4:20 in viña del mar

i added links to fellow indulgers in chile! if i forgot you or you want the meagre publicity this page may afford you, let me know!

while i search for viable internet to upload some rad video footage of nine inch nails and the second superclasico experience from when nim was in country, here are some sundries to chew on:


this clock is a notional monument. viña is the malibu of chile and when (crazy) people talk about must sees, they talk about this clock. "!vaya al reloj del flores en viña!" they'll say. me, i hadn't even been to viña before my brother came. with him here, it was time to do something different, so we decided we'd hit valparaiso's neighbour to the north and make the requisite visit to the clock. as we were walking in its general direction and i realized that we could catch it at 4:20, my eagerness to see it grew by leaps and bounds. mission accomplished. we saw. we clicked. we conquered. i was disappointed to learn that the clock's hands are visibly not made out of flowers. even high.



in other news, the peso is plunging which isn't ideal for my current countrymen, but ends up working great for my credit card purchases and ATM visits. when i arrived 1 of my USDs was fetching me about 500 chilean pesos (a little under the price of an empanada or completo). now my 1 USD will fetch about 640 chilean pesos (the price of an empanada and about a dime short of a completo). i guess it's great that i don't make money in chile and instead just deplete those USDs which i had saved before leaving the states - i'm finally finding some economic solace in the dippage of the chilean peso (apologies to the rest of the world). my friend to the left here tracks the past year of the chilean peso against the USD. thanks to fellow volunteer marisa mcLouie and less directly but just as noteworthy, yahoo, for the idea.



lastly, this man (in the tie) will soon be the president of the united states and though i legally have no say in these matters, for the first time, i wish that i could be stateside for the monumental event. my first u.s. election experience left me seriously ill with a fever n' flu and $50 poorer (collin, if you want to go round two on our dems vs. GOP bet this time, i'm still game). the ill-advised reelection of w was painful then and is even more egrigious an error now that his policy implementation has completely jeapordized the position and moral soundness of the untied states. for anyone my age with their wits about them, the potential of barack obama is inarguably exciting and inspirational. this is our kennedy, our kal-el. i'm sure he'll find some way to fuck it up because i've watched the wire and seen what happens to mayor tommy carcetti, but all the same, the sole insertion of the O into the white house will inherently alter the make-up of the united states. to be in chile this first tuesday of november is, sadly, tremendous weaksauce. i'll still tip my glass to you barack; i hope you hear our rapturous exaltations on the 4th.