Adventures in Chile - Part 3

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Hola Amigos
Here's the next update:

If you are into mullets, you´d love it down here - i´d say at least 30% of the population has a mullet - and half of them are really greasy. The 30% doesn´t include the 10% who have rat-tails. Yes, rat tails. I thought they disappeared in the 80´s, but not here. I´ve even seen a few people with multiple rat-tails. Come to think of it, there entire culture is stuck in the 80´s. I´ve heard more Michael Jackson in the past 3 weeks than I have in my entire life. Other popular groups include: Culture Club, Elvis, Bon Jovi, Cyndi Lauper, Queen, old school Madonna. 80´s music blares on the buses, the bars, the dance clubs, just about everywhere.

I found an apartment yesterday. There was a teacher at my school (from Alaska) who had a room he needed to fill, so I went down and took a look. Its in a cool part of town and in an awesome location. (Plaza Italia). The apartment is completely furnished, so I don't have to worry about any of that. I gave him my word that I´d stay at least to July. So, it looks as if I´m gonna be here for a while.

Last weekend, I went to the beach at Vina del Mar. Its Chile's largest beach resort. The bikinis are by far the skimpiest I have seen! I got completely sunburned, as there are no clouds in the sky, and its really hot. This weekend we are going to Valparaiso, which is the city right next to Vina del Mar. I think its going to be a crazy weekend. The bars are supposed to be out of control there!

2 nights ago, I went with my senora (the house lady) to the grocery store. It was good cause I was able to FINALLY pick out some food that i liked, for example OJ - they don't drink Oj here - actually they don´t even drink water. The only things I have even seen my host family drink is tea, beer, pisco (the Chilean alcohol) and tons of coca-cola (if you say coke, they think you mean the white stuff). Anyways back to the story - as we were paying my senora went nuts. She was complaining that the bill was to high - after she argued with the cashier for a few minutes, the supervisor came over. After about 5 mins, my senora finally gave in and say OK, and stormed out. (from what I could tell, my senora was wrong.) Basically shes crazy (loca in Spanish).

Anyways, gotta run, but hope you´re all well.
later
JIM

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Photos

Kacki and I
Cerro San Cristobal