Riot!

(I'm safe, and not in jail)
So today there was a riot in most of Santiago central, that had something to do with labor rights. I asked people, and it was sort of an eclectic mix of leftists, right-wingers, communists, and fascists. Either way, it was people that were unhappy with... something... enough to break a lot of things and get the riot police called out. As on 2 PM, 60 people had been arrested. And it's still going on. Classes were canceled at the University, and so on my way home I definitely took a couple of pictures. (Don't worry, Mom, I was far away from everything) Either way, it was a pretty exciting day.

Travel Plans

So some of my friends from the residence I lived in the first week are planning a trip to Northern Chile (To the driest desert in the world), then across the border to Bolivia, and then to Machu Pichu, in Peru. I almost said no, because the plan involves skipping the week of class before the week we have off, but I decided that I probably won't have the opportunity again for... oh... the rest of my life, so I'm going for it.

The group is 4 Spaniards and one French girl, all of whom are quite fun and pleasant to be around. Also, none of the five speak any English, so it'll be good for my Spanish.

We'll leave the 7th and get back the 23rd... and the week ending the 7th is exam week. I figure that'll be a good time to travel.

Sat., 8-25

It's a little weird to put the date as 8-25, since in Chile it would be 25-8.

I'm starting to figure out the collective taxi system, which is a group of cars that go from the end of the metro lines to certain areas for a fixed price. It's about $2, and a taxi to the area I usually go to (Julio's negihborhood) would probably be $25. So I'd say it's a pretty good deal.

Well, nothing much planned this weekend, but I think the weekend coming up we're going to Vina (a city on the coast) with the roommates who are from there. They all insist that it's a lot nicer than Santiago, so I'm ready to go.

Julio's in town

So last night I went to Julio's (My Peruvian friend whose family lives in Santiago), and had dinner with him and his dad. His dad works in currency trading, and Julio just finished an internship with UBS (a very large bank) and so our conversation was a lot about economics and finance. Since I'm taking accounting here, I've learned enough of the words in that field to be able to talk about most things. At one point, since Julio learned accounting in English and his dad doesn't do much accounting, neither one knew how to say 'earnings per share' in Spanish. I did, though, and preceded the answer with "Now I can teach you both a little bit of Spanish."

It was also quite different than eating pasta or something quick at home with the roommates versus a full meal and a very expensive bottle of wine.

I've got class at 1:30, so I'll probably go to lunch with Julio (and maybe his dad) and then head to class.

Lazy Sunday

So I found out that Jean's middle name is "Pierre," giving him the most French name possible. Although, he's a business student, and doesn't like wine or cheese.

I think I'm going to buy some fruits or something... trying to eat healthier.

Mom would be proud/ Email out

If anyone's sent me any email today, I haven't gotten it, because the email server doesn't seem to want to work.

In other news, the three females are out of town, and the five males left at home tonight... cleaned the kitchen. The fridge smelled pretty bad, so we figured we'd better do something about it. Really- a full clean of the kitchen, about a 2 hour endeavor. I'm quite proud. There are pictures.

El Bulla (my new futbol team) won today 5-2, and we're one point down for the Chilean championship, which will happen in a few months.

Quiz

So I had a quiz at 8:30 this morning, and I could see on the faces of everyone going to campus that early that they were as sorry to be there as I was.

So when they say quiz (control, in Spanish, but the least heavily weighted of the assignments) I was under the very mistaken impression that it would be a 3-4 question, make sure you paid attention 15 minute sheet of paper, turn in, go back to bed. This was a 90-minute behemoth, with multiple-part questions, that I only did well on because I've had 3 other financial accounting classes. The rest of the class was about to cry. I think this quiz was to scare out all the people that don't absolutely have to take the class this semester.

Julio, my Peruvian friend whose family lives in Santiago, gets in tomorrow.

Well, I have nothing planned for the weekend yet, but something always comes up.