Santiago, te amo

Dear Santiago,

You have stolen my heart with your distinct culture and quaint smog. The way your transportation system literally brings people together is utterly charming.

Your university is something truly amazing. The students are not just university students, they are undeniably Universidad de Chile students. There is nothing quite like throwing a molotov cocktail just for the hell of it. I've heard the rush is better than coke(a cola).

Many cities have pollution issues, undoubtedly so do you, but it seems as though your methods of battling it are a bit unorthodox. Cliche Catholic schoolgirls making out with much older "pololos" in every public park will probably not clean the air, nor will the thousands of stray dogs. Perhaps a protest could stop it?

I love your double standards. We can't have the morning after pill because that would cause the teenagers to have rampant irresponsible sex in the metro stations, but we can have sex on television after 10pm. Oh, and if you want some "sweet and low-cut" with your coffee, there is always cafe con piernas.

I must confess to thee, Santiago, my love. I have been a bit cynical of you in the past few paragraphs, but I honestly do love your idiosyncrasies.

As far as the arts are concerned, you are incredible. Politically and economically, you cut off your nose to spite your face. It takes great effort to create true change with you. It is never easy to be ahead of your time anywhere, but for some reason you drive those who are to death.

I know we can make this work, but maybe you should get some therapy.

Un asado chileno

I had my first ever cook out with my host-family this weekend. It was a bit different to say the least. 

The most entertaining part was starting the fire. First we had to fill the bottom of the grill with dirt, because you can't put hot coals directly on the metal; fair enough. We then made newspaper rings, covered them with coals and lit them. I felt this was a substantial way to get the fire going; wrong. We needed more "combustible" so my host-father proceeded to "clean out" old work papers. We burned more papers than Nixon. After about an hour or so of "cleaning", the fire was ready.

We started with hot dogs and chorizo, and finished with chicken and steak. The chicken and steak had enough salt on them that I thought they had fallen into the dead sea, but the chorizo more than made up for it.

After dinner we went to the house of a close friend of my host brother, who is almost like another brother in the family. Lucas is going down south to work for a year; putting his studies on hold. The entire family sang him a goodbye song. I've never seen two families so close like that.