Groovin'

So I didn't update this yesterday, so I figure I probably should today before a downward spiral of me not blogging begins.

Over the past few days or even week, I have begun to really fall into a groove. I wake up, either run or not depending on the day/plan, get ready, walk to school (yeyuh saving BIP card money!), have class, do some sort of activity after class be it with the cultural monitor or with friends, come home, do homework, maybe run, eat dinner, sleep, and repeat. It's nice to fall into this groove, it makes it feel less like I'm on a vacation and more like I'm actually doing something productive down here, but still allows for a lot of fun and games in the afternoon and evening! I do well with busy, structured schedules so I'm loving finding things to fill up my afternoon after class!

Yesterday we went to museums with our cultural monitors and then to dinner in Barrio Brasil, a really old and very neat Barrio that I hadn't yet been to before yesterday. It's not really a place I would return to at night, but it was very cool during the day! The museum we went to was call Museo Palacio Cousiños. It was actually a 19th century mansion that had belonged to the Cousiños family, a charcoal mining family that at the time had more money than the Chilean government itself. I can't say it was the most interesting museum ever, especially since they said there was a fire on the second floor several years ago and thus most of the stuff in the mansion was not original, but it was really fun to learn a little bit more about Chilean history! I really want to go back to some of the museums that the other groups went to, especially the Pre-Columbian Art Museum and the Museo de Memoria, which is all about the desaparecidos during the Pinochet era.

Speaking of the Pinochet era, yesterday during class my Professor who is probably around 60 told us the story of what she remembered happening on September 11, 1973 which was the day of the golpe in which La Moneda was bombed, Allende was killed, and Pinochet rose to power. She was not in Santiago, she was living in Viña del Mar and she also shortly thereafter left Chile for France and Algeria for many years, but it was one of the most interesting stories I've ever heard. It's such a HUGE part of Chilean history, so to hear about the planes flying through Santiago, the curfews, the lack of television stations immediately after, and the total and utter control that Pinochet so quickly acquired from someone who actually experienced it was something I will never forget.

The rest of my days have just been filled with prepping for our final presentation project, studying for our final test on friday, beginning to think about what I will be packing for Patagonia on Saturday, and hanging out with friends. It's been a great past several days, filled with me eating far too much food (but seriously, portion control starting tomorrow) and lots of great times with friends. The housing situation remains a question, but I have asked about extending until I find a place and my host mom said of course that was okay, so that takes off some of the stress of finding a place to live. Gina and I are going to look at a house in Providencia tomorrow, so fingers crossed for that! Tomorrow we're supermarketing for some preliminary Patagonia necessities and then I think having a baking/study party at a friends homestay! Should be great!