Last Thursday, we went to visit La Moneda, which was quite an interesting experience. It used to be the Chilean mint but now it is where President Piñera works (he apparently lives in a normal house). There are lots of guards in fancy outfits but the security is no where near what it would be like in the US. We got a tour of the inside and there was a guard who had to accompany us on the tour.
Well, we quickly learned that the term "
official" does not mean the same thing as it does in the US. My friends and I wanted a picture w
ith him and at that moment, he gave my friend Mary his email so that she could send him the picture. He then asked us where we like to go party and then proceded to tell us that he is single. It sure made for a good laugh.
This past weekend was full of Salsa. I went with friends to two different Salsatecas that give lessons before the open dancing. It is quite interesting to try to understand everything that the teacher says in Spanish. On Sunday, I went with a few of my friends to Cerro San Cristobal. We had to wait an hour to take the funicular up the hill. It felt like Disneyland. But when we reached the top of the hill, there were beautiful views of the city. At the top of that mountain, I ran into one of Evan's friends from our synagogue in Los Angeles! My friends and I decided to walk down instead of taking the funicular which, little did we know, would take 1 1/2 hours.
Yesterday was quite an intense day. We had a tour of Villa Grimaldi which was a site of the torturing during Pinochet's dictatorship. Our tour was led by a man who is a survivor of the torturing at that site. It was truly unreal to be at that site and have him tell us what happed at each location. I had learned about the dictatorship before my trip to Chile, but hearing from someone who experienced it first hand only 35 years ago was hard to believe. We saw pictures of his friends that are part of the "disappeared" and tried to comprehend the emotion that he experienced as he told us personal stories. He then took us to Cementerio general where Salvador Allende and many other important political figures are buried in tombs with giant monuments. There is a huge wall that has the names of thousands of detenidos-desaparecidos from the era of the dictatorship. There are some tombs that have fallen apart from the large earthquake that happened last February. They are in the process of being fixed, but we saw bones from some that have not yet been reconstructed!
This is a memorial that was built for all the women that died at this site. The posts have their names and a rose bush is planted near each one in honor of each woman.
This is a tomb that fell apart during the last earthquake. We could see the bones some of the different squares.
Today we met for classes at the San Joaquin campus of La Universidad Catolica, which is where most of my classes will probably be. Some current students gave us a tour of the campus, which is so much bigger than I am used to! The architecture is amazing there but the funny thing is that none of the buildings seem to match.
Last Friday, we went to visit La Chascona, which was one of Pablo Neruda's three houses in Chile. His taste is very interesting because he was a large man but everything in his house was small because he wanted it to resemble a boat. During the tour, I asked why you had to go outside to get to the different rooms, and our guide said that it is because he didn't want to cut down trees.
This past weekend was full of Salsa. I went with friends to two different Salsatecas that give lessons before the open dancing. It is quite interesting to try to understand everything that the teacher says in Spanish. On Sunday, I went with a few of my friends to Cerro San Cristobal. We had to wait an hour to take the funicular up the hill. It felt like Disneyland. But when we reached the top of the hill, there were beautiful views of the city. At the top of that mountain, I ran into one of Evan's friends from our synagogue in Los Angeles! My friends and I decided to walk down instead of taking the funicular which, little did we know, would take 1 1/2 hours.
Yesterday was quite an intense day. We had a tour of Villa Grimaldi which was a site of the torturing during Pinochet's dictatorship. Our tour was led by a man who is a survivor of the torturing at that site. It was truly unreal to be at that site and have him tell us what happed at each location. I had learned about the dictatorship before my trip to Chile, but hearing from someone who experienced it first hand only 35 years ago was hard to believe. We saw pictures of his friends that are part of the "disappeared" and tried to comprehend the emotion that he experienced as he told us personal stories. He then took us to Cementerio general where Salvador Allende and many other important political figures are buried in tombs with giant monuments. There is a huge wall that has the names of thousands of detenidos-desaparecidos from the era of the dictatorship. There are some tombs that have fallen apart from the large earthquake that happened last February. They are in the process of being fixed, but we saw bones from some that have not yet been reconstructed!
This is a memorial that was built for all the women that died at this site. The posts have their names and a rose bush is planted near each one in honor of each woman.
This is a tomb that fell apart during the last earthquake. We could see the bones some of the different squares.Today we met for classes at the San Joaquin campus of La Universidad Catolica, which is where most of my classes will probably be. Some current students gave us a tour of the campus, which is so much bigger than I am used to! The architecture is amazing there but the funny thing is that none of the buildings seem to match.
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