| (no subject) |
[Apr. 24th, 2007|05:10 pm] |
I keep getting emails from my college in france with detaiils of classes i have to teach. Quite disconcerting;y they're in french to my students, cc'd to me. i don't want to know their names yet, it all feels too real. the good news is that some of them don't start for a few weeks so i'll be eased in gently and have time to apartent hunt. i have a romantic notion we can get a nice flat in monmartre ad it will be just like amalie.
ruby hates me using the laptop as it means i'm not stroking her. at the moment she's asleep on my right arm, so i'm typing left handed, hence the typos.
speaking of typos, the BNP are stnding for the local council here and keep delivering leaflets to my door. I keep missing them, desparate to argue with the wankers. to my delight their piece of propaganda today which ends with "thank the soldiers this is in english" has some great grammatical errors. Choice quote " what the council should of done" I intend to scour the town tomorrow to ask if they want to come to my esol class to learn proper english. And also to question how the main candidate can justify making his living from running the local Karate school. That great British institution, Karate. And this from a party who on one leaflet proposed the repatriation of "foreigners" Bloody, ignorant hypocrites. |
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| Books of 2007 - so far |
[Apr. 11th, 2007|12:17 pm] |
Dark Star Safari - Paul Theroux
Atonement- Ian McEwan
77 clocks- Christopher Fowler
I'm not scared - Niccolo Ammaniti
We Need to Talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver
The White Rock - Journeys into the Inca Heartland- Hugh Thompson
The Girls -Lori Lansens
Love in the Present Tense - Catharine Ryan Hyde
The Adventure of English - Melvyn Bragg
The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close- Jonathan Safran Foer
The Winter Book - Tove Jansonn
South - Ernest Shackelton
Bannock, Beans and Black Tea - Seth and John Gallant
The Tropic of Capricorn - Henry Miller |
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| Books |
[Apr. 10th, 2007|05:02 pm] |
I seem to have been doing nothing but read of late. So I thought I'd update my reading list and take stock of how many books I have actually plowed through. Her's an update of last year
Books of 2006
Angels and demons - Dan Brown
Emma - Jane Austen
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk kidd
Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
Love in The Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Yellow Dog- Martin Amis
Margrove of the Marshes - John Peel
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Wapshot Scandal -John Cheever
The Ballad of the sad cafe - Carson Mcullers
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenger
Il Postino - Antonio Skarmeta
Bel Canto - Anne Pratchet
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Feast of the Goat - Mario Vargas Llosa
Breath Eyes Memory - Edwidge Danticat
A Short History of Tracters in Ukranian -Marina Lewycka
Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Foer |
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| Cuanto tiempo |
[Apr. 10th, 2007|02:51 pm] |
Well it's been ages ... again. I got so cheesed off not having internet in the house I could never be bothered to update this in Chile.
Well now I'm back in the UK, I returned at the end of Feb. I left Santiago before xmas for a 6 week tour of Patagonia which involved many adventures. The best being a 6 hour walk across the border between Chile and Argentina, something I'm quite proud of.
Since I've returned I've already been on two holidays, once to Spain to my dad's house and then a few weeks ago to Banff, Canada to snowbaord.
I've been jobless waiting for Stu to finish his TEFL course before we jet off. I've kept busy volunteering for a local ESOL group. I've been helping out at a class at my local library, teaeching the people from the chinese takeaway! Living with my parents is a pain, but I've been down to see Stu at his parents and he's been up here.
But we're both desparate to get out own place which will hopefully happen soon. We've been offered a job in Paris will hopefully be out there by the end of the month. We did plan on goign to Spain but turned down a job in madrid as the money was less than we got in Chile! So I've now got to brush up on my French and hopefully catch up with a few people before I go to Pais.
Well this has been a pretty dull update, but it's hard to summarise so much so briefly,
hope everyone is well.
***************
In my boredom i've finally sorted out my myspace account. I haven't put anything interesting on there yet but will do.
www.myspace.com/wampeter |
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| sin voz |
[Aug. 17th, 2006|03:07 pm] |
I'm off work for 3 days as my Monday night antics with a cold and cough has resulted in me completely losing my voice. I feel like shit and have a total smokers cough too. It's interesting that on Monday they changed the law in chile, so you can't smoke in restaurants anymore. But the bar I was in was really smoky on monday and as the night wore on my voice gradually disappeared. Thankfully it was a holiday on tuesday, for the ascencion of the virgin, no less.
So in my off work boredom, I've decided to update my book list. Maybe on my sickbed I'll finally finish the spanish Alice in Wonderland. Maybe.
