yesterday and today

Yesterday I bought our bus tickets for Temuco in the south and then met up with Vickie and Dur and Gaby in Patio Bellavista, where they were doing some last-minute shopping (well, not Gaby) for people back home. We walked around for a while, I got a delicious frozen ice cream-type-thing made from frozen raspberries and confectioner's sugar and a big frozen bar of chocolate all smashed together into the consistency of frozen yogurt. With sprinkles and chunks of honeydew, to boot. Delicious. Then Dur and I split off (Vickie had to go pack and Gaby had to work on college apps) and went to another feria so she could get her last two presents, which she did, and then we went to Emporio La Rosa and I got a chocolate milkshake and all was right in the world. Luz María's niece was here when I got home, and we chatted for a while and she recommended a terrific-sounding seafood place near Viña that maybe we'll get to when MDLJ are all here. We (the shoppers plus Vale, Tim B and his ex-boyfriend Raúl) went to the whole-wheat empanada place for dinner (verdict: deeeeeelicious) and then got a bottle of wine at another Barrio Brasil place for Vickie's last night in Stgo! This whole goodbye thing is the weirdest of my life to date, because in high school I knew I'd run into people when I came home, and could keep in touch with the knowledge that I'd see my friends again, and in college the vast majority of my friends are my year or younger, so I knew I'd see them all again when I came back (not the seniors, which was sad, but I have so many OTHER friends at Michigan that it wasn't as big a deal), but here I'm saying goodbye with the knowledge that the soonest I'll see ANY of my friends here again is hopefully Rosie, next summer, and after that I might not see anyone again for years if at all. Well except hopefully her.

Anyhow, today I woke up, ate breakfast, lazed, wrote various emails to Mom, ate lunch, ran (wonderful wonderful wonderful), stretched and showered, and now I'm here writing this. And in just a little bit more than 12 hours, I'll be meeting Lincoln in the airport! And in about 26 hours I'll be saying goodbye to Rosie and Durham and Tim B! Shit! The next 24 hours are gonna be nuts.

i hate turbus.cl

Chileans still have not figured out how to make online reservations easy. North American companies like Orbitz or NWA have easy to navigate websites that make sure you register before you start trying to make reservations, that make it easy to change plans within the reservation process, like for example if there isn't space on your first-choice flight, it's easy to just look at the next one. The lovely people at www.turbus.cl do not provide such graces in their website, and as a result instead of being relaxed and ready for bed with five round-trip bus tickets from Stgo to Temuco, I'm feeling just "Sinnerman," which I'm listening to, and have no tickets. Fuck it, I'm just going to the bus station tomorrow. Ugh. 'Night.

david's party

So the party last night ended up being really fun. I got back from giving Rosie her computer and going to get bus dinner for her and her mom around 9:30, and no one was there yet (the party was supposed to start at 8). David said, "They're musicians" and that pretty much explained it. People did arrive eventually, and it was a little awkward at first for me because they all know each other and they're Chilean, so it was kind of hard to find a way to insert myself into the conversation. But everyone had a couple of drinks and we moved outside and sat in a circle and they started talking about English/North American music, and I thought, "Ha! My chance." And I seized it, with gusto, with a well-timed joke about the fact that Chris Martin, the lead singer of Coldplay, named his daughter Apple and is married to Gwyneth Paltrow, and therefore doesn't deserve anyone's respect. The musicians found this hilarious, and I was in. Good job, Luke. Anyhow the conversation ebbed and flowed and I talked to various people over the next six hours (we didn't eat until 1 a.m. and I finally called it a night around 4:15. The Chileans left at 5, after I'd fallen asleep. I ended up having a really interesting conversation with a guy whose name I'm blanking on at the moment about Chilean culture/identity or lack thereof--this topic seemingly never becomes boring for me; it's as if I'm having it for the first time every time it comes up with a Chilean because they all have different ideas about it and are fascinated by North American and English culture. He invited me to the Chilean soccer club championship this week at the Estadio Nacional (Colo-Colo vs. Audax Italiano) but I'm not sure I'll be able to go because I think it's after Lincoln gets here, and even if it's not, all the COPA kids are leaving on Wednesday and I'm never going to see them again, so I'll probably be hanging out with them. They get back today from Rio, actually. (By "all the COPA kids" I mean "all the ones I care about.") Anyhow, it's breakfast time in the Ilabaca household, and I'm hungry. Bye!

Actually, it might be kind of cool to take Lincoln to that game. If he wants to go.

golem

Yesterday, I woke up and went to Rosie's apartment to pick up her computer for music-sharing purposes and see her and her mom off to Viña. I hung around for a bit while Rosie got ready for the beach, then said bye to the two of them and Gilda, who had woken up at some indeterminate point after we got there. I went to the COPA office next, to see Janet, the housing lady, about my family next semester! There was a steady stream of host family representatives when I got there, picking up their last check of the semester, including David Andrés, which was funny. Vale and I went into to the hall while I was waiting and chatted a bit, and with David, who invited me to a concert of a band that he knows (more on that in a bit). Finally, it was my turn to see Janet, and I went into the little room of the COPA office and said hello.

She's very nice, and had out her notebook of all the families' profiles. She'd read the email I sent to Isa a few weeks ago, so had a few suggestions, and we eventually got it narrowed down to two: one family of mom, dad and university student daughter a few blocks from Pedro de Valdivia metro (the frontrunner) and another of mother and 13-year-old daughter about 8 blocks from Los Leones metro. What I'd really like is to live with Durham's family, but I guess they don't take male students. I'm not sure I would, either, with two attractive daughters. But anyhow, she gave me their addresses and phone numbers and I'm going to go visit them before I make a final decision (by the end of January). Exciting meeting.

I left COPA, bought a napolitana empanada, and went to Gaby's, where we watched ER and then went down for a few hours of sun/pool time. It was beautiful yesterday, not too hot but hot enough, and super sunny. The pool was the perfect temperature, to boot. We played a little ping pong, too, although it's not Gaby's strongest sport (still, when she concentrates, she can be really good). I left and came home, read more East of Eden and then the power went out. It was out for 45 minutes or so before coming back on. No explanation given. As I write this, the power is out in my room but not the rest of the house. Odd. Anyhow, David called me around 8:30 to say, "Are you coming?" and I said, "Sure" and after some confusion about how to get to where he was, I walked to the metro and took it to Vicuña McKenna, got off and went upstairs. I had told David I'd call him when I got to the metro stop so he could tell me where to go. I started to do that as I walked towards Mall Plaza Vespucio, where the concert was, and heard, as I so often do walking out of metro stops, "¡Oye, huevón! Huevón, ¿dónde vas? ¡Oye, huevón!" This is what people trying to hawk shit to you or get you to take their taxi say to you, so I ignored it as usual, but on the last "huevón" I turned around and it was none other than David Andrés, laughing. He'd come to meet me, to reduce confusion. Problem not solved. Anyhow, we went to the concert, he took me upstairs to the tech booth and introduced me to all the employees and the band. The act playing when we got in was an unabashedly No Doubt-esque band (and by that I mean their second-to-last song was a No Doubt song), but they wrapped up soon enough and Golem came out. David does lighting, so he left me to stand and watch from the balcony of the concert hall, which was pretty nice, actually while he did his thing. It was a really fun show and afterwards we went and hung out with the band for a while, drank some beer, ate some chips and they all talked about plans for the party that's to be at our house tonight for the band and crew and some other people. Then we came home and I went pretty much right to bed. Long day. And now I'm off to Gaby's again for a few more hours by/in the pool. And, yes, Mom and Dad, I wear sunscreen. SPF 30.

delicious dinners

Today I did nothing of note at all. Honestly. It felt terrific. Except when I was trying to take a nap and the girl next door played "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira five times in a row at top volume and belted along with the lyrics. Then my slow-burning dislike of Shakira turned into pure hatred. To tell you the truth, I'm surprised I lasted this long. She sounds like Kermit the Frog, for crying out loud. Why does ANYONE like her? I don't understand. I mean, to each his own, but seriously. I hate her.

I finally got off my butt and left my house around 8:40 to meet Rosie and her mom for dinner. I did this on Tuesday, too, and neglected to write about it then (sorry, Rosie!). We went to R on Lastarria on Tuesday and I had a really good stuffed-pasta-with-ham-alfredo dish and then tonight we went to Los Corrales, the same Argentinean place that Ian took Izaak and Karla and me a little while ago. I had the rarest steak I have ever eaten--practically raw--and it was delicious. Too rare, though, I'm going with "a punto" instead of "inglesa" as my cooking time from now on. Thanks for two delicious meals, Mary Lou! Tomorrow I have to get up and go pick up Rosie's computer from her so I can take her music and add some of the music that Paloma gave me to her library. After that I'll go to the COPA office to talk to Janet (the new housing lady) about where I'll be living next semester! I get to choose my family! Very exciting. Anyhow all that entails an early start because Rosie and her mom are going to Viña/Valpo tomorrow, so it's bedtime for bonzo. 'Night!

colo-colo lost

Went to the fire station tonight to watch the finals of the South American Cup, Colo-Colo (Chile) vs. Pachuca (Mexico). Not sure why a Mexican team was playing for the South American Cup, so don't ask. Neither was anyone else that we asked (we being me and Gaby and Vale). Anyhow it was a good time, but Colo-Colo lost, 2-1. It should have been at least 2-2, but the ref made two absolutely atrocious non-calls in the penalty box that would most likely have led to Colo-Colo goals. Not that it would have mattered at 2-2, because Pachuca's two road goals would have beaten out the one that Colo-Colo scored in their tie in Mexico two weeks ago. If they'd tied 1-1 it would have gone to penalty kicks. So that was kind of a downer, especially since like any good mildly dedicated United Statesean soccer fan, I hate Mexican soccer. Anyhow now i'm super tired. Tomorrow looks to be another relaxing day. I love vacation...

