and you thought that mullets and fanny packs had gone out of style...

YOU WERE WRONG! Welcome to Chile, the land of the mullet and fanny pack. I always thought i hated mullets, I really thought they were ugly. But after living in Santiago for month, I realize that mullets are what make guys attractive. Everyone my age has them, rat tails too! I'd say 80% of the schools guy population has one or the other, just to give you an idea. Fanny packs are also all the rage. all the girls have them and guys too. I'm really considering buying one, but i know i will only be made fun of when i return to the US with it.
I also have become a mate addict. Mate is a tea, but special kind of tea. you have a little gourd cup and fill it with mate loose tea. Then you fill it with water and have a special straw to drink it so none of the leaves get in. It is really good and caffeinated and a really tradicional social activity in Argentina and Chile. A friend from Buenos Aires just gave me my very own mate!!
Speaking of Buenos Aires, I recently spent a few days there, which were really fun, but not enough time!! I want to go back!! Jen and I went in bus, there and back, (24 hours each way). The bus ride really wasn't that bad and the food was pretty good. You all are going to go nuts but i tried meat and i am thinking about changing my veg ways. I just ate a tiny piece of a piece of sliced ham. The reason i am thinking of changing is because there are so many foods i really like and sometimes they happen to have meat in them. this can be really frustrating, because the only reason i don't eat it is because it is 'poisoned' by meat juice or something. but i realize, if it isn't a steak or something, i don't really care.. So we'll see. i will keep you updated on the meat or no meat topic.
So after being in Buenos Aires for only a little time, i already liked it better than Santiago. The air is clean, the buildings are all very antique and beautiful, and everything is cheap! The city also has a really intense history that is really sad but it is really great how the people unite and recognize it instead of ignoring it like other places in the world.
We went to la Recoleta, the cemetary where Eva Peron or Evita was buried. The graves there are beautiful, really ornate statues and shrines. We also walked around the many plazas they have where lots of kids were playing soccer, lots of trees... then we went to a museum bellas artes where we just stopped to see the photo exhibit. We then made our way back to our hostel where we called a friend of a friend named Huesos, which means bones.. haha.
We met Huesos and his friends in some alley while they were doing graffiti. Don't worry, they asked for permission. The graffiti was AMAZING. i can't believe it. it really is another form of great art even though it isn't completely typical. They did a robot, letters and a dragon on this wall and they all looked so real and like they were jumping out at you. we sat there for like 2 hours watching them. Afterwards we went to a party but we were pretty dead after traveling for so long so we went home pretty early.. at 2 am or so. It was really great to hang out with people from Ecuador though! i miss it so much!
The next day we woke up and went walking to plaza de congreso, with a beautiful building similar arquitecture to a capital building in the states. lots of statues, a little market nearby. We stopped by a movie theater with argentinian films. That night we went with a friend we met at the beginning of our staty in santiago to a movie called "madres" a documentary about the mothers of the famous plaza de mayo. It was really sad but good. If you don't know about the dirty war in argentina you should read about it. Over 30,000 argentinians dissapeared and have never turned up and it was the fault of the Argentinian military government. We visited the plaza de mayo as well and 'la casa rosada' where presidents of the past and evita have made speeches to the argentinian people. Afterwards we called our friend Hector and he took us to a neighborhood called la Boca by the port. It was really colorful and beautiful! Definitely really turisty, but nice! We watched some tango, although the dancers weren't as good as the ones i had seen in quito. I danced with some cute old grandpa to some live music.
Yesterday, our last day in Buenos Aires we went for a walk around the theater district where we shopped a bit for books. For lunch i met up with my argentinian abuelitos Carmelo and Elena who i met in the peruvian amazon. They are so sweet and we talked for a long time! they showed me the rio de plata, the widest river in the world.
So now i am back in santiago. not yet in school mode...
Hasta luego!