16.11.01 - 2:30 p.m.

Last night we went to see some Chilean rock bands at a hip club called Oz. I don{t know if the club is still hip, that{s just what it says in my stupid lonely planet guidebook. More on that infernal guidebook later. How do you make apostrophes on this keyboard. ##3{[FUCK' ah there.

We were "VIP"s because julie's friend becca's boyfriend pablo works for Warner (the label). Normally i would not exactly be pissing myself with glee at the thought of going to a big major label showcase, but it was free and they had an open bar, which instantly induces pavlovian drunkness whenever i hear it mentioned.

the music turned out to be pretty wack. it was just a copy of lame american alt'rock or modern'rock or rock'glock or whatever you want to call it. the highlight for me was seeing these thrashy punk types do a bizarre spanglish version of that weezer song where "those half japanese girls * do it to me every time * o the redhead when she shreds the cello * and i'm jello, baby" I can't be sure but i feel that something was lost in the spanish translation. do they even have jello here?

besides rock shows i have been studying a lot and trying to speak spanish with any and everybody. When you are learning a foreign language in a foreign country, you quickly become familiar with The Look. The Look is what people give you when you've just said something incomprehensible or garbled. The person you are talking to looks at you with bewilderment, as if a cuckoo just popped out of your head. I get this look at *minimum* 10 times per day.

It{s hard to gauge progress when you're in the middle of learning, but i think Julie and I are getting better. We can at least have conversations now. I do get tired of feeling like a 3 year old child all the time, but it{s kind of relaxing to be an idiot. People expect less of you.

we{re going to Chillan this weekend. further in the works-- 7 days in peru. we want to hike the inca trail. i dont even know exactly what this entails, but it sounds damn cool. actually most of the places i want to go to, i know nothing about except they sound cool. "tierra del fuego" is another example. julie is the mastermind, i'm just the packmule. a damn handsome packmule.

it is so smoggy in Santiago! and wild dogs run through the streets. you get used to seeing wild dogs everywhere. i dont think they have the money for dogcatchers.

they do not know how to be vegetarian here. they don{t really know how to cook, either, but julie and i are trying to teach them.

ok now i{m probably leaving out everything important but frankly this keyboard is enraging me and if i dont stop typing i may very well erupt in a firestorm of fury and bash it to pieces against a wall. but i{m going to try recounting what all i just said in spanish, for the practice

anoche julie y mi fuimos al un discoteque muy trendy, a ver la musica chilena rock. eramos "VIP"s porque el palolo de la amiga de julie trabajaba en una compania de musica. (warner-aol-pepsico, a wholly owned subsidiary of monsanto (TM))

desafortunamente "VIP" no significa nada en el club. era un bar gratis pero dentro de dos horas, se termino. no me gusta la musica, era muy aburrido y como estadounidosa pero mas mal.

nosotros estudiabamos mucho pero era muy dificil, porque los chilenos slur y se cortan muchos syllables de palabras. este fin de semana vamonos a chillan. se dice hay una mercada muy intersante, con muchas cosas de piel. yo creo que estoy ideologically opposed a piel, asi que no se que voy a comprar.

ya he aprendendo el seguindo tiempos: preterite, imperfect, el tiempo que se usa "ha - has - he - hemos". todavia no se subjunctive-future-imperative.

me he accustomado a "el look". el look es que la gente te dan cuando dices algo estupido. yo he decido muchas cosas estupidas, aunque estoy practicando mucho.

yo debo usar el preterite. hmm vale julie venio al telefono a llamar su palola. ella me decio (? hay demasiado irregulares en el preterite, me lo preocupe) "espereme". Entonces, estoy esperando. ciao! (nadie se dice "adios" aqui)