i am woefully out of shape

'Nuff said. But i'm working on it, as of today.

new music

Yesterday, I woke up, ate breakfast, watched SportsCenter, showered, ate lunch, watched Pinochet's funeral, read a bunch of New Yorker and NY Review and news, and finally around 7:15, left for Durham's family's apartment to pick up my iPod, which I'd left there last weekend before Dur left for Rio. I got there about 7:45 and her family invited me to sit down, eat some pan de pascua (Christmas bread, a lot like coffee cake) and drink some cola de mono (monkey's tail, a little like Bailey's but not as thick and a lot tastier), both of which the mom had made. I ended up talking to the older host sister, Paloma, for like two hours, about school and classes and what we'd like to do with our lives (she's 25 and a teacher, but is trying to create an organization for feminist teachers as well and also dances on the side--busy girl) and politics and other kids in the program and, in the end, music. My knowledge of Chilean and Latin American music is still pathetically small, and so she ended up making a stack of about 30 CDs for me to upload and get to know. I only took 11 home because I already had stuff in my backpack, but as soon as I get these up I'll take them back and get more, the two albums I've loaded so far are really good. They are "Grandes Exitos" (Greatest Hits) by Los Prisioneros, which is one of the most important Chilean bands of the 80s, and "Esquinas" (Corners) by Djavan, a Brazilian singer, which consists of a lot of soothing love songs. Good stuff, especially Los Prisioneros. So today, my activities will include uploading a lot of music, and going to the Colo-Colo vs. Toluca (Mexico) game that, if Colo-Colo wins, will make this the biggest party week in recent Chilean memory (Pinochet dying, a Chilean club winning a huge international soccer match). I'm going to try and watch it at the fire station that Rodrigo, Katty's boyfriend, works at. I'm pretty pumped. And now, onto breakfast and my day. One more thing: If it's nice this evening like it was yesterday, I'm going to run. I gotta start getting back into shape. Okay, that's it.

funeral

Sixty thousand people went to see Pinochet's body in state yestserday in the Escuela Militar, and thousands are there right now for his funeral service, which is wrapping up. Meanwhile the communists and socialists and everyone else who hated Pinochet are rallying downtown for speeches and all that. There's no violence today that I could see in the hour or so of news coverage I watched, which is great. Walking down Diagonal Paraguay yesterday Rosie and I passed shop after little shop with shattered windows, and thought, "What the hell is wrong with people, that they would take someone's natural death, no matter who that someone was, as an excuse to break their neighbor's windows?" That's where those people have to make a living, you stupid kids, that's where you go to buy your empanadas or your cigarettes, that person might live next door to you, might be your uncle, and you've decided that your id, your stupid selfish desire to break things and go wild is more important than others' livelihoods. Get the fuck over yourselves. It's the same way I feel about the kids in College Park rioting after the Final Four in 2001, or the Black Block people in the WTO protests in Seattle a while back, or the dumbasses who threw a rock through the window of the locally-owned Subway franchise that opened on Carroll in Takoma Park a few years ago. There's no need to break things, throw rocks at the police, light cars on fire, tear down street signs. No need at all. It's just senseless, stupid vandalism that accomplishes nothing and damages many people. And so it was a relief today to see that same group of people that came close to rioting yesterday because of the actions of a disgraceful few--those people whose politics are closest to my own of the two deeply divided groups here--marching peacefully rather than embarrassing themselves with another display of senseless violence. I can't make any judgment at all on the anger of people here, I don't know anything about it, I have no perspective that might allow me to say anything other than that it appears just. But destructive, pointless vandalism like the kind that happened over the past couple of days here is just wrong.

this is how bad it's gotten

Just saw this Back in Black clip from the Daily Show and wanted to share it. Click here

good bye, pinochet

Well, Pinochet died yesterday of a heart attack at the military hospital in Providencia. I was sitting in Plaza Brasil around 2:45 with Rosie when a guy who had been sitting near us came over and said, "Are you from here?". We said no, and he shrugged and said, "Pinochet died. Cause for celebration," and walked away. It took us both a second to process what that meant. Almost immediately afterward, people started driving around the Plaza honking their horns and shouting. We went to lunch then, but on the way to Gaby's apartment in Las Condes, we passed through Baquedano, which is one of the centers of any big demonstration, and a TON of people got off the metro as we got on, waving huge flags and honking horns and banging on drums. There were demonstrations all day, and it was fascinating to watch the news coverage of the pro-Pinochet demonstrators outside the hospital and the anti-Pinochet demonstrators in front of la Moneda and in Plaza Italia (where Baquedano is). The police were in riot gear at both places, but by the hospital they were just standing around, as were most of the people after a couple of hours of screaming and throwing bottles and whatnot at the cops. But downtown, the "encapuchados" had made their presence known by starting fires, repeatedly running up to the armored trucks and throwing bottles at them, beating them with sticks, etc. They wrap tshirts around their faces (hence their nickname) and really look like they're just playing. A lot of them laugh and run around and make the whole thing seem like a game, which is probably is to them. It's a shame that they did it because it ruined what could have been a peaceful and powerful demonstration of solidarity against the regime's legacy (the marchers convened around the monument to Salvador Allende behind la Moneda in the Plaza de Ciudadania). The same guys (and they're almost all young men) wreaked havoc during the "Pingüinos" protests this past winter (summer up there in the other hemisphere), which were led by very passionate high school students against the injustice in the education system here, but which often drew ludicrously disproportionate police responses because of the small group that just likes to fuck shit up cause throwing things at cops who are just doing their job is a bit of a rush. Bastards. Anyhow, today I'm going to eat breakfast and then go help Rosie pack(!), and hopefully there'll be enough still going on down around there (she lives three blocks from Plaza Italia) that I can snap a few photos but avoid getting tear gassed. Wish me luck!

everyone left for rio

Yesterday afternoon I went over to Rosie's to meet up before heading over to Durham's for some trip-story sharing and to gather the troops for a trip to the whole wheat empanada place in Barrio Brasil. But at Rosie's the visit turned into a full-blown asado lunch, complete with multiple kinds of meat, rice, pisco sours and salad. Her host mom's ex-husband was over and had whipped all this stuff up--it was delicious! I'd eaten lunch at home not long before, so I didn't have a whole lot of room, but man I wish I'd had more. Oh well. We went to Dur's, shared some stories, the best by far being "Tim fell of a cliff." Solid gold, that one. Dur almost crapped her pants, she laughed so hard. Vickie came over and we hung out a little while longer before heading to Barrio Brasil. The empanada place was, of course, closed, for unexplained reasons. But we had met up with Vale and she knew of another cool place, so we went there and got some really good pasta and sandwiches and whatnot. Amalia was there too, and Tim B and his friend Gretchen came a little later. The Rio kids (Vickie Dur Amalia) left around 10:30 to catch their flight, and Vale left early to go be with her sister, who's in town from Concepción to visit her. But me and Rosie and Tim and Gretchen hung out a little while longer, paid and went to Barroco, a cool and cheap bar that's right on Plaza Brasil, for a drink. We didn't linger too long, though, cause everyone was tired. Got home around 1:30, just minutes after Luz María got home from her lunch at her friend's house (yes, I did say lunch, and yes, that was 1:30 in the morning), and promptly fell asleep. And now, the un-boring part of this post: a few highlight photos from the trip south.


Volcan Osorno


Me with the 700+ year old Laurel


View from our restaurant the first night in Castro


Palafitos in Castro--little houses built into the sides of hills so that they look normal from the street but actually rest mostly on stilts in the water.


View of Castro from the Mirador Ten Ten

tim fell off a cliff!

I got home around two hours ago from an amazing, wonderful, fantastic, insert-laudatory-adjective-here vacation with Rosie and Tim B. Really it could not have gone much better than it did. We saw beautiful and interesting places, ate great food, did a ton but still managed to relax, and took about 500 pictures. About 482 of them are of Volcan Osorno, but more on that in a bit. Here comes the day-by-day breakdown, which I will write over the course of the day in pieces, so the two hours in the first sentence might turn into ten by the end:

Saturday night, I left for Baquedano, where I was going to meet Rosie so we could ride the rest of the way to the bus station. I left plenty of time, which turned out to be a terrific idea because I left my ticket on my desk. Realized this around Los Leones, started to panick, called home, got David on the line and told him what had happened. Before I even suggested anything or asked him, he told me he'd find it and drive it to me, and to get off at Baquedano and come up to meet him on the street. This host family...unreal. Wow. So anyhow, Rosie had gone on ahead to the bus so she wouldn't miss it even if I did, David and I met up without a hitch, he passed me the ticket through the window and I more or less sprinted down into the station, got on the metro, got out at U de Santiago and again sprinted to the platform, where they were just closing up the luggage doors and Rosie and Tim were about to get on. Made it, but with zero time to spare. So, that little melodrama past, we settled in for the overnight ride to Puerto Varas.

