Museos and more food

Sunday is typically a day of relaxation here - most all the shops are closed and people tend to spend the day with their families.
After sleeping in much later than planned (the combination of a lot of activity, a new language and a new city have left me completely exhausted pretty much all the time!) I started to get my act together.  I had a leisurely morning, had some breakfast, took a shower, etc.  I couldn't decide what to do - I didn't think that I had enough time to take in a museum before we would have lunch with our host family, Sunday lunch is always really nice so I wanted to be here for it.

I don't think I mentioned this: we have another student staying in our house now!  Her name is Sze Ming - she's originally from Hong Kong but has lived in the US for the past 15 years or so.  It's been really fun to have another student in the house!  This is her first week learning Spanish (ever) so I've been able to really put my Spanish to use in helping translate!  Super fun and really makes me feel like I'm actually learning!

Anyways.

The weather was absolutely amazing on Sunday - it was super warm, super sunny, one of those rare really warm fall days that I love so dearly.  I decided to go take a walk, just to get out into the sunshine.  SzeMing wanted to come with, so we set off in a direction that I hadn't walked yet.  We had a great time just strolling through the tree-lined streets; talking about learning Spanish, missing college, work, living in the US, and many other things.

When we got back we had some time to rest and then we had a delicious lunch with our  host family.  On Sundays we eat in the dining room (normally we eat in the kitchen) and on Sunday we even broke out some wonderful Chilean wine :)  What better food to serve at a sunday meal than LASAGNA?! Yes. It's as though my host mom already knew all of my favorite foods!  We had a great meal, chatting about everything from politics to the movie Fargo (somehow this keeps coming up... no matter where I go I cannot escape the familiar Ya Sure ya betcha!)
It's even more fun to have these discussions now because I can contribute complete sentences instead of just one or two word answers!  Sometimes I even surprise myself with how much Spanish I can use - there more enough are times in which I can't think of the words in Spanish of English... but I'll choose to focus on the happier times :)

After lunch the 2 of us went to the Museo de Arte Precolombino.  It was a most excellent museum!  It features art from throughout Central and South America, all dated pre-Columbus.  It takes you through the art work (more or less) geographically, so you can see how things change between cultures but you can also see a lot of similarities.
A lot of the art (mostly sculptures and the like) were used to accompany the dead.  There was something so reassuring about this thought - that people would make things that would help protect and guide your soul- so that the person was never alone.  There was even one culture that would carve huge wooden figures that would stand guard at your gravesite, mainly to ensure a safe passage into the afterlife but also as a general protector of the deceased.  I don't entirely know how to explain it, but something about these very large (taller than me) wooden figures was incredibly calming.  And not just their physical presence, but also just the general idea was very calming.
They also had a really neat part of the exhibit that was devoted to weaving and clothing as a form of artistic expression.  Some of these weavings were just incredible - so detailed and with such fine thread.  I would never, ever in my life have the patience with which to do that.  I could envision myself being REALLY enthusiastic at the beginning of the weaving, then tearing apart the loom when I wasn't even 1/2 way through because it would just take such concentration and such time.  Amazing.

Following our time in the museum we stopped in a cute little outdoor cafe and had a coffee and shared some crepes - delicious!  Since dinner is usually a little later than I'm used to, a snack is usually necessary in order to make it all the way to dinner time.

A very excellent, relaxed day in Santiago :-)