Otro partes del semana.

The rest of the week passed without much further incidents of madness. Nico and friends went off to La Serena the next day, which was actually where we had been planning on taking a weekend trip. Lost without them, we had no one to show us a good time around town...It was two of the girls in the group´s birthdays in a row, so Tuesday and Wednesday night were birthday nights, spent at an Irish pub and a Karaoke disco respectively. I never go out this much in the states, but we have been trying and succeeding at making the most of our time down here.

The lectures for the remainder of the week were a mixed bag, with some Spanish only lectures and a few English lecturers as well. We learned about the poverty of Chile, and what steps are being taken to alleviate these conditions, as well as about the issue of human rights in Chile, particularly during the military coup/Pinochet regime. Approximately more then 3000 people "dissapeared" during this regime, almost all who have surviving relatives and family to this day. A terrible period for Chile, with uncertainty and terror seemingly widespread. We even visited a former torture center, Villa Grimaldi. Scary, scary stuff.

Since I had not gotten a chance to spin fire that previous Sunday, I found some white gas by asking around, being directed to a local hardware store near our subway stop. Thursday night was my first burn with Rob´s donated poi, which more or less went quite well. I conscripted several of the girls in our group to come and keep me company slash more importantly stand safety (someone ready with a towel just in case a fire is started). It felt GREAT to burn again, especially with no worries about the police intervening. A security gaurd actually wandered over after I finished, but just asked my friends to leave the plaza since it was closed, and didnt even say anything to me with my fire poi having been freshly burned.

Took it easy the rest of Thrusday night, in preparation for our big excursion to La Serena for the weekend, a beach town some 360 km north of Santiago. I packed, read, and fell asleep on the early side, starting to read Pablo Neruda´s book "Memoirs", one of the assigned readings.