Canto Chileno: July, So Far

The past couple weeks have been really nice (except for the awful, disgusting smog, of course.) The big news is that my friend Daniel (who I knew from Berkeley) moved into my apartment. He volunteered at a community center through the organization I'm volunteering with and is now back in Santiago working for the organization. He's a really cool person and I'm really happy to have someone else to hang out with here since Vero is in Europe on vacation for the month.

The roomies: Carlota the Cat, me, Vero and Daniel

Two weekends ago, Vero and Daniel and I went to a great dinner party at Eduardo and Genaro's house. They invited a bunch of very interesting women they know: a deaf-rights activist; a woman who works with Eduardo in an empowerment program for underprivileged women in Santiago; and a woman who is working on an International Labor Organization project with seasonal farmworkers in Chile.

The next day, I went down to Paine to have Sunday lunch with Marcelo's family. He lives with his parents (who are actually his aunt and uncle) and his sister (who's actually his cousin) and her daughter and his grandmother. In the house next door, lives his other aunt and uncle and two cousins and their grandmother. His other sister and her family live nearby, so there are always a ton of people around. The families built the houses themselves and the houses are surrounded by orchards. Marcelo and his brother-in-law and his sister's boyfriend all work for his uncle's construction company. The houses are like cozy cabins -- they're built of wood and have these small Scandanavian wood-burning stoves that keep them warm. The kittens were curled up under the stoves -- I kid you not (it was adorable). His three little neices played outside and looked at princess pictures books, and the guys watched soccer with the grandmothers, and the aunts and sisters cooked a huge meal. They're a nice family and like to laugh and the women make fun of the men. We looked at lots of old pictures. It was really nice being there. It's so different from my life at home (and my life here.)

Last weekend, Daniel and I went to see a couple of very interesting films at the Cine Arte Alameda about the student protests in 2006. If you want to learn more about it, he did a write-up on his blog, so check it out: www.danielsaver.blogspot.com
And afterwards, we had wine and cheese with Vero and Eduardo and Genaro and kept her company as she packed for her trip.
The next night we went out with Marcelo and on Sunday Marcelo and I went to this huge feria, the Bio Bio, and walked around for several hours. They sell everything imaginable, from pirated videos, to electronics, to clothing, to furniture, etc.

This week, I finished my three kids classes, which was exciting. A semester is a long time actually, even though it's only three months. I'll miss my students a lot. The kids here are so sweet and really a lot of fun.

And this weekend was great. My friend James, who lived here in Santiago before, just got back from traveling in Peru and Bolivia, so he's staying with us for the week. He has a great sense of humor and always makes me laugh. Yesterday, all the boys were here for brunch (Daniel, James, Zack, Marcelo and Pancho.) Afterwards, we climbed up the Cerro Santa Lucia to check out the beautiful view after the rain. I think it's the most beautiful sight I've seen in the entire time I've lived in Santiago. From there, we headed over to Bellavista and hung out until it got dark at one of the bar/cafes on the street.

Anyways, life is good here as you can probably tell. Hard to believe how much time has gone by.