Sunday morning, we arrived in Puerto Varas, which sits on Lago Llanquihue across from Volcan Osorno, which is almost a perfect cone, around 9 and walked downtown to find our hostel, which wasn't hard because Puerto Varas is small and compact. Upon arrival, we found out the electricity was out in the whole town, so our room wouldn't be ready and they couldn't even confirm our reservation until 3. But we left our stuff there and went looking for breakfast, which we found in the form of apple empanadas (delicious) and yogurt and such. We sat by the lake and ate and watched a bunch of men fish with line wound around cans. Afterwards we went back to the hostel, moved our stuff into the triple they decided they could give us, and went for a walk with the goal of climbing the hill, topped by a huge steel cross, that overlooks the town and the lake. After a little wandering we found our way up and then kept going, a little trail started behind the cross and then led into a meadow with what was less a trail and more a narrow path of beaten-down grasses. We wandered along it for a while, stopping periodically to look at the gorgeous views of the lake and volcanoes (Osorno and another one whose name I forget but is also across the lake) and admire the plants and allow the gigantic bees to pass. We sat in the shade of some trees for a while and Rosie made some nature art before heading back into town. We found a bus to Puerto Montt, which is the biggest town in the area and the main port to all points south in Chile, ate lunch at a little place under a hotel and walked around. It's not a very lovely place, but some of the craft stalls we walked by had cool things and Rosie and Tim bought some stuff. Back in Puerto Varas, we got dinner at a REALLY nice place (it was expensive as HAIL, but almost worth the price) called Sirocco, went back to the hostel, where people were playing guitar (well) and trumpet (badly), and crashed.

Next morning we got up, ate, paid for the night, and caught a bus to Saltos del Petrohué, which are spectacular and crawling with retirees near the end of their Patagonia cruises. We found a secluded spot down the river a ways, though, and sat separately for a while before walking a little farther back into the woods to find a spot to eat the stuff we'd bought in the grocery store that morning. It was all delicious and pretty and we were all in pretty high spirits when we headed farther down the dirt road to the "town" of Petrohué, on Lago Todos los Santos. This lake, my friends, is stunning. So gorgeous. It was windy enough to whip up whitecaps on the lake, but I really wanted to go kayaking, so we got three kayaks for 7 bucks an hour and put into the water. Rosie and Tim were game but not as prepared as I was to have a good time regardless of the circumstances, which ended up being soaked and exhausted from battling the wind to get back to shore. I had an absolute ball, and Rosie had fun enough, too, but Tim was not happy. Still, the day was warm and we went to the black, volcanic-sand beach and sat for a while. Tim laid out while Rosie and I threw rocks and pushed each other around like 8-year-olds. It was fun. The bus back to Puerto Varas would have been more fun if we weren't all still wet, but it wasn't so bad. Back in PV, we got on a bus pretty much right away to Frutillar, a tiny hamlet (I can't believe I just used the word hamlet) 20 or 30 km north on the lake. Checked into our hostel there, which was run by a very cute old lady who Rosie decided we should refer to as "Nana." And we did. Found a restaurant as it was getting dark and realized just how German the whole place is. Tons of good beer, German words on the menu, etc. Rosie and I got an amaaaaazing crab dish and Tim got locos, for which I forget the English name. Little shelfish of some kind. Anyhow Tim and I got a little microbrew called...something. But it was good. Tim and Rosie kept the labels from the bottles.

Slept like rocks that night, but Rosie's and my room faced the sunrise and we had white curtains, so we were up reeeeal early. But that was all right, Nana's breakfast was probably the best we had the whole trip and afterwards Rosie went to finish writing one of her finals (yeah, she wasn't done and still isn't, poor girl) and Tim and I went to the native forest preserve run by the U de Chile that's right on the outskirts of Frutillar. It was really impressive, lots of interesting foliage and a great map/guide to the trail through the park. And a 700+ year old laurel tree. We found Rosie sitting where we'd left her, on the beach, having mostly wrapped up her writing, and went to catch the bus to Chiloé. Sat in the bus station for a while, I went in a colectivo (shared cab, like a bus but in a car) back into town and got some sandwiches and drinks, got on the bus and were on our way to Castro. The ride was, as all our rides were, spectacular. Once in Castro, we parted ways because Rosie's and my hostel didn't have enough room for Tim, checked in and were very disappointed in our hostel, which had gotten high marks in one of the guides we read. If you're ever in Castro, do NOT stay at Hostal Kolping. Just don't. Then we met up again to explore the city a bit. Which brings me to the title of this post. We wandered down to the water and saw a muddy little path that some Chilean kids were walking out of, and decided to walk along it. It was very wet and slippery and I, who was in the front, paused at one point to examine a particularly treacherous-looking spot before going across it. Tim said something along the lines of, "It doesn't look that bad," and I crossed the spot. Next thing I knew Tim said, "Oh, no!" and burst out laughing as he went backwards-somersaulting over the 85 degree drop for about 12 feet! Once we made sure he was okay, Rosie and I could barely contain our laughter. Especially her, who had seen the whole thing. I'd only heard and caught the very end of it. It looked like he was stuck, too, surrounded as he was by overgrown foliage and an almost-vertical, muddy slope covered in shallow-rooted grass unfit for handholds. He found his way out eventually and was miraculously practically unhurt, but quite muddy. Good story. We walked around Castro a little more, found a place to eat that was in Lonely Planet as having the best curanto (local seafood specialty) in town, but didn't actually have it. Still, it was a good dinner, and we parted full and happy for the hotels.

The next morning, I called another hostel to make reservations there, both so we could all be in one place and because all three of us were unhappy with our current hostels. We paid and moved our stuff to the other place, which is run by a super-nice woman, is clean and well-lit and has a kitchen you can use and very comfortable beds, none of which were true of the first hostel. It's called Hospedaje or Hostal Cordillera, I forget which. Anyhow if you're ever down there, DO stay at that place. It was great. Rosie went to an internet cafe to type up her paper and email it to her professor, and Tim and I went for a walk around Castro, which was nice. He's really an interesting guy and I wish I'd had more time to talk to him about things; we don't see eye-to-eye on everything, as I found out in Bs As a few months back, but we both seem to have the attitude that pretty much anything is interesting and worth talking about. We bought tickets back to PV, because that's where our round-trip bus tickets were for, and went to the cafe to check our email and Rosie. Then we found a delicious-smelling lunch place, got some food (quarter chicken and fries for me, deep-fried hot dog and fries for Tim) and then picked up a little more for Rosie and met her by Castro's main church. She was relieved to be done but exhausted. We found the rural bus station (which has big vans that go all over the island and actually the whole Chiloé archipelago) and found one to Dalcahue, the point of departure for Isla Quinchao, which has on it Chiloe's oldest church, Santa María de Loreto de Achao. I don't think I mentioned this before, but it's worth mentioning now: Chiloé is famous for its churches, 15 or 16 of which are UN World Heritage sites. They're wooden and covered either in shingles or painted corrugated steel, and they're unique and beautiful across the board. Anyhow, Isla Quinchao was nice, and we came home and went to the store and got stuff to make dinner with in the hostel. Bowties, tomato sauce, onions, garlic, oregano, sausage, avocado, cucumber and tomatoes, for pasta with meat and a salad and beer. The kitchen was great and we were a good team, the dinner turned out delicious. We were all tuckered out and ended up in bed pretty early, after Tim and Rosie got some time in watching E!...not my favorite channel. Oh well.

The next morning, Tim had to leave bright and early to go meet his friend, who had been studying in Argentina (but not Bs As...Mendoza instead) and traveling around Chile a little, to take the bus back to Stgo together. Rosie and I got up to say goodbye to him and eat breakfast, but we were exhausted and went back to bed after he left. We lazed around a little and then took the long walk to the Mirador Ten Ten, which has a great view of Castro and the Castro Bay. It started spitting before too long, so we headed back down and back to our hotel, where we lazed around some more while it poured all around us. The rain had slowed up a bit by the time we went to eat dinner, around 8:45, at Años Luz, a really cute little restaurant around the corner from our hostel, which is also in Lonely Planet (along with our final hostel and the first place we ate in Castro, Sacho). Lonely Planet was spot-on in Chiloé. We had a bit of an argument at dinner, but cut it off before it got out of hand or dragged on too long, which our arguments tend to do (drag on, that is). Back in the hostel, we turned in early again, anticipating our 11:45 departure for Puerto Varas.

We got up at 8 on Friday, ate breakfast, and I went to go withdraw money for both of us and get some lunch food for the bus ride while Rosie showered. Somehow that took until 11:30, and we paid the dueña (owner) quickly and hightailed it to the bus terminal, which thankfully was exactly one block from our hostel. We had a few hours to kill in PV, so we ate lunch at a little VERRRRRY German restaurant (tri-lingual menu) and found an internet cafe and Rosie discovered she'd lost her wallet. Sucks. We went back down to the lake for a while, where Rosie sat and journaled and I wowed the little Chilean kids with my rock-skipping skills. There was a black lab stray that tried to chase down my rocks when I threw them! It was cute and kind of sad, someday I think I'd like to have a black lab. We got a little more snack food for the overnight ride home and went to the bus station and caught our bus. Things were going without a hitch, except that I was having my typical trouble sleeping in moving things because you can't lie down, until our bus stopped by the side of the road about 2 a.m. and we were told to get off. Apparently it broke down or something, I was a little too groggy to tell or make much of a fuss. Most of our bus got on the next one that passed, another Ejecutivo, but Rosie and I and a couple others had to wait for the next bus, which was a Salon Cama! So I finally got to lie down, and the bus stopping was a blessing in disguise as I got six solid hours of sleep.