Books of 2006
Angels and demons - Dan Brown
Emma - Jane Austen
The Secret Life of Bees - someone scott kidd
Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
Love in The Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Yellow Dog- Martin Amis
John Peel - Margrove of the Marshes
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Wapshot Scandal -John Cheever
The Ballad of the sad cafe - Carson Mcullers
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenger
Il Postino - Antonio Skarmeta
Bel Canto - Anne Pratchet
Now reading
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
Still reading
Alicia en el pais de las maravillas |
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| Joey Ramone and some nazis. |
[Aug. 15th, 2006|01:50 pm] |
Last night was another strange night out with Juan Carlos, thankfully this time I had Loz in tow to get me home safely.
We met him in Barrio Brasil, this cool area with lots of bars, at 11, after having a veggie meal. He had this Peruvian band with him called Anal Vomit, his cousin Jesus and the offending boy from the last weekend who I fell out with. As soon as I entered the bar, all the men were falling other themselves to talk to me. I made a big mistake by not pretending Loz was my boyfriend. The bassist from the band kept pushing people away to try and talk to me and tell me how beautiful I was, and kept getting closer and closer. I moved to sit next to JC, he followed, I changed to the other side of the table, he leaned over and knocked all the drinks over me. He was like a lecherous Peruvian Joey Ramone. The drummer appeared to be deaf and I was unable to understand him and he kept punching me every 30 seconds so we could "salud" with our drinks. Jesus kept shouting "I love England" at the top of his voice.
Poor JC was stressed and took them home to his mum's house, as they're on tour here (lucky her). Me and Loz went to this "club" nearby that JC had free tickets for, supposedly "new wave" but with a suspiciouslylarge amount of goths inside. It was a bit like a goth ibiza, horrible techno goth music. We were thinking about leaving when 5 skinheads walked in, wearing bomber jackets with chilean flags on the shoulder. I looked at them to see if they were fash or not, as there is a big problem here with racist skins. One of them turned and looked right at me and had a swastika on his other shoulder. I was horrified and grabbed loz and we promplty left. Thank fuck we didn't take a bunch of Peruvians in there. Recently the skins killed a punk and some punks retaliated by killing a skin. It's very serious and I don't want to be on the same planet as these people, let alone the same room.
So we hopped on a bus, went to my fave bar Sagrado near my house and danced until 5am. The DJ played bloc party for me and I think we are best mates now, I was jumping around on the dance floor shouting "I'm on fire." I lost my glasses and everyone looked for them for about 20 minutes then they appeared on someone's chair. And now I have no voice, after shouting a lot and having a cold.
SO a good night in the end. |
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| punk politics |
[Aug. 6th, 2006|01:09 pm] |
Well, Stu is away for 2 weeks snowbaording in Argentina. I'm missing him, but I can't go, I have work.
As usual when the cat's away Juan Carlos took me on a big night out on friday to cheer me up. We went to a gig until 3.30 then a party until 6am. At some point I started drinking chilean rum, a bad idea. The party only seemd to hold drunken men who wanted to talk to me, and JC's mate who I'd jsut met and could only speak to me in English song lyrics, got ridiculously protective. I was talking to 2 mates of Jc's, one who is the big punk promoter here and another a drummer in the most popular punk band. JC's mate Jaoa kept trying to tell me not to talk to them becuase they were "after me", but we were only talking about punk. I was trying to argue in spanish about DIY punk v's bands like Milencolin coming to Chile and getting US$25 000 ( he really paid them that much!) This other group of dodgy guys kept trying to cut in, we tried to ignore them. Then there was a power cut, I held my new friend's phone as a torch while they rolled a ciggie then promptly dropped it. It was pitch black, I bent down as the other dodgy guy did too, and the phone was gone. I knew he took it, an argument started then he jumped on my "new" mate and there was suddenly a pile of guys pushing backwards and forwards in the dark. It was terrible!
Thankfully someone restored the power and it stopped but I felt so responsible. The phone was returned and I apologised for my clumsiness and all was good. But I made quite an impression, I'll be embarrassed next time I see them. I think I made some new friends though!
I'm trying to decide whether to see Strung Out on Friday. I used to like them but I'm pretty sure they're shit now. I also think i'll end up arguing with them about how much money they'll be making. Good news is in October NOFX are playing here, this I am excited about, I think it will be a massive gig, they;re never played here before. |
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| Hardfuckingcore |
[Jul. 22nd, 2006|11:53 am] |
It's been a long time since I updated.
All the business with the kids striking has blown over, they got part of what they wanted and went back to school. The good part is that the leaders are involved in a committe with the government to reform the education law. Good work for school kids.
The ski season has finally started, although a recent heatwave has meant the snow's not so great. But we've been a few times, and some rain last night means there should be some fresh powder for us tomorrow.
