Indy Day in Santiago.

A lot happened yesterday. As class drew to a close, I headed off to the Plaza de Armas to spend the afternoon playing chess. I won 15 and lost once. To Jesse Adams, Steve or anyone else interested, the Santiago ajedress scene is pathetic here. Not in terms of lack of interest - ther5e's plenty of that - but the players are simply not good. Which is either awesome or awful, depending on if you feel like being a gringo chess god, sent, in their eyes, to rock their world. It's interesting how much worse the Santiago players are than what I've experienced in Harvard Square or in NYC. I would probably lose to 3/4 of the Harvard players; here there are only five or six players definitively better than I.

However high I felt while playing, I managed to leave on a low note. During a very a very important game with a crowd standing around (I was in the crowd watching), white had checkmate four moves ahead. Blindly, however, white moved in an opposite direction. Out of shock I shouted, ´¡No puede!´Meaning, basically, you must be an idiot. White, who had not taken his hand off the piece when I shouted, returned the piece to it's original position, relooked at the board, smiled, and moved to what would eventually be checkmate. The crowd erupted in anger and I had to walk out in utter embarrassment. I am glad I played well yesterday because I wonder how much smaller their patience would be if I had not.

After chess I went to a party at a teacher's house. A party of about 30 people. The fourth of July is not only EEUU's independance day, but also the day of a minor victory of Chile over Bolivia, which Chile uses as an excuse to party. Think Cinco de Mayo for us. The party was meh. I met a few interesting people; there was also three other students, but they were in their mid-30's and hardly interested me.

I managed to escape that pit of a party to go to Oxygen O2, a bar with a dance floor that was populated by nearly every expatriate American there. I recognized a lot of gringos there. Because white people are so rare here, when you see one on the street you definitely remember it. But I had a good time for sure. I am also glad I didn't drink anything more than a roncola and water, because I managed to meet a really cool girl and got her number. We'll see if I follow it up.
I talked with some British people who moved to Chile a few years ago about places to see in Chile. I certainly want to take at least one trip to somewhere in Chile, but talking to them didn't make the decision of where to go any easier. In the north of Chile is San Pedro, a city of perfect weather all the time and the amazing desert I saw from the plane. The mid-to-north end of Chile boasts La Serena, which has warm weather and a to-die-for natural reserve, but also penguins start to live (penguins have long left the area of Santiago so there's no way to see them without venturing a little far). As attractive as warmer weather is to me, everyone who has ventured both North and South tell me the South of Chile is a unique experience that cannot be duplicated anywhere else on earth. The wildlife is absolutley individual to the area, nowhere else on earth, and while it may be cold, a unique experience is... well... you know... not to be missed.

So that's my perdicament, we'll see what I decide. Anyways, gotta go.