my new favorite thing

it's called a piolet. and it's kind of amazing.

this sunday, i went on an unofficial mountaineering excursion. however, considering there were about 70 kids from the different mountaineering classes + our instructor + some assistants, it was about as official as it could be. but we´re keeping that on the down low...

we met up around 8AM, drove about 15 minutes and prepared to ascend Cerro La Cruz. it´s pretty incredible having such ridiculous mountains at arms´distance. at any point in a day, you can say to yourself you know what, i feel like climbing a mountain today and then poof you´re climbing a mountain. and then you go back home at the end of the day and you look out your window and you can say to yourself i climbed that mountain today!

i love this country.

so anyways, back to my new favorite thing:

Piolet is just the French word for ice axe. (But doesn´t piolet sound so much cooler?) However, the tool is so much more than just an axe.

It is also:

• a climbing aid


• an excrement-hole-digging device


• a walking cane


• an avalanche rescue tool


• a lifesaver, and


• a fancy schmancy-hey-look-i´m-a-mountaineer-accessory

Since we weren´t in an icy area, we only used the piolet a little as we climbed the mountain. We used it like a cane to help keep our balance, and occasionally we dug the spike into the ground to climb up areas with slippery rocks and little traction. The rest of the time, we stuck the piolet diagonally in between our backs and our backpacks (definitely makes you look like a hardcore mountaineer)

But then the real piolet fun came on our trek down the mountain. While we thought it was tricky climbing UP steep hills with loose rocks abounding, the climb down was much more technically challenging. First you have to take tiny baby steps so that you don´t slip on loose rocks and go crashing down the mountain into the cacti. Next, you have to pop a squat like you´re doing wall sits (hence my super sore quads, still feeling the stretch when i walk down stairs). Finally, you have to hold your piolet to your side, with one hand on the head (where the axe is) and one hand towards the bottown, securing the tool as a brace that you must dig into the dirt if you start to slide.

At first, this series of movements is really awkward. Think about it-- models stand tall and take long graceful steps not because they like it but because squatting and shuffling feet doesn´t make anyone look attractive. However, the only appearances we were focused on were the next few feet of ground in front of us. Because the minute you stop paying attention to where you´re walking is the minute you take a spill.

Once you get used to using the piolet as a brace, the slippery hills become the best part of the descent. Though the ground tells you that you´re out of control, your firm grip on the piolet assures you that you are safe and sound.

Perhaps my next poem will be an ode to the piolet.

Piolet, piolet- me salvaste en la montaña
Como podría agradecerte?
Pensaré en este mañana

(piolet piolet, you saved me on the mountain/how will i ever thank you?/i´ll think about it tomorrow)

When I become famous and have my own TV show, I´m most definitely going to have a ¨favorite things¨episode and I will most definitely provide free piolets for all. Watch out Oprah.

PDA: Public Displays of Annoyance

Dear Chilean couples,

While I´d like to be happy for you and your passionate love, I have to let you know that you´re really getting on my nerves.

First of all, you guys are EVERYWHERE. Case in point: I am currently in the University of Chile computer lab, where 5 minutes ago I was perfectly content just checking email and catching up on news headlines. Then I heard a slurping sound and tried my hardest just to stay focused on the monitor in front of me, but then you started moaning so I tried to make eye contact to give you a hint that you should probably relocate to one of the many other make-out spots in the building. But alas, your eyes were locked on one another so you didn´t get my message and now you continue to suck face, occupying not one but two computers that other people are patiently waiting to use.

I don´t know whether to blame it on the spring weather OR the Chilean culture OR my singledom that makes me more aware/annoyed by couples (it´s probably thanks to a little of all three), however this city is infested with them. From the moment I walk out the door in the morning to the moment I get home at night, it´s like an endless parade of couples...as if they´re all prancing around just to mock me.

