What a day!

I know i'm kind of posting a lot on here but today was kind of a big deal ha.  Last night two girls from my program spent the night and we had to wake up at 5:30 to go to the registro civil which is similar to the DMV but for EVERYTHING! ID's passport stuff, everything.  So we had to go to apply for our chilean visas but here is the deal.  They are only open 8:30-1 and they hand out 200 numbers at 8:15.  If you get a number, you have to wait until it is called to be helped.  But this is where EVERYONE goes so we literally had to line up and wait in order to be able to get a number.  We were there at 6 and were the 3, 4 and 5 people in line which meant we were done by 9:15.   By 6:30 I would say there were already 50 people and it grew exponentially.  And everyone is trying to cut the line or find some loop hole and there is no security guard or anyone, it was pretty crazy.  But we were 3rd so success, its done!

THEN, I got a super private/official tour of Palacio de La Moneda, which is the White House of Chile.  It was crazy.  My host mom last night said that her friend worked for the government and was getting a tour for 25 people the next day and that she had been invited and had asked if I could go and the friend said yes! So there I was, on the second floor where people are never allowed to go.  I was literally in the room where all of the presidents meet their guests, in the room where the 25 ministries come for their meetings with the president and saw the chair all of the presidents sit in during that meeting.  What is crazy is that I recognized the room/table from a movie I watched last semester called NO which is about the Pinochet regime!  I was also in the room where Salvador Allende was found dead after the September 11th bombing by Pinochet's coup.  Crazy stuff.  The rooms were amazing and the art on the walls were all super famous/beautiful/old paintings that all meant something ha.  Mimmy and Fajy, you would have loved it and all of the history that was there.  Anyway, that was incredible and just had to share.

Last thing, shout out to Andrew Luu who got stuck next to me at a table exactly a year ago!!! THANK YOU FOR BEING IN MY LIFE!

my room

kitchen 

entrance 

view from the retreat

zipline I did there!

La Moneda entry courtyard

painting of independence day

the table that they have their meeting at

famous piece of art

all of the presidents had bronze statues

to show how pretty it is/guard

Allende's memorial

the little church

where the president gives HER speeches

where I run! its a park in between two streets! thats how it is here, the trails are in the median.  Its beautiful