Got into Stgo only an hour later than we'd thought to and went home. I showered, checked my email and facebook and so on, and started writing this bad boy. And now I'm done. No meditations or thoughts or anything on the trip, methinks, I'm too tired from typing this much and this post is already super long. A few pictures will also come, but later. Those with facebook can check out my new album, and sometime soon I'm going to get a photo site account so I can share my photos in large volume for free. Blogger is just too hard to upload to. Anyhow, I'm going to cut myself off and go find some lunch, I'm starving.

going south in two hours

So I finally got all my shit together and in a little less than two hours I'll be printing Rosie's paper (she doesn't have a printer and the COPA office is closed), putting it in my bag and dipping out to meet her and Tim at the U de Santiago bus terminal, from which we will depart at 9:30 for Puerto Varas. Not sure how much I'll be posting in the next week, so here's a few thoughts before I leave:

-Lunch today with Julia was wonderful. First of all, we met up without a hitch. Second of all, the food was delicious. And third of all, it was really great to talk to her, however briefly, just give and get the rundown on what's been going on for each of us, how we're feeling about the semester being over, and everything. She's a really good friend and I'm lucky to have her.

-Right now, Chile's Teletón is going on, the 48-hour continuous spectacular, hosted by the incomparable Don Francisco (Mario Kreutzberger), who is Chile's greatest and most famous TV personality. It's so different from telethons in the US because everyone is so together about it. The goal is to raise money for physicall and mentally disabled children, and pretty much anyone who's anyone in Chile makes an appearance, whether to give a speech or sing a song or whatever. I saw Bachelet give her talk last night right after a segment about a super-energetic, ebullient 8-year-old girl named Kelly whose legs don't work normally, and she got choked up, along with everyone else in the audience (parts of it are live from a theater somewhere). It's really a wonderful institution, the solidarity is so evident in a way it's often not here; taxi drivers paint "Teletón 1 y 2, con todo el corazón" on their windows and people all over wear stickers and pins with the Teletón logo. Plus everyone, but everyone, gives money. I wish there was something like it in the states, but I'm not sure we're together enough as a country--too big, too many divisions.

-It is hot as blazes in Stgo at the moment.

That's all for now, I think. I'll post when I can, but at the very least, by next Saturday. Wish us a buen viaje!

it's alive!

The internet started working again, so here's a super-short post:

Tonight I will watch the third and final movie I have to write about (Hero, after Kill Bill vol. 2 and The Seventh Seal), and then write about them until I'm done or pass out on my computer. Then I will wake up, finish what I haven't finished, print upstairs and meet Julia for lunch at Patagonia. Figured out that the problem with meeting up on Wednesday was that she thought I'd told her to go to U de Santiago when I'd told her to go to U Católica. Oh well. Tomorrow things are super-duper clear (fingers still firmly crossed against mishap, though). Then I will turn my blasted final essay in, take a shower, pack and hightail it down to the bus station. Beautiful south, here I come!

from copa with love

The internet in my house is broken (it´s been spotty for days but the modem finally bit the dust yesterday), so I´m writing from the COPA office, having just finished my Spanish final. I passed for sure, and did well on the vocab/writing section, but how far above passing I´ll get on the grammar section...I have no idea. That leaves just the final essay for Lenguaje Cinematográfico, which I´ll get started on tonight by renting a couple of movies. Not the worst assignment in the world, and I got an A- on the midterm despite writing way under the required amount, so I´m not too worried about it. It´s due a week from today, but I´m going to finish by Saturday so I can travel with Rosie and now Tim B. I can´t believe the semester is over, that tomorrow it´ll be December! Everyone is going to leave so soon, and I won´t see most of them ever again. It´s a weird feeling, no matter how many times you have it (high school graduation, leaving school every year, etc.). Anyhow there´s a line for the computer, so I´ll cut this off. Almost done!

lots to write about, not a lotta time

I'm in the final crunch for finals and make-up work and everything, so I'm sorry for not having posted at all this weekend. Quick summary: Friday night would have been really fun, and was for a little while, but ended with me very upset, much like last Saturday night. I'm not really going to elaborate beyond that, in the interest of time and comfort. Suffice it to say that I ended up hurt and furious both times, and both times had to do with Rosie. But Saturday, I woke up, really hung over, and began to make my pumpkin bread in anticipation of the COPA kids' pot luck Thanksgiving, at Amalia's house. It was a lot harder than expected, due to the paucity of bread molds in the house (I ended up using a 7.75x5 cake pan and a bundt cake pan) and to the fact that in lieu of temperatures, the oven dial has, "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8," written on it. So I had to improvise a little, and both cakes ended up burnt, but Luz María fixed that right up with a little grating and I was on my way to the party. It was fun, even though I was still thinking very heavily about the previous night and ended up just being very quiet for a lot of the time. Amalia's house has a pool and it was a beautiful day, so we sat outside and some people (myself included) went in and that was very nice.

Sunday morning we had a mandatory meeting at the Ñuñoa fire fighter's company 3 station at 9:30 in the damn morning, where we filled out paperwork, got back the letters we'd written to ourselves during orientation, etc., and then...this is so cool...wait for it...got to ride in a 1949 fire truck around Ñuñoa and to the company's practice facility, where we got to shoot the fire hoses (at full pressure!) and have competitions and everything, and then back to the fire station for some quality empanadas and play ping pong. Everyone dispersed and Rosie came back to my house, where I changed clothes (we were dirty from all the mud the fire hoses churned up). Things have been very strained and weird between us for a few weeks, and we ended up having a good talk about it and then started planning our end-of-year trip to Chiloé, which we both got really excited about.

Today I met up with Julia (!) and her friend Ian, who are done with their Bs As program and are visiting Stgo and Valpo, and walked around with them for a while. We tried to go to a couple museums, but I had forgotten that they're all closed Mondays. So we ended up climbing Santa Lucia and then going for lunch at the place across the street from COPA. Then they peeled off and went to San Cristobal, I went to the COPA office, talked to Tim and said happy birthday to Vale, went to my last Spanish class (oh yes...oh yes) came home, talked to Luz María, whom I will recommend for canonization the next time I find myself in a Catholic church, and her friend, went to Indian food for Vale's birthday (the place is super pricey, but I just ate some paella and fish and a salad beforehand and got an appetizer and rice and a juice at the place...still cost me 12 bucks). The food at that place is really good, I had a few bites of other people's stuff and Rosie's was absolutely amazing (some kind of lamb thing) and Vale's was hoooootttttttt. Delicious. At the end she ended up passing the bowl back to me for more and more bites...so painful, so tasty. Anyhow, then I came home, had a really nice talk with Dad and Jack and Mom, and now I'm writing this and so tired and have to write essays. And Julia is town, so I have to meet up with her tomorrow, then take a make-up Spanish test...Gosh. I think I'll just go to bed right now, get a good 8 hours tonight, wake up, write a little, meet her and Ian, take my test, come home and write more and just not write tomorrow. Good plan. Time to put in action. Ready, go. I promise more in-depth blogging sometime in the not-too-distant future. 'Night!

exam

So despite not enough sleep and practically no studying, I got a 6 (A-) on my Europe/Latin America final. Good news.

tired

Slept hardly at all last night. Probably the lowest amount I've gotten since I came to Chile. Not exactly sure how long, but I lay down at 5 a.m., lay there for an indeterminate amount of time, and woke up at 9, hit the snooze, woke up again, worked on my essay, ate lunch, went to Spanish, finished my essay, went to class, turned it in, barely made it home awake, at dinner and now here I am, about to pass out. 'Night.

today/keith olbermann on msnbc

Today was good, I went to bed early-ish last night and woke up a little after 10, worked a little on my essay for Chile chilenos, ate lunch, went to pronunciation (with my new iPod!), got Grandpa and Marinell's letter (thanks so much, you guys) and after a brief stop at Rosie's apartment I found myself in Starbucks, trying to work some more on the paper. And guess what. I met a girl from Michigan! Jessie R-something. We chatted for a while and she seemed cool, she's on Michigan's own Stgo program (along with three other Wolverines and two kids from Wisconsin) and will be here through next semester, too! Very exciting! Anyhow, the internet cut out there and so my work ground to a halt after I finished reading something my professor had written about the importance of art and culture, which actually pissed me off because of the contempt it showed for "erudition" and its fawning love for the few "great artists" as the greatest products of any society. Well, I am erudite, for a 20-year-old (started to write 19 there...) and the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake is one of my greatest joys in life. So fuck you, Gabriel Matthey Corea, I love erudition. It does not mean that I am afraid of engaging with culture, it just means that I like learning things for the sake of learning them. Back to the play-by-play: I got the girl's number (thinking to call her this weekend to meet up with other Michigan people!) and came home, ate dinner, and now I'm here, about to start working once again on this damn paper. But first, something important.

Part of my routine whenever I come back to my computer is to read various blogs--WWTDD, Hullabaloo, Informed Comment and, more recently, Latin American News review and Crooks and Liars--and today I came across something on C & L, via Hullabaloo, that absolutely staggered me. Thank you, Keith Olbermann, for being more eloquent than I am, and having the balls to say what needs to be said with all the force and rage that your subject merits. He talked yesterday on MSNBC about Bush's visit to Vietnam and the real lessons to be learned there, so different from the "We'll succeed unless we quit" that Bush took as his lesson from Vietnam. Here's the link: Olbermann comment. Click on it, if you've got a few minutes. It's worth your time, I guarantee. And with that, I'm back to work. 'Night.

UPDATE: Apparently the direct link to the video that I put in takes you to the C & L front page instead, so just scroll down a ways, you'll see the headline.

birthday!

