Viva la Viña 2012: Chile: Getting there is half the fun!

Adventure story time:

The building where we saw the ballet.

A few weeks ago, I went to a ballet in Santiago (another free event - last week we got to go to the opera - from our choir teacher), which was modern and weird, but very cool. However, we had to leave early to catch our bus back to Viña. Yet when we arrived at the bus terminal, the bus we were supposed to get on was overbooked and the driver clearly told me NO, this is not your bus. So we went to the last bus heading this way and they too were overbooked so we could not get on. Did the bus company help us get to Viña? In Chile? Never. They simply changed out tickets to the next morning and left us shit out of luck. Needless to say we were pretty pissed and frazzled since it was 10:30 pm on a Friday night and we were stranded in Santiago.

At the ballet with my friends Nicole and Brian.

So we called our Choir profe and he, being amazingly gracious and kind, let us stay at his house. We took the metro there and he bought us snacks and chatted with us until 2 am, while we ate a several course dinner. He played the piano, we talked about our travels, and the best part: the AMAZING view off of his balcony! So it turned into an adventure after all, even though we had to get up at 6 to catch our 7:20 bus to Viña. Interesting weekend so far.

Views of Santiago from Gilberto's balcony!!

The week before that we got to go to an Opera in Santiago, as well. This was once again thanks to our awesome choir teacher. The opera was Attila and, like most operas, was based on war and love affairs. For this, we had the opportunity to see the Municipal Theater in Santiago, which was beautiful. It was difficult to listen while reading the Spanish subtitles and translating them simultaneously. However, it was a great experience, and we also got to hang out with some of the Chileans from our choir more!
Here´s a review (albeit in Spanish) of the opera from my choir director:
http://www.visionescriticas.cl/?p=4519