Places I saw today.

In Viña: La Quinta Vergara, Plaza del Reloj, Castillo del Mar y Wulf, the beach.

In Valparaiso: one of Pablo Neruda's houses, a very old ascensor, Museo Naval, top view of the city and a LOT of stairs.  Also Plaza Sotomayor (has the museum and monument to copper).

Went by Casablanca valle and Curacaví valley, valleys of wine and agriculture respectively.

Lots.  Of.  Pictures.

Irony.

I still am a little amazed as to why my cousin is a midwife, due to her own birth being a forceps delivery.  Not like I could have a homebirth anyway, because last I checked, no midwife would be able to tell me right away if my kid had my problem.  They simply don't have that sort of training, nor can they give Caesareans in emergencies.
Today I helped with the seven year olds.  One of them wanted me to tell her my phone number.  That was funny.  There was one girl that seriously doesn't understand the concept of chairs.
But overall, fine.

Mi día.

I just realized that the girl who died in Gville in the hit and run was on a freaking bicycle.  What.  A.  Horrible.  Way to die.

I went to the school today, to help teach.  According to the host mom, only the bad schools permit talking while the teacher is talking: her husband and her daughter are both teachers and don´t allow it.  This school, at all the levels of English (and everything else) allow talking when the teacher is talking, or at least, the teacher isn't that effective in getting them to shut up. Last time I checked, there was no country that allowed talking while the teacher was talking. Especially not in Asia, or even in parts of Europe. But some of the older ones speak English quite well.  The younger ones, naturally, have more difficulty.

Granted, this wasn't my original project.  And frankly, I knew I wasn't going to enjoy it as much as I would have enjoyed the original, which was giving medical care to kids at the Don Francisco house.  But since there was something going on this week, and I'd already paid for the trip, there was no point in not going.  At least I can see the center.  And the surrounding areas of Chile.  Valparaiso, Viña del Mar, etc.
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I officially think during my trip to the Viña I will ask for navegado sin naranjas.  Hot mulled wine sounds great.  That and yerba mate.
If it´s warm, I´ll ask for cerveza Cristal.

Because I do need to have some drinks, even if I can´t have pisco.

¡Qué maravilla es Santiago!

I am officially in Santiago.  Because there are teacher conferences all day today, I don´t start volunteering until tomorrow.
Yesterday I came in at 8 am, dropped my stuff, and then toured the city a little bit with the country coordinator.  I saw La Moneda, where the president works, and the old place where people used to work if they were president.  I also saw one of the old cathedrals, the Plaza del Centro, and the Teletón, where I was originally going to work. I also passed by one of the oldest historical museums that I plan on going to after my thing is done.
My host family is very nice, barring one extremely strange older boy that thankfully doesn´t live in the house. I think he wants a chica.  I made it clear that there are certain characteristics that define man, and that boys were the same everywhere.  I didn{t say what they were though.
The two main gripes I have are the food consumption, which I knew in advance my options were limited: nothing that hasn´t been cooked, and nothing like juice or yogurt or other stuff like that....... and the fact that the other volunteers are going next week, not this week, so I´m pretty much on my own.  I´m sticking with breads, dried things, and tea right now.  Which is fine since it´s so cold anyway.  

Wow...

I just accidentally went on Yahoo Answers and found a post from someone who wanted to leave her marriage of 30 years because she "wasn't in love with him anymore," though he didn't do anything bad.

Call me stupid or old-fashioned, but I was always taught that the only times you should divorce someone is if any of the following happen:
*Cheating
*Drug/alcohol problems
*Abuse of any kind (stealing counts as abuse of property)
*Mental illness
*Potentially deadly communicable disease
"I don't love him anymore" is not a good enough reason to leave.  When that happens, you have to live with the decision you made.  There's professional counseling to help you stop feeling like that.  Especially if you have been with that person for the past 30 years.

Boyfriends you can throw out if you're not feeling it.  Marriage is a lifelong commitment, and it's up to both of you to make it work.  No, you're never going to agree on some things.  Yes, you have to give up stuff.  No, you can't get everything you want.  But you signed up for it.

Fair and balanced

I just had to comment on some of the recent presidencies, now that I've read most of Laura's, Hillary's, and at least some of the big parts of Bill Clinton's, memoirs.  (Bill talks a lot.  I couldn't finish.)  

I don't think any president is honest, 100%---otherwise, I don't think they would be president.  They have to lie to get elected.  But at their core---without all the surrounding stuff that happened in either of their presidencies---I don't think either Bill or W are inherently bad people.  I was too young to understand the Clinton presidency until after it happened (I knew he lied under oath but not about what it was), and Lord knows I was not a Bush supporter and didn't think too much of Laura either.

After reading their memoirs (and being a little older now) I understand more.  Bill came from problem circumstances, and I would seriously not be able to write about what he wrote about----his stepdad trying to shoot his mom, his mom constantly going back to said drunk stepdad, etc.  Yes, I know all the stories.  Yes, he has a zipper problem.  But he didn't mean ill.

Hillary is a Scorpio, which automatically means everyone should think carefully before insulting her, at least in her face. (So is Laura.)   I'm not like my mom, who I think has a girl crush on Hillary or something.  But I admire how high she's gone up the ladder, though I'm not sure she's as genuine as she portrays herself to be.  There was a lot of "nobody understands me" in her book, and there's probably a lot she's not willing to say because of her conservative upbringing (raised a Republican, which damages everyone's psyche)  And I'm with her on healthcare.  I experienced it myself, in my sophomore year.  And this past spring, when I presented on Obamacare to HEAL and it felt like nobody got it or cared.  So I got what she was saying.

They're perfect for each other because they both have screwed up psyches.  She was a Republican and he was from a broken home.  Perfect couple.  I can only hope Chelsea did not absorb that damage.  

Dubya is not stupid.  He's just dumb.  Yes, there's a difference.  I do not for one half second think that we had any business in Iraq or Afghanistan.  He should have gone for Saudi Arabia instead.  But he does not outwardly wish ill towards anyone, nor is he a total dumbass.  He's just a little shortsighted, that's all.  

Laura I have to give brownie points to.  She was open and honest about her college grades and bad habits and her discussions with Hillary.  She did tell about the car wreck that killed her friend, which had to be hard to do.  She admitted her daughters were dumb for going out and partying using their grandmother's name on an ID.  (Really, Jenna.  Everyone knows who you are..)

We can work it out

Everyone has their goals.  Everyone has their perspectives.

Ob-la-di, ob-la-da, life goes on, brah.

So we can work it out, and not carp.  Or we can say screw it and avoid those people.  It's your choice.
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Diamond Jubilee was interesting to watch.  Considering, of course, that it's an 86-ish year old queen willingly sitting there and letting the likes of Elton John belt out totally contemporary (well, their) songs.

But she did knight him.  And Paul McCartney.  So it's all cool.