Today was pretty much a normal day, with the exception that it was my birthday, so everyone said that to me at least once. I woke up, exchanged my last traveler's check, went to COPA, chatted, bought lunch (double napolitana, as usual...everyone who visits will be treated to this at-least-twice-a-week meal of mine), went to Spanish, which was fun because I got three papers back and did well on one, really well on the most important one, and FANTASTIC on another one, and because we played Escrupulos. There must be an equivalent to this in English, but basically there are a bunch of questions with moral dilemmas on them, and you have to say what you'd do. If everyone believes your response, you get a halo, and if everyone doesn't, you get a pitchfork. I'm not sure how scoring works. But anyhow, a couple of the questions were actually pretty interesting, if a little tired or cliche, for example: "If a technology existed to edit your as-yet-unborn child's genes to make him or her more attractive, smarter, etc., would you use it?" I would say absolutely not, but I feel like we're not far away from actually having that technology, and it will be very interesting to see how society responds to it. Anyhow after Spanish Rosie and I went to Patagonia, a cute little restaurant near the COPA office with wi-fi and Rosie worked on her final essay for Spanish and I did a LOT of back-reading for Chile chilenos class. First about Chile's "hidden culture" and the conflict and mutual misunderstanding between Santiaguino culture and rest-of-Chile culture, then about the negative effects of quadrature (direct translation of the Spanish word "cuadratura," but I have no idea if the connotations are the same...oh well, I'll roll with it) on Chilean society. That is, the idea that we are all born with unique potential, but modern society "squares our circles (or blobs, in the case of the article's illustrations)" and so robs us of our potential to grow and mature as human beings, instead forcing us into the producer-consumer vicious cycle in which the only good is to HAVE. I found it very interesting and well-written. Our professor (it's basically a transcript of a talk he gave some years ago to a forum organized by the U de Chile's engineering school) seems to have a simple view of the world, and has no trouble making sweeping generalizations, but he is insightful and eloquent and I really enjoyed the piece. The illustrations (which were copies of ones he drew on a chalkboard during the talk) were funny, too; he's big into simple, repeated images (I cannot describe to you the number of times I have seen an iceberg this semester). After that, I came home, ate with David and Luz María, and opened MDLJ's presents! They are wonderful, and I was utterly floored by the iPod nano. Jenny and Jules' book was in there, too, and the neurobiology report Mom worked on last summer for Howard Huges Medical Institute. All terrific presents. The iPod is ready to roll tomorrow and I can't wait to start the books. Then MDJ called, we talked, it was good, I ate (a third) cake with Luz María and gossiped about our neighbor, who's a very public figure at a very important environmental advocacy group and recently got sacked very loudly by his board of directors, and has been in the paper the past few days. He's apparently a huge douche bag and hasn't talked with his daughter, who's a year younger than me and still lives with him, in three years. Sheesh. Anyhow, that about wraps it up. I'm going to try and work on some of these blasted essays now, wish me luck. 'Night.

weekend

Saturday sucked from 5 p.m. until I went to bed at 3:30 a.m. I will not elaborate beyond that.

Today I got a weird sunburn at the beach. Now I'm home and have to shower and do homework. I am broke again. This has not been a good weekend.

birthday party!

Well, last night almost everyone came over and we ate delicious completos and mil hojas (thousand leaves) cake and drank beer and piscola and listened to good music and danced a little and basically just had a fantastic time. I'm not sure I can ever thank Luz María enough for making it happen the way it did. I've said it once and I'll say it again: I got really lucky with this host family. They're terrific. It was the best birthday party I've had in a long time, maybe since Lyle the magician. That, I think, takes the all-time cake for me. Fire into doves...man. But anyhow, it was fantastic and I was just incredibly happy all night. We ended up at a bar in Plaza Ñuñoa afterwards, and that was fun, too, but the party in my house was just great. I'm a little hung over today, but not badly and as soon as I've showered and eaten some of the surely dozens of dogs we've got left and drank a little more of Francisco's delicious green tea (he's a bit of a tea snob, which is great for me because he's also really generous), I'll be golden in time for the Biggest Game Of All Time, which Colin Keiffer accurately describes in his away message as the national championship. You go, Colin Keiffer. I've been flipping out about it for the past 24 hours and now it's less than 4 hours to Armageddon. Oh man. Well, I'd better go shower, but before go, I'm going to sing for you the first of many renditions of the Greatest Fight Song Of All Time.

HAIL! TO THE VICTORS, VALIANT!
HAIL! TO THE CONQ'RING HEROES!
HAIL, HAIL TO MICHIGAN, THE LEADERS AND BEST!

HAIL! TO THE VICTORS, VALIANT!
HAIL! TO THE CONQ'RING HEROES!
HAIL, HAIL TO MICHIGAN, THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WEST!

GO BLUE GO BLUE GO BLUE GO BLUE!

the past week's posts

Since Monday, the blog has been superceded in importance by two final papers and a test. Sorry about that. Monday through Wednesday was stressful and short on sleep, and I didn't get one of the papers done in time, but that's okay because the professor said anyone who wasn't finished by Wednesday could just turn it in next week, no worries. Plus I think I did a pretty good job on the other one (better have, I worked hard on it) and also a decent job on the test, which was unpredictable due to the confusing lack of connection between the course's supposed theme and the material. Anyhow, Wednesday night I got many hours of blissful sleep, and then went to class on Thursday, went to the Hostal Amazonas to correct the mistake that had been made when Dad tried to reserve rooms online. That went very smoothly, the guy who helped me (the father of the woman who emailed you, Dad) was super-nice and we got everything straightened out. Then I went over to Rosie's, hung out for a while, forgot that I was supposed to go see a play for Spanish class, went to Durham's, watched Kill Bill 1 with Rosie, Dur, Joe (who freaking LOVES Kill Bill...quote of the night: "This is my life on film!") and eventually Tim B. Then we met Vale and Gaby at a nice little restaurant/bar in Bellavista, got a drink and just chilled for a little while. I got vaina, which is deeeeelicious and usually one of the cheapest drinks of the menu, which is a great combination. Then everyone went to another bar because the one we were at was closing, except Vale and I, who went back to her apartment because I didn't want to pay to get home only to wake up the following morning to come half an hour back to the COPA office for our make-up Spanish class. We had it at 12 today, making up for some long-ago missed class, I think maybe for a COPA-sponsored trip? I don't remember. In any case, it wasn't so bad, except I hadn't seen the play that was the subject of an hour's worth of discussion. It did get me excited to see it, though, which I will this Sunday. Anyhow, class out, I went into the COPA office and automatically checked my email, facebook and ESPN.com.

Please interrupt your reading of this blog and click on the ESPN link to the right.

I nearly had a heart attack as wave after wave of chills came over me as the page loaded, and then as I read all the stories I could about the game tomorrow. I have never wanted to be in Ann Arbor more in my life. But the Hooters (shudder) in Santiago will have to do. I think Vale and Elan and maybe Adam and the kid from my Chile chilenos class whose name I ashamedly can't remember will come and watch A) the game and B) me being almost psychotically emotional. Should be a good time. Unless we lose. In which case it'll be a depressing time. But back to good times, around 15 people are coming over for my birthday party tonight, Luz María got two cakes and some beer and Coke and lots of hot dogs and palta (that is, avocado) and other fixins and we're gonna have ourselves a little party here. Afterwards, the plan to is to go to Ñuñoa and either to Batuta (some kind of concert will be going on, and none of us have been yet) or Las Lanzas, which is a bar that David my host brother really likes. Sunday will see me snap back to the reality of how much work I have due next week, but from now until then I will be utterly absorbed in myself and Michigan football. Hot damn. GO BLUE BUCK THE FUCKEYES!!!!!

friday and saturday and today

Some notes about Friday, in no particular order:

The Pinochet Foundation (not Institute) was very strange. It struck me that anyone who's involved in it must have a very powerful ability to not see things they don't want to see, because really the man was a monster. Also, our guide at one point brought up the point that under the "socialist" policies of the new government, 10 people are squeezing into tiny apartments. This utterly ignores the fact that during Pinochet's reign, the gap between rich and poor deepened profoundly and conditions for the poor were MUCH worse than they are today. More on the tiny apartment thing later, too. But of course Pinochet's supporters didn't know that because they're all loaded and live in Lo Barnechea and Vitacura. Our guide was a weird and angry man, very soft-spoken until Katie or Isa asked a semi-challenging question, at which point he raised his voice and opened his eyes really wide. There's a huge painting of Pinochet in the main room. The place itself is really deluxe, and in a very rich part of Santiago (I think Vitacura). And, finally, the man who signed the guest book right before us was none other than Senator John R. McCain, of Phoenix, AZ. Who sends all his best to the general. I shit you not. That kind of flipped me out, because the man was tortured, for crying out loud! I'll come back to torture (and tiny apartments) when I get to Villa Grimaldi.

The Cementerio General is beautiful and grand and very different from the one in Bs As. It's non-religious, for one thing. Much more spread out, a lot greater variety of size in terms of the monuments. Basically it looks a lot more haphazard, but just as beautiful in a different way. The monument to Allende and the one to the victims of the Pinochet regime are beautiful.

Villa Grimaldi was very heavy. It's the most famous center of torture in Chile, and now is a kind of museum and testament to the brutality of the Pinochet regime. The man who took us around had been there for two years, living, at one point, in a one-meter-square room with three other men, blindfolded almost 24/7, allowed to go to the bathroom once a day, electrocuted, used as an ashtray; of course got no medical treatment and was there for eight months out of the two years with his wife, whose room (the women all stayed together) was next to the torture house, so the women could hear the screams of men as they were tortured. God what the hell could drive people to act that way. I don't understand it, and it happened again in Abu Ghraib. This is why Bush is guilty there, because even thought Pinochet probably didn't actually go in himself and stab people with cattle prods, it was under his leadership that the place got created, and the same thing happened in Iraq, down the blindfolds and electrocution and forced standing. All the people who worked at Villa Grimaldi were trained at the School of the Americas (used to be in Panama, now in Miami) by our very own CIA and Defense Department. Sometimes my country disgusts me. About tiny apartments, it also strikes me as ludicrous that this smarmy man at the Pinochet Foundation could bitch about tiny apartments today when the man that he has decided to spend his whole life working for or on behalf of oversaw the creation of places where people lived six to a room in miniscule wooden boxes with no ventilation except the peephole in the door. Insane.

