Miercoles! (Wednesday!)

¡Hola!  

Speaking of songs (I was "singing" "monday, monday" by the Mamas and the Papas), there are a lot of English songs played here.   The oldies station that my family listens to is constantly playing songs in English.  Saturday, after I didn't recognize the Backstreet Boys song that was playing in the mall, Victor said to me "Kaia, you weren't born in the USA," referring to my lack of recognition on several other occasions of famous American people.  =P  It was funny.  

Monday we had our tour in the morning.  It was okay.  A little on the long and boring side as we were just driving around in a bus for most of it, but it was interesting.  We went through "old town," past the Museum/House of Salvador Allende, through a couple of "barrios" (neighborhoods), up to Cerro San Cristobal (the Metropolitan park where I went with my host family the first weekend), and to the mountainous outskirts of Santiago where we went past a poor neighborhood of shanty-esque houses, with small paths between the buildings that were all squeezed in a smaller space, and giant villas with fancy modern architecture and elaborate details.  The rich suburbia was very green and looked much like an Oregon suburbia (except smaller and greener), and the houses were mostly different and more elaborate.  Individual care and money had gone into each one, you could tell.  

So it was good that we went on the tour, but I wished that it had been shorter and less time in the bus.  We did stop twice for 15 minutes or so and once for 30 minutes to climb to the foot of the Virgin Mary statue in Cerro San Cristobal, but there was more driving than experiencing.  And what with the windy roads (in the outskirts), looking back and forth out of windows, and the heat, I started to feel a little carsick.  The 29 person bus that we were in, however, had extremely comfy seats that most of us couldn't help but fall asleep in so I was able to take a bit of a rest.    

For lunch I bought an "empanada de pino" (empanada with the meat, egg, onions, olive mixture inside - my favorite), and enjoyed the snacks that Silvia packed for me.  After lunch, in our PM class, we did our presentations about the different "barrios" (neighborhoods) that we had been assigned to go to on Friday (my group presented about our trip to the expensive neighborhood of Alonso de Córdova).  It was interesting to hear about the other barrios and I got some great ideas for the ones I really want to go to now (like Barrio Lastarria, Parque Forestal, and Bellavista) and the ones I didn't want to visit (like mine).  

Tuesday was the last day of "orientation" before our trip to the beach.  We had our AM presentations on the museums we were assigned (I presented on El Museo de Bellas Artes with Sara, and in the PM we had two "surprises."  One was a cake for Emma's 21st birthday (but unfortunately she was sick so wasn't at school), and the other was a guest speaker, Ricardo.  He is part of the Chilean rap group "Legua York" (a play on words with "New York," a contrast between the poverty of "Legua" and the richness of New "York."   

Ricardo, the rapper, and his buddies work in the neighborhoods, schools, and communities to inspire kids,  give rap, hiphop, and the Santiago ghetto "Legua" a better name. With the kids they try to promote drug awareness and prove to them that from nothing you can make something: despite being from the Legua and having no money, Ricardo and his friends worked with others to create music, a band and a name for themselves.  Even now they manage to get by with little money.  One of their newest music videos cost them nothing as they managed to group together and trade skills with different people to create it.  They are popular on youtube and have made several music videos but are an underground band.  But that's the way they like it.  They also work with artists and communities to do graffiti murals.  I bought one of their CDs and it comes with one of their music videos.  He was a really cool guy and is doing really good work in the community so I was glad to support him.  

Tuesday night I finally got to talk to Mom, Dad, Aunt Maggie, Uncle Bob, and Nigel on Skype.  It was really fun.  Skype is so amazing!  I have a built in camera on my laptop so I was able to show them around our apartment and my room, and was able to see Dad and Nigel (who were at home with a camera, but Mom, Aunt Maggie, and Uncle Bob didn't have one so I couldn't see them but they could see me).  

Today, Wednesday, I had my interview with Gabriel (the program director of our program here) and Paola (the program coordinator) to talk about what kind of internship I want.  Didn't get very far, but I gave them the broad idea of what I am looking for.  They said we'll talk more later.  I also got my schedule, and two of my books, so that's exciting.  I will post my schedule later.  

Afterwards Kristen, Kelsey, Sara and I lugged our books (they hadn't warned us that we should bring a backpack to carry them in) to Cerro Santa Lucia, a beautiful, amazing, crazy park that is thus far my favorite place in Santiago.  It is so cool!  You'll have to see some of my pictures and the video that I took from the top.  The other girls were too tired and book laden to make it to the top, so they sat on a bench with our stuff while I tried to make it to the top and back quickly.  It was harder to go up and down all the steep, worn steps than I thought (thank goodness for the hand rails), and I wished that I had worn shoes with a bit more traction, but it was all right.  The girls enjoyed my pictures and we had a ton of fun, overall.  =)  On the way out of the park, we went into the indigenous people (Mapuche, Aimara, etc) booth area and enjoyed looking at their wares.  I will definitely be spending some money there next time I go.  Their earrings were super cool.  Then we went across the street to the artisan market (another cool place that I will be returning to) and I bought some Lapis Lazuli earrings and a matching necklace.  There are only two places in the world where you can find Lapis Lazuli: Africa (I know it's not a country, but I can't remember what country), and here.  I really like them and am glad I bought them.  They were only 6 mil pesos (about $10)!  

Tomorrow morning we leave for the beach: Valparaíso and Viña del Mar.  We are going as a school trip and then us students have decided to stay in Viña for the weekend (or at least one more night) to enjoy it a bit more before coming back to Santiago.  Should be fun!  

Well, I really should go to bed now, but wanted to get this posted before I left.  Have a great rest of the week guys!  I'll have to post the link to my video from Cerro Santa Lucia when I manage to get it uploaded to Youtube.  =)

Week Two