January 23, 2003

Just got back from the movies, Brooke and I saw Hable Con Ella, the new movie by the guy who did Todo Sobre Mi Madre, or All About My Mother. It was weird as shit but I liked it.
My school scheduleīs been jumping around, adding and dropping classes depending on my ever growing skill of judging whether or not a class is gonna suck on the first day. The film class seems pretty cool, itīs me and Andrea and one other girl and thatīs it, hopefully itīll be easy to talk the teacher into changing the class time.
The group leaves at 830 on Friday morning for Valparaiso and Viņa del Mar but as soon as we get there I think a few of us are gonna ditch the rest and head out on our own excursion, either to a beach up north or some national park that sounds pretty cool. All that, of course, after we eat at the vegetarian restaurant in Valparaiso. Speaking of vegetarians, I figured out why that Italian restaurant and a few others since then advertise Vegetarian Specials with ham and fish; itīs because in Chile being vegetarian means you only donīt eat red meat. It sounds retarded but it makes sense. Literally translated, meat in spanish is carne, and while the word carne can refer to all meat, more often when youīre in a restaurant or at the market carne means beef. Therefore, when I say that I donīt eat meat, it translates to mean I donīt eat beef, hence a plate of pasta with ham on top. This means Iīm not gonna eat out too often, but I already knew that anyway. Last night Andrea and Brooke made vegan sushi and it fucking ruled, so why go to a restaurant at all?
This city still rules, thereīs tons of shit going on all the time to see and do. Tomorrow in the afternoon weīre going to this big ass book fair over by one of the museums and Iīm gonna see if I canīt find another copy of this book of short stories I got in Cuba that sadly disappeared at the shit hostel where I was staying when I first got to Santiago. Then tomorrow night one of the local theater groups is putting on a play of Nosferatu, based on that bitchin old vampire movie from the 20īs with the lead actor who went all crazy and tried to become a real vampire. Itīs been a long time since Iīve seen a play and Iīll admit Iīm not the biggest fan of theater but Iīm hoping itīs gonna be pretty cool.
Right now my big brother Dan is in Guatemala, Iīm kinda jealous and looking forward to making my way through central america in a few years, I canīt wait to get back to Nicaragua. Right now a plan is in the preliminary stages for a trip to Mendoza, Argentina in 3 weeks or so, I want to go to Argentina so bad and Mendozaīs supposed to be rad.
off to sleep for a few hours before Iīm back up for class, oh the tough life of studying abroad. nite

Posted by steve at January 23, 2003 12:31 AM