La Serena and the ensuing week

I took off on a four and half hour drive to La Serena. My buddy Finn and his parents had already arrived the night before to get a lay of the land. Upon arriving, we all got together for a quality seafood dinner on the beach-front and went to bed early to prepare for the following day.

After a solid breakfast of bread, fruit, and coffee, our two-car crew headed inland for the day. On the way we stopped at a beautiful reservoir, Embalse Puclaro, for a photo op, then continued on to the town of Vicuña. Once in town, we took a tour of the Gabriela Mistral museum, which inside was relatively boring, but it had an amazing garden in it's back lot that was incredibly peaceful. Following a slow walk through the town, we got back in the cars and continued our drive out to the Valle de Elqui.

This valley has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It is covered with miles upon miles of grape vines, sadly not dedicated to the production of wine, but of pisco. While it is tough to find pisco in the United States, and even if you do it is quite expensive, it is certainly the liquor of choice in Chile. There are numerous brands and strengths...I think of it as the Chilean equivalent of Mexican tequila, but you can mix it with coke (piscola) or combine with sweet and sour (pisco sour) or papaya juice as we discovered later in the day to make a "Serena Sour." The vistas were simply incredibly as we drove along the windy road through the valley.

We eventually got deep into the valley to the town of Pisco Elqui, where we stopped to have a classic Chilean lunch followed by a tour of the Mistral pisco factory. The tour guide did not have the best voice for tours, but the factory had amazing architecture and it was interesting to learn about the whole process. Following the tour, we drove back out the valley which was twice as pretty as when we entered, with the sun going down, shining on the hillsides.

On our way back to La Serena, we stopped at a family friend's house of the host brother of Finn, Alejandro Ramirez, whose cousin is Norma Ramirez, an incredibly talented artist. She is married to a Mexican artist, Luis Gastélum, and we were very lucky to stop by their place for drinks, snacks, and a chat. Their house is amazing, walls and floors made of mosaic, and their located right next to a river that you can hear from the inside of the house. Norma helped a group of artists design many of the projects that are in the Parque de Paz in Villa Grimaldi and is currently doing various exhibitions here in Chile.

The following morning, I left early with Finn and his parents on a drive back to Santiago. This drive was gorgeous as well. It reminded me a lot of Southern California with the coastal vegetation, but also very different since there are views of the Andes mountains in site as well. The area is also much less populated, but every so often there are small resort resort communities near the beach. At one point on the way back, Finn's mother decided that she wanted to show Finn and I this town that her and her and her husband had discovered earlier in the week while looking for a place they could play tennis. The town, Zapallar.

This place was remarkable. Green and lush, Zapallar is a small bay inhabited by upper-class Chileans and used as a weekend getaway destination. With very little roads, the town is made of mostly of walking trails. On one end of the bay, there is a rock mountain with a single tree situated on top, quite picturesque. We walked through the entire town in fifteen minutes, and then sat down for seafood appetizers as a quick break in between our ride home. Too bad Zapallar isn't enjoyed by everyone in Chile, only the privileged, but I guess I can understand why with it's size and limited housing. Still, quite a magical place.

Once back in Santiago, I stopped by Bar Basic to find out the situation with my new job. The owners said they wanted me to come in the next day for some training. What I did not realize was that this training was as a bartender; I thought I was going to be a server. Well, turns out I am happier as a bartender since it is something I haven't done before and I get to practice my Spanish with the Chilean servers as they request drinks. I'll be working there 2 days a week, Sundays and Mondays, which works out great cause I am usually in there every Sunday anyways and now I get to get paid. The salary is 2 dollars an hour, but I get all the tips from people who sit at the bar, as well as 30% of the tips from the regular tables. Comes out to a decent rate, especially by Chilean standards.

Wednesday was the date of the big game, Argentina v Chile. Since two of Argentina's best players, Juan Román Riquelme, Carlos Tevez, were both suspended after receiving red cards in their previous match against Uruguay, the match up was more favorable than it could have been, but most Chileans still figured Argentina and their infinite supply of futbol talent would be able to pull off the win. This is especially true since Chile has not beaten Argentina in any sort of futbol match in 30 years, and never in a FIFA-official match. This all changed on Wednesday night, as Chile won 1-0, with a fantastic goal by a 22 year old striker, Fabian Orellana with only 7 national game appearances. After the match was over, 3,000 people got together in celebration downtown. In addition, Argentina's coach, Alfio Basile, quit following the loss. Chile is now tied with Argentina for 3rd in the South America group in qualifying for World Cup 2010 in South Africa, and does not play another qualifying match until March of 2009.


