¡nieve!

Last night, it started snowing. And I don't mean a flurry; it was a legit snow shower. What's more, it was sticking to the ground. I had just finished watching "Thelma & Louise" on TV when one of my flatmates told me to look out of the window. The Chileans were freaking out. It is not uncommon for the eastern neighborhoods of Santiago to get a light dusting once a year, as they sit at a higher altitude next to the cordillera. My neighborhood, Providencia, had not seen snow in something like 30 years.

This snow just adds insult to injury. While Kentucky bakes under a heat wave, Santiago is going through its coldest winter in 40 years. The palm trees here are just devices for mockery. I actually saw some with snow on them today, but didn't have my camera handy. The photo was taken this morning from my apartment. The snow was gone by afternoon, but it sure looked pretty while it lasted. The hill is called Cerro San Cristobal and it effectively sits right in the middle of the city. An older lady told me that she had never seen it covered with snow like this before.

Vocabulary lesson of the day: in Spanish, children (and adults, too, if they're from Santiago) build monos de nieve ("snow monkeys"), not hombres de nieve.