Another day...

So, today was another day of class and FIELD TRIP!!!!!!

First, we talked about Chilean art and literature. While a potentially interesting topic, our speaker decided not to talk about the authors and artists that are most famous in Chile (Neruda, Allende, Mistral, etc.) but about politically marginalized artists who, while semi interesting, are not even known by most Chileans and thus did not provide much insight into popular culture. Oh well...

Afterwards, we took a trip to La Chascona in Bellavista, Santiago. This is one of Pablo Neruda's three houses. It was very nice. Built like a boat (Neruda loved the sea, but was often seasick, so he built his house in such a way that he could be a sailor of terra firma), the house showed an eclectic collection of maritime objects, French literature, Russian matryoshkas (gifts from the Comunist party), and paintings of his lover-turned-wife, Mathilde - La Chascona (meaning Medussa, because of her crazy hair).

While the details of Pablo Neruda's life are very interesting (like the fact that his name is really Naftali Reyes and Neruda was the name of a Cezch poet), I will avoid exhausting the issue and just say that it's a story worth looking into.

Pictures from this lovely trip (and indeed, they are lovely), are coming tomorrow, as I haven't had a chance to upload them to my computer yet. They will hopefully be accompanied by photos of the changing of the guard at La Moneda, which is scheduled to occur tomorrow morning around 10:00 (hopefully I will get there in time). Until then, CHAO!!