On Thursday of this past week, I turned in an essay for my Gringo 101 class, the second of three essays and once again it had a free topic based on what we had learned over the past couple weeks. I chose to write mine on how a social democracy is the best system for Chile when compared to the political-economic systems of the past 30 years. Eh.

Not too much else is going on in my world down here. I got work tonight and tomorrow, and municipal elections are coming up here in Chile. These are a big deal for the country since depending how each municipality votes, it will determine which candidate "La Concertacion" or the group of leftists parties, will select to run against conservative Sebastián Piñera. There are posters covering every street corner, while political aides hand out flyers to passer-byers.

I am currently looking up some options for a weekend fishing trip somewhere down south for the second week of November, but prices are looking a bit steep at the moment. It is so strange to think that it is practically the end of October already. The countdown till the end of the program has begun, but I don't want it to end. Wish I had the time to do so much more, but I also understand I am here to study. I don't need to lament, I am sure I'll be back.

->I'll be posting more pictures from the weekend within the next couple days. I am waiting on my buddies to give me copies.

Too long without a post

I know, I know. Haven't been faithful recently to my blog, my diary to let people know what's going on down here in the land of Chile. Lot has been going on is what the problem is, and just haven't had enough free time to sit down and handle it. But now I have some time before I take off for the weekend to the beach. I am going to a beach town down south about 4-5 hours by car to a city called La Serena. The parents of my buddy Finn are already there, including Finn, and his host family has a house down there that we are going to stay at. Should be a nice relaxing weekend. But, as for what's been going on in the past two weeks practically.

The Saturday before last I had a mandatory field trip from my contemporary history of Chile class to head out to the former mining town, Cajón del Maipo. The purpose of our trip was to visually comprehend and experience the effects that the former industry has had on this rural area. Mining is a very dirty process, especially back in the day, and as a result of the intensive exploration of the valley, the environment, water supply, society has been negatively effected to the point that there are only 30 people living in the town (used to be around 2,000), the water supply is tainted from the harsh chemicals used for copper, and the hillside forest and thick vegetation looks now more like a desert. It was a fun day long trip with a hike to the top of a mountain where we entered a closed down mine shaft and spent almost 2 hours in pure darkness discussing the history of the place.



Last Tuesday I had my first test in a Chilean University, Economia II. The test, first of three for the course, was on macroeconomics and had a strange structure. Since the grading scale down here is out of seven instead of letter grades, the tests was 5 medium answer questions, the first three worth one point each and the last two worth two points, adding to seven. It was pretty difficult, but I felt everybody was feeling the same way. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a curve in this country, but I'll be alright.

I heard a good joke from President Michelle Bachelet last week. She asked during a speech, "Why is it that there are no golpe de estado (coup) in the Unites States? Because there is no such thing as a U.S. embassy."

Last Friday I did my last ski trip for the season here is Chile. I headed up with Finn and his parents and got some good last runs in. The season ended that Sunday, so we felt lucky we had decided to put the trip together since we didn't know when the season ended. Luckily, when I come back the ski season will just be starting in California, so I'll get two ski seasons this year. At point during the trip, my ski's simply popped off while speeding over some flat snow because the bindings were too large for my boots (which I had a feeling were before I started, but I figured I would wing it). I learned from that mistake; I took a nasty fall injuring my shoulder pretty bad, but didn't really feel the extent of it until the next day. As of right now, the should is fine, just a little sore if I move it in specific ways. Thought for a second I might have broken my collar bone just like my dad. That would not have been good.

Last Saturday the Education Abroad program had a mandatory trip to Villa Grimaldi (the torture camp now turned into a Park of Peace and memory), as well as the national cemetery. Our guide was a victim in the torture camps of Villa Grimaldi and very informative. He cried probably 5 times during the day, but it was totally understandable. Those were the worst times in the history of this country and he was a direct victim. Some of the things he described simply took my breath away. The national cemetery was interesting, especially since I had not been there before, but we saw the graves of Orlando Letelier, Salvador Allende, and Victor Jara, as well as all the unidentified graves of bodies fond during the coup and a large memorial with the names of those known to have died as a result.

