Sleep? nah...

---

Oh Chile!

The past week has been a combination of classes, going out, dancing, a birthday party, train down south, hiking, camping, and a bit of studying (finally) for my first test (today). Wednesday night I went to the apartment of a girl that Laura and Jack know, who is half Chilean so she had her own place and introduced us to some of her friends. After trying to figure out how to get everywhere, and then having to pay for public transportation all the time, it was GREAT to meet Chileans who can drive us around. We ended up going to a dance club all night- there are definitely some Chileans who are very, very well off.. one guy I was talking to had traveled all over the world and had been to NYC over a dozen times. I must say I loved it went I went with my awesome roomies, but there are so many other places to go! When we left at 4am, we had one car and 9 people... making us fit was a bonding experience but being dropped off in front of my apartment was worth it! So was 3 hrs of sleep.

Thursday night, 2 highlights. 1- I took this class on Chile last semester, with 7 other ND kids here in Chile right now, and we are pretty much obsessed with our teacher, Valenzuela. Describing him could be a whole entry by itself. Suffice it to say that when we learned he was going to be here in Chile on Thursday to release a book of his, it was a must see event. While the presentation turned out to be much more boring than expected, talking with people afterwards was pretty fun. We met Chile's youngest congressman, 27 years old. Apparently we just need to drop him a note and he'll give us a tour of the Congress building, which we only saw from the outside when we visited Valparaíso a few weeks ago.

ANYway, one girl in our group turned 21 so of course there was a party at her house after Valenzuela's thing. Paco and I stopped at the store to get Chile's famous pisco (alcohol) to bring to the party, and several Chileans tried to convince us that the brand we picked out was very bad (they actually kindof laughed! in a friendly way) but we got it anyway because a) it's what we usually get and b) bad alcohol has never gotten in the way of a 21 year old's birthday!

They party was great though, and we ended up going in a bunch of different directions. Interesting chats, one guy told me he's studying to be a pilot and flies to Buenos Aires every week and so he could take us for free if we wanted sometime, as long as we don't mind turbulance... now I love a good bargain but I also love my life... so, that just might have to be a deal I'll pass up! Danced a little but mostly just chatted outside a little pub with people. By the time we left, walked a friend home and got back to my apartment, it was 5am.. I don't even know where the hours go after midnight. 2 hours of sleep before the tren al sur (to quote a favorite song of the group, Train to the South, by a Chilean group Los Prisioneros) to go camping!

---