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.