We got e-mails from the US embassy warning us to lay low tomorrow because it’s the anniversary of the military coup which put Pinochet in power… supposedly there’ll be lots of demonstrations that easily get violent. I wonder how stuff will be here on my street (Avenida 11 de Septiembre). But we still have class and everything… which means I should get crackin’ on my music history essay that’s due tomorrow. It takes me a while to write essays in Spanish still. I set up Microsoft word to let me put accents on vowels, but it still leaves me w/out spell and grammar check.

I finally called up the financial aid office and the guy said that they’d print my check for the Presser award on Thursday and get it in the mail. I don’t get the Nagel award, though because I’m not participating in SFSU ensembles (sorry mom…). To celebrate and went and got some decent speakers.

I talked with my Peruvian friend Sara and she invited me to spend x-mas in lima w/ her family. I think I’ll take her up on it… Christmas without family is like turkey without cranberry sauce or pork without apple sauce or lamb without mint jelly… the food in chile leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, everyone says the best fruit here is exported to the US… I told my roommate that she should come to California to try her country’s finest produce. I got some bomb grapes yesterday at the grocery store (of which I’m now a member… that’s a large step in becoming naturalized in a country). So we were all hanging out enjoying this kilo of top-notch grapes, when I noticed that the bag said “Producto de los E.U.” wtf is that?? I guess we export back and forth depending on season, but it caught me off-guard, seeing as our safeways are saturated with Chilean grapes.

I guess I should have started a new paragraph on the subject of food… but whatever… this isn’t for a grade. Killian made friends with a totally cool Spanish chick/lady. I invited them over for breakfast… in most countries it seems to me that breakfast means bread, cheese, and possibly bologna, but of course Killian and I are used to US standards, so I made them French toast, bacon, and fruit with yogurt. The Spanish lady had never eaten French toast and was sort of horrified at the amount of calories going on, so she started vaguely referencing having previously eaten, but al final she had a piece, but without syrup… Estadounidenses seem to have a reputation of being generally fat and porcious. I apologize for reinforcing this. But at least we eat within the boundaries of decency… my Belgian roommate was eating raw ground beef mixed with mayonnaise, mustard and capers. (!)

Music life is going alright… I finally started to get down to some serious reed work. I’ve now learned reed-making from three different professors… you’d think I’d be more consistent. My professor conseguired me an accompanist. I meet with him on Wednesday. I doubt he could live up to the legacy of John Chen… but we’ll see. We might do a bassoon concert in November at the university, so I’m working on the Elgar piece (Romance for Bassoon and Piano.)

My non-music classes are generally boring. Portuguese is fun, but I’m hardly learning anything. Spanish grammar is Spanish grammar and Chilean culture is practically a paradox. Well, I shouldn’t be so harsh, but it seems that 17 years of fascism plus heavy modernization took it’s toll on national identity. There’s not too much patriotism here… Then again it might just be my impression from living in the most urban neighborhood of the country… I bet in the campo there’s more visible culture. We had a couple classes on Chilean economy which were taught by a super intimidating old man who, as it turns out, studied economy and university of Chicago (this has great significance in Chile- look it up), served as secretary of the economy and finances for a couple years in the ‘80’s, works for the UN and the World Bank, and has lots of his books translated into English and sold on amazon.com. I talked to him about a Milton Friendman interview I read that had a lot to do with Chile and he agreed with Friendman that the free-market economy that Pinochet had allowed was what eventually lead to the collapse of the dictatorship and a return to democracy… he also referred to Pinochet as a fascist, even though he worked high up in the government during those years, so I guess he’s not a bad guy… just scary.

I guess that’s about all for now. The next time I write will probably be the next time I go to starbucks- I know! Silly gringo traveling thousands of miles to patronize the same old corporations, but you don’t understand! You can’t get good coffee here except at starbucks. It’s either half-milk/half coffe, or it’s a tiny espresso- no asking for “una café, por favor” without all kinds of inquisition. There’s a coffee maker here, so I tried buying grounds at the store and making it here, but the coffee they have tastes like the unspeakable and the little bag of safeway select coffee (how did that get here??) must be some kind of delicacy cause it’s like 6.000 pesos (12 USD) .

But I shouldn’t talk so poorly of Santiago. It’s got generally friendly people and lots of nightlife.

Hope all is well in gringolandia (they actually say that here!)

oye nelson, cual es tu e-mail? gracias por el comentario, pero no te pudia responder. saludos a tu familia... y a sr. granger jaja. sigue leyendo y tratare de escribir mas.