Third week

Monday we took the bus back to Santiago, it wasn´t as long as the trip there, with fewer stops. We got in late, to some fairly alarming news. Over the weekend while we had been gone, a couple of the girls that stayed ended up with swine flu. Even more alarming, we were told that the incubation period is 10 days, so they could have been spreading it/contagious even before we left. Needless to say I was fairly concerned, especially given my travel plans for the next week.

The lectures that week were interesting and varied as usual, with reports on social justice, and women´s rights being a few of the more engaging topics. I had a little bit of trouble paying attention at times, however, given the impending date of my graduation in a little over a week. These classes were the last two that I would undertake in my career as an undergraduate college student at Northeastern, and my anticipation was high, after 20 odd years of schooling.

Wednesday we took a day trip to Pomaire, an open air market some 40 minutes outside of Santiago. The usual cheap, fun tourist gear was acquired, with a good number of nice gifts purchased for friends and family. On the way back, Valentina our tour guide mentioned a really fun sounding show at the Salsoteca in Bellavista, a concert of her ex-boyfriend´s reggae rock band. A couple of us had plans to go snowboarding the next day, Thursday, but I decided to go out anyways. It was an awesome show, really fun crowd and atmosphere, the band reminded me a lot of a latin version of RX Bandits, with a rock-steady, reggae feel accented with a solid horns section and female backup vocals. Down side was that we all had a little too much to drink, and I didnt end up making it back home til after 3. Oh Chile...