de viaje, de nuevo

I am not finished posting photos/stories of Buenos Aires & Montevideo, so stay tuned. This weekend I am going with the program to Pucon, which is 10 hours south of Santiago. It is near Valdivia but further inland. It is basically an outdoor sports paradise. You can go whitewater rafting, mountain climbing, hiking, etc. there. It should be an active weekend.

Yesterday, while walking around campus, I spotted a Bip! card lying on the ground. The Bip! cards are contactless cards that one uses to pay public transportation fares in Santiago. The card I found was a student pass with some kid's name and picture on it. I used the university's online directory and found his e-mail address, then sent him an e-mail telling him I found it and would he like to meet me this afternoon so I could give it back to him? Of course, this was the right thing to do and I would have done it anyway, but while I was typing the e-mail an ulterior motive popped into my head. Maybe I could make a new (Chilean) friend! His reply came quickly and we agreed to meet this afternoon after my poetry class. I told him that I would be easy to spot in a crowd due to my gringo looks.

A few minutes before the appointed time, I arrived at the rendezvous point. I expected Andrés (the guy) to be a little late like everyone is here, but he surprisingly was on time. We chatted for a minute and he said to me: "If a Chilean had found it, they would have never returned it." I said in reply, "Then let this be a good impression of my country. God knows we need some people to make good impressions abroad for once." Andrés laughed. We chatted for a few more minutes; he's studying journalism and wants to go to film school in California. So it's possible that I made a new friend.