Now I have no problem with public displays of affection. Hand-holding is cute and little farewell kisses are just lovely. But when your lip-locking is blocking the doorway of the metro, then I have a problem. When your hands start disappearing to unseen places and then you grab onto the handlebar without sanitizing first, then I have a problem. When it seems like every single solitary person is paired up besides me, then I have a problem.

My poetry class has trained me to write poetry whenever I feel intense emotions. So now I will vent in true Dr. Seuss style:

I do not like Chilean pairs, I do not like them her or there.
Not on the train or on the street, not in the library nor in my seat!
Not in the computer lab, not in my class, not in the supermarket, not on park grass!
I do not like Chilean pairs, I do not like them anywhere.

Phew. I feel better already.

rojo, blanco y azul

Thursday began the long-anticipated "dieciochero" festivities. Much like on American Independence Day, Chileans celebrate September 18 with lots of red, white and blue decorations, big family gatherings and massive grill-outs. However, I have to admit that Chilean Independence Day is way more impressive than the 4th of July for the following reasons:

1) The length

El dieciocho (the 18th) is just one tiny little part of the grander "Fiestas Patrias" that celebrate Chilean pride. The Fiestas Patrias last for a minimum of 4 days. As I mentioned before, some people extend the celebration into a week-long event. In comparison, our dinky little 4th (with celebrations sometimes beginning on the evening of the 3rd) is just way too short. 

2) The fondas

Oh me oh my you haven't lived until you've seen a Chilean fonda. Basically it's a HUGE outdoor fair with a rodeo, restaurants/food vendors, artisan vendors, carnival games, carnival rides and stages with singing and dancing! AMAZING. And the best thing about the fondas is that there are numerous ones throughout the city - each with their own character, reflecting the feel of the neighborhood where it is located. For example, the first night I went to the Las Condes/Vitacura fonda, which was set up like mini restaurants with pretty tables and real plates and silverware and such. Then last night I went to the fonda at Estadio Nacional in Nunoa, which had more of a boardwalk/Six Flags kind of feel. Nonetheless, both fondas were awesome.

3) The food

Hamburgers and hot dogs? Puh-lease. Fiestas Patrias asados (grill-outs) include: choripan (chorizo with bread), chuchulles (cow intestines), little bits of meat cut off from the ends of the main meat to serve as appetizers as everyone waits by the grill for it to be done, salads, bread and then various cuts of red meat. Then fruit. Then dessert. Then coffee/tea. 

The food at the fondas usually includes: empanadas, anticuchos (meat kebobs), parillas (mini charcoal grills brought to the table to keep your family-sized pile of meat warm), completos (hot dogs w/mayo, guac + more) and more.

3) The drinks

The most popular thing to drink during Fiestas Patrias is chicha- a type of fermented wine, typically made from grapes or apples. Kinda tastes like grape juice with just a hint of alcohol. Delish. I was a little nervous to try chicha because I remember hating it when I was in Peru last summer...but then I realized that the Peruvian chicha is made from corn instead of apples or grapes.

Other popular beverages:

-Vino con chirimoya: white wine with pieces of chirimoya (custard fruit that tastes like a vanilla-y pear)

-Borgona: red wine with strawberries

-Terremoto (earthquake): pineapple ice cream, fermented white wine called pepino, grenadine and something else. Delicious but incredibly dangerous. One is more than enough.

-Tsunami: pineapple ice cream, fermented white wine called pepino, mint liquor and grenadine. Once again, delicious but incredibly dangerous. One is more than enough.

4) The dancing!

This one really sets Chile apart. Every time I described the 4th of July to people, they wanted to know what kind of dancing we did on that day. I ashamedly had to admit that the US doesn't really have a national dance, therefore we don't really do much dancing on the 4th. Down here, Fiestas Patrias means time for the cueca - the national dance of Chile. Adorable girls wear flowery dresses and carry around frilly handkercheifs while macho men walk around with mantas (cowboy panchos) and big hats and boots with spurs. Then, the moment the cueca music starts playing, the couple gets in position to do their adorable little dance. First the guy and girl link arms and parade back and forth. Then they clap to the music. Then they start tapping their feet while moving in a figure 8 motion while also flirtily fluttering around their handkercheif. Then they move in a half moon quarter circle until they touch their partner, then back to the center, then a half moon the other direction, then another figure 8, then lots of boot stamping. It's absolutely precious, especially when old married couples do it.

