Pablo Neruda & Student Updates

Today we took time to visit the Santiago home (and now museum) of the beloved Nobel prize-winning Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. Pablo Neruda had a dramatic and passionate life which he lived to the fullest. Here in Chile, three of his homes are now museums and we visited "La Chascona", the home which he shared here in Santiago with his third wife, Matilde. The home is unique in that it has multiple levels, secret passageways and is modeled after a ship. Even though I have studied Neruda in depth over the years, I learned a lot about him today and I was also reminded of many details of his fascinating life. For example, I was reminded that he was friends with Diego Rivera and Pablo Picasso and that he greatly admired Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe. And I learned that he loved Eastern European and African art but he never actually visited Africa. My favorite part of the day was spent recalling so many of Neruda's poems and reflecting on the life of this complicated, accomplished and clever artist - Hopefully we will have an opportunity to visit another one of his houses because visiting the home gives us tremendous insight into the artist, his passions and his life.

After our poetic morning and a stop at another Bicentennial celebration (a military parade in the park), we came back to the hotel and checked in on our student delegates. I can report that each is well and is representing UA very well. It seems that Anushka has spent a day at the beach this weekend (seeing it only - it's too cold to swim) and today her host family went to Mass and celebrated the birthday of one of her host sisters. An interesting side note - Anushka's host mom is also a teacher at Colegio Santa Ursula! As for Tessa, she has also had a weekend full of activity - She and her host family joined Anushka and her host family for a Bicentennial Celebration at a local park and cultural center on Friday and tonight Tessa was out at the big Bicentennial light-show at the Government Palace downtown. As for Cami, she has been in the Andes all weekend at a country home. She has been running, biking and even folk dancing (we can applaud her for attempting to learn the National Dance of Chile). Today she attended Mass and enjoyed a cookout with her host family.

Tomorrow will be a big day for our students because they will move to their second host families - the families who are hosting them during the school days. The Bicentennial weekend has come to an end and it is time to prepare for the week at school. While we have all enjoyed the weekend, we are very eager to visit the Ursuline school and to continue to build our relationship with Colegio Santa Ursula!