Pomaire, Isla Negra y Valparaíso, Chile.

The past weekend was jam packed for me as I went on a day trip to the neighboring towns of Pomaire and Isla Negra with my program, followed by a weekend getaway to Valparaíso, a beach resort about an hour away from Santiago. Pomaire was our first stop, and upon arrival, I wasn't sure how my program director expected us to spend three whole hours there. Pomaire is a dinky little town famous for its clay pottery, but other than the art, that's pretty much about it. In fact, there are only two major roads. We ended up taking a long walk and saw just about everything in the town, even getting to see how the locals actually make the pottery and passing through a farmers' market where I saw FREAKISHLY HUGE celery - it had to be at least two to three times the size of our celery back home. The trip ended with lunch in the many tourist-geared restaurants, where most of us ordered el pastel de choclo - basically a baked corn casserole that's kind of more like a shepherd's pie than it is a cake, as "pastel" would seemingly suggest.

This would be Pomaire's "Restaurant Row," if you could call it that

Just a sampling of the clay pottery the town has to offer

If you can't tell that this is clearly FREAK celery, you have never stepped foot in a produce section

El pastel de choclo - not quite what I expected, but not bad at all!

Stop two was Isla Negra, the town most well known for being Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda's home - or at least, one of his three homes. Neruda was a real trip - he was obsessed with the idea of ships and so he had his home designed to look like one while also collecting boat related objects - figurehead, shells, the works. He also had a huge boat outside as well. The beach in general was just a great excuse to get away from the smoggy city of Santiago - it was chilly, refreshing, and beautiful!

Welcome to Isla Negra - no wonder anyone'd want to get a house here and use it as a writing retreat

On the way to Pablo Neruda's house

A painting based on "El Cartero de Neruda," a book about the writer and the politics happening during that time

The painting was appropriately posted on the side of a Correos Chile postal office, as "cartero" means "mail carrier"

The boat by Neruda's house facing the sea

And because Neruda just couldn't get any weirder, he also has a train in the front of his home

After the school-sanctioned excursion, most of the students piled onto a bus heading towards Valparaíso, a quaint beach resort full of rainbow-colored houses and cute little cafes and boutiques. Although it was sadly cloudy the whole weekend, it was a great opportunity to get to know the other students in my group as well as meet new people from around the world in our hostel - strangely enough, there were a lot of Germans stopping by Valparaíso that weekend!

Yeah, there were 2-3 more colors on this building that could not be captured in a single photograph

By an extremely antique-y building

Banging on the doors of one of the buildings in the armed forces district of town

Lots of crazy graffiti around "Valpo," as the locals call it - here this is a play on Nintendo, except it says "No entiendo," or "I don't understand"

Heading back to town, most of us got ready for a shortened week of class as the country prepared for las Fiestas Patrias, a week full of celebration for Chilean independence. A lot of the festivities started as early as September 11th, which marked a major military coup of Salvador Allende's socialist regime in Chile, but most of it did not get in full swing until this Thursday. Many of the larger community parks host fondas, which are essentially like the county fair except there are no rides and no weirdly fried foods to experiment. At the fonda, it is a way to see all of the folkloric Chilean dancing (such as their national cueca and some indigenous Mapuche dances) and try the local food and drink. It's basically a nonstop party from dusk till dawn!

Pre-celebrating my 21st on one of our first nights celebrating Chile's independence

With my host brother and host cousins
My host mom excited to explain all the Chilean songs and dances at a fonda by our house

One of the few fondas with free admission, which explains why pretty much everyone and their mother comes

Santiago, Chile.

I have now been in what will be my hometown for the next eight months over a week now! Things have been hectic as I get additional visa paperwork together, finalize my class schedule, and just try to get into the groove of things. Santiago has a much more European flavor than I expected and again, is just so different! The seasons here are inverted because we are south of the equator, so we are currently at the end of winter. For a Californian, it is really cold here! I'm talking <50 degrees - I really can't compute anything that isn't 60+.

The Palacio de Moneda, or former presidential palace - though now the current president, Michelle Bachelet, lives in my community

If you look closely in the back, you can see additional carabineros [police] that are participating in the changing of the guards
In front of the Terraza Neptuno fountain at Cerro Santa Lucia

The Santiago skyline from Cerro Santa Lucia - there's no real "downtown" as the entire city is a sprawling mess of high towers - the hazy white in the back are actually the Andes
One of the oldest cathedrals in the Plaza de Armas is right next to a modern financial district

I chose to live with a host family again - it was simply a more convenient option and the cultural aspect is something you really can't put a price tag on. I live with my host mother Rossy (pronounced "Rosie"), 28-year-old host sister Karin, and 21-year-old host brother Martin. I didn't know until I arrived but I actually have a host...stepdad? His name is Klaus (he's German) and he and Rossy only recently got married this summer. Chilean Spanish is definitely a whole different animal - not only do Chileans have a habit of dropping their "s" sounds a lot, but they have a whole set of vocabulary that I'm not attuned to.

Rossy and Klaus at a food court in a mall by our house

A smoggy view of Santiago and the Andes from Cerro San Cristobal

There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE here - but some of them have sweaters on - where do they get them if they're strays?

The sunset from Cerro San Cristobal

Well that's it for now - hope everyone's having a fantabulous Labor Day weekend!