"I'm OK but I can't be bothered to waste my precious time writing stuff for you pathetic voyeurs up in El Norte. Adios. Aunt B."
Okay, okay... I think you deserve a bit more than this. I've been a busy student. Three more tenses and about 500 new words thrown at us have slowed my brain down to a crawl. It also turns out to be more exhausting than I ever believed it could. But I DO have to say it's incredibly rewarding when the right word finally mumbles out of my mouth.
Today had the incredible luck to mix up the verb cargar with another that means to evacuate one's bowels (to be fair, there's only one letter difference). I was at the farmacia recharging my cell phone, and managed to thoroughly shock the woman behind the counter before she figured out I was American. Luckily my friend Eliana was there to help out.
Your friend Eliana, you say? Do we know her? Nope, let me introduce her to you. Her name is Eliana Nolan, she was born here in Chile and has lived in the US since the '70s. She was married to a giant, amiable Irish American man who recently went to the great pub in the sky and had come down here to take care of her mother who was quite ill with cancer. I met her at the bus station in Vina when I was off to visit Santiago for a weekend (the one before last). The bus was late, and I was trying to find out in mangled spanish what was up. She rescued me, got us on the bus - the same one - and then through the metro system in Santiago. Turns out she's from Petaluma (CA).
Another incredibly lucky happenstance. We met again in Vina, discovered a mutual love for the 49ers and watched the Super Bowl together at her apartment here in Santiago. It's been great to find such a wonderful new friend!
Yep, Santiago, capital of Chile, built at the foot of the Andes, which are pretty hard to see through the haze and pollution. The weekend I spent wandering around was great. For those of you who aren't on Facebook, it was the all out American experience. A night at the Radisson, with a massage in the spa, right across the street from the biggest mall in S. America. A great splurge! And an interesting experience to boot.
This was the weekend of the South American Presidents' summit and one of the Presidentes was staying in my hotel. There were police and men in black everywhere, plus an x-ray and metal detector at the entrance. Did I mention the guards on every floor? I felt pretty darn safe. But all those big wigs put a real cramp into the "City Tour"via bus on Sunday. Let's call it an "Un-tour". We spent an incredible amount of time trying to get close enough to see any of the public spaces, which were in lock down for the summit. It was interesting to get the back view of the main public buildings, something most tourists don't usually see. The guide finally gave up and took us to the Cerro Sta Lucia, which is a public park (that really was ) built on a hill for the rich folks so they didn't have to mix with the non-rich. Gorgeous climb up the hill, and today I discovered that there's way more park behind the hill that I didn't see.
As is usual in these tour situations we HAD to stop at an authorized lapis lazuli (beautiful blue mineral stone) dealer for authentic and certified pieces of jewelry and figurines. Needless to say, it was a bit expensive. Chile is one of two places where there is lapis, the other being Afghanistan, so the prices are higher as the supply has been reduced, but really, $185 for earrings? Creo que NO!
Spent the rest of the day walking the neighborhood and window shopping, hopped on the metro for the bus station, bought my ticket with no problems (I'm almost a local) and rode back to Vina. It was a great break especially the pampering in the hotel, oh, and the unbelievably good dinner of Argentinian filet mignon with mushrooms, asparagus and baked potato, accompanied by a nice Chilean cabernet. The beef was tasty, tender, terrific and grilled on a wood fire. Que rico!
It's time to get serious and study some more for tomorrow. More later, I promise!
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