Paranoia

The whole world is in paranoia (spanish: paranoia). La porcina (swine flu) is infecting left and right. The funny thing is, I haven't given it a second thought. It's funny that the U.S.A. declared it a pandemic (epidemic? I don't know the difference), but I hardly heard more than a word about it when I was back in the State. Since coming to Chile, it's all I've heard about. Mi hermana is a doctor and she's had to work nights and weekend because there are so many people in the hospitals, thinking they have the porci. She's been treating more than a hundred patients a day. Not to mention Buenos Aires is freaking out and shutting everything down. Doesn't help that their government decided to hide the real numbers of infected people to protect their elections. Oh, Argentina...

Speaking of Argentina, the Chileans have an interesting perspective on them. Basically, they say: "The Argentineans are really fun. Everyone loves them. Unfortunately, they can't do anything right. Except party." Our profesora even told us that some people think they should have had a Pinochet, or a second dictatorship. Tough love.

The Pinochet issue is a touchy one here. What I can generally gather is that the cuicas (rich, upperclass folks) hesitate to bash him because he's the reason for a lot of their money. And a lot of people give him credit for the economy being so stable. Mi madre, who by the way is not the least bit cuica, said the military economy that he ran was actually really good for Chile, especially since the governments that followed his regime were able to keep it up. Nevertheless, the concentration of wealth in Chile is in a very small portion of the population. While the poverty level is relatively low (less than 7%), the lower-middle and lower class make up well over half the population. I guess that's pretty normal on a global scale, but there's definitely a feeling of tension between the different classes. Mi hermano has a cuica girlfriend and she moved out of her house because her parents didn't like him, which made spending time together really uncomfortable.

On a more personal note...I'm in class. And it's summer. No fun. We don't even get the winter break that the Chilean students get. The professor is good, but it's exhausting to sit through 3.5 hour of Spanish grammar every morning.

Also, RIP Michael Jackson. I went to a karaoke bar last night with my amigas and we sang "ABC" to raucous applause from the audience. Of course, that was after we attempted a horendous version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." It was the wrong version. 'Nough said.

We also spent the morning walking around the city with our Chilean tour guide, Lute. We saw the zoo which was actually rather fun and climbed up to the Virgin that overlooks the city. Beautiful view, despite the fog.

Well, that's it for now. I'm gonna go back to watching my Spanish-dubbed TV stations.