Sunday I went to the Super Clasico for arguably the most anticipated fuitbol match of the year between the rivals Universidad de Chile (Chi-Chi-Chi..le-le-le, Universidad dde Chile!), and the team of the pueblo and most all-time championships, Colo-Colo. The match took palace n Colo-Colo's stadium, the Monumental, and because of this I had to wear neutral colors to avoid getting stabbed. My seat was in a non-rowdy section and actually very close to the fenced-off La Chile fans who walked in mass (probably 2,000) from my house 15 blocks down the Colo-Colo stadium that day. La Chile had not won in the Monumental in 7 years, and now the streak is 8 after a 2-0 loss. It was a great experience.

This past week I had an in class essay, the first of three, for my Social History of Latin America class. The test could have been a lot worse, but we had a choice between two general questions that related to the colonial conquest and independence of Latin America so it was relatively painless. I really enjoy this class since the teacher is incredibly knowledgeable and with Latin America, you also get an indirect history of Europe and a lot of the reason why things today are as they are can be tied back to this time period.

That night I had what we call Gringo 101, the 7-9 p.m. class for all the exchange student in my program, which is normally pretty painful, but to my luck the speaker was an American economics professor from Colombia who is now teaching at the University of Chile. I could barely keep up with all the information he gave and enjoyed every second of the lecture. After class I had a quick chat with him and got his business card for future reference. I am going to try and setup a sit-down with him just to see more about what economics is about here in Chile and what he thinks of what is going on in the world.

Wednesday I had an interesting experience. I was heading to an ATM to take the rest of the rent money for this month when I got on a bus with two musicians about my age. These two guys were 'bus musicians' who rode the bus 3-9 p.m. 5 days a week to make some money and were incredibly talented. They said they made around 30 dollars a day from their abilities. They played two instrumentals and the third song was a famous tune of a clandestine band during the coup called Sol Y Lluvia, and the track "Para Que en Chile Nunca Mas;" a revolutionary song suggesting that time like during the coup should never happen again. I have to say, they sang/played so well, with most of the people on the bus either mouthing the words or tapping their fingers to the song. Quite surreal. I got their names and hopefully we'll be able to hang out with them some point in the future.

That night was the birthday of my good friend Dan Nemiroff. We hung out at his new apartment that is now much closer to me and then went out to our favorite club for Wednesday nights, Grand Central, for the rest of the evening.

Well, I am packing a weekend bag for my trip to La Serena for the weekend. Once last thing of note, I got a job at the American Sports Bar. They have been getting more and more packed every week due to recent reviews in local newspapers and magazines. I jokingly went up the the owner one busy night saying that it looked like they needed another server. He wanted my number by the end of the night, and now I will work every Sunday from now until December. I can take a week off as long as I let them know in advance, and I am usually in there every Sunday anyways. Sounds like a good deal to me. I am also looking to doing some free-lance-esque writing for this new online nightlife magazine targeted towards foreigners called the Revolver. I have a buddy already working there, and it sounds like they could use some more help and the position is very low-stress and low-key. We shall see.

Chile's Military

From this week's issues of the Economist:

Chile's Army seeks to bury its murky past

Thanks to record prices for copper, Chile’s main export, and an odd arrangement (predating Mr Pinochet) under which Codelco, the state copper producer, transfers 10% of its export revenues (amounting to $1.4 billion last year) to the armed forces for capital expenditure, there has been money to spend. The finance ministry has the last word, but the army has been able to shop extensively, with acquisitions including German tanks and better electronics. Today, Chile’s is the most modern and best-equipped army in Latin America, says Armen Kouyoumdjian, an adviser to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

Photos from Viña

Nani sneaks up to front row during performances at the Ñuñoa festivities to get a picture with the mayor of the municipality, Pedro Sabat. Nice!

Parque O'Higgins Dieciocho festivities with friends

Us with Lucky and Ivan at the Viña house

Us with the Patricio and his wife Fatima at their house in Viña at sunset

Ciao Abuela

Has to be some of the best days I've since coming to Chile when my grandmother was here. The weather was great, the food excellent, and it was so great to see family again.

