Posted on Saturday, 02 June 2012in Chile Note: I originally wrote this blog entry for my old Spanish school in Australia (The Spanish Cat), hence the error in the date above.
Well I am now officially part of the Chilean society. Last week I received my four month residency visa and work permit which should be extended to a full year soon if everything goes to plan. Now I am technically legal in this country as a worker, though it wasn´t too hard to work before that anyway! The positive side is that I can get a bank account, a national ID number and I won´t be losing 10% on tax for everything I earn. So for anyone who has completed a TESOL and is thinking of coming to Chile to teach, I can tell you that it is relatively easy to find work and obtain a visa. The TESOL is very well respected over here by employers and once you have a contract with one of those employers, you fill out a few forms and they facilitate the whole process. Every experience I have here is helping me to learn and grow, now I feel like I´ve added a little part of Chile to who I am, but don´t worry Australia I still know where I came from!
Last Sunday was ´Día del patrimonio cultural de Chile´, all the museums in the city were free and also they opened up all the government buildings to the public for the day.
Congreso Nacional
Walking around the national congress was a great experience. It is a nice display of architecture as well as some art of the early ´conquistadores´ in Chile. Also portrayed in a lot of the art is Bernando O´Higgins, who freed Chile from Spanish rule in the early 18 hundreds.
Descubrimiento de Chile
My friend Gabriel and me outside
Next we went to the Supreme Court of Justice, another great piece of architecture. Here is a view from inside -
Supreme Court
We walked past Palacio de la Moneda (the government house), unfortunately the line was huge so we didn´t go inside. This building is steeped in history and was the scene of the 1973 coup d´état in which the Chilean military bombed the government house and general Pinochet seized power. Later in the day we made a visit to the ´Museo de derechos humanos´ (Museum of Human Rights) which is dedicated to all the victims who were tortured or killed by the Pinochet regime, it also contained the footage of the bombings and the last heart wrenching speech of Salvador Allende. Some very powerful imagery, seeing some of the history of this country which took place not so long ago gave me a bit more perspective of the place I am living in and what the people had to go through, and are still overcoming.
La Moneda
Quinta Normal, near Musuem of Human Rights
Salvador Allende
After running around non stop with classes for the last three months it was nice to take a step back and see a bit more of what this country is all about. Thanks to my friend Gabriel for showing me around on this day. Lastly, as usual here is some Chilean music to enjoy. This week is a Victor Jara song performed by Inti Illimani. Victor Jara was a famous musician in the time of Allende. Jara was arrested, tortured and killed by the Pinochet regime for his support of the left wing movement.
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