Tim would like me to retract my earlier statement to say that Aconcagua is the tallest behind everest and the himalayas. It is highest in this hemisphere, I believe.
Just to help me keep track of everything, here are a few highlights of our first few days here, pre-blog . . .
Sunday, Jan. 1 - Arrived to our apt. via taxi, we were both thoroughly impressed by the apt. and the view. After much needed showers, we walked to a seafood restaurant in the El Bosque neighborhood. I ordered spaghetti y calamari, after finding out the sauce was ¨sin crema¨(without cream). Turns out the sauce was ¨con tinta¨or with ink! Regardless, it was tasty ( although my mouth turned a darker shade) and we had a nice meal. Andres (the guy we are living with) arrived home later that night, super nice guy and speaks very good english. He actually was an exchange student at NC State, and lived in Raleigh with a family for awhile.
Monday. Jan 2 - Slept in!! Much needed. Visited the mall across the street - you could have been in any major mall in America! Very modern, trendy, Westernized! Took the metro downtown to see Tim´s school, an older building with modern classrooms built around pretty courtyards. We had dinner that night with andres and his friend Carolina. In our half Spanish, half English conversations, they asked us what we thought of Chile so far (nice people, beautiful country, much is not very different from the US). We were interested to know what they thought of America as well. First of all, they feel that America´s choice to go to war in Iraq was wrong. Their outgoing president, Richard Lagos, was the only one of Latinamerican leaders to not support the US. They definitely have a ¨solid¨ opinion of Bush. They also gave us some interesting insight on the current campaigns for president in their country, between Bachelet (a liberal female) and Piñeras (the conservative male). Elections are Jan. 15th; that will be interesting to follow.
Tuesday, Jan 3 - Tim´s class started, I met him after class and we found an Italian place on la calle Huerfanos that served pizza ( I had palmitos on mine, in US these are hearts of palm - they are everywhere down here and so cheap- I´ve had them everyday at least twice!) We then found the Museo de Bellas Artes. A very small, not so impressive museum, but we felt like we should do it. Dinner this night was interesting, Andres invited us to dinner and birthday party for his brother-in-law hosted by his sister at their home. A nice chance to try out our spanish in a casual setting. They of course spoke some English so that was helpful. We then left the party with Andres for a FAST drive north of the city to his soccer game. His team lost 13-0 (they had never practiced, more like pick-up) but the teams they were playing were amazing! Tim was definitely impressed. Then back to the party. Slightly uncomfortable initallly as many more people were there, but all were nice and made us feel very welcome.
Wednesday, Jan 4 - Tim didn´t have class this a.m., so we met US classmate Lindsey to show her around our part of the city and mall. Tim then had class 2-9:00, so I enjoyed some sunbathing, trip planning, reading, and watching ¨Friends¨ in spanish with english subtitles. I am definitely learning phrases and words through this. A very late dinner of fettucini and meat sauce was made (I need to learn my herbs in spanish, as I added a ton of tarragon when I thought I was adding oregano) and we watched the presidential debate with Andres. He was very helpful in ¨translating¨the big issues they were talking about. I basically understood very little, only picked up a few words here and there. Still very intresting to watch this unfold.
Thursday, Jan. 5 - In the afternoon, after my last post, we went to La Chascona, which is Pablo Neruda´s Santiago home. He designed it to be reminiscent of a ship, with a captain´s deck, a long thin dining room with a rounded ceiling and (in the past)had a small stream running through the grounds that flowed by the dining room window. The home was a series of buildings, connected by stairs and walkways in the side of a hill, kept cool by all the trees, which he built around. The MOST amazing thing was seeing his, the REAL Nobel prize. It was kept behind one piece of class with a simple lock (like you´d see securing a glass cabinet that would hold, I don´t know $20 watches behind a cabinet at a drugstore). We could not believe that!
Next we went to a cool bohemian place called Off the Record, to have a ¨pisco sour¨which is a very common drink here (pisco is a type of spirit distilled in chile), and a ¨whiscola¨ (Johnnie Walker and coke,no different from the US, just a different name). Dinner was pizza at a place called ¨Los Insaciables¨ - I don´t guess I have to tell you that it´s all you can eat pizza! Tim was in heaven! (Reference the picture above. That beer is essentially a Blue Cup. My drink in the foreground is called a caipiriña, made from some sort of Brazilian fruit.) I liked it too because I got a plate full of palmitos (hearts of palm) and champignones (mushrooms)!
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