¡Hola¡ My name is Monique LeTourneau and I am a junior at Washington State University. This summer I am living in Viña del Mar, Chile, and interning at El Mercurio, a newspaper in nearby Valparaíso (or, as the locals say, ¨Valpo¨). I will be keeping an account of my experience as an intern, my progress in learning Spanish, and my side trips to nearby countries. In addition, I will share tips that I learn about living and traveling in South America. - All
- Adventures in Spanish (5)
- Observations (6)
- On the job (0)
- Sightseeing (2)
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I peaced out of work early on Friday and, with my friend Jessica, headed to the booming metropolis of Santiago for the weekend to museum-hop.
In true Jessica-and-Monique style, we also pretty much ate our way through the weekend as well, downing fruit salad from the fería, completos, lattés, alfajores and white wine during our 3-day stay. Our excuse is that this is our last week and Chile, so we´re going to eat as much Chilean food as possible before we return to the states... where I can bet money we won´t be able to find 3-completo-italianos-plus-two-drinks-for-$2 deals.
But back to museums. The first stop Saturday was Museo de Bellas Artes, situated in the indie-trendy Bellas Artes district of the city. I have to note the building itself was worth the 300peso (60 cents) entry, though the exhibits were less than captivating.
Next was the natural history museum, which was pretty much in the sketchiest part of the city. We got slightly past the point with the preserved 8-year-old (he was a tribal sacrifice or something that was locked up and froze to death... it was pretty gross and morbid)... and then we decided to get out of there. Luckily admission was free.
Then there was Yarur´s new Museo de la Moda, which opened in June, featuring vintage clothing from the 1700s to 1990s owned by this super-loaded Chilean family. I don´t think it was worth the $5 admission, nor walking in freezing cold rain for 20 minutes... but it was neat to see. And the New York Times raved about it in a full-page article.
After being thoroughly soaked to the bone by Mother Nature´s rain spell, we sought refuge in the apartment, where we ended up spooning by a space heater and watching episodes of Papi Ricky until we were warm enough (and our shoes dry enough... I was dumb enough to wear Converse) to buy completos. It was pretty cute.
Sunday required a trip to the artesan/book fería at la Plaza de Armas to buy chocolate, fruit salad and gifts for our friends and family. Then we booked it back to the apartment to watch the World Cup finals, bought completos at half-time, and made it home by 6.