Last I left off we were having a family lunch to celebrate the 18th. A family friend of my host parents, Patricio, who they met in Switzerland and now lives in the beach town of Viña del Mar also ate with us. During the lunch, he invited my grandmother and I to a barbecue at his house the following day and there was no way we wouldn't say no.

That afternoon we headed over to Parque O'Higgins for a large fiesta that was being held for the community. There were so many families, food stands, vendors, kite flyers, empanadas, anticuchos (kabobs), cueca (nacional dance); it was chaotic. We coincidentally met up with a handful of friends from my program and spent the early evening sharing stories from the past week. My grandmother and I had to take off early top meet my host dad Ivan for dinner. Unfortunately we couldn't go to one of my favorite restaurants (Liguria) because it was closed due to holiday. Instead we had went to a simple place downtown.

The next morning we got a bus ticket to his Viña, only and hour and a half, arriving around noon. Patricio picked us up and took us to his house on the hillside that overlooked the entire city. It was an eighteen person outdoor lunch with many family members and friends. Their hospitality was amazing and it was the perfect way to spend the day. We headed back around 8.

Saturday I headed over to my grandmother's hotel to take advantage of the delicious (and free) breakfast they offer there. Afterward headed off to downtown to pickup some gifts for some of my grandmother's friends and met up with my buddy Dan Nemiroff for the afternoon. We tried to go to Cerro San Cristobal to ride the funicular, but because it was a Saturday with great weather on a holiday weekend, there were tons of people, especially kids, so we decided to hang out at the hotel pool and have lunch instead.

That night we had a great dinner with just my host parents and my grandmother at a nice Italian restaurant near the hotel. It was a great way for us to finish up my grandmother's trip. She left the next morning early, but her five days here were very well spent. She and I both are looking forward to getting together with the entire family in Argentina and I'm already counting down the days.



I spent my Sunday in usual fashion heading out to Basic Bar for my daily dose of football. It's a weekly tradition at this point.

On Monday it was farewell to my good friend John 'Lefrog' Holder who left Chile that evening. We had a nice afternoon tribute for him and went to the airport to send him off. It's going to be tough losing a key member of the extreme team. I'll see you again soon John.

Class started back up today, yet one of my classes was oddly canceled for no apparent reason. No complaints. Exams begin next Thursday for me, and an in-class essay the following Tuesday. Not looking forward to those, but I have plenty of time to prepare. Gah!

Abuela

My grandmother has finally arrived. I am so happy to have her here and show her life in Santiago. My host parents were very excited to meet her and love the extra company. I will just recap my activities in the past week leading up to the arrival of my abuela.

Last Wednesday was the all important Chile vs. Colombia World Cup qualifier match, but something more important happened earlier in the morning that I had not expected. I woke up to a rare early morning phone call on the main house line and it turned out to be a family relative sending the news that my host parents had become grandparents following the birth of their first grandson. While it was known that on of their daughter's was pregnant, she was expected later in September. Regardless, Elias was born the morning of Sept 10th fully healthy and the family is overjoyed. It appeared to be a good omen.

With painted faces again, I went to the stadium with incredible nervousness and anticipation: Chile loses, kiss the World Cup 2010 dream goodbye. Stadium completely sold out once again with flags waving everywhere and chants of Chi-Chi-Chi...le, le, le...Viva Chile every 30 seconds or so, Chile jumped out to an early 2-0 in the first half, and ended the match with a 4-0 wipeout. The other teams in the South American group all tied their opponents that night, putting Chile near the top of the group for qualifying.

Thursday was the other 11th of September, the anniversary of Pinochet's march on La Moneda to begin his coup in Chile. Usually there are riots and protests all day, but the heavy mount of police all around the city and the fact that a violence plot had been discovered the night before which involved about 500 people, the day was much more low key than expected. Early that evening I said goodbye to my Santa Cruz friend Lydia and wished her good luck and good times for her program in Concepcion in a more southern part of Chile. While there was not much during the day, I specifically tried not to be out late that night and with good reason. I heard gunshots, bottle breaking, and much more as I went to sleep that night. The power to our complex flickered often, while my parents expected it to be entirely cut by activists at some point.

