Cerro San Cristobol, La Moneda, and Other Adventures in Santiago

I have now been in Chile for a full week! So far my days consist of a Spanish class and/or orientation activities usually in the morning and then exploring Santiago in the afternoons. My birthday was on Wednesday and when I woke up my host mom, Claudia, had made breakfast including cake! We visited the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (Museum of memory and Human Rights). The Museum was focused on the human rights violations that occurred in Chile when Pinochet was in power (1973-1990) so although it was very interesting and I learned a lot it was a little sad also. After this some friends and I went out for a drink and then I went home for a birthday dinner of delicious empanadas with Pisco Sour and MORE cake!

Natalia and I on my birthday:
One of the really cool places that we visited this week was Cerro San Cristobal. It is a hill in Santiago with a Church and statue of the Virgin Mary on top. It also has amazing views of the city! Although it was smoggy the day that we were there, we were still able to take some good pictures and have an awesome view of Santiago!




La Cordillera:
The Andes:


Santiago:

Another place that we went to was La Moneda, the presidential palace.






I love that we have time to explore different parts of Santiago, and I'm excited that many people on the AU program want to travel to the same places that I do while we are here! I am looking forward to an awesome semester, but I'm not quite ready for classes to start yet.