On my walk to the metro in the morning, different depending on what time of the morning it is, I see the same few dogs outside the University called DUOC that is in between my house and the metro stop that i get on called Chorrillos.
Once i get of at Station Baron, *Estación Baron*, i get off and walk a few blocks to Casa Central, where i have the majority of my classes. On this short 3 minute walk i see many things. The first thing that catches your eye as you walk under the bridge is this.
Mural of a bird. Some people see it as something else, but i definitely see a bird
After this, you have to cross a road, but there are the cars going one way, a piece of land in the middle, and then cars going the other way. Well, the lights don't match up, so most of the time a mass of people walk across to the middle piece of land, and we have to wait another 37 seconds to cross the street. If you are lucky you can go when no cars are coming, and then you will make the walking light for the other side.
Continuing along this one block every morning I see a woman with a lime green plastic cup asking for money. She has probably recognized me by now because she is there most every morning wearing the same black poncho and hat.
That about covers the morning commute. There aren't that many people on the streets except for the students rushing to class and the people in suits going to work. The metro is usually packed in the morning and today on the metro EVERY SINGLE WOMAN WAS WEARING A SCARF. Chile is very into this. If you don't want to get sick, no matter what the sickness. Wear a scarf, cover up the next and keep all parts of the body warm. That is why this morning i saw a child all bundled up. All i could see were her eyes peering through her face mask. loco, it is not THAT cold! Maybe if it were in the single digits and there was a snow storm. I'm normally ok with a sweater, north face, and my scarf.
On the way home the streets get a little bit more interesting. First on my 3 blocks to the metro i see this man, he is there carving wood every day without fail.
carving man
As I pass him and get to the cross walk, this is where the true entertainment comes out. Many people do things during red lights to try and get money from the stopped cars. My favorite is a man clown dressed up as a woman. He sticks huge balloons in his shirt to be boobs and wears a skirt. He spurts out random insults, or whatever he wants and some how he gets money? I'm not sure how exactly he works since it is not really a talent like most other people that you see.
Also, there is a man on stilts who juggles. He tapes his feet to his stilts so that he won't fall off. There is some type of an electrical box right by the corner that he sits on when the cars are passing through the green light. That's dedication, and he juggles, so i can understand why people would give him money over the offensive clown. The clown once told my friend that she was going to get fat from eating that donut or chocolate bar that she had in her hand.
Pass the bird one more time, and you're on the metro.
Once I get off at Chorrillos, so close to home i pass this old man selling Sopapillas. We are discouraged from eating it because they don't always have the cleanest oil and cooking supplies, but one day i am going to try it! It smells like fried dough, so it sort of freaks me out when i see the flock of school children purchasing them and putting ketchup and mustard on it. It is a round flat patty that then gets fried in oil, and then you put whatever you want on it, but they do not have powered sugar. I think it would be like a pizza minus the cheese, and the sauce is the ketchup? I don't know, but the day that I am brave enough to try it... i will definitely let you know!
A couple of days ago i saw a man selling cotton candy outside of the high school that is right next to my house. I almost bought one, although I had chocolate in my bag that i had just purchased hours before.
And that about covers my daily commute to school. Depending on how long I have to wait for the metro (that can be anywhere from no waiting at all to 12 minutes) it takes me about 30 minutes to get to class. As a guide i usually leave 30 minutes before class and depending on the metro waiting time i am either early, right on time, or a couple minutes late. All are acceptable here in Chile so it works well.
This weekend I am headed up 8 hours north, this is not even close to the tippy top of chile which would take 30 hours on a bus to get to where i am now to the very north almost in Peru. That gives you an idea of how long Chile is! I can't wait for the great adventure that is to come!
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