---

In summary: I think I'm going to bring some Fiestas Patrias traditions back to the US to spruce up July 4th. Don't know if I can make it into a 4-day event or if I can institute a national dance; however, I do think I might be able to make a red, white and blue version of a terremoto?? I'll let you know what happens.

i'm still alive

So since my last post, I've decided to truly embrace my study abroad experience and immerse myself in Chilean youth culture by joining an urban tribe. Initiation took place over the weekend. The events were covered by the New York Times --- check out the story here. Obviously, during the initiation process I changed my name to Francisca Durán to sound more Chilean and to save my reputation back in the states.

If you were too lazy to actually move your mouse and click that link (yes, I know you too well), the basic jist of the article is about the rampant sexual revolution of early-teenaged Santiagans. The article only shows the grim side of Santiago youth -- makes me feel kinda bad for the good kids out there who actually deserve to be featured in the NYTimes.

lalala

Obviously I haven't spent the last week in a sexual rebellion. So what have I been doing? Hm that's a loaded question. Aside from the normal routine, I've been doing a heck of a lot of thinking. It was kind of a strange week emotionally -- I was feeling pretty frustrated with being an outsider. Tired of having to repeat words that I know I'm pronouncing perfectly clearly, tired of being laughed at for no good reason, tired of the lack of healthy food, tired of not being able to just make friendly conversation with people on the metro...everything was getting under my skin. 

To make matters worse, I got a bad haircut last week, so I was just not feeling comfortable in my own skin. Thus, the usual stares that I'd started to ignore were once again bothering me because I was so paranoid about my stupid bangs and felt like everyone was laughing at them. Later in the week I decided to get another haircut, hoping that it would cure my woes. Cut my hair fairly short so as to offset the bluntness of the bangs. I feel a bit better now, but still self conscious. Gahh I hate spending so much time and worry on such silly silly matters.

Anyways, I've discovered that running is my new therapy. Whenever I'm feeling frustrated or lazy or upset, now I just stick in my ipod and head out onto the streets of Las Condes. If I'm strapped for time or it's close to dusk, I run around the park or stay close the the apartment. But whenever I can, I just play einey-miney-mo and pick a street that looks interesting and I learn my way around a new part of the city. It's been a great way to keep my mind focused on a task rather than lingering in lala land. Thanks to my random running routes, I've also discovered some fun new places, I've oriented myself with major streets in the city and I come back the apartment refreshed and reenergized. Like most things in my life, I generally only enjoy running when it doesn't feel repetitive. I can't stand running around a track and I don't enjoy running along the same path every day. It's a nice perk when you can find a new view of the snow-capped Andes in the distance with every route. 

Run-down of the week:

Last Thursday was September 11. As I've mentioned before, September 11, 1973 was the day when La Moneda was bombed and Salvador Allende died. Thus, the 35 September 11ths since then have brought back bad memories of the military dictatorship and have sparked countless riots and protests. Afternoon classes were cancelled that day so that we could travel home and remain safe and sound indoors while the protests took place at night. It was interesting talking to people about "their" (Chilean) September 11 and "my" (American) September 11. A surprising number of people questioned me the majority of Americans think the attacks on the Twin Towers were terrorist attacks or in fact a conspiracy by the government. That caught me off guard a bit...

Friday I wandered around Bellavista to go shopping for lapiz lazuli jewelry. Chile's apparently known for this pretty blue stone. I found a cute necklace and my friends found some good deals as well.

