Singin´ and Dancin´ and Robbin´ to the Music...

Most of last week involved daily doses of vitamins. They don´t joke around with those things here. They were in packets of 10 - I skipped most meals and opted for the fruity flavors of health.

I´m still reading a lot because of exams and a few papers coming up next week.

On Saturday I got an early start and went to Mercado Franklin, which is this huge jumble of everything one could imagine. Two friends and I spent hours getting lost from stall to stall. It was a lot of used, robbed, black market sorts of things. And way too many clothes. Still a fun place to see though. The girls took off and I decided to venture around more and slowly make my way up to the main street in Santiago, Alameda. I didn´t anticipate walking for like 2 hours to get back to Alameda - apparently I don´t judge distances well while riding the Metro!

It was actually a nice afternoon because I explored a lot of southern central Santiago. I found a cool fruit market that I will hopefully visit again.

Sunday involved a large barbeque followed by a hike with my Chilean parents. We went to Parque Mahuida, which is east of the city and overlooks everything. Unfortunately, it means walking right in the middle of the smog and not seeing much, but my parents tell me that at certain times of year good views have been had. I´ll believe it when I see it.


María and Tallu at Parque Mahuida. And Santiago in the backgroud...oh wait, you can´t see anything because of the lovely smog blanket.


On the subject of my Chilean parents, let me tell a little about them. Tallu is an engineer and works for the government. Also, students here study practical things like the sciences and engineering. None of this Liberal Arts crap like photojournalism! Jobs aren´t found for those in elitist café conversations, they are for doctors and stuff like that. I meet so many people with "real" majors that I feel left out. Oh well, somebody has to be the flakey one. I think a lot of Tallu´s work is with bridges. And his family is from Europe. He was born in Austria, his mother from Russian and his father from Poland...if I remember correctly. They came over when Tallu was 2.

María is insane. Way too much energy. She is an artist. And that´s what she teaches during many classes around Las Condes - the municipality employs her. She is always working on some art thing and our house is covered in her work. She doesn´t like to sell anything, so we´re just a big exhibition for her. She is always pressing flowers - which she does actually sell, just not her works. The latest craze is mosaics. She´s been going crazy. Many nights involve Tallu and I eating dinner with the rest of the table spread with tiny pieces of multi-colored tiles as she toils away.

This cow is by far the smallest mosaic she has tried. To give it perspective I included the sandwhich.



And her family is Chilean for at least a few generations back.

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Tuesday night was eventful. Dance class, which still consists of mostly merengue and salsa, is progressing well. It´s always fun to get out and spice things up a bit.



Gry-mette with one of the Chilean males who helps out the horrible ratio of males to females. Danielle and Vaness are an example of a typical pair. The guys get shuffled around so that all girls can dance with a male at least every now and then, which is nice for me.



So after dance class a few of us went out to a dance club. Seems rational. It was a good time, plenty of dancing and other vices. Then as I´m leaving I see Jill, who by this point is smashed (to put it lightly), running around looking for something. I stopped to ask = HUGE MISTAKE. So for some reason she hadn´t taken advantage of the bag-check service offered for about a dollar. She had chosen to dance with her backpack and purse tightly clutched to her. That obviously didn´t work very well, so she asked some nice guy at a table to watch it for her! SO her purse was stolen. Meaning I am left there to take care of her. Oh, and did I mention that she was drunk?!? So I broke my promise to myself to not use cabs and went ahead and did it so that we wouldn´t have to wait for a bus, which would have taken forever and she wasn´t up for simply walking until one comes which is my strategy.

So she got my bed and I got the floor because I didn´t want to try and get to her place at that point in the night because she also had lost her phone and keys - the purse is generally accepted as the international location to store one´s keys and other personal items associated with monetary value.

Luckily Jill was okay and nothing worse happened. My watch story pales in comparison, although I still think it´s pretty funny.

Then my mom yells at me in the morning because I chose the floor rather than the couch -- I believe I made a better decision concerning back and spinal health. What excitement! And the micros were on strike today, which apparently an annual thing that is planned pretty far in advance.

And I´m gonna cry because the Cardinals just lost.

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Here are some photos from around Santiago.

A nap at Plaza de Armas.



There are a lot of homeless people, as with any large city. So after taking some photos I gave this guy a few bucks. I figure no matter how bad my life might get at any point, I really can´t compare it with anything most of these people encounter. So giving a few bucks is never too difficult.



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It´s odd the way life just continues, regardless of what happens. Not just locally, but worldwide. I guess it kind of has to be that way.

Because I feel my photography is starting to suffer, I´ve decided to give myself some weekly assignments. I have some ideas about the race track, doing portraits or just covering street dogs, etc. -- But I´m open for ideas.