Barullo: from now on, two alarm clocks

So my alarm clock definitely failed me this morning, and I'm not sure why. I'm positive I did everything right last night because it worked perfectly yesterday morning and all I did was change the wakeup time from 11 to 8. In any case, I woke up a little before 10, flipped out, then calmed down, got my shit together and hustled down to the COPA office, where there was yet another workshop on how to register (you'd really think they'd have figured out how to make this less complicated, and if this IS the less complicated version...oh god, I don't even want to think about it). So I missed that altogether, but I got the materials and the rundown from Rosie, which was faster and probably almost as informative as the hour-plus Katty version. Then a bunch of people went to the "seminar" on the world through Chilean eyes at la Catolica, which turned out to be a bunch of lectures by some REALLY dry professors on basic world politics, but with a decidedly Catholic bent. This shocked me for some reason. I mean, I know the university is called "La Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile," but somehow I was expecting it to be like Georgetown or CUA or something, where there's a Catholic influence but the religion isn't totally pervasive. One of the lecturers actually wrapped up his speech by saying something to the effect of, "The ultimate question in the coming years is, can the Church receive all the people who have been marginalized and reacted by joining other religious groups? I say, yes." Come ON! Oh well, I'll be taking my poli sci classes elsewhere. So that was disappointing, but we left early and I ended up going to lunch with Sara, Alex, Katie, Esther, Charlie and Valeria (from COPA) at a really good, convenient, cheap place with fast service. I was floored by this place. A good salad, meat dish (my chicked was dry, but other people got good beef, so when I go back I'll just get that), dessert and drink for less than 4 dollars. THAT'S what I'm talking about. A picture of the joint is below. Also, it was right across from Cerro Santa Lucía, so after we finished lunch we climbed to the top of that. It's a really pretty park with lots of trees and a neat fountain and the view from the top is glorious. A few pictures of that are below, too, including one I took just of the sky, so you can get some kind of idea of the smog here. It was nice to be above it, or at least high up in it where it's thinner. Looking at it is just gross.

Anyhow, after that I met up with Rosie, Adam, Justin and Juli in Plaza de Armas, and I finally got my first Chilean milkshake (verdict: good but small, and odd-tasting whipped cream. But good). We went to a little cake place and got a few slices of cake to share and then headed back to Adam's house in Ñuñoa to pore over classes with a bottle of wine. His house is super nice, on a little gated street, and his host mom was very cute. She and his host dad came out to have a glass with us and we talked for a while. Then Rosie and I came back here for dinner, because she didn't want to go home, and we ate and chatted with Luz María. Dinner was good tonight, too. Salad and soup with parmesan cheese and then pizza and then bananas with raspberry sauce. And then queque (pound cake, but smaller) with Luz María's homemade raspberry marmelade. Delicious. But then a friend of LM's came over and she was VERRRRRRRY chatty and I got antsy (I think Rosie did, too, but she could read this blog if she wanted, so I won't put thoughts in her head). Finally I saw my chance and cleared mine and Rosie's places (LM hadn't eaten and her friend was still eating...meals other than lunch here are very fluid affairs), and the hint was caught and I walked Rosie back to the metro so she could head home and now I'm writing this and need to take a deep breath or this sentence will become the run-on to beat all run-ons. Whew.

Classes start tomorrow, and I'm going first to a class at PUC called "Globalización, Mundialización y Desarrollo." Exactly what the difference between globalization and worldization is I suppose would be a subject of study in the class. Then I'll have a break and head to either Modern Chilean Literature at la Chile or Simbology in Cinema at PUC. Probably the former, and if that, then another la Chile class called Social Theory and Structure of Chile. The movie class is too long to incorporate both. I'll report on those tomorrow. Also, Elan, Pimp of the Nation (as I have come to call him) came through today with probably the funniest joke anyone has ever played on me. I still laugh out loud every time I think about it. Picture below...click on it to see the bigger version. Next time I'm at COPA, I'll take a close-up so you can read it. ANYhow, I really need to shave, so I'm going to do that. Here are the pics.