Yesterday, Rosie and I went with our Chile, chilenos class (with Kellyanne, too! She came with her friend Jenna, who's in the class) to Pomaire and then to the beach and then Isla Negra. It was a very pleasant trip, and I had gotten enough sleep that I was awake and ready for it. Pomaire was cool, we got to go into an artisan's workshop and watch him make a few things (amazing) and then I got to try it myself! It was incredibly hard, but very fun, and in the end I had a very ugly bowl. Didn't get to keep it, though. The beach was pretty, and we got to eat lunch on it, which was nice, even though the wind off the water made it a little chilly for some less-hardy people (Rosie...). Isla Negra was great the second time around, because the first time we went my comprehension was nowhere near what it is now, and so this time I could really focus on the house while still listening to the guide (who was great). Pablo Neruda was basically like a little kid, who grew up physically, found out he was really good at writing, made a lot of money at it and decided to realize all his little kid dreams. It's a wonderful place. I won't write anymore because I don't want to spoil any of it for MDLJ.

Then last night, I got some overpriced sushi from Benihana (but it was so good...) and then drank too much wine with everyone at Durham's apartment and fell asleep. Today I was hung over as crap and now I'm writing this and then I'm going to eat dinner and then I'm going to do some research and hopefully a little writing and then I'm going to go to bed. The first three days of this week are going to eat my alive. Then I'll be golden. Not sure if I'll be posting at all until Wednesday, so wish me luck with my two papers and test! 'Night.

long day

Last night I ended up going to sleep at Vale's at around 4:30, then waking up at 8:30 to go to the blasted human rights history lesson tour of COPA, which took us to the Pinochet Institute, the Cementerio General and Villa Grimaldi. It was all really, really interesting and I wish I'd been less exhausted for all of it. And, joy of joys, tomorrow I get to get back on a bus and go to Pomaire and Isla Negra again with Chile, chilenos class. So at the moment I'm going to go heat up dinner, eat it, and then go right back to bed in the hopes of recovering a little bit. Tomorrow's post will be long and involved, I promise, because I have a lot to write and think about from today and hopefully will tomorrow, too, but I just can't right now. 'Night.

early to bed

Today was a good day. I practically peed myself repeatedly throughout the day as the good news kept rolling in (finally, Rumsfeld is gone; but only, well, 25 years too late). The overexcitement was not aided by the fact that I got wayyyyy less sleep than I should have. Election-night jitters + non-stop coverage on CNN = sleepless in Santiago. Anyhow, I'm going to try and make up for last night right about...now. 'Night.

somebody read my blog last night

Got this comment from some liberal blogger last night, though I'd post it where more people might look:

Take a moment, and help convince Nancy Pelosi to Impeach..

The day the nation demands impeachment is upon us. Sacks and sacks of mail are about to arrive in Nancy Pelosi's office initiating impeachment via the House of Representative's own rules. This legal document is as binding as if a State or if the House itself passed the impeachment resolution (H.R. 635).

There's a little known and rarely used clause of the "Jefferson Manual" in the rules for the House of Representatives which sets forth the various ways in which a president can be impeached. Only the House Judiciary Committee puts together the Articles of Impeachment, but before that happens, someone has to initiate the process.

That's where we come in. In addition to a House Resolution (635), or the State-by-State method, one of the ways to get impeachment going is for individual citizens like you and me to submit a memorial. ImpeachforPeace.org has created a new memorial based on one which was successful in impeaching a federal official in the past. You can find it on their website as a PDF.

You can initiate the impeachment process and simultaneously help to convince Pelosi to follow through with the process. Do-It-Yourself by downloading the memorial, filling in the relevant information in the blanks (your name, state, etc.), and sending it in. Be a part of history.

Impeach for Peace

somebody read my blog last night

Got this comment from some liberal blogger last night, though I'd post it where more people might look:

Take a moment, and help convince Nancy Pelosi to Impeach..

The day the nation demands impeachment is upon us. Sacks and sacks of mail are about to arrive in Nancy Pelosi's office initiating impeachment via the House of Representative's own rules. This legal document is as binding as if a State or if the House itself passed the impeachment resolution (H.R. 635).

There's a little known and rarely used clause of the "Jefferson Manual" in the rules for the House of Representatives which sets forth the various ways in which a president can be impeached. Only the House Judiciary Committee puts together the Articles of Impeachment, but before that happens, someone has to initiate the process.

That's where we come in. In addition to a House Resolution (635), or the State-by-State method, one of the ways to get impeachment going is for individual citizens like you and me to submit a memorial. ImpeachforPeace.org has created a new memorial based on one which was successful in impeaching a federal official in the past. You can find it on their website as a PDF.

You can initiate the impeachment process and simultaneously help to convince Pelosi to follow through with the process. Do-It-Yourself by downloading the memorial, filling in the relevant information in the blanks (your name, state, etc.), and sending it in. Be a part of history.

Impeach for Peace

4 in the morning

I've spent the past 5 hours watching election coverage on CNN and BBC and squeezing in studying as I go; quiz tomorrow in Europa/A.L. class. Bad timing. But we got the House back, and maybe the Senate (at least George Allen looks like a goner...spit on that, asshole) and the gubernatorial races went way in favor of the Dems. Happy happy joy joy, now let's see what can be done with this. The leadership says they're not out to impeach Bush, but I say, why not? If Clinton could be impeached for lying under oath, then surely Bush can be impeached for, well, attempting to destroy the Constitution might be a good place to start. It's going to take a long time and a lot more than a mid-term Democratic semi-victory to turn ourselves around, but here's hoping that it's a beginning at the very least. And now, to bed. Wish me luck getting to sleep, I'm all riled up about the election and the effects of the great depression on the political climate in Latin America. 'Night.

immortal technique is a good rapper

On Sunday, I met up with Rosie again and we walked up Cerro San Cristobal. It was hot as blazes. Then at the top we got water (desperately needed) and walked around for a while. There was a mass going on under the Virgin, but with lots of people dressed in elaborate sequined costumes that would have been more at home in Mexico than here, at least in my experience. We went in the church up there and sat for a while; it was mostly empty. Then we got on the teleferico, the gondola that goes from the top of the hill down to a park above Providencia. It was really fun, although Rosie is a little afraid of heights and did not appreciate my abbreviated rocking of the car. I like heights. At the bottom we wandered a little through the park, which is beautiful, then sat for a while in a good sitting tree. She wrote in her journal and I read Another Country by James Baldwin. I like it a lot. Hopefully I'll be able to finsh before Rosie takes it home. Anyhow, then we walked some more, through a rich neighborhood below the park that neither of us had been in before but looked, according to her, like the Valley in CA. Walk walk walk, sculpture garden, Providencia proper. We ended up in a very overpriced Italian restaurant for dinner. We got there at 8 and were one of three couples in the joint; the other two were an old gringo couple and a middle-aged Chilean couple. We sat at tables along the window of this huge empty restaurant; very strange. Also, the waiter talked so quietly we could barely hear him even though there was no one else there. By the time we left, it was 9:30 and the place was just filling up. The whole day was really nice. Tons of firsts.

Today I got up, went to class, went to Amadeus with Rosie for a little while to plan our end-of-the-semester trip to Chiloé and study for my Spanish quiz on Wednesday and then Izaak called! After some cell phone messiness, he said to meet him and Ian at Pedro de Valdivia at 6:30. I did, and then Izaak's friend Carla came and Ian took us all to a great Argentinean restaurant near there. He's in town to visit Izaak and his brother-in-law, Izaak's uncle, who works at the US embassy here. The dinner was terrific, best steak I've had in South America, and it was wonderful to see Ian, he's a great guy and it's nice to see people from home, hear some news first-hand. Also he brought my present from home, which is sitting in its wrapping on my bed, begging for me to open it. Let the contest of wills begin. I can wait two weeks, I can wait two weeks, I can wait two weeks, I can wait two weeks...

Now I'm tired and I'm going to make myself some salad because I haven't eaten any green vegetables in the past two days and fall asleep. On the agenda for tomorrow: wake up early, run, eat, finish Spanish essay, work on other two essays, go to pronunciation class, spend as little money as possible. I can't wait to run. 'Night!

a brief post

Last night I saw the other half of Alfredo Jaar's retrospective, at the Galeria Gabriela Mistral. It's a smaller space than in the Telefónica, and I didn't like the installations there as much, although they provoked an interesting conversation between me and Rosie about art in general. Later, I saw Almodóvar's new movie, "Volver," with Rosie. It was very strange but both of us liked it a lot. I would recommend it to anyone, with the precaution that the themes, as usual with Almodóvar, are pretty heavy, as comically as he treats them.