The power luckily stayed on, but other barrios weren't so lucky. 15 police were injured, and numerous activists detained for the violence that night. Luckily, they're weren't too many deaths if any at all. It seemed pretty hypocritical that Chileans protests the terrorism of the state that took place back in '73 by inciting more violence, but I am not one to judge a cultural phenomenon I guess. Friday morning I traveled to the nearby farmer's market (feria) near my house with my mother to pickup fruits, vegetables, and checkout the scene. There are loads of vendors, everyone calling my mother reina (queen) when she passed by the booth to encourage business. It is very convenient for my mother to walk a couple blocks to pickup cooking supplies that are fresh, cheap, and straight from the farms. In the afternoon, my host parents got to video Skype with their daughter and son-in-law with the new baby Elias: they were very happy.

Saturday was the annual cleaning day in our house, with every inch of the condominium cleaned. This took most of the day to take care of, and at night my host parents and I went out to the movies to see a Chilean film called Tony Manero, which is a disturbing story that takes place during the coup about a older man obsessed with the character Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever and dreams of dancing on a television program in the same way. There is tons of symbolism and shows the desperation the protagonist in achieving his Americanized fantasy while portraying the unlivable times of the coup.

Football Sunday I went back to my favorite bar in Santiago to catch all the games that day. I have made good friends with most of the people there, just wish there would be some Chileans who like American football that would come in, but that might be asking too much. It is a new bar, so we shall see. I did however run into an Economist/Political officer of the U.S. Embassy here in Santiago. I had unsuccessfully tried to explore the embassy last week, but with no luck due to specific hours and lack of action in part of the national holidays and fiestas going on. Hopefully I can checkout the the scene at the embassy a bit more with the help of this new contact.

Following the extensive violence that is going on in Bolivia over president Evo Morales's attempt to distribute privately owned natural gas amongst all citizens of the country, an emergency conference was called on behalf of Chilean President and current head of UnaSur, a young organization of all the Latin American countries to work together during times of problems. The meeting took place at La Moneda on Monday afternoon, with presidents of Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, and Colombia in attendance (Peru declined to participate because of the tense relations with Bolivia). After 5 hours, a Declaration of La Moneda was created to be used as a guide for resolving the crisis, but I am not sure how much can be changed without the participation of the opposition in international discussions. Following the meeting, Bolivia arrested a mayor of the one of the rich territories controlling the natural gas in Bolivia and for now the violence has subsided but the resolution has not been achieved. More will become clear once Evo Morales's newly constructed constitution is voted upon in a referendum scheduled to take place in December.

I spent my Tuesday planning my surprise visit to the airport to see my grandmother as she arrived. She expected to meet me at the hotel for dinner that night, but I bought a bouquet of flowers and arranged for a transport to take me on a one-way route to the airport. The plan worked perfectly and she was so happy to see me right away. We had a late dinner at an Italian restaurant near her hotel that night.

I came back to her Hotel the next morning for breakfast. Afterward we went on a full tour of the city to see all the sight and had outdoor lunch in downtown. She picked up some gifts for her secretaries at the office from an artisan market as well as a beautiful watercolor of the Aconcagua for my grandfather. After returning to her hotel to take care of some work and give a call back home to checkup on my grandfather, and a nap for me, we went to my house to introduce her to my host parents. For transportation, we took a bus, which she said was the first she had used other than one briefly in New York, in 40 years back in Argentina. My host parents had a nice chat with her over tea, and after we went to the National Stadium for a early celebration for the Chilean independence holiday. We watched traditional cueca dancing and music with the mayor of the community in attendance. My grandmother confidently went over to the mayor and got a picture with him. I'll be sure to post it next time.

We are about to sit down for an Independence day lunch at my place and I am not even presentable. I'll post sometime on Sunday night after my grandmother heads home from her vacation to visit me. Cheers and Happy Dieciocherra!

Another Break

I can't get enough of how loose studies have been here in Chile this semester. Just as I am getting accustomed to my schedule and routine, essentially all my classes take a two week break for 11th of Sept (The Anniversary of the first day of Pinochet's coup), and then the 18th is the beginning of the Independence weekend that essentially last an entire week. Not that I have any problems with any of this, especially since my Grandmother is coming for 5 days next week. I just feel like total number of classes is quite limited by the political fervor...

