la cucaracha, la cucaracha

Woo-hoo! This morning I woke up nice and early to go check out an apartment (into which I am moving on Thursday!), and all kinds of creepy-crawlies were hanging out in the kitchen. Mostly cockroackes. I ate my breakfast in the bedroom; thankfully the new place is clean, beautiful, and quiet.

I don't think I've explained where I'm living. The best way to describe it is an international refugee camp. Besides my friend Katie (USA), Ana (España), and Fabricio (Chile), who actually live there, you might find, on any given dy, at this small three-bedroom apartment on the 13th floor (bad luck? great view) in El Centro de Santiago: Ana's sister (Chile), sick and dying Polish (I think) dude and his sick and dying Brasilian girlfriend, me, and assorted friends who stop by for yummy food and TV-watching (on the fabulous two chanels that come in, one of which is always on).

Yeah, it's time to move on.

Classes start for me today, which I am excited about, but also a bit freaked out. That's, of course the real reason I'm here, and I know that once that gets in motion (why haven't they figured out how to slow down time yet?), the next five months are going to move very fast...It'll be interesting, though. I still have so much more to see in Santigo and beyond.

Oh, I went to that punk-rock flea market again on Sunday and found out that they have a punk-rock circus across the street at the same time every week. So for all your entertainment needs...I got to see some juggling, crazy tree-with-huge-ribbon acrobtics, and Capoira, which rocked my world. And by the way, I'm learning salsa and merengue and hopefully cumbia, too (though the three dances have been known to get kind of jumbled between my left and right feet upon occsion).