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!