Today, I woke up at 10:30 and couldn't go back to sleep, so I dicked around online a bit, made myself lunch, made plans to meet up with Rosie, showered, then got roped into eating lunch with the fam. That was okay because even though I'd already eaten a couple of sandwiches, I still managed to eat a lot of what Luz María brought; it was delicious. Roast chicken, french fries and a caprese-esque salad, but with quesillo instead of mozz. Mmmmmm. Then I left, met up with Rosie, went to the half of the Jaar exhibit in the Telefónica again, liked it again, and came back to blessed, hated Starbucks, where I've been for the past three and a half hours, doing research for my paper about the influences of Chile's FTAs on its culture. Really, really interesting, more so than I thought it'd be. And easier. Good combo. Now I'm taking a break to write this. Tomorrow, me and her and hopefully Tim B and others are going hiking in Parque Nacional la Campana. Should be really fun, it's supposed to be a gorgeous day. Okay, break over.

today

I had a wonderful day until about an hour ago... Slept a lot, ate a tasty breakfast, went to class, weather was beautiful, went to frisbee, threw around a bit and met some cool people, came home, ate dinner, talked to the family, watched the GREAT season finale of ER. Then I got an email from Dad saying I'm a lot bigger financial trouble than I thought, and that it's my fault (he didn't say that because he's Dad and never would, but it is), and I got to thinking about how this summer/winter is looking like a financial nightmare (i.e. might not be able to happen), started reading about world affairs because I like to, and realized once again that being a sane, thinking liberal in these times is really, really depressing. We're fucked. We really are. Our government is shot to shit, our press is shot to shit, Americans are going off the deep end and turning against the found principles of our nation, the political discourse at all levels of society, even amongst liberals, is dominated by shameless, disgusting, batshit-crazy fascists like Rush "Pills" Limbaugh and Dick Cheney, everyone in the world hates us -- and with reason -- and the way out depends on a group of very unpopular, marginalized people (real liberals) who would never be able to get anything done anyway because they spend too much time criticizing each other, on top of ripping the other side a new one every single day, to get anything progressive done. I really need to get out of the blogosphere for a little while, it's a scary place. Or maybe just stop reading Hullabaloo and Huffington Post and try to find some blogs by people who actually have something positive to say. The problem is that in my current state of mind, I have a hard time believing any of those. On top of that, I have no money, the government is constantly cutting funding for higher education so tuition is only going to rise, I have no way to get a job in which I'd make any useful amount of money (I could be a delivery boy or something under the table but it would be really hard and time-consuming for a very low reward), it's the last month of the semester and work is going to absolutely kill me for the next four weeks.

But the weather today turned out so nice, and I threw a frisbee...

good bp news

Today I read 122/84 with a pulse of 53. Hurray.

photo

I will post more pics of the trip soon, I promise, but Katty just sent me this gem and I felt compelled to post it as a preview for what my cuts look like and as a pretty apt summary of my relationship with Isa: I get hurt/sick, she ministers to me, we laugh about it. Note: This was taken in the cabin right after I got scratched and Isa was applying iodine/hydrogen peroxide; this is the more mild of the two cuts on my stomach (the one on my leg really isn't bad).

food poisoning and dog attacks, or, despite shitty luck, luke has fun in the south

Tuesday was really fun. In the morning we went to the Mapuche museum in Cañete, which is the name of the town we stayed in. A very proud, very spry old guy named Armando gave us an exhaustive tour of the museum's artifacts, which were mostly quite interesting and also small enough in number that an exhaustive tour held my interest from start to finish. Also, the museum had a spectacular view. After the tour, we went back to a traditional Mapuche hut and sat around a fire while Armando played music for us on a traditional Mapuche trumpet and taught us numbers 1-10 (2=emu, 10=mari, others foggy), and then we went outside and Tim and I went to get sticks for a traditional Mapuche game that is strikingly similar to field hockey, which we played. It was really fun, even though my team lost 1-0. We learned a traditional Mapuche chant and danced in a circle while Armando sang and played the drum. It was a tradition-filled morning. But very interesting and fun. Then we ate lunch and clambered back on the bus for a surprise from Isa and Katty, which turned out to be a 2-hour cruise on a beautiful lake called Nahuel. It was gorgeous outside, there were pisco sours and Cristal and music and everyone was in fantastic spirits. Afterwards we went to a cabin on the lake, where, while awaiting a delicious asado, Rosie, Amalia, Tim, Justin, Joseph and I stripped nekkid and ran in to the (not actually that cold, but still really cold) water while everyone laughed and looked vaguely uncomfortable (wusses). I was the first one out, and I put my boxers back on and went over to talk to everyone. Justin got out, too and he and I chased Durham around, and a german shepherd who lived on the property decided to attack me. I have lovely scratches on my sides and leg, photos of which will be posted as soon as I upload the ones from this trip. So that was joyous. My comically bad medical luck continues. But the dinner was good and then we went back to the hotels and created a fantastic Halloween party, great costumes and all, out of stuff from our rooms (Amalia and Durham bought a couple things, but everything else was totally improvised). Alex and I wrapped our comforters around ourselves, our pillowcases around our heads and carried the decorative pillows from out beds and the bedside table and lamp and our towles and went as our room. Rosie went as trash, complete with banana peel and partially-full water bottle. Gaby was a very convincing Unabomber, Ester was the Chilean flag, etc. That combined with awesome music (them song for the trip: Ridin Dirty by Chamillionaire) and boxed wine equalled fun times.

This morning we woke up, ate breakfast, piled back onto the bus, toured Concepción briefly (verdict: nice setting, not much there except 1.5 million people), got back on the bus and came back to Stgo. Bus ride not unpleasant, I read a bunch of Bruce Chatwin's collection What Am I Doing Here?, which is good reading but really kind of old-fashioned in a way that made my uncomfortable. He speaks of himself as a progressive, open-minded world-traveler, but the fact is he's still mired in paternalism and the combination is awkward. He's well-meaning, to be sure, and his experience and wisdom and observational skills are still valuable even 20-odd years after the last of the stories was written, but still.... Anyhow I'm home now, ate dinner, checked my email and the news, and now my eyes are starting to glaze over, so I'm going to cut this baby off with this: Despite bad things happening, this was a happy weekend. 'Night!

the south

I´m sitting in an internet cafe in a town whose name I have utterly forgotten at the moment. I´m going to keep this short and write more later, but here are the highlights so far: Friday night we bussed from Stgo to Concepcion. Eight or nine hours on the bus, I slept less than an hour. Saturday was fun, we saw some pretty things, went to a neat private botanical gardens in Lota, ate lunch in a restaurant on the beach, saw some other cool things and then got to our hotel. Ate dinner, then I started feeling bad, but soldiered on to a bar with a bunch of others. Left just after midnight and walked back to the hotel and commenced expelling everything in my digestive system. I had lots and lots of diarrhea all night, barely slept, woke up in the morning with more and then also threw up, just for kicks. It was delightful. So on Sunday, while everyone else went for a hike and to some Mapuche people´s house, I lay in bed, rehydrating and eating white rice and crackers. Fun times. But I felt better after that and ate with everyone last night. This morning we piled onto the bus again, went to a Mapuche school in the countryside, where we met a bunch of 5-8 graders, gave them some soccer balls, talked to them (I talked to a kid named Daniel, who was for sure the class dork; needless to say I liked him) for a while and then listened to them sing a Mapuche song and then sang ¨Twinkle, twinkle¨ and ¨This land is your land¨ to them (and raucous applause). It was all a little strange, I´ll write more about why later on. Lunch, gorgeous views of ocean and coast, one more stop for a little roadside crafts shop, back to hotels, shower, internet cafe. Now I´m going to stop, because I just passed the quarter-hour mark. Anyhow, point is that I´m having a good time and I really like the south; it´s gorgeous.

wednesday and thursday

I am out of money. Out. In other news, yesterday I got really sad and overwhelmed thinking about how long it's going to be before I see almost any of the people that I love and care about. MDLJ are coming in December, and Grandpa and Marinell next semester sometime, but other than that it's gonna be a good 8 or 9 months before I see anybody. So I sat on a park bench and stared at nothing in particular for a couple of hours, and wished I was lying down. I felt better after just sitting for a while, though. I want to start meditating again, I still miss it and it's nothing but good for me, so what's to lose? I'll try sitting for a little while tonight (maybe 20 minutes) and see how my back does, and go from there. Also I went to frisbee today, not to play but to talk to people and watch and maybe throw around a little, and about 15 minutes after I got there (I was about 20 minutes early, more on why in a minute) it started raining. Then it started raining harder. In the end, only four other people showed, and everyone left before a disc even left a bag. Also after a week of upper-70s, today the high was 63. Joyous. So the past couple of days have kind of been downers, but not totally...

In more positive news, I got my first paper back from Lenguaje Cinematográfico, and I got in the B to B+ range on it, which was great because I was afraid I'd done a lot worse. So that cheered me up. Also, last night I watched two movies that I really liked: The Bourne Identity, which I'd never seen, incredibly, and Lucky Number Slevin, which I thought was great. I might watch it again tonight, actually, although I'm pretty exhausted and might just call it a night. A bunch of people met up to eat whole-wheat empanadas and then go out, but I'm brokity-broke-broke-broke, so I'm housebound. Oh well. Another good thing that happened today was that one of the guys who came to play today lives in La Reina as well, and offered to split a cab with me and even spotted me for it because I was cashless after settling a medical bill at la Católica. His name's Sam and he went to/works at the same camp as Danny Cohen and goes to college with another kid from Gabby's high school. He's a super-nice guy and people being kind to me generally makes me feel better about life. In further good news, I finally saw the Alfredo Jaar exhibit at the Telefónica building. He's a Chilean artist who works a lot against the repression of people and things that otherwise wouldn't have a voice, such as poor Angolans and the 7 million original images that Bill Gates is burying under the ground in western PA. The exhibit wasn't particularly coherent (it's a compilation of work he's done over the past 20 years), as you might imagine from the examples I just gave, but each of the installations was very cool. I particularly liked one that consisted of a huge light table (maybe 9 or 10 feet long) in a dark room covered in a mountain of slides of the same image of a young Rwandan boy's eyes looking away from the camera. Thousands and thousands of identical pairs eyes just dumped unceremoniously on the table, and loups to look at them with. Another good one was from 1987, when he took over a big jumbotron in Manhattan and showed images of the United States with the slogan "This Is Not America" followed by our flag with "This Is Not The American Flag" superimposed on it. It's called "A New Logo for America." All in all, I'm feeling okay. I have a bit of a headache and I'm disappointed about ultimate today, but life is moving forward and tomorrow I'm leaving for the beautiful lakes district! Hurray, travel! 'Night.

great idea

Via digby: The Republicans used the clever tactic of "Google-bombing" John Kerry during the 04 race; that is, they clicked on anti-Kerry sites enough that those were the ones that came up first when you Googled his name. So now, two years later, it's time to take that tactic back. Below are all the BAD Senate candidates, if you've got a minute and are bored, click on a few of them. Help the cause in an extraordinarily easy way.