While we were shopping, I got a call from a friend of mine from my mountaineering class. She had just received an email telling her that all of our mountaineering excursions were cancelled for the semester due to a pending lawsuit from the family of the mountaineering student who recently passed away. That kinda changed my plans for the weekend, considering I was supposed to spend all of Sunday on a mountaineering trek. Bummer.

Never got a call or email from the television series with which I thought I was going to serve as an extra. So that emptied out my plans for Saturday.

Friday night went over to a friend's house to make brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Unfortunately, they didn't turn out too well -- I'm blaming it on the lack of measuring spoons down here. But we still had a great time goofing off in the kitchen. One of my friends is a chem major and kept using science analogies as we baked. (i.e. - "I love separating the cookies when they spread out and get stuck together-- it reminds me of mitosis!") She reminded me of Ms. Leila Glass (i misssssss you!).

Saturday night went to a friend's birthday party. We danced the night away at this fun danceclub. The music started out with pure Madonna, then changed into pure reggaeton. The latter wasn't my favorite, but the company was great so I thoroughly enjoyed myself until we left at 3:30 or so.

Sunday afternoon, Victoria's daughter in law and granddaughter were in town, so they came over along with a bunch of other family members (there were like 10 of us in total). Had an absolutely enormous lunch, along with a dessert called Mote con Huesillos (see picture along the side). To make this drink, you take sun-dried peaches (huesillos) and rehydrate them in water for a few hours, then mix in sugar and husked wheat (mote). It looks really gross and it's kind of awkward to eat pecause the peach still has its pit so you have to use your spoon to capture the slimy peach bouncing around in the liquid, then you have to try to chop off a bite-sized bit from the pit...definitely not something to serve at a formal event.

Monday-Wednesday were a little crazy. This was the week of Fiestas Patrias, which some people consider a weeklong vacation and others consider a Thursday-Sunday celebration. So some of my classes were cancelled while others just had minimal attendance. I was a little frustrated that I was a good student and actually went to class because I could have easily gone on a trip and it wouldn't have been a big academic detriment. Ohhh well.

Thursday went over to Marni’s house for an asado (see next post). It was really fun to meet her family and to see Racquel’s old house! Afterwards, Marni came over to my house, where we danced some cueca with Marcela, Rodrigo and Victoria. Then they took us to a fonda (see next post) in Las Condes, where we watched a dance show displaying little vignettes of dance styles from different regions of Chile. They even performed dances from Easter Island! (kinda reminded me of Hawaiian dancing).

 

Friday was Armed Forces day, so Victoria brought me to a military parade, which showed off the army, the navy, the air force and the police force. Each group had a marching band and officials on horses and then rows and rows of cadets marching and kicking their legs high in the air. The parade was amusing at first but then just got long and boring. Victoria was amused the whole time though because her son was the drum major for the air force back in the day.  I kept myself amused by watching the cadets keep a straight face as they had to march and kick their way through horse poop.

Saturday, Marni and I went to Cajon de Maipo to do some trekking. We took a bus as far as it would go, thinking that we were in Banos Morales (a popular destination). So then we just started walking, assuming that we’d run into some cool nature spot eventually. However, it turns out that we were actually a good 20 minute drive away from Banos Morales…so our 2 hour trek got us nowhere and we just had to turn around and trek 2 hours back. Fortunately, we still enjoyed the clean air and the scenery of the snow-capped mountains with melting runoff forming waterfalls and flowing into the river below.

