Santiago in Santiago

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you are spending time in a place you just concluded was not for you? If you’ve been the only an avid reader of this here blogospherical experiment, you’ll know that this is exactly how I felt when our group stepped down from the bus into the less than pleasantly aforementioned streets of Santiago this weekend. It’s as if simply by describing my dislike for the city in an earlier post, it was planning my return in an effort to convince me otherwise. Either that, or I got some shitty luck.

Having woken up before the rest of the world

Outside the museum

 to catch the morning bus to the capitol, we unfortunately seemed 

to wander through the day’s attractions in a daze. First up on Friday was The Museum of Memory and Human Rights, which is dedicated to remembering the victims of human rights violations during the military regime led by Augusto Pinochet 

between 1973 and 1990 in Chile.

Photos of still missing victims of Pinochet's regime

After this, we toured La Moneda, the capitol building where the offices of the president and cabinet are located.

We didn’t really wake up until we found a restaurant to watch the soccer match between Chile and Venezuela, which had the streets buzzing after a sound thumping of the latter by the former. The following morning we visited various cultural centers, but were so tired from walking around for the past two days we let out a collective sigh of exhaustion upon our return to the hostel.

Another excuse for my lack of attentiveness during the day’s exhibitions was that I was excited to reunite with an old amigo. For those of you who don’t know, my family back home seemed to always be hosting an international student from some part of the world or another. During my last year in high school, one of the students was some punk from Santiago named Santiago, giving the impression that it was common here to name your child after the city they were born in. So after three years, St. Cloud (this guy) and Santiago hung out yet again. We went to a small party at a friends house before returning for the night, and I awoke the next day feeling as though I was in a paradise. My friend’s family lives outside Santiago, which makes me feel better about not liking the city especially when his father feels the same way. A large house on a private lot, they also have a large enough outdoor space for a small soccer field, a swimming pool that is used mostly by their dogs Willy and Guatón (<which literally means fatty) and a large barbeque and eating/patio area. Spotted with palm trees, I sincerely felt like I was in another world while still so close to the city.

<<el weón, Santi

I was surprised at how respectable Santi’s English still was after so much time without using it besides the occasional English class. Nevertheless I made sure to tease him about a few slips. That being said, if he slipped, then I fell disastrously in my feeble attempts to effectively communicate with his wonderful family. But as all three children of the family went through the pains of learning English, they all were aware of the effort I was expending in taking what felt like an hour to sputter out a coherent phrase or two. It was a fantastic end to a weekend with a sluggish start, but it was over too soon as I made my way solo through the metro and bus system of the metropolis to find my way back to Viña. Needless to say, the end of my weekend was surely spent with some great people and great food. And I hope to return to the Oyarzún house before my time here in Chile is up.

JJ