Breaking the back of the cold

Ok, so this is kind of a cop out entry because I have been keeping a list of random stuff (more random lists entries to follow), but I thought it might garner a few laughs and I am trying to catch a bus out of town for the weekend before my cabin fever starts catching, so I don’t have a whole lot of time. Have a great weekend and everyone at school--I am jealous!

Things I still don’t understand:

Why the family refers to the vacuum cleaner as “the pig.” It doesn’t have four legs, turn into sausages, oink, or in any way, shape or form resemble a farm animal. There is also the verb “chanchar” (to pig) which means to vacuum.

Why the family has an aversion to functioning doorknobs and locking mechanisms in general. I broke the back doorknob the other day (apparently a regular occurrence) which the family doesn’t like to lock—they prefer to leave it open and lock the gate to the yard, so would-be thieves only have to vault the wall (it’s easy, it’s been done, namely by me) and waltz right into the house. (Alternatively, they can bolt the door late at night so that when you straggle in at 6 AM, you have to wake up the whole house so as not to sleep out in the yard on the doorstep, huddled against the cold.) The doorknob on my bedroom door is literally held together with (get this) duct tape—you’re right, I did actually say duct tape. The bathroom door is also on its last legs, held shut with a thin metal latch.

So, there is a system of buses here called “micros.” Micros all have a prescribed route to follow. Some go to the university, some go to Niebla, a town on the coast 10 miles away, some go to the Centro. Now, like most countries, all these different routes have numbers so that you don’t have to hail every micro and ask the driver where he is going. Thus, in theory, I know I can hail a 14 and get to the U in the morning or a 3 and get to the rowing club. I am sure that you have heard of similar systems in other countries as well. But this is Chile, and there are 2 types of Nº20, 11, and 9 (as I and my wallet had the misfortune of discovering) and probably many more, for your micro-riding enjoyment. I don’t get why they just don’t split the numbers into 20a and 20b, or better yet, pick new numbers. They are using only maybe a dozen out of at least 100 available to number bus routes. Why don’t they branch out and the number 20, that goes far from my home and takes me to places I don’t want to be, to 54, that would be novel, wouldn’t it?