Renovación

I've decided to resurrect my blog in the hopes of tricking myself into writing more.

Anyways, today I called my brother Nathan to wish him a happy birthday (and to commiserate on the ailing state of his grease truck). During the course of our conversation, he asked me how much my recent skiing trip to Pucon had set me back financially speaking. I didn't know, so I checked my bank account. Apparently $17.10 is all I have to my name, which means that, earlier today, I inadvertently spent over half of my net worth on wax for my hiking boots. On the plus side, I won't get my feet wet walking to work/class every day, and you can't put a price on dry feet.

We're getting geared up for the fiestas patrias, a long weekend of eating too much and drunken cueca dancing. I'm planning on balancing my time between enjoying the festivities with my adopted family and riding with SAMU (the local EMS) to take advantage of the wealth of interesting trauma these weekends invariably produce.

There was supposed to be another demonstration today; the students were going to block the bridge along with various other protesting feats. However, nobody showed up except for the carabineros, who had nothing to do but swap jokes while their German Shepherds lazed in the sun.

Taking advantage of the lack of civil unrest, I crossed the bridge to quest for a copy of Cien anos de soledad, Garcia Marquez's masterpiece and one of the most famous novels in the canon of Latin American literature. My professor assured us when she assigned the book that it could be found in any bookstore in South America. Valdivia appears to be the exception. At every stop on my citywide tour of booksellers, I received the same apologetic shrug: "no me queda."

Well damn.

If there's one thing to be learned in Chile, however, it's that every problem has a solution. This one came in the form of a newly approved library card. At 20 pesos a page, I can photocopy the whole darned book for 8000 pesos (about $17 USD), which is coincidentally exactly how much money I have left over from my life's savings.

Bacán.