Speaking of, last Thursday I had my full day's schedule until about 3:30 p.m. (right in the middle of my last class at the University of Chile campus), when class was canceled due to an on campus riot brewing right outside the classroom door. The teacher refused to halt class after two recommendations from passer-byres outside the classroom, but once the tear gas started seeping in creating tremendous discomfort to half the class, it was time to leave. Apparently is was 'Combatant Day' because a few years back a student was killed by police during a protest. In turn, a couple dozen students on campus covered their faces with cloth to protect themselves from the gas as well as their identities while constructing Molotov cocktails and throwing rocks at riot police just outside the campus walls. After fifteen minutes or so, large riot vehicles with water cannons mounted on top rolled in to blast anyone in range. Police also launched tear gas capsules over a good portion of the campus. Definitely one of the most horrible feelings of my life after breathing that stuff in. A couple students were able to get direct shots with their Molotovs on the vehicles, but eventually I assumed they were subdued; I didn't stick around to find out.


On Friday I went out to lunch with my host-father; always entertaining. He loves to talk about anything (sports and politics are most common between us) and always has interesting stories and great jokes. Afterward, I went to a part supply store to pickup some face-paint for the Chile futbol match that coming Sunday. That evening I went to go see a Chilean documentary about the most prestigious futbol club in Chile (Colo-Colo), which explained the reasoning behind the devout passion for the team while following the head of a faction who had recently been paralyzed after a fight between fellow fans. I found it amusing that before the film started, a person representing the film stood up to warn the audience not to riot in the theater or brak anything since the night before two movie theaters had just that happen. the film was obviously a bit biased, but did hint at the gang-like structure of these groups of fans (drugs, mob-like hits on opposing fans or even fellow fans).

All day Saturday was spent at a mining town called Sewell, the mine: el Teniente. This high altitude mine is the deepest in the world in terms of below the surface depth rather than true elevation, and was once a massive community of Chilean workers run by primarily by American industrialists. Now it is controlled by the Chilean company Codelco and remains an important part of the national economy. We got a thorough underground tour as well as a guide-led walk through the snow-covered city.


Sunday I went with my host-father and two buddies to the enormous Bio Bio market in the Franklin barrio. This part of the town is the oldest in the city of Santiago, and is packed with street vendors for blocks. My host-father joked that if you were looking for an elephant, I am sure you could find someone who was selling it. I was in search of a Chilean national team futbol jersey, but ended up buying a Universidad de Chile jersey instead. I'll have more chances to get a jersey, and with more selection. Surprisingly there weren't many jerseys, but then again most of the stuff for sale is second hand or stolen so I can't complain. The afternoon I spent at a Gringo bar called Bar Basico to watch the opening weekend of American football. The owner of the bar is from Bakersfield and started the restaurant since there is no place in the city where you can get a quality burrito nor Cheeseburger. They also have a premium satellite package to get all the football games. I'll be back many a weekends for sure.

That evening was the Chile vs. Brazil futbol match that I had long been awaiting. Too bad Brazil took care of business winning 3-0. Chile played sloppily, took no advantage of their scoring opportunities, and lost one of their best players for the next two games because of red card (cleats up tackle). The stadium was totally packed and the game was such a disappointment. Not that I expected Chile to win, but certainly a better showing for the home crowd. The experience was unlike any sporting event I had been to and hopefully I can see a win on Wednesday when they take on Colombia. This match is the deciding game whether Chile or Brazil qualify for the World Cup in 2010. Each have the same number of point in the South American group, and the loser will almost certainly be out of contention. Below my very quick and rough Photoshop job of the field.

Monday was a light day of reading for class, watching the tennis finals of the U.S. open, and the late Monday Night football games. It's fun to watch sports in Spanish since the positions, rules, plays all have different names/words that you would expect and the primarily Argentinian announcer commentary is priceless. Trying to clearly explain all of the American football facets to my host father is even more difficult.

With a partial day of class today, there wasn't too much news from today other than a couple of my class test dates have been decided and that there is essentially no school for the next two weeks other than a single class next Tuesday. I am getting more and more anxious for my Grandmother to come: we are going to have so much fun. I had one of the program director's email me a list of holiday activities going on throughout the city that I will combine with my own personal itinerary of stuff to do as well. Hopefully the weather picks up a little bit; it's been overcast.smoggy the past few days following some excellent early-spring sun and warm weather.

Chile has got to win tomorrow...Chi, chi, chi...le, le, le...viva Chile! Vamos...vamos Chilenos...esta noche...tenemos que ganar!!!!

Above myself, Daniel Nemrioff and Finn Telles