the adventures of change man and madame ceviche

my parents in the plaza de armas

although images are worth more than words (say, perhaps, a thousand), the photos posted here can not begin to describe the debauchery had in a single week in this country with my parents.

a bottle of chilean wine on the day of their arrival quickly turned into piscolas in the hotel room, which led to a hangover in my 6pm class.

my city looking beautiful in the afternoon sun. my mother, of course, declined to climb to the top of cerro santa lucia. a bit too high.

the sunset in viña del mar, castle in the distance

my mother, looking beautiful and enjoying her favorite time of day, my dad using shadows to add to the mystique of his new persona.

¿donde esta la biblioteca? or -- life with the olsens--

so, the olsens were here on their magical mystery tour which, alas, has come to an end. although at times it seemed like a scene out of Lost in Translation, i think all in all it went pretty well. my mother fell in love with ceviche, a way of preparing fish, which she confused with cerveza, the spanish word for beer. needless to say, she got a lot of strange looks. my dad got chilean driving experience in our rented car while giving my mom and i whiplash. he also grew quite fond of the word despues, but often forgot what it meant (after, later), which lead to a lot of random confusion. they also had a lively incident with an atm machine that involved taking out 8, 20, 80 and 200 dollars in each of four attempts in a span of 5 minutes. we laughed a lot. i think the best part of it all was having them see my life here(and of course, seeing them), as though if people that are a large part of my life there see my life here, it will somehow make it more real. a lot of the time i feel as though i am living in this world that isnt quite real life, but it is the life that im living nonetheless. almost as though now the existance of this life is more valid now. i dont know. pictures to follow.

ba baby

so, somehow between an exam and a birthday party and a friend moving to london so ill never ever see him again the week passed by without my noticing. crazy how that happens. (ps. did you know it was april? yeah, me either). so here are the photos i promised like forever ago. enjoy. (above is a view of the andes from the airplane.) there is still a whole bunch of grafitti everywhere, much of which is a result of the economic crash in 2001 that still provides the intense exchange rate. tango show!

illana on a moped in colonia, uruguay.

me on the empty but beautiful beach in uruguay

leaving at sunrise

¿wheres the beef?

the beef, i tell you, is in argentina. i have never been a steak lover, but i was told it was a must-try in argentina. wow am i glad i did. i ordered it the first night and then proceeded to order it 3 out of the four following nights. amazingly tender and flavorful and juicy. wow. however, my beef is with the internet, which once again ate an entire long entry that i wrote all about our trip to buenos aires and uruguay. entonces, you are only goign to get a brief outline and a bunch of photos. sorry. -people in buenos aires are absolutely beautiful, fashion, posture, and physically also. i have never checked out so many women in my life (although i definitely checked out more men) -less mullets (yay) -tango show filled with all the sensuality and tension that one would expect -trip to colonia, uruguay that included renting and riding mopeds around town, as well as an absolutely beautiful, empty beach. quite possibly my favorite city so far. -illana´s war wound from her unruly moped -the most beautiful dance club i have ever seen, on the water, with a view of the city, modeled after the sydney opera house. -argentine men who are even more foreward than chilean men (if thats possible). actual conversation ´´are you sleeping alone tonight?´´ ´´yes´´. tries to kiss me. ´´sorry im not interested´´ tries to kiss me. (in chile the tounge definitely comes before the kiss, but at least it comes after the conversation) -boca juniors soccer game, in which the entire stadium was dancing and singing for the entire time, especially after we won with a beautiful goal in the last two minutes. -a ton of shopping (great exchange rate, although i feel badly for enjoying their economic struggles), sightseeing, and general debauchery (argentines party even later than chileans. clubs are open until 7am as opposed to our 4 or 5).

the madres march...these women are still protesting the kidnapping and murder of their children during the dictatorship years ago. they meet every thursday at 3 or so outside the capitol buildings and walk in circles around the plaza de mayo. very sad.

ok actually, the rest of the photos are going to be posted a bit later...its taking too long and i have an exam to study for. but theres a lot. get fired up.

more toasted heads please

so, i dont even like red wine. or, i didnt. (i also didnt like avocado or sausage or cilantro, but thats not as interesting a story). but, being in chile, i feel its appropriate to sample the products and support the local economy. namely, the fine bottles (ok, so i buy the cheap ones, but hey, im on a fixed budget) of red wine (or white) created in my own backyard, or thereabouts. we recently went on a trip to viña concha y toro, the largest wine exporting vineyard in chile. beautiful, delicious. what else has happened in the past week? the first outing for my montañismo class. pretty fun, its a class about climbing mountians. in chile. awesome. also went up cerro san cristobol with my friend ricardo. beautiful views of santiago and rode in a cable car between a few mountians. what else? i actually participated in class this week. it was one of my proudest moments. knowing enough of what was going on to actually have the nerve to say something was really cool, especially because the prof understood me (kindof). yay for making progress. not a whole lot else is going on. leaving wednesday for buenos aires. loving me some carrie g. all not goign to daily elections and such. missing pizza and chocolate chip cookies. rockin out in chile.