Fabulous Fulbright Functions

Hello, everyone! I just returned from 3 days in Santiago. Fulbright Chile always hosts new Fulbright Scholars and Students after they've settled in for about a month. The Scholars gathered on Thursday morning to present their projects and take questions.

After the presentations, which were over around lunchtime, I went to lunch with Alex (another English teacher), Jim (doing very interesting research on the effects of new infrastructure on society) and MJ (an expert in academic writing and supporting multilingual scholars). MJ and I corresponded quite a bit while she was settling in in Santiago, and I met her a couple of weeks ago in Viña. I also have a link to her blog on my page, so you can check out what she's doing. She was kind enough to host me two nights, as Fulbright only paid for one night of my stay.
View from my bedroom at MJ's:

We had a nice wine and cheese event Thursday night, then Friday we all went to the just re-opened PreColumbian Art Museum, which was wonderful! Sadly, the batteries in my camera didn't hold their charge, so no pictures there. After a delicious lunch with everyone, including Fulbright staff, the people who have helped us so much here, MJ and I went to Los Dominicos, a great artisan center. Take a look at the Wikipedia entry for some details of the history of the place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Dominicos_Village
I bought an alpaca/cotton shawl for 19,000 CLP, or about 35 dollars. I had wanted something to keep in my office, because I'm always cold there. (Well, I'm pretty much always cold here in general).
It was nice to see the sun, and enjoy some warmth in Santiago-It is warmer in Santiago than Viña, at least for now. When winter is here, it will be the reverse, warmer here (but not warm ) than in Santiago.
The church:

MJ admiring some antique wooden stirrups:


I have to take Joel here, he'd love the cats:

When we were ready to leave, it was a little after 6 p.m. so we both had our first taste of the legendary rush hour crowds on the Santiago metro. While there are no employees who help pack people into the trains, as I've heard happens in Tokyo, the passengers themselves were more than willing to pack themselves. Oh, and it was hot, because few of the cars have AC. Getting off was the really difficult thing, as you have to push and squeeze your way out before the doors close, and people either can't, or won't move out of the way.

Back at MJ's place, after a yummy salmon dinner (I'd brought the fish from home) I slept well, then took the bus back to Viña this morning. All in all, a nice break from all the planning, teaching and grading I've been doing.