Who let the n00bs out?
Hola chicos y chicas.
Well this week I am not taking Spanish classes, so I am left to my own devices and able to wander the streets of Santiago terrorising innocent people with my terrible Spanish. Muahahahah!
Last week my German friends from my first week of classes left – Burkhard went home, Beatrize started her internship and Simone took some private language lessons and spent the week making friends with Chileans and exploring.
We had our fiesta on Thursday night with our awesome teacher Luis DJing for the evening. It was a good night and I made some new friends, both foreigners and locals.
Everything caught up with me this week and I have been incredibly tired. I somehow managed to find energy to go to dinner with some of Simone’s Chilean friends. It was a homecooked meal of shellfish (pippis I think?), a traditional Chilean fish and an awesome homemade desert with fresh raspberries. Yorm – it was a great meal and good company – the girls were very friendly.
Saturday was Simone’s last day in Chile so we wandered around and had a bit of a quiet day, then went out for dinner and to a club. This time we ran into another German girl staying at the hostel with Simone, so we went with her and her friend Francisco to a rock club. They had a few live Chilean bands and then put on a video screen and some American/UK pop from the 80s and 90s. Retro, wot. Oh, and OMG – everyone here can dance salsa. It is so awesome to watch, but those of you who know me will already be laughing because you know how badly I dance. Oh well, luckily some of the people I know aren’t keen dancers either 
On Sunday I went solo to Franklin Market, on the other side of the city. It is a huge market filling sidewalk and buildings on both sides of the street for five or so blocks, and starts right near a metro station. I bought my cousin a wireless router and had a look at a few other things. Some computer parts (e.g. hard drives, RAM) seem a bit more expensive than in Australian markets, even given the good exchange rate and the fact I was looking in markets. Maybe the computer markets we get at Newcastle have more direct access to Taiwanese and Chinese suppliers, and shorter transport distances to keep the cost down. Hmm.
In the afternoon Dane and I went up to Cerro San Cristobel (Saint Christopher Hill) which has a giant statue of Mary (not St Christopher) just like those photos you see of Rio with Jesus standing over the city. The only difference is that Santiago is too smoggy to have a nice view from on the hill, hehe.
Anyway, today I have slept in a bit, done some cleaning, some work on the internet and a little Spanish study. I feel much better after the sleep. Soon I’ll walk the dog and then I might go into town to catch up with some friends for the evening
Oh, and the volcano is nowhere near us here, though the volcano at Maipo has been getting a few tremors and might esplöd. 
I think my teacher Luis mentioned that the ash from Chaiten might be heading our way soon but hopefully it will be high in the atmosphere and not down here making the city smoggier than it already is.
So what’s going on with you guys? Anything awesome?