Will came to visit me in Santiago the evening before the earthquake.  We went for a nice walk up the Cerro Santa Lucía, I had some chirimoya ice cream, and we sat on top of the hill and talked for several hours, enjoying the weather and the nice view.  Check out the smog, though – I love this city, but Santiago has a serious problem with air pollution.  A pity that there’s always so much smog blocking the view of the mountains.

Unfortunately I haven’t been able to make it to Viña to visit Will during these days like we had planned, due to the collapse of infrastructure of course… but maybe if my flights keep getting canceled I’ll take a bus to see him before I leave.  As of now I’m scheduled to be on a flight this Saturday… we’ll see.

Took a walk around Cerro Blanco late last Thursday, on a cloudy evening… I get a strange feeling wondering how it looks now.

Over the last few days, there has been an eerie silence here in Las Condes – our neighborhood didn’t suffer the proportion of damage others did, thanks to newly constructed buildings that could withstand the force of the earthquake, but the magnitude of the disaster can be felt all the same.  We are here waiting for things to return to normal.   I am truly lucky to be in a house that has food, water, electricity, and even internet.  So, in these days waiting to hear news of a plane to take me back home, I can reflect on all the things I have to be thankful for.

I am so lucky to have such wonderful food to eat!  I found a small grocery store and cafe called La Chakra, where they have many fresh, whole, and organic foods.  I imagine if I were to stay in Santiago longer, I would frequent this place as often as I go to the Earth Cafe and grocery store in Norman.  I enjoyed a glass of a fresh mint lemonade, and the best avocados I’ve had yet in Chile – which is quite a title in the country of palta.

Some of my best moments in Chile were spent with these women, pictured at the end of our third week of class.  Four women, from four different continents, all in different stages of life – I think I learned more in these conversations than I could from reading a wall full of books.

I’ve seen amazing landscapes, buildings, things here in Chile… but the people I’ve come to know here have impacted me in a way that can’t be measured.  These two girls, in particular, I will never forget – Vanessa and Annette, thanks for staying with me in a moment of crisis, while we found our way home in the dark, in a city that, for one night, saw the stars.

Something tells me a bar named after headlice could never see success in the north, but it sure sounds endearing in Spanish.  I’ve heard that this hole in the wall next to the Mercado Central can get pretty rowdy at night, but during the afternoon it was quite tranquil, and my classmates and I spent several hours there talking and listening to the impromptu jam session at the next table.  I was surprised to learn that Mexican music is quite popular in rural Chile – and also, by default, at La Piojera.

Yesterday I visited the center of Santiago and learned quite a lot about Chilean seafood, which as it turns out is delicious, and a bit about the country’s history and architecture as well.  The center is certainly the most chaotic part of the city I’ve been to so far – a mix of religious and folk tradition with modern globalized commerce, as well as people from every age group and social class.  I imagine this place would never look the same twice.