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!