My week was much improved from the last one. No more stolen goods or police visits, plus I learned a second form of the past tense AND the future tense! It was a very big week. On Monday, I struck out on my own after taking a long hard look at a map of Santiago, and went to Estacion Mapocho, another Santiago cultural center, to see some free exhibits and to admire the architecture. On the map, it looked very close to my apartment, so I planned to just walk home afterwards instead of taking the round-about metro route. My plan failed in every way. First I got to the cultural center to find that I had overlooked the fact that the exhibits were closed on Monday. Well, that was ok, because what I really wanted to see was the building which is supposed to be beautiful, like a giant turn of the century train station. However, to my dismay, "Animal Planet," the current exhibit set up for kids on winter break, took up most of the inside of the space with big black tents. Still, after sneaking around all the kids and their parents, I found a side entrance where I could go in and look at the building. It was really pretty, and reminded me of Musee d'Orsay in Paris. Some pictures and staring and I was on my way, ready to find my way back to the apartment. Unfortunately, I proved my terrible sense of direction by walking in exactly the opposite direction for about an hour, wondering why I wasn't seeing any street names that I recognized. I figured it was farther than I thought, and was enjoying the walk, so it wasn't until I had walked well out of the way that I stopped to ask somebody. Along the way, though, I saw a giant flower market of pre-made flower designs (hearts, etc. on flat board) and the fabric neighborhood of Santiago where old ladies were checking out different rolls of mostly hideous fabric and sewing materials. I was clearly wandering where no tourist usually goes, and when I finally stopped to ask someone, I was informed that I was incredibly far away and would need to take transportation to get back to where I wanted to be. Suffice it to say that two bus rides and lots of directions later, I was back at my apartment which was literally two blocks from the cultural center but in the other direction. I had a similar experience Tuesday when I wandered to the Supreme Court and Ministry of Justice to find that the court closes at 2 to visitors and the way back was once again in a different direction than I chose to walk. Still, the days were beautiful for wandering, and I got to see where the National Theatre was and the millions of glasses stores farther down my street with women outside each one urging me to get glasses whether I needed them or not.
Wednesday was a big day! On Wednesday, we went with the school to see Neruda's first house in Santiago, La Chascona. It was once again full of collections of random objects that reflected the poet's inner child and inner hoarder. The Santiago house is built in three parts so that the large terraces and gardens become part of the house itself. When we commented that this didn't make a lot of sense because you had to go outside to get to the living room/bedroom/study and it gets pretty chilly in Santiago in the winter, the guide said we can never look for reason in the actions of an artist. The house is named after Neruda's third and last wife, Matilde, for her crazy red hair. The sun-like symbol that is all over this and his other houses represents her hair all around her face. It was a lovely visit!
On our way home, Linda and I decided to go see Harry Potter that night and made our way to the closest movie theatre which was jam-packed with kids on winter break. The only movies out this past week were Harry Potter, Transformers, Cars, and Kung Fu Panda, all aimed at the school children who had the week off. Harry Potter was really good, and the whole theatre had such cute reactions! It was subtitled, so it was mostly adults, and when Ginny walked in to see Harry at Hogwarts, the whole audience let out a lovelorn "awwwww!" It was adorable! Walking home from the movie I thought it was the end of my night, and I got into my pjs and set up my computer on my bed for a little pre-sleep putzing around. About 15 minutes later, Nell throws open my door and says, "Hurry up! We're going!" I asked where we were going and he simply said a restaurant close to the apartment, which is what he always said and which has never been actually close to the apartment. "Hurry! Throw on some clothes and let's go!" I don't know why I was up for it, but I did throw on some clothes and head out with him and a couple other people living in the apartment upstairs. We hopped in a cab (because as I said - close is never that close) and pulled up in front of what looked like someone's garage on a residential street. I was wary, but everyone was going in and the large fence-like door was being held open by someone so we could enter. First we walked in through a door to find a set of curtains, through the curtains to find an entry way with Thai sculptures in it, and through a final set of curtains that opened up onto an incredible secret Thai restaurant! It was so cool!
Thursday we went to see the MAVI, a museum of contemporary art, and I absolutely loved the main exhibit of the ceramic artist Ruth Krauskopf. She is a Chilean artist and the exhibit was a retrospective of her past work. She has studied and worked all over for the past 30 years, and her sculptures were beautiful. They kept the feeling of the earth and clay while creating a beautiful movement and intrigue with a few gestural details.
The main event of the week, a trip to the National Opera, was preceded by a visit to Parque por la Paz, a former villa turned detention center turned memorial and museum for the atrocities that occurred during the Pinochet dictatorship. I went with my friend Deepti, who treked out there with me on two different metro lines and a bus. The park is eerie, located on the beautiful grounds of a 19th century villa with stunning mountains in the background, but marked with mosaic signs throughout the garden with the different areas and their uses during the villa's time as a detention and torture center.
We had audioguides, and walked around the park learning about the repressive practices of the dictatorship. Most of the murdered or "disappeared" were members of opposition political parties, and in honor of that there are statues for each political party in Chile on one side of the park. It was a chilling visit, especially because it was so recent. The regime was in power as recently as 1989. Particularly touching was the rose garden with plaques naming women that had been killed or "disappeared" at Villa Grimaldi, with a fountain in the center painted with the words of Gabriela Mistral, "We were to be queens."
This post is getting long, so I'll end here and write another one this afternoon about my incredible weekend seeing an opera and visiting Neruda's third and last house in Isla Negra. More pictures will be up on facebook at some point - this is just a taste of my Santiago adventures. Now off to school to study more verbs!
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