I arrived in Santiago in the morning after a nighttime flight (upon which, of course, I barely slept). It took a while to find the taxi driver with the sign that had my name on it, but right next to him was the lovely couple from Hawaii who became the de facto mom and dad for the whole group for the next week. They set a great tone for the entire conference and beyond, including inviting me on a walk around the neighborhood after arrival.
That's when we spotted this Korean pagoda across a huge throughway, a small replica of a Korean national treasure.
It was an apt way to start this
Korean studies conference!
After trying to take a monster nap in the afternoon, I took another walk by myself. After that, three of us met with the conference organizer, Wonjung Min, for dinner at an Italian-style place very close to the hotel. It didn't take long to learn that servings of food are HUGE in Chile. We all commiserated because hot water had broken in the hotel (very unusual), and none of us could shower. I traveled far, but the Hawaiians and Korean traveled WAY farther, so we were grimy together. But the wine was excellent.
The next morning, I stayed in the hot shower for a LONG time before meeting the students who would help me get to Campus Oriente of the pontifical university, the visual arts/theatre/music campus. It was so lush and beautiful, with original wooden windows and everything.
The first workshop with art students was great, and they picked up cording paper so well.
Carolina hosted me for lunch and then we took a cab to the biggest campus of the university to meet the rest of the group and install my exhibit.
