I saw a dead mouse

This past week has been really cool so i figured i'd update and write about it.

last thursday i went to see a DJ. Alice's friend Julia recommended him. I had never heard of him but apparently he's from canada. his name is Deadmau5 (pronounced "dead mouse") and he wears this giant mouse mask when he plays. that was enough of a selling point for me so i said i'd go. we ended up taking the metro to the last stop and form there taking a bus to this really desolate area outside of Santiago. out there in the desolation was a giant club sort of thing. the whole venue was underground so it was kind of like being in a... well club i guess. there were 2 other DJs that went on before Deadmau5 (no idea who they were). the first one went on at 10:00pm, the next at 12:00am and the last one at 2:00am. Now, by this point everyone (myself included) was pretty exhausted. we had just sat through roughly 4 hours of house music. super repetitive and not exciting or anything. so i didn't have a lot of energy. but as soon as Deadmau5 came on, i was all about it. he opened with a techno remix of the Legend of Zelda, Daft Punk's "Harder Better Faster Stronger" and Fatboy Slim's "Star 69". Not only that, he played "Ghosts 'n Stuff" which is the one song i wanted to hear that night that i have recently become familiar with (hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7ArUgxtlJs). everyone was exhausted so we didn't stay for long (about a half hour or 45 minutes of Deadmau5's set) but it was worth it. we got a cab back to Santiago and crashed around 3:30am. it was a good night.

last friday was the dieciocho, which is like the Chilean 4th of July. Much like the 4th of July, there are lots of Asados (Barbeques) all over the city and almost everyone is sporting a flag. Alice and I chose to explore 2 parks that day that were having festivals in celebration. The first park we went to was Ines Suarez. it was in Providencia and quite large. i'm actually surprised we haven't been there yet. there was all kinds of crazy crap there. lost of crafts were being sold. there was an area that had farm animals like horses, pigs, sheep and cows. also, there was a stage in the middle of the park where various people would perform circuslike activities such as juggling while balancing on something and stuff. there were even some clowns there. i even saw a giant caged ball where some motorcycles were parked inside. my guess is that people would ride around it later in the day but we only stayed there for an hour or two so i cannot confirm this. it was a cool spot and we are definitely going back there when it's just a park.

the second park we visited was Parque O'Higgins. this park is probably the most massive in all of Santiago. we are talking like Central Park in NYC size. it's kind of amazing that Alice and I haven't been there yet. at any rate, the mass of this park meant a more massive crazy festival. instead of being a big wide open space like Ines Suarez, this park was mapped out as several paths that were 100% completely lined with shops, games to play and oh yeah... FOOD. i forgot to mention that i think one of the traditions of the dieciocho has to be eating corpulent amounts of food. that night i had an empanada, a sopaipilla (which is like a flat pumpkin bread snack thing), some meat on a stick and a churro filled with Manjar. needless to say, i was pretty much done with food after that. the games they had were really crazy. one of them was a ring toss but instead of having the ring fall on a pole, they were falling on bottles of wine. if you succeeded in doing so, you won some wine! it's amazing that people in Chile just give away alcohol like it's no big deal and yet in the U.S.A. if you had a game like that going on you would probably get arrested very quickly. there were also 2 or 3 areas in O'Higgins that had a giant cafeteria with a dance floor. these areas were used for a typical type of dancing in Chile known as "Cueca" (i think that's how it's spelt). so the band plays typical Chilean music and the people danced in this style. this dance also involves dressing in traditionally styled clothing from Chile. this cultural phenomenon been popping up more and more in my day-to-day interactions lately. as far as why, i'm not really sure. at any rate, we got home at a reasonable hour and konked out for the second night in a row.

the next day there was this marching of the soldiers thing going on but alice and i were too tired to even attempt this between the concert and the 10 or 11 miles we walked in those parks. so we just chilled for a good portion of the rest of the weekend.

some other stuff that's been going on lately? i'm currently doing 4 classes with Polyglot during the day and 3 classes privately at night. it's pretty sweet. it's FINALLY getting warmer here. winter felt like a dark period of boring nothingness but it's finally gone and i am happy to send it packing on its way. now i can wear warm clothes and eat food that's in season like avocado, strawberries and stuff. i tried eating a papaya a few weeks ago with mixed results. those things are hard to finagle. maybe they just aren't in season or something but they're really tough.

i'm getting incredibly vamped up for my mom and dad to come here a week from tomorrow (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). all i can say is that they better be ready because i have a lot of stuff planned for their stay which is of course pending on weather and our energy level. if we survive all of the stuff i have planned we then travel to Peru to see MachuPichu which i am VERRRY excited for. and after that? i see Prodigy on October 27th :). needless to say, October is an exciting month for me. so yeah. not much left to do but get through this last week of September and then the fun begins! i am sooooooo ready.

until next time, que te vaya bien!

longest hiatus ever

SORRY!

i haven't even been that busy so i have no excuse this time. i am sorry. i will tell you what's been going on though.

