So much news, so little time

Wow, so it's been like a whole week since I last wrote. Really sorry about that. Things here have been crazy busy!!

Let's start from the beginning:

So, Friday, I was unable to go to church for Dormition because all the parishes decided to go to Vina del Mar to celebrate the parish's patronal feast day there. Bummer. So instead, my friends Jessica and Suguna decided to join up and go visit a bunch of museums all around Santiago. And, since it's torentially raining, we figure it's a good idea to stay indoors. Well, since the 15 is a national holiday (Assumption), of course all the museums are closed - which we don't realize until we drag ourselves around to two of them (on opposite ends of town...in the rain). So after we managed to soak ourselves, we spent a very leisurely tea time eating empanadas at the Plaza de Armas (the very center of Santiago) and talking about travel plans for the rest of the semester (lots of fun opportunities!!). After this, we decide to head to the mall - which thankfully is still open. We hunt for hiking boots for Suguna and just kinda browse other things. Have a nice onces at the food court, and head home.

Saturday, I sleep in (yessss) and then work on homework. All day. It turns out that when I switched poetry sections, the professors use different readings (go figure) so now I have to catch up on the reading for my new section. Fun fun. That's pretty much the extent of Saturday.

Sunday, I go to Matins, where I got to read a lot (I'm getting better)!! Liturgy was beautiful, and I got to talk with different people at coffee hour (which, by the way, consists of just that...coffee). Afterwards, I call Jessica to see if she's up for seeing the Museo de Bellas Artes (the biggest art museum in Santiago), but it turns out she caught a cold running around in the rain. Bummer. When I get home and share my failed attempt to be sociable, my host sister Sandy decides that it's been years since she's seen Bellas Artes and that we should go together that afternoon. Yes!!! So we go. Bellas Artes has a lot of modern art, we discovered (which she really likes, but which doesn't really do anything for me). Thankfully, there was enough classical art to salvage the museum for me (pictures coming soon!). I love marble statues and I love paintings...and there were both! Afterwards, we stopped by the Modern Art Museum, which we both agreed was a complete bust (nothing there). So, we left and went and got ice cream at this really famous ice cream store behind the museum. It must have been really famous, because we had to wait in line for 40 minutes before we got served! Crazy!! But it was really good ice cream, so I guess it was worth it :)

Monday - photocopies, class, more photocopies, and now printing! The story here is that it's free to print, but you have to bring your own paper. The printers are empty. Haha.

Tuesday, classes, which included a visit to a history of Chile class that I decided to take. My schedule is now complete!!!! It is as follows:

Monday/Wednesday: 1:30-2:50 - Education, Culture, and Society
Tuesday/Thursday: 11:30-12:50 - Anthropology of Chile
1:30-2:50 - Chilean Poetry
3:00-4:20 - History of America and Chile, 20th century (meaning Latin America, but trust me, the US comes up a lot)

Wednesday was really busy: I started out going to the Registro Civil and standing in line for an hour to get my Chilean ID (which I now, thankfully, have). I then went across town to the Central office of La Catolica and turned in my request for a student bus pass, which charges like 1/3 of what I've been paying (can't wait to get that!). I turned in my schedule to the CIEE office, and then tried on some shoes (my black ones have decided to break on me). I happily found out I can wear a size 40 (not a 43, like I originally thought), which really opens up the market for me. Then class, followed by training for English Opens Doors, a program I'm volunteering with to teach English to public school students here in Santiago. I have my school assignment, and it's like down the street. I will be spending 4 hours on Monday mornings in the high school. Totally pumped and can't wait to start! I then went to choir rehearsal, and Liturgy. I really like weekday liturgies here, because Fr. Francisco does things a little bit differently than Sunday Liturgy in regards to music and liturgics, because the crowd is very different. He has catechism class following Liturgy, so all of the catechumens are there, while on Sunday, the majority of the crowd is the Arab contingent, so things are more standard Antiochian practice. Oooo and I got to read the Epistle! Which was really cool!!

Today, I went to class all day. I then went shopping (for 3 hours!!! Christina where are you???) for black boots. Talk about torture. First of all, if I actually found a pair I liked, they either didn't come in my size, or cost like $80.00+. Since the pair I tried on yesterday cost me like $20, I wasn't really planning to spend too much more than that. So, I looked through every shoe store in the mall (2 hours), before giving up and heading back home. On my way, I stopped at Macul, which is this plaza about 8 blocks from home. Along the street, there are like 5 shoe stores right next to each other, so I decided to give them a try. After three failed attempts, I FINALLY found a pair of black boots, waterproof, semi-fashionable, that fit fairly well if I'm wearing tights. That's about as good as I could do, and since they only cost about $28 (probably a little less with the current exchange rate), I figured they will get me through the rest of my stay here, and probably through most of the northern hemisphere's upcoming winter. After I tried them on with the different outfits I was planning on wearing them with, I have to say that overall, I'm satisfied.

Tomorrow I head out to San Pedro Atacama, the driest desert on earth. I will take plenty of pictures, and hopefully have info up late on Monday or Tuesday with all the details.

Hope all is well with everyone. Until next time!!