museo, fiesta y realizaciones (tr: accomplishments)

I realized that my last post was only about the first day of classes and I didn't get to mention the awesome museum Lily and I visited on our second day: the Salvador Allende Solidarity Museum. What a great spot - awesome modern art from Chile and elsewhere alongside a great history lesson. Allende was Chile's popularly elected Marxist President before Pinochet's US-backed coup in 1971. Pinochet was president for almost 30 years; a dictator who was accused of human rights violations and amassing a huge amount of weath by stealing from the people, is is pretty much reviled and so Allende is viewed as a hero (although it doesn't seem like Chile is interested in moving back to a socialist system). The program coordinator, Paz, took us and gave us a tour in Spanish. I understood about 50% of what she said - we talked about the history of the country, and the various exhibits (there were quite a few feminist pieces - Chile is still a pretty macho place with pay discrimination, conservative views of working women, etc). It was great to be immersed in Spanish (that's why I'm here) but by the time I got back to the school for lessons my brain felt fried!

Yesterday evening we went to the weekly Gringa Fiesta. It's a party mostly for foreigners (and the Chileans that love them) that takes place in a different location each week; for example, last night the party was in a movie theater. I had such a fun time, but was suffering a bit this morning. Luckily, almost every other student was in the same boat (no surprise that Thursdays are not the teachers' favorite)! These pictures are from the party:

Fiona demonstrating how we got in, but I didn't do such a good job with the photo composition so you can't really tell that the "door" to get in was the chain fence and only had a 4'x4' opening (you had to step up and duck your head in order to get in).
Then there were the signs for the bathroom:


As you can see, they let you know exactly what is going on (there signs are somewhat typical here). Finally 2 party pics of Lily, Fiona, Annie and Me. I swear I have other friends here (even some who are not blonde!) but the camera went away quickly once we started dancing.



Other bits of news:
- Before class yesterday, I explored my neighborhood a bit more and bought an outlet adapter from a Chilean hardware store entirely in Spanish! Honestly, I was on cloud nine after that.
- After class, Annie, Lily and I went to Paris (a department store) and bought unlocked cell phones and Chilean SIM cards. It feels so nice to be connected to the world again (and to be able to call friends to make plans, etc).
- The best news just arrived via email from my mom: eureka! I found the cannon charger. I will mail it out tomorrow. A tribute to never giving up and keeping your cool. How true, Marilyn! My mom is such a superstar! What this means for you dear readers is that this blog will continue to have pictures posted to it. For me it means that I will be able to have permanent visual memories of my adventures in South America! (Special thank you to Sarah W for encouraging me not to give up and suggesting solutions on how to get the camera battery charger).