i had planned on going to Mendoza to renew my tourist visa in Chile. unfortunately when i got to the airport, they told me that i couldn't leave the country. my visa had expired on august 3rd and it was august 12th. sonofabitch. i couldn't change or cancel my flight so i lost the $76 i spent on that. so i didn't end up going to Mendoza that weekend. instead i had a fun filled exciting weekend at the immigration office in downtown Santiago. this consisted of getting up at the crack of dawn and waiting outside said office in the cold. upon entering the office i took a number and waited for an hour only to have them tell me i needed to go to the bank and fill out another form before i went to immigration. HOW LOVELY. luckily after my little song and dance at the bank, i didn't have to wait in line again at immigration. they just let me through and gave me my paperwork and now i'm all set until like, the end of October. since i'm going to Peru in October with my family, i can come back, get stamped again and never have to worry about this stupid crap ever again. huzzah!

speaking of families, alice's parents and sister were here for a week. they got to do touristy things like Santa Lucia, Cerro San Cristobal and i even joined them for walks to Bellas Artes, The Zoo and the awesome Peruvian restaurant on Manuel Montt. we also ate at a new restaurant in downtown Santiago called Confeteria Torres. it was super fancy and had Chilean cuisine. good atmosphere. i really liked that place. so yeah, it was nice having people i sort of knew (and in Rachel's case, knew) stop by and say hello. but it only got me really REALLY excited to see my parents in October. since they shortened their stay, we now have no choice but to cram a ton of awesome things into 4 days (as opposed to stretching out those awesome things to a week). it will be exhausting but oh so worth it. i can't wait til they get here. they are going to have a blast.

what else? teaching English ROCKS now. i am teaching 3 classes with Polyglot-Mitford and privately tutoring 2 classes on my own. when i privately tutor, i make double to triple what i make with Polyglot. so i'm actually working less hours and getting paid more. it's kind of ridiculously sweet. also, some of my private students feed me when i come over to teach them! it's a good deal all around. i wish ALL my classes were private tutoring. now that'd be amazing.

one of my favorite bands (The Prodigy) is coming to Chile. they are a band that i have been into since around 1997 and i have never seen them live in over 10 years. every time they come around i miss my chance. earlier this year they came to Boston while i was in Chile and i secretly died a little inside. i was like "UGHHH THAT WAS MY CHANCE!". after about a month of griping i was like "it's cool it's cool. it's just not meant to be." even though i was continuing to die inside. however, about 3 weeks ago i checked the prodigy website just for funsies and lo and behold, they are playing at the Movistar arena in Santiago, Chile in late October!! of course the next chance i had, i rushed to the ticketmaster outlet in Providencia and purchased my ticket. finally, after over a decade of waiting and enjoying their music, i get to see them live. AND IN ANOTHER COUNTRY. and also... I HAVE GENERAL ADMISSION SEATS! translation: i will be as close to the stage as i can get and i will be flipping out 900% of the time. so excited.

this past weekend i went to an area of Santiago i have never been before with Alice called La Florida. we went to the Museo de Interactivo in Mirador (or MIM as they call it). it's basically the children's museum but it doesn't smell like diapers. we had fun. it was a good way to kill an afternoon. not to mention there was a kind of cool aquarium next to it. we saw it all and then had lunch in the giant mall nearby. it still amazes me that mcdonalds in south america is actually the best tasting fast food chain.

i think i've got cooking fries down. since i can't use our oven because the door doesn't close all the way and our temperature knob doesn't display degrees, i put the cold fries in a very small bowl on the stove. then i fill the bowl a quarter of the way with olive oil and let that boil for a while. it's costly but it gets the job done quickly and they taste absolutely delicious. i know it's fries and it's simple but it's always been a mystery to me. i also made my first successful quesadilla burger. that was really damn delicious. i think when my rents get here i'm going to make them burritos one night. ideally i'd like to go to la vega that day with them and buy the veggies there so they can get the full experience of what it's like to cook food here but we'll see.

alice and i have been watching a lot of downloaded tv. i'm showing her Lost and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. she's showing me Scrubs and the British version of The Office. we're also watching Dexter together (phenomenal show).

i really miss my friends and my Nintendo Wii. i think when i come home in january i'm going to require playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl with like 4 or 5 other people for hours and hours. same goes for Mario Party and Wario Ware and stuff. also, i can't wait to get back into Wii Fit. i've been getting into a lot of new music down here. not like, Chilean music or anything but new music in general. and usually i have a bunch of people to play it for and be like "THIS IS AMAZING! LISTEN TO IT!" which is good because i can share the joy. but since no one is here it's tough to do that. i'm going crazy finding a bunch of new stuff and not being able to share said joy. ah well. i'll just explode when i see people in january. also when i get back, i definitely want to take a trip to Western Mass. I've also thought about maybe doing a tour DJing at various places in New England, maybe even down to Philadelphia and in NYC. we'll see how it goes. it'd be cool to be "on tour".

I'm saving up some serious money for December trying to go to the South of Chile before i head out of this country. ideally, i'd like to go to Pucon, Valdivia, Puerto Varas, Chiloe and parts of Patagonia. whether or not all of those places will happen is still a mystery. but dammit, i'm gonna try. of course this means i have to sacrifice weekend trips to certain places (was going to go to Cajon De Maipo for a weekend in September but decided it's too costly), but it'll be worth it when i take a giant voyage in a few months. oh well. at least i have New Year's Eve to actually look forward to. i'm spending it in Valparaiso where there are supposed to be fireworks and parties galore. it will be one of the last things i do in this country and i think that's pretty damn fitting.

and that's all i got for now. not much has been happening but those are the notables. i'll see you next time. again, sorry about the hiatus. i feel like a broken record saying that but i'll try to update more often. CCFN. chau chau for now.