family had him incinerated and keeps his remains in their home our of fear that people would vandalize his tomb.

Salvador Allende's tomb.

Jose Manuel Balmaceda's tomb

Salvador Allende, who's portrait you saw in my Vaparaiso (aka: Valpo) post, is one of the most beloved presidents. He was overthrown my former dictator Pinochet. His tomb is one of the biggest in the cemetery. He is buried with his wife and daughter (and a few lesser known family members) in a great white mausoleum (kinda like Dumbledor's (!), but huge). Part of his speech to the public when he found out the country was going to be taken over by Pinochet is displayed on marbled by his tomb. The second picture is another president's tomb, who we have yet to learn much about.

The cemetery serves as a location for many memorials too. Mostly, it serves as a memorial for those who had fallen under the cruelty of the Pinochet dicatorship. Chile is celebrating it bicentennial as an independent country this year, and therefore is reconstructing all of the memorials. There is a vast difference between the memorial tombs and the tombs we first saw. They are much smaller and much more uniform. However, they are also more colorfully decorated from people coming to visit them.

During the dictorship, a certain group of people started gathering all of the bodies of those who died. They took them too the cemetery to be buried, although this was strictly forbidden by Pinochet. The owner of the cemetery was forced to hide what was going on, or else he would be killed. When questioned by Pinochet's army about all of the bodies being brought there, he lied and said he was just going to throw them in a big dump.

For those bodies who were never found, there is a giant memorial with the names of all of those lost and dead under the dictatorship. Salvador Allende's name, the first victim of the dictatorship, is in the middle of the memorial:

Another memorial form is remembering those who were never found during the dicatorship. One of the army units was almost completely lost, except for one. His tomb is in the cemetary, but "burning flames" decorate his tomb, with those names of all in his unit that were never found:

As Chile is a dominantly Catholic country, there are "shrines" dedicated to a certain saint, where the public will leave notes asking the saint to help them, or thanking the saint for helping them through a rough time in their life. There are shrines like this all over the city, for example there was one to the Virgin Mary at San Cristobal. They look like this:

Speaking of San Cristobal, you could see it, with the statue of the Virgin Mary, from the cemetery:

This weekend, I climbed the other hill in the middle of the city. It is called "Santa Lucia." I'll put pics of that up later.

Miss you all!

Nina