Got back to the bus stop and learned that the next bus back to Santiago wouldn’t be coming for 2 more hours. So we took the advice of some friends and hitchhiked to the next closest town. I was a bit nervous at first, but considering it was the middle of the day and the cars only had one road to travel on, I figured we’d be okay. Just to be safe though, we decided to only get in a car if it had at least one woman in it. (Discrimination, I know….but we had to protect ourselves somehow)

 

So then we naively stuck out our thumbs, assuming we’d get picked up within a few minutes. Apparently, we weren’t as adorable as we thought we were though…after about 20 minute, all we got were a few people pointing and laughing, a few motorcycles whizzing by and a few crammed cars making expressions that told us “sorry! We don’t have room!” However, we kept on trying and eventually wooed over a very nice sedan with a nice man and woman and an empty back seat. Had a lovely conversation with them on the ride to San Jose and learned that they actually live only a few blocks away from me in Las Condes! Small small world. But don’t worry mom- though this hitchhiking experience was a success, it has been checked off my list of “things to do before I die.” I’m not planning on sticking out my thumb again anytime soon.

 

Saturday night, Marni and I went to the fonda (fair) at Estadio Nacional. Went to a rodeo and after 15 minutes we learned that we don’t need to go to another rodeo anytime soon either. Two guys on horses attacking a poor little cow? They really call that a sport? Terrible. Then went to the youth cueca competition, which was absolutely precious. Then wandered around the stadium enjoying the cuisine (we shared a pineapple bowl filled with juice and HUGE hunks of pineapple and ice cream! Heather -  this was your kind of dessert).

 

Sunday went to church and now I have to get into school mode for my crazy busy week of quizzes and papers. Will write again soooooon.

Chau,

Lindsay

retiro

Friday I ran around the city doing errands and catching up on life. Ran into a cool little market selling vintage books and found a vintage copy of Gone with the Wind in spanish!! I explained to the vendor how the book was written in my home state, but he wasn't quite as excited as I was.

This weekend I went on a retreat (retiro) with El Oasis. We headed about an hour outside of Santiago (in which direction, I have no idea) to a rural area called Pintue. It was dark when we arrived, but in the morning we realized that we were nuzzled in a farming valley right next to a big beautiful lake. That's one more check for geographical features seen in Chile.

Friday night we played some games - round the world four square, some version of freeze tag, and a Chilean version of rock paper scissors. All were quite entertaining, but the latter was the funniest -- basically because instead of the fome (lame) rock, paper and scissor hand signals, we used symbols representing three Santiago youth social groups - Pokemones, Flaites and Punkrokers.

Timeout:

I've been meaning to explain the Urban Tribes of Santiago for awhile, so I guess now is as good a time as any. Now don't quote me on any of this information, because I'm very uneducated on this subject matter. However, I will do my best...

Pokemones

• American equivalent = emo
• clothes: black skater-ish attire, sometimes accentuated with bright neon colors
• colorful makeup (yes, boys too)
• lots of piercings in weird spots all over the face
• crazy hair colors/streaks
• like to post "fotologs" of themselves and their parties

Flaites

• American equivalent = gangster
• listen to hip-hop and reggaeton
• wear baggy clothes
• fans of Colo-Colo soccer team

Pelo Lais

• American equivalent = your average American girl
• upper class snobs
• well dressed
• never seen without a cell phone
• straight, long (usually blonde) hair
• apparently rivals of Pokemones?

Punkrokers

• American equivalent - punk rocker

When I see youth on the subway, I still have trouble distinguishing which urban tribe they belong to. All I know is that most of the time, those little 15 year olds scare me. I mean, these kids were born in the 90s! Shouldn't they still be watching Barney or something?

Anyways..

Saturday we heard some great testimonies from some of the El Oasis interns, played a bunch of outdoor games (chileans are much better at pickup volleyball than Americans! hooray for that) and had our version of the olympics, which included a dizzy bat race, bobbing for gummy worms in whipped cream, the classic egg toss and some other crazy stuff. My amazing team came in first place (woooohooo)

Decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and beautiful scenery by climbing to the top of a hill/mountain with Marni, Katy, Elizabeth and Andrew (all gringos...none of the Chileans wanted to come!). Followed a horse trail so we had to be careful not to step in the pebble-like droppings along the way. Got to the top and looked down on the beautiful lake + mountains, with the snow-capped Andes in the background. Gorgeous.

