Monday again, 4 weeks of school left if my math is right. I skipped town thursday for Valparaiso the big port town about an hour and a half by bus from Santiago. Itīs a cool fucking town, all hilly with cool architecture that in some parts kinda reminds me of San Francisco. I went to Pablo Nerudaīs house, well one of them and had myself a tour. He was an outspoken communist but did a good job of justifying to himself his three big houses full of stuff, it works for me too I guess. Thereīs a few really beautiful lookout points around the city perfect for sitting down and watching the sun disappear, I found myself staring at the water and alternating thoughts between how bad I want to do some boat traveling and how I might just end up living in a port town like this someday.
We had a barbeque at my wonderful history professorīs house on Saturday and talked about all sorts of history and political science related things, plus Andrea had whipped up this badass eggplant dish that I munched on while almost everyone else ate their huge pieces of meat hot off the grill. Iīm almost done with the book my professor wrote about his experiences relating to the military dictatorship in Chile, man heīs done some crazy ass shit. I remember thinking how awful all that car trouble I had was when I was 16 and 17, well shit it ainīt nothing compared to sneaking around Santiago working as a director of one of Chileīs largest revolutionary groups, then getting captured and all that other stuff and almost getting whacked. Given the guarantee that I make it out alive I think itīd be pretty amazing going through all that just to try to understand his perspective on life.
I was talking to this well educated Aussie (wha?) on Saturday morning before I headed home, he was schooling me on some crazy shit about the war in Iraq. Now, I know that France is prancing around like a bunch of peace loving French pansies and like everyone else I too thought it was because they donīt want to get involved in any war and have to surrender again. If what this Aussie was telling me is true, mate, then apparently France, China, and Russia have a combine 40 billion dollars invested in oil ventures in Iraq that wonīt be valid if a new government is installed. And thatīs just oil. Apparently France was also involved in the sale of weapons grade plutonium to both Iraq and Iran in the early 80īs when they were at war with each other. Looks like they copied a page from the olī Reagan n Bush handbook. To this day the Iranian government owns 10 percent of the largest nuclear reactor in France which also happens to be the largest in Europe. The French government isnīt too happy about this arrangement which kinda makes you wonder how it got set up in the first place, and therefore I also wonder how theyīll feel when the US starts pointing its weapons at Iran.
Funny, I was sitting in my stupid economics class last week and made a list of all the records I want, except instead of Danīs 10 it came to something like 37. 37!? Man, thatīs gonna be expensive. In other news nobody cares about, well at least nobody who reads this, Real Madrid is gonna beat the pants off Manchester United tomorrow in the UEFA champions league. you probably have to have a special channel to watch that up north, too bad for you suckers. Oh yea, responding to a complaint from my mother that this webpage isnīt funny enough Iīm going to start doing funnier things around Santiago so itīll be more amusing for you when you read about them. If that doesnīt work Iīll have to go back to saying things like COLOSTOMY BAG and RAGING HEMORRHOIDS to make you laugh. harr harr.
next update: Iīll tell you all about our tough ass housecat Puma.