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.