Took a shower and french braided my hair since I didn't have a blowdryer. Little did I know how big a hit my "trencitas" would become-- all the chilean girls admired the braids, so I taught a few girls how to make them! Then they spotted the "gringo gum" in my purse (gum with flavor that actually lasts more than 5 seconds! Wow!). I was pretty popular that night.

Around midnight we played name that tune. Marni and I dominated on the gringo songs (yeah Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls!) and just danced crazily and pretended to know the lyrics to the other songs. Thennn the night just turned into an all-out dance party. Danced a little salsa, then learned some sweet line dances to reggaeton/Brazilian music (the dances were like a cross between the macarena and the electric slide...but wayy more confusing and with lots of hand motions and hip shaking- see here and here) I looked like an idiot but had fun fun fun.

Sunday we had one last talk, ate french toast (!) for breakfast and then headed back to Santiago. On the bus ride home my friend kept me enthralled by telling me about the spanish translations of Disney songs. I kept trying to come up with my own translations for the songs ("A whole new world" would literally be "un nuevo mundo" but IN FACT it is "un mundo ideal." Fascinating.

Monday

Headed to class on time, but unfortunately arrived half an hour late after my subway car randomly stopped and kicked us all of the car and told us to get back on the train at the next station. I was a little ticked off at the time, but later one of my friends told me that supposedly the train shut down because someone tried to commit suicide. Yikes. 

After I heard that, I got kind of upset with myself for being so frustrated in the morning. Decided to face the day with a new outlook and start appreciating life's little joys. And then the day got much better. Went to a bathroom that was actually stocked with toilet paper (hooray!). Found a 100 pesos coin on the street (finding coins on the streets back home is one of my favorite pasttimes. And in Philly I usually find at least a penny a day. But this is the first coin I've found here- and it was a big one - like finding a quarter in the U.S.). The coin inspired me to write a poem about how little things can turn your whole day around. 

Worked worked worked. Trying to put together a booklet of tips from the Liderazgo Politico Feminino workshop. Later went to el Oasis for a movie night -- we watched "Run Lola Run" (a German movie, which we watched with Spanish subtitles...a bit confusing for my poor brain.) I'd seen a clip of the movie in my cinema studies class semester, so I had high expectations. Enjoyed the film and the messages it discussed; however, it's definitley not going into my top ten list.

Tuesday

Class class class. Had tofu for lunch with jello for dessert. But inside of the orange jello, there were bananas. Odd. Mountaineering workout was toughhh. My booty is dying from the workout.

Wednesday

Failed attempt #2 for the week of going to my Femenino en Dios class -- travel a good 40 minutes to campus San Joaquin, get to the classroom and am greeted with a sign that says class has been cancelled. Gah...communication people! Can't you at least send an email or something? Communication...that's all I ask.

So then I decided to go to the mall. Was looking for new shoes but instead found a hoodie. 

Went to drop off some forms at the CIEE office and Elsa gave me an intriguing invitation:

Elsa: How would you like to be an extra on a Chilean soap opera?

Me: huh? me??

Elsa: Yeah, I just got an email asking for exchange students who look like they are sweedish, and since you have blonde hair and blue eyes, I think you might work

Me: umm...okayyy (thinking to myself that I don't look sweedish at allll)

So apparently they are filming this Saturday...we'll see if it works out!

Went to work. Then got my hair cut. Decided to go Chilean and get bangs. The original plan was just to get bangs and then a supershort trim b/c i'm trying to grow my hair out. Buttt the hairdresser didn't really ask me what I wanted. She just started cutting. So now I have bangs and short layers. Oh well..it's just hair, right?

Must go read.

Chaoooo.

Lindsay

La Presidenta

As I mentioned before, I've been working at this nonprofit called ComunidadMujer. And apparently, every year they host a big luncheon to hand out the ComunidadMujer prize. And this year's guest speaker was President Michelle Bachelet. And I was invited to the luncheon. And it was amazing.