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

all that matters today

I ran. It felt fantastic.

version 2

I found myself just now trying to write about Chilean politics, because I spent all day either talking about them in Spanish class (Chile's relationships with its neighbors, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina, and why they are so strained) or reading about Chile's ever-growing number of free-trade agreements and the effects that they are having/will have on Chilean economy but also on Chilean culture. Those are very interesting subjects to me but my knowledge of them is very thin and I really have no set opinions on either case. I have preconceived notions (i.e. NAFTA is bad and the WTO is bad and the Washington Consensus is bad so ALCA must be bad too) without really knowing why, and I'd kind of like to figure out what's really going on before I start spouting off about them. Then I read Hullabaloo and specifically tristero's really interesting post about "christianists" and their role in American politics, and that got me fired up, but I don't really know anything new or exciting about that either (link to Hullabaloo is under "Places you should go because I like them"). So I'm going to modify my earlier post about writing more about politics and say this: I will start writing more about politics as soon as I have some sense of what I'm talking about and actually have something to say about them. Also, I think I might find myself just rambling about this situation or that sometimes, because I imagine that most people who read this don't know a whole lot about Bolivia's claim to sovereign sea access or things like that.

In the meantime, I'm going to start reading a lot more than I have been, and talking to my host family, too, because they're a source of differently-informed opinions that I haven't really gone out of my way to tap yet. Also, I'm going to run tomorrow, I've resolved. I am very excited about it. And now, I'm going to go to sleep.

a quick break to sing the fight song

HAIL! TO THE VICTORS, VALIANT!
HAIL! TO THE CONQ'RING HEROES!
HAIL! HAIL! TO MICHIGAN, THE LEADERS AND BEST!

HAIL! TO THE VICTORS VALIANT!
HAIL! TO THE CONQ'RING HEROES!
HAIL! HAIL! TO MICHIGAN, THE CHAMPIONS OF THE WEST!

God, I wish I was in Ann Arbor. GO BLUE!

today i decided to write more about politics

Election time is coming in the States and there's so much interesting stuff down here, and I've really just started to get into reading about all the goings on in the world again. I've been reading the news, of course, but not really paying very close attention. But the whole deal with Chile's vote for the Security Council seat and Bachelet's decision to abstain (which was absolutely the right one for Chile, but not very fun) and all the student unrest here is really interesting and it's time I paid closer attention to it. And I can't think of a way to make sure I'm paying attention than to write about things a little. Today I've got a Spanish paper that requires my full attention before I fall either asleep or into the state of slack-jawed half-wakefulness in which I can do nothing but look up soccer highlights and old Simpsons and Daily Show epidodes on YouTube, whichever comes first. But starting sometime soon, anyone who reads this will get a periodic dose of my astounding insightful political ruminations. The play-by-plays will continue, of course.

beach! hangover... apartment!

So I finally made it to a Pacific Ocean beach, only the second time in my life I've managed that. I left Friday around 1 for Viña (a little less than 2 hours by bus), where I met Alex, Durham, Rosie, Tim, Vickie and Joe on the beach, lay in the sun for a bit, swam in the freezing-cold ocean, played frisbee with Rosie (the shoulder works!...mostly) and generally enjoyed the gorgeous weather. Then we walked to a Mexican restaurant that Alex knew about, ate a kind of overpriced but pretty good meal, then watched the sunset. It was very nice. We went back to our hotel, which Alex had hooked us up with through family connections, chilled for a while, showered (after a fashion) and then commenced drinking. I had talked to Laura earlier about meeting up, and she said it would be perfect because her whole group left for the traveling section of their program (SIT--it's a weird program, but kind of cool) on Saturday, so Friday was their last night together. We met them at a bar in Valparaiso called Duff (yes, like the Simpsons) and basically all got very drunk. It was really fun, but the collective hangover yesterday was VERY bad. Also the weather on Saturday, which was supposed to be just as beautiful as Friday, turned out to be cloudy, cool and windy. Not exactly great beach weather. Disappointed, we wandered around Viña for a while, ate some brunch--this disgusting-looking concoction called chorillana, which is french frieds topped with fried egg, cheese, chopped hot dogs and fried steak (I didn't eat it, just drank some tea and put my head down on the table)--and came home. I ate dinner, talked to Luz María for a little bit and then tried to make plans with people to go see "Padre Nuestro," a Chilean comedy that's supposed to be really good, but it was only playing at really inconvenient times. So instead we went to Valeria's new apartment, which was really fun. I had seen it when I went apartment shopping with her a couple weeks ago, but she'd added some curtains, glasses, etc. But it was her first day there, so she still doesn't have a fridge or TV or really any furniture other than an inflatable mattress, a foldy-chair-mattress-thing and the little stools that came with the apartment. Anyhow, we ordered some disgusting, fantastic pizza and hung out for hours. Joe, Tim and Raúl (Tim's Chilean boyfriend) left around 2 but everyone else (the rest of the beach kids plus Gaby and Vale) were there until 4, at which point I walked Rosie home and then went back to Vale's and slept on the aforementioned foldy-chair-mattress-thing, which saved me about 7 bucks. Very gracious of Vale to let me sleep there; she also said it was an open invitation. This is great news on a wholly selfish level, because cab fares suck. Anyhow I woke up around 10:45 (the light in the apartment is wonderful--in place of windows she has sliding glass doors that open onto a balcony and form almost the entire exterior wall--but not so great for sleeping in), said bye to Vale, who woke up just after me, and came home. And now I'm here and I've got some homework and whatnot to do, lunch to eat, etc., so I'm going to stop writing for the time being. But that's the update on my doings for the past couple of days.

the last couple of days have been largely unremarkable

Tomorrow, however, I'm finally going to Viña to spend a couple of days on the beach. I'll have more to write about when I get back from that.

resolutions

1) Avoid English-language TV whenever possible, except the Sopranos.
2) In lieu of English-language TV, watch more castellano shows/news.
2) Be in bed by 1 a.m. on weeknights.

dr. starbucks, or, how i learned to stop worrying and just go there

First, by request: Reactions to my newly shaven face have been pretty much exactly what I expected, especially Alex's, which I visualized with absolute 100% accuracy before he saw me (I was pretty satisfied with my predicting ability afterwards). I'd try to describe it but it's a visual thing and wouldn't be funny anyway because you very likely don't know him. Unless you're Rosie or someone else from COPA. The general consensus is that I look younger--this consensus got most extreme with Luz María's repeated, "You look like a little baby!"--although Vale also told me that I look, "How you say, smoke hot." Then she told me she liked the beard better. People seem to have liked the beard, but I'm going to give myself a little change to air out, get a little color along my jawline and so on before I let it grow back. And I might not even do that. Who knows.

Now then, as to the title of this post, which was about as clever I could do on four hours' sleep and after a very hard test and then a debate project: I finally went to Starbucks yesterday. I loved it. I'm deeply crushed by this fact, but really, it's the only place in the whole city that I've found with a collection of comfortable reading furniture (i.e. comfy chairs), and that includes some furniture stores I've been to. I went because Katie, Alex and I had to meet to plan our half (Sara was with her parents) of our debate today and Starbucks has free wireless and was the most central place we could come up with. It was probably 70% gringos and 30% yuppie chilenos when I got there, although the proportion swung in Chile's favor as it got later. Also, the counter girl asked me where I was from because my accent didn't sound Chilean, but then was surprised when I said the States, so that was nice. People being surprised you're a gringo is a big complement. Also in the "Yay, I live here!" category: I gave a woman directions this morning as I was walking to the metro. Good couple of days for positive reinforcement of my Spanish.

Last night I studied and finished prepping for the debate until pretty late, then dicked around for a bit, and then Lincoln signed on and we got a chance to talk for a while, which was nice. It'd been a while since we last checked in for real, seems like he's doing really well and working hard and having a good time. Anyhow that combined with the spring forward on Sunday (we're now an hour ahead of EST) meant I didn't get to sleep until after 5 and then I woke up a little after 9 to study a little more and make sure I was totally awake for my test in Relaciones entre Europa y A.L., which I was, but was a bitch anyway. The profe wrote the wrong set of questions on the board at first, questions for a chapter we hadn't read, and then when everyone said, "Hey, what?" she acted all confused, then changed them to be all about HALF the reading we did and NOT the other half, and when everyone starting talking again she got all huffy, put up another question and told us to combine the four questions she'd written second into two and answer the third (eighth) by itself. It was really confusing and the questions were hard. I know for a fact now that I got at least half of one of them completely wrong. Guh. Oh well. The debate (which, in case I haven't written this already, was about whether Chile should have voted for Venezuela or Guatemala for the Security Council--I was pro-Venezuela) thankfully wasn't so bad, and Bachelet abstained like a little wuss anyway, so it ended up being pointless. Anyhow now I'm exhausted and waiting for MDJ to call, so I'm going to cut this short. One more thing: I found a really cool blog: Latin American News Review. It's by a left-leaning grad student at the University of New Mexico. I added it to my links on the right, check it out if you have any interest in the goings on down in these parts. Chao.