can't see the weenie for the mayonnaise

saturday:
birthday party for sabrina, one of thad's friends. met some folks. everyone spoke spanish, even the americans, of which there were only about five or six. memorable: sara, the gorgeous brazilian economics major; unnamed couple who seemed to take an uncanny liking to me, sonya, scripps high girl who told me "i'd love to have a deep conversation but i really have to pee," (said conversation consisting of her saying that she can't write poetry anymore, but that she's a really good writer. later we talked about her parents divorce and her estrangement from her father in a discotheque while reggaeton played, (no incongruity felt)); cristobal, i just like his name; chelsea, a cute girl from denver who bragged that coors was brewed in her home town but then denied, when i questioned her, that she was boasting--but merely asserting a fact. there was also a spanish girl i spoke to for a while whose name i can't remember. it felt strange and good to have conversations in spanish. nothing especially interesting happened at the party or after. thad helped direct the taxi driver home because he wanted to stay out dancing. (i overheard him relate to a friend that a girl said he "had the moves but not the rhythm.) stumbled to bed and played about an hour and a half of drunk chess. the shame.

sunday:
woke up groggy, ate what i have learned is the customary breakfast: cheese (or ham) sandwich with lemonade, milk (which i have the option of warming and adding sugar and coffee to), and a fruit. went for a long walk after to try to work up an apetite for lunch. a fairly determined walk. didn't notice much. besides the police academy--massive building with a giant lawn in front secured by perimeter of gates, security booths, cameras, etc. managed to get lost. the street i walked out on was called something different on the sign when i came back. asked a man called nano (host dad), and then asked a man carrying a humongous bottle of coke how to get back. was fairly sweaty when i returned. lunch with mom, dad, thad, claudio (middle son, 25), and his polola, who i didn't introduce myself to and who didn't introduce herself to me and with whom my only contact was furtive glances, as she was kinda cute. lunch time conversation went far over my head, but seemed pretty lively. everyone was onto the meat and rice dish by the time i got back, but i still had to get through the apetizer, some kind of eggy, lettucey dish served with tomatoes and tuna. yuck factor off the charts. drank about a pint of lemonade trying to wash it down, then switched strategies and ate it with bread until gloria noticed and said i could stop whenever i wanted, and i said i wanted.

thad took me to a giant hill overlooking the city. we exchanged facts about our lives and made conversation. saw some couples making out in public, which i've been told is a chilean thing (as most young people live with their parents until marriage, and therefore don't have many places where they can be physically intimate--but i'm not sure if what i'm seeing surpasses the kinds of things that normally go on in parks anywhere). after the big hill we went looking for la moneda, which is the former presidential palace which pinochet bombed during the coup and where allende shot himself in the head with a machine gun and which has since been rebuilt and is very nice to look at. stray dogs everywhere. they know how to cross the streets, waiting for the signal to turn and then going. that also might have been a joke that nano told me though. thad and i ran into some of his recent chilean friends on the way back, and they invited us to watch soccer with them. after we found a bar with a sufficiently big screen, we settled in. we ordered a couple beers and some kind of delicious dish that's french fries and cut up pieces of steak with a fried egg on top. holy crap what a good combination. chile won the match, which resulted in lots of honking and hugging and the go chile chant. during the game i made conversation with fernando, aka the chilean ryan hitchcock, and i think we got on pretty well. the chileans i've met seem pretty cool, and different from americans in a way i can't put my finger on. anyway, he promised to find me pot and introduce me to his amigas. que bueno!

monday:
orientation, fairly boring. nano took me to school. it's very easy. just a bus and a subway ride. the other kids seem pretty solid, enough of them at least. the big, loud awkward group of us (a portion thereof) ate hotdogs for lunch, which is kind of a chilean speciality. mine had avocado on it, and was minorly delicious. went to a bar afterward, made more chit chat with fellows, secured my opinion of a couple more. more orientation upon return, though the carabinero (policeman) who was supposed to talk about various ways we might get scammed never showed because of some kind of emergency. talk about mixed up priorities. on a related note, yesterday was the anniversary for commemorating young people killed by the police, and the state department issued a strongly worded warning not to go to the centro for fear of riots, bombs, and other violence. nothing happened while thad and i were there but i guess a few policemen were injured in shootings. i asked nano what kinds of people protested and his answer was "drug addicts and hippies." i'd like to get a better understanding of his and the family's politics, but i feel like that might be a difficult subject to broach.

anyway, this post is exceeding all boundaries of taste and brevity. me voy.