The luncheon was held at the top of Cerro Santa Lucia - a hill in the city that doubles as a quaint little park most of the time, but was gated and locked in preparation for this event. So I had a little bit of trouble getting to the top (the only gate open was for cars to go through! So I walked around the whole hill trying to get in...) But I eventually made it to the top and up to the beautiful Castillo Hidalgo, built in 1816 as a fortress to protect Santiago! I was pretty excited that this awesome event was being held on Cerro Santa Lucia- Lucia was my name in high school spanish classes!

The event started with lots of schmoozing and cocktail-ing and appetizer-ing. I enjoyed a mango sour and a pisco sour...mmm. While awkwardly standing around staring at people, realizing that I was not only the only gringa but also the only person under the age of 28 at the event, I was fortunately introduced to a nice alcaldesa (mayorial) candidate from Santiago's 8th region. She was one of the women who participated in the Liderazgo Politico Femenino program that I've been helping out with, so it was cool to get her insight on the program. She was also just really friendly in general - gave me her cell phone number and told me to come visit her house on the beach anytime (sweet!) and then started gossipping to me about ugly Chilean men at the luncheon and then about some of the interesting outfits that the women were wearing...haha too funny.

After schmoozing we went inside the castle and sat down for lunch. I was a little confused when I sat down and saw three glasses at my place setting. One was filled with water, one with red wine and one was empty. But then the waiters started coming around and filling the empty glasses with cold chardonnay! Red AND white wine? Not one or the other? These Chileans are crazy.

Ate some yummy salmon and salad and delicious chocolate mousse and then heard the keynote speech from La Presidenta! I understood her for the most part, but she definitely spoke quickly like a true Chilean.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo taken with the president. I'm a little annoyed about it too. You see, I took a picture of my mayoral candidate friend and the President, BUT before we could do the switcheroo to get my picture taken, the President was already squeezing her way out of the crowd. Bummer.

Now I am not generally a pushy person. [Some might argue otherwise...] But generally I'm a pretty firm believer that people should be rewarded for being patient and waiting their turn- thanks mom and dad :). 

Unfortunately, I've come to realize that this rule doesn't work too well in certain life situations. There are some occassions where it is necessary/just pays to be pushy.

For example... 

1)  (for women) when your water breaks: obviously, you have every right to be pushy. and hopefully people will make way for you when the time comes.

2) in any urban metro station at peak travel time. Waiting your turn there will just mean that you'll spend all day at the metro station, watching other people elbow their way through crowds to squeeze onto any metro car that still has a pocket of air to spare.

2) when meeting famous people: Now that I have JUST nearly missed autographs from Bill and Hillary Clinton and photo ops with Chelsea Clinton and Michelle Bachelet, I've realized that I just might need to be a little more aggressive in the future. Sigh.

Anyways, the afternoon was still quite enjoyable. Things brightened up when we got our goody bags upon leaving the event. Goodies included: $10 to Paris (department store), 2 full size bottles of Dove body wash and cream, a big huge DARK chocolate candy bar (dark chocolate is oh so rare and oh so expensive down here!), a Nescafe mug + nescafe samples, and a few other random things. Fabbbulous. Rode down from the hill in an outdoor glass elevator. Then headed off to mountaineering class.

Tuesday night, my fabulous friend Ashley Gunn gave a speech at the Republican National Convention. Thanks to CNBC worldwide live-tv streaming, I got to watch her live! It was great to hear her southern twang and I was glad to see that she didn't trip in her high high heels. Yayy Ashley for being a superstar. 

Wednesday:

Class. Library. Mall (wanted to find a book, but couldn't find it. wanted to find new shoes but they were either too expensive or not cute). Work. Rained all day. And down here, rain means it's necessary to make sopaipillas. Which Victoria did. And they were delish. Then had dinner of Carbonada (yummy stew...perfect rainy-day food). 

More to come. 

Un abrazo,

Lindsay