Amigos, Portenos, y Mas

Look at this guy.

   Hey, ya'll; Matt here.  Hope everyone had a good Easter weekend and/or Spring Break from teaching.  Things are progressing along just fine here.  It rained on Friday (WHOA!) and it's cooling down nicely as Fall progresses, which has been a big help on the sweaty-bastard front.

Free bikes = happy bikers

   Our friends, Davin and Molly, got into Santiago on Easter Sunday.  They'll be down in Chile for the next few months, so that will be a lot of fun.  They stayed in our apartment last week and did some exploring of the city.  We made sure to do/encourage some of the classic stuff: bike-riding, terremotos @ La Piojera, the markets, Cerro Santa Lucia, etc.  It was a tight squeeze with 4 people in our 1 bedroom apartment, but very nice to have friends staying with us.

A mural near our hostel

   Over the weekend, we took a trip to Valparaiso.  Davin and Molly have some friends who live there so they wanted to check it out.  Sara and I went with as we're always up for a trip to Valpo, the beautiful port city of Chile.  In Valpo, we had a whole bunch of fun.  We started the night Friday with a big Mexican (when in Chile!) dinner at a karaoke bar playing hilarious videos.  Later, we went to a party with some English expats who had a killer patio near the top of one of the cerros there; it had a great view of the port.  We explored the city on Saturday afternoon; Valpo is a great walking city, but a damn labyrinth.  Saturday night we had some home-made ceviche, box-wine (mmmm, cheap!), and several rousing games of Bananagrams before heading out to a party on the pier.  We got free entry to a beer-release party for a Tahitian beer that is just now being imported to Chile.  That was a late, but entertaining evening.

A bunch of Canadian boats.

   In Valpo, Sara & I stayed at a nice hostel that was conveniently-located, not terribly expensive, and had a HUGE breakfast.  Naturally, I was enthralled by the breakfast: eggs, fruits, breads, jams, real coffee, and interesting company from around the world.  A lot of people there seemed very interested in what life for expats is like in Santiago and things NYC.  Speaking so much about NYC did make me a little bit homesick, but then I thought of the taste of Rudy's hotdogs and got over it quick.

Picnic lunch, we could see +11 dogs from here

   Sara & I came back to Santiago on Sunday to get ready for the week.  Davin and Molly were staying in Valpo, for at least a little while, as they figure out which city they want to base themselves out of while here in Chile.  Sara & I are hoping they pick Santiago, but definitely understand the allure of Valpo.  After a weekend of little sleep, I managed to get to a good rock concert on Sunday night.  Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) was playing with Kurt Vile and The Violators opening.  Many thanks to Richard for the good looks on this show, it was really good.  I spoke briefly with Kurt Vile post-show, nice guy.

2nd breakfast + Chilean semi-photobomb

   So we're back to doing our jobs and trying to soak up the city and country.  A very Chilean experience came last night with a 6.5 temblor (small earthquake) shaking us awake a little before 1AM.  You really feel the motion up here on the 21st floor.  We're most likely heading to a Los Tetas show Friday and then to a birthday party on Saturday for one of Sara's co-workers.  Busy busy busy.

Kurt Vile and The Violators @ Teatro Oriente

   We hope all is well for you and yours.  Keep us posted on how you're doing; we don't hear from you enough.  One final note, I just heard about this Chilean psych-folk group at the Thurston Moore/Kurt Vile concert, Los Blops; they're interesting.  God speed.

End O' March

Watermelon juice & Lollapalooza

My best "Chilean pose" (according to Sara)

Helmet hair, meat, beer, potatoes.

   Hey, everyone; Matt here.  Been a while, hasn't it?  Things are going along just fine down here for me & Sara.  Sara started working with the children again, which sounds difficult but fulfilling (as always).  I'm still tutoring English and giving bike tours.  I've made a few contacts over the intercomputationalweb device to get outside with, so hopefully that will happen soon (I haven't been out since early February!).  Sara & I might actually be getting out of the city a little bit this weekend as Thursday and Friday are a half day and holiday respectfully.  In other nice news, it seems to finally be cooling down a bit; this year w/o a winter sounded nice at first, but I'm tired of being a sweaty bastard (moreso).  

Sara made a delicious chocolate & raspberry cake

Vero, Mashini, and Vale

Charlie knew what to do.

   I celebrated my 28th birthday last Tuesday, which was fun.  I did have to work, but I guess that's part of growing up.  Many thanks to Mom and Dad for sending me socks & underwear, my set from high school was just about done.  When I got home from work, Sara had made me a big dinner of steak, potatoes, and spinach.  It was a nice birthday dinner w/ craft beer and bourbon to accompany it.  Sara also gave me a great birthday gift of tickets to Lollapalooza Chile.  After careful consideration, I decided to take Sara with me to the festival this last weekend.

Ina might be allergic.

Pollo, Vero,  and Sara with Rice sneakin' in.

   Before the festival, we had a party at our apartment on Friday night.  It was good fun with our Chilean friends.  People seemed to have a good time and we certainly destroyed the apartment.  This set the tone for the weekend as we would be partying from Friday night straight through to Sunday night.  The company of friends was a great way to celebrate; a direct quote from Mashini, "ARE YOU READY FOR MASHINI?!"  I also received some great gifts at the party: nice tea, a free contract, American (real) newspapers, and the cream of the crop, a quarter lamb (2 breasts and a leg).  Good looks to Charlie on the lamb; I spent a lot of yesterday eating the leg like a king/caveman.

Vale & Charlie photobomb

Even at Lollapalooza, dogs everywhere.

Great birthday gift.

   Lollapalooza went from 11-11 both days of the weekend.  This being Chile, we didn't get there until about 3-4 each day.  However we saw a lot of great music.  There was a good mixture of Chilean, other South American, and North American acts.  Some of the highlights from the South American shows were Los Tetas and Follakzoid (with an umlaut on the first o), both Chilean acts.  Illya Kuryaki & The Valderramas (from Argentina) was one of the best acts we saw, they were a lot of fun to see live.  As for North American acts, Thievery Corporation put on a killer live show; people were going nuts.  Also, Friendly Fires is an energetic live show, the frontman contorts himself passionately to the music.  Gogol Bordello was predictably interesting.  MGMT and Pretty Lights were also a whole bunch of fun to see.

Not a bad job.

At Follakzoid.

Man plays computer, crowd goes wild.

Yep.

Have some illicit rum.  Thanks for the
checkered-flag duct tape, Ma.

  There was also a ton of dubstep and/or dubstep-influenced music at the festival.  This was not only because of the major dubstep names playing, such as Skrillex and Bassnectar, but I guess that is trending at the moment.  We even heard dubstep-esque sound in Bjork's set.  On that, I would not normally go out of my way to see Bjork, but her music was beautiful; strange, but beautiful.  Foo Fighters was exactly what you'd expect, fun and loud.

Thievery Corporation.

  Each night ended with a requisite trip to the bar for a beer, chorillana, and debrief.  The weekend was a seriously good time, but also lent itself to serious case of the Monday blues.  The people on the Monday morning bike tour did not have the most chipper guide.  Trying to go for a cleansing run afterwards might not have been the best idea either.

Despite a lot of protest, Sara insisted on buying this Donald
Duck balloon and getting pictures with this very creepy
Chilean clown.  Walking back to the apartment with this
in no way says, "I'm not from here, please mug me."

   Well, that's about it for news from us down here.  Davin and Molly are coming through on Sunday, which will be fun.  We're excited to hear about their South American adventures and maybe make some together.  OK, I'll let you go now.  As always, please write or gchat/skype us to let us know how you are.  We haven't seen or spoken to you in too long.