Sick Day

So, I seem to have caught something from one of my students, or from someone in the colectivos I take to and from work. It is fall here now, and there have been a lot of colds and other viruses going around. Our wifi is not working in the apartment, so I'm back down in the lobby of our building to connect. We think there has been a mix-up with the bill. Bills come to the apartment, and are in the property manager's name. I've checked, and there is no internet bill...so maybe the bill went to her house. And now she is out of the country for 2 weeks, so we can't find out what is happening.

But won't need our wifi because we'll be gone for a week to fabulous Easter Island with Steve's parents, who arrived safely yesterday. We figured, heck, we are in Chile, why not take that 5 hour flight out to see the place? And when my in-laws decided to come celebrate Steve's 50th birthday (May 3rd), we thought it might be nice for all of us to go together.

Thought I'd put in a few pictures I haven't posted, for your viewing pleasure.

 This one says "Will you accept this imbecile to be your future husband?"  I wonder if the answer was yes?

 Joel leaving school last week. We had several very nice warm days:

 Right after the fires started in Valpo, we noticed a lot of brush had been cleared along a retaining wall we walk past on the way to and from school. We are not sure if this was general clean-up, or a result of a higher level of concern because of the dry conditions. But 12 days later, the pile is still there, and growing. It seems that people are dumping all kinds of stuff in it, including ceramic floor tiles, a suit case, general trash and other yard waste. A few days ago Joel and I saw a guy dragging a huge bundle of dead wood down Agua Santa. We guessed he was heading to the pile-and we were right. Hopefully THIS doesn't go up in flames!

Last week I went to Santiago with Sarah since I didn't have any classes (because the students wanted to help in Valpo). So we did a little exploring of markets and such. This was a chili stall, where I bought some merkén, a Mapuche spice that is made from a particular smoked, dried pepper. Sometimes other things are added, like salt or coriander.

Of course I had to say hi to a market cat.

This one didn't say hello, it seemed like it was pretty happy hanging out on this used clothes display:

Sarah saw these guys selling potatoes, and wondered if she could take their picture. They loved the idea, and had her come stand with them. She has one of me on her camera, that I hope to get from her later.

The one really crappy thing that happened was when someone grabbed Sarah's necklace and ran off with it. This was not at the market pictured above, but near the Central Mercado, where we'd eaten lunch on Saturday. She was really lucky not to have been badly hurt, since the necklace was pretty thick. It wasn't gold, so the thief didn't get anything of value, but it was a really bad experience. No one did anything to try to stop the guy-Sarah started chasing him, but stopped when she felt her necklace. Turned out it had broke, and she had about half of it left. By then, there was nothing we could do, as the guy was long gone into the crowd.