¡La Cueca!

This morning while walking to the Stanford Center along Avenida Providencia, I came across a big group of Santiaguinos clustered in front of the Ministry of Tourism. Being the tourist that I am, I naturally crossed the street to see what the hubbub was about. And lo and behold I came across a performance of Cueca, Chile's national dance!

It's very different from anything I saw in Peru, more country western in style and attitude. It involves a group of couples dancing around with white hankerchiefs. The men wear black sombreros, guacho ponchos, chaps, and spurs. The women wear frilly dresses with poofy shoulders. It's a lot of stamping and looking coy at one's partner. The majority of the time, the men and women take turns waving their hankerchiefs in their partner's face, then suddenly take it away, in a sort of classic, goofy flirtation: "¿Tu quieres my pañuelo?-- ¡No, no puedes tenerlo! ¡Ja!" (You want my hankerchief? No, you can't have lo! Ha!"). Good fun.

After los bailadores de cueca finished a group of Rapinui dancers came up. Rapinui is the indiginous group of Easter Island. Their dance is similiar to Hawaiian dances I've seen, with grass and feather skirts, women hip undulating and men chest thumping. Very good times.

I've had really good luck with stumbling upon performances of traditional dances.

Excuse the posting from yesterday. Perhaps a little too cynical. A free trip to the opera is a trip to the opera, let's not look a gift caballo in the boca. Also, Chile has a large German immigrant population, so a trip to a German language opera is actually kind of appropriate. Also, I just found out about a website with information about all sorts of cultural events in Santiago. I think I'll definitely be able to see some Chilean theater, and it looks like there's a lot there.

Some other things of note:

- This is the last day of Orientation week, and I'm going to shop one more class today, and then I should figure out my schedule.
- We just had a travel info session, looks like after November 1 you need to get a visa to go to Bolivia. Mierda. I'm kicking myself for not crossing Titicaca before heading to Santiago. But:Donde hay ganas, hay una manera.
- Host family relations continues to be good. We watch a lot of TV together. Everyone in the house loves scary movies. Bond over "The Simpsons" with my host brother. Last night, we watched the premier of a new show Chilean show called "Lola." It's about a man who magically wakes up in the body of a woman. A bit of a scandal for Chile that doesn't have such a good history with gays and transgenders, etc...
- Yesterday went to La Moneda and Plaza de Armas with a few kids from Stanford. Government Center=good times.
-Playing futbol this afternoon with a Stanford and Chilean crowd. Going to Chile v. Peru at the National Stadium in October.

All for now. Hope you all are well.