Yesterday I woke up early in order to head the beach town of Valparaiso. We all met in the metro station of Tobalaba, which luckily for me, is just across the street from me, and from there we took an hour and a half bus trip to the beautiful city of “Valpo”. In a lot of ways, Valpo reminds me of San Francisco with it’s view of a bay, its hills, and its colorful houses. However, we were not free to explore this lovely town right away, first we were ushered into this super cool jazz club to hear from a professor of poetry about the town. A few people commented afterwards about how much they liked his lecture, but personally, it was one of my least favorites of the trip. I would have much rather had that hour and a half to poke around Valpo than listen to his incredibly unfocused and rambling lecture. Plus, he tried to tell us that not many cities were built around ports, which made me go, “Huh?” because I feel like most cities I can think of are built around some kind of port but whatever. After his speech, we sat down for lunch in the same club and admired the beauty of the extravagant space. It would be awesome to return there for a drink and some jazz in the future. Lunch was thoroughly filling, but I’m beginning to think the Chileans like too many pudding-like substances for my taste. See: Manjar. Anyway, we finally departed for my favorite part of the day—a tour of poet Pablo Neruda’s house. Neruda’s house is up on a hill and the view from his house is truly spectacular. I can now understand how he was able to draw so much inspiration from Valparaiso. We walked around the inside, and it was just as crazy and eclectic as any poet’s house should be. He had a custom-made fireplace that looked like an egg and a giant carousel horse in his living room. Perfection. There were tons of huge windows in the house, and the views from every room were dazzling; I couldn’t help but wish I lived in a place like that. When it was finally time to leave, I had to snag a couple of postcards as mementos of the trip.
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the streets of Valpo, and taking pictures of some of the crazy amazing street art done by the rogue artists in the town. We saw some pretty cool stuff (see: my pictures), but I had definitely gotten tired by the end of the afternoon. Needless to say, I promptly fell asleep on the bus. Unfortunately, I think that when I got rid of my strep throat, I acquired a sinus infection because I have been incredibly congested for the last couple of days. I really just wish I could be healthy in Chile, but the universe seems to have turned against me. Oh well. I am doing as much as I can to get better, and I am drinking a TON of tea. Hopefully by the time classes start I will be feeling 100 percent again.
When I finally returned home at 7:45, I quickly changed clothes in order to go out with a couple of friends of my host mom. Once I was ready, we purchased wine and chocolates to bring as gifts to the girls and headed to the bus station. As is my life in Chile, we had bad luck with the bus and had to wait 20 minutes for the one we needed to come, but we finally made it to their house at 9:15. The girls’ names are Francisca and Natalia, and they were both super nice. Francisca is 18 and in her last year of high school while Natalia is 23 and finishing her studies at La Catolica. We all ate snacks and chatted about different topics, and as it turns out, Francisca knows a ton about politics. She seems really smart, and it was nice to just listen as she and my host mom discussed things that are going on in the political arena. After a glass of wine, we dropped off Maria Elena at our apartment and then the girls took me on a driving tour of different parts of the city. They showed me where the richest people live and which areas to avoid at all costs. Finally we ended up at a pretty classy bar in an area called las Tarrias. We each had a drink and talked and laughed and got to know each other better. It was very relaxed, which was definitely something I needed. By 1 am we were all pretty tired though, so Natalia drove me home. However, the girls promised to call me soon so that we could hang out again. Who knows? Maybe I’ll actually have some Chilean friends after all.
This afternoon I think I’m going to go for my first run of the trip, and then I’m heading to the Museum of Bellas Artes with some friends. As for tonight… it’s a friend from the group's 21st birthday so we’ll see how this goes. Haha.
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