Week 15 in Chile

I had another fun yet hectic week in Santiago, but I was lucky enough to spend the weekend in the beautiful Pucon in southern Chile. Truly breathtaking place. Kind of reminded me of a rustic ski town out west and it had a real hippie vibe to it. Enjoy!

Monday, September 9, 2013

-Slept in late because my class was cancelled today and then I spent some time watching TV until Nora took me with her to Barrio Franklin, which is a commercial district south of where I live, so that we could buy a few things and so that I could see a new area of town; very interesting and packed district
-After I met up with some friends at the bus station to buy our bus tickets for Pichilemu in two weeks! Really excited for that trip. After I headed to Bellavista with a friend to catch up and grab a coffee and then I came home for some dinner and homework doing after a relatively lazy day

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

-Class all day at San Joaquin and then I spent some time studying for my test with some friends; there was a protest/demonstration type thing on campus, but I'm not really sure what it was about; all in all it was a low key day, full of class and homework and bracing myself for the coming day's potentially violent protests

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Today was a very important day in the history of the US, as it marked 12 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers and on the Pentagon, but it also marked the 40th anniversary since Augusto Pinochet took over the Chilean government in a military coup (aided by the CIA...). All in all, it was a strange day. Eerily quiet in El Centro where I thought there would be crazy protests, meanwhile in the outlining barrios, buses were lit on fire and there were huge demonstrations against Pinochet and his regime. Even at school there were demonstrations, but I was only at the artsy campus today, so most of the students are more liberal there and thus supported Allende as opposed to the majority of the other wealthy La Catolica students who supported Pinochet. I think it's pretty sad that I didn't learn about what happened in Chile during the coup or that there even was a coup in Chile until I was a sophomore in college. All in all, it was a very interesting but sad day, but I'm glad I was able to witness an important part of Chilean history. I'm looking forward to November's presidential elections here so that I can witness more moments of Chilean history.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

-Got to school early to finish up study guides/studying for test with my friend Marta; then we had our test and then I sat in the library and did work for my second class; had my second class and the teacher thankfully is going to let me rewrite my essay because I did awful on it because I did it wrong... I guess what I was supposed to do got lost in translation, but now I know what to do; went to CIEE to pick up form for my visa, so I can go pick that up from the Extranjeria on Monday or Tuesday

Friday, September 13, 2013 - Sunday, September 15, 2013

This weekend, I travelled south to Pucon with a few friends from the program. We spent the weekend exploring the beautiful rustic town. We went white water rafting and then became friends with all the guides who took us out later that night. I attempted to ski on Villarica Volcano, but the ski resort was closed due to high winds so we hiked up to the resort and got to ski down once. Technically, I still did get to ski on the volcano though. Sunday we went on a lovely hike through Parque Nacional Huerquehue and explored the town before our bus back to Santiago that evening. All in all, it was an awesome trip. Below are some pictures of my time in Pucon.