Lagos may be a Bush puppet but…

At least he doesn’t grovel like the rest of the world. Bush wanted to revise the list of people invited to the APEC gala (as in, oh, I don’t like him, he can’t come) and Lagos refused, uninviting him.

When it rains it pours

No, surprisingly this is not in reference to weather patterns here at 40°S, actually it very rarely pours with rain here.

This is probably one of my last entries as I head into the busiest, craziest two weeks of my life. I have two exams next week (I still have yet to read 3 full length novels by next Friday, one of which is not in the library or any of the book stores—any being one of the three), and at least two papers due the next week after that, although I can’t get started on one them since we haven’t got any of the texts or the topic (please, why would we ever get anything in advance) and since our library for all its books, seems to be a void of information. Chile is the world’s second largest salmon producer—apparently they don’t like to write about it. Additionally I am trying to simultaneously plan my trip to Torres del Paine with La Katie and Mary and help my parents (little Spanish spoken) plan the Chile part of our X-mas trip. Let me tell you, I know all about rental cars and ferry systems.

Life here is much the same, though the weather is slowly but surely shaping up. The new pensionista is proving to be a mixed blessing. He plays his music really pretty loud and often quite late, but the music that he plays—good Lord, I have never met such a musically well-read (well-listened?) Chilean. He plays everything from Dido, to bad 80’s music, to Arabic music, to the Amélie soundtrack. It is VERY refreshing after Christian rock and the radio nonstop all day for 4 months.

Oh, right. So, I the boys and I decided that we find out what all this evangelical hype was like and we attended mass last Sunday with my tíos. Two hours and forty-five minutes. It was exhausting to say the least and indescribably intense. There was a lot of love in that room, much of it directed at us, surprisingly. At the end, they do a greeting, much like Catholics do when they shake hands and say “peace be with you.” Well, here in Chile that translates to hugging and kissing ever little old lady (or man, or young man and woman, come to think of it) and saying “que Dios le bendiga” (may God bless you). We, the foreign visitors were the stars of the mass, but I don’t think we took any limelight away from God.

I will probably manage to crank out one last message before I hop a plane to the bottom of the world, so stay tuned.

Newsflash: Heat wave hits Valdivia

No joke. This week we easily broke 70 degrees Fahrenheit, probably somewhere near 76 or 78. It was quite impressive. It really was hot yesterday, I was forced to take a cold shower when I woke from my nap it was so warm and the air so thick. In typical Valdivia fashion, though, today it clouded over, tossed down a few drops of rain and cooled off.

This week has been “mas o menos.” My ire over the election last week has abated, but that is only because the reality of Bush staying on as president has not hit me yet and I am not force fed his ugly monkey face on the news every night here. This only makes me dread the day I have to go home and face the fact that we really are stuck with the wretched imbecile for another four years. Chileans don’t understand how he won when every gringo they know (usually somewhere between 3 and 4 total) voted for Kerry. I would kind of like to know the same.

We got a new pensionista this week. His name is Rene. I discovered at this time that Kermit the Frog, your favourite green amphibian hand puppet, here is called Rana Rene. I am heartbroken. Talk about butchering translations. He seems buena honda, but he is really in to loud, bad 80’s music. I mean, some is OK, I caught some “Amélie” soundtrack in there today somewhere, but still he listens to some songs I could do without. I guess it is a change from Christian rock, but it is a mite too loud.

I have a huge history presentation to do today, so we will see how it goes. I mean I guess I feel pretty good considering that it is worth a third of our grade and Sunday night saw us (a couple gringos and some Chileans) arguing for a good two hours about whether or not we should change our topic and whether or not child labour is a form of slavery. Turns out that the prof was really impressed and gave us a 7 (on a scale of 1 to 7 where doing nothing gets you a 1 and you need a 4 to pass the class).

This weekend there is a big rowing competition between Oxford, Cambridge, Brasil (the whole country?), and the Valdivia clubs, so I will be looking to catch a few races (and steal a poster or two for the erg court) and get some pictures of those British rowing machines.

Se ofrece nueva carrera: Defraude Electoral II

So everyday, in every class, they pass around an attendance sheet which you write your name, your carrera (career, the school you are enrolled in), and your signature. Apparently George W. Bush graced my history class with his presence today, a newly accepted student in the new school of Electoral Fraud.

Gotta love that Chilean humour.