Last night I went to see Sick of it All, not that I've ever been a big fan, but I thought it would be an interesting show. I arrived a bit late on my own, coming straight from work, to find the street blocked off by a line of riot police, and a mob of about 100 hundred male hardcore kids trying to get through. I talked to a few people and realised that they were all without tickets, so then had to walk up to the riot police waving my ticket in the air and ask them politely if I could get through. Thankfully they let me.!
The show was good, I enjoyed the oldies, and it was funny watching all the hardcore monkeys dancing. I also saw one of my old students, she couldn't belive her teacher was at a hardcore show. After the show I managed to find Juan Carlos and we left in a sea of tear gas which the police kindly used to tell everyone to go home. It's quite disconcerting to realise it's time to go when your throat is burning and a line of tooled up cops are coming towards you.
When I got home Stu had invited our friends round to play poker, only for a small amount of money, not too serious. But when I arrived, 2 of our friends were so drunk they were arguing with everyone and accusing people of cheating. It was pretty stupid, we had to throw them out in the end and I was so pissed off about it I went to bed and let everyone keep playing. Stu's still in bed and I got up earlier to clean up in a big huff. Suddenly I've turned into my mother! |
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| From the BBC |
[Jun. 5th, 2006|04:02 pm] |
Chile school students urge strike
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More than 100 schools have been occupied by pupils
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Student leaders in Chile are calling on fellow pupils to join a one-day national strike over their demands for an overhaul of educational reform.
Students were continuing sit-ins at schools across Chile, while others were gathering for marches and rallies.
Talks with the government last Friday failed to break the deadlock and end the biggest student protest in years.
The government has offered extra school funding but says it cannot give free bus passes to all - a key demand.
There were no reports of violence as the day of protest began, but police in the capital, Santiago, said tyres were burnt in several places.
The authorities have said they hope any demonstrations will pass off peacefully but have warned that the police will step in to deter any violence.
Bus fares
Chile last week saw its biggest student protests in decades as more than 500,000 pupils demonstrated.
There were ugly scenes last Tuesday when riot police clashed with some of the students and several hundred people were arrested.
Television footage of young people being beaten by the security forces brought an outraged reaction from many parents and subsequently led President Michelle Bachelet to fire the head of the riot police.
The police have been accused of heavy-handed tactics
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The students demands include a complete overhaul of an education system they say is under-resourced and leads to huge disparities between public and private schools.
They want a university entrance exam fee to be waived and free public transport.
President Bachelet, who took office in March and is facing her biggest political test so far, has offered free passes and a waiver of exam fees for the poorest students.
But this has so far not been enough for the students to call off their protests.
On Monday, more than 2,000 students marched through the city of Valparaiso, while in Santiago many students were holding what they termed a "day of reflection" in their schools, which they have barricaded with chairs and desks
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| photos |
[Jun. 1st, 2006|11:44 am] |
Here are some photo's of the student strike.
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| Revolution now |
[May. 31st, 2006|11:42 pm] |
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The student protests continued today, a lot of schools have continued the "tomas" or sit-ins and violence broke out again on the main street, Alameda. Stu was going to work and got hit by a cloud of tear gas a few blocks from the trouble, he found it really difficult to breathe. The police aren't really bothered who it affects. There seems no sign of a compromise with the government, I'm just waiting for some kids to get killed, it's so fucked up. watch this video from the local newspaper. This was taken literally at the end of the street where my school is. I get the bus from here every day. It's incredible! Check out the rage against the machine soundtrack. http://www.emol.com/especiales/videos/protestas_estudiantes_alameda/index.html |
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| La Huelga |
[May. 30th, 2006|10:01 am] |
| [ | music |
| | descendents - sour grapes | ] |
The strike is happening now, it's incredible watching the news, kids from 10 to 18 jumping up and down and singing anti government songs. The newsreaders seem quite supportive, they all starting singing 'puta la gobierno' fuck the government and they were just laughing cos they couldn;t get the beeps in the right place to censor it.
I'm so proud of the kids here, I'm off out to take some photos of the local schools after I've watched the new eposode of Lost (I'm halfway through the new series so I won;t spoil it for anyone.)
The school I teach in this afternoon is a private one so it's not officially on strike, but some of the students might be. I hope they are but the problem is i'd still be expected to do classes. I don't do crossing picket lines, apart from it being against my principles my family would disown me. I grew up going to the Durham miners gala shouting "maggie maggie maggie, out out out" and listening to Arthur scargill. A Scab I am not. You've seen Billy Elliot, you know what happens to scabs. |
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| (no subject) |
[May. 29th, 2006|04:09 pm] |
They're playing the violent femmes on the radio again totally unedited at 4pm (why can't I get just one fuck....)
I love Chile! |
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| When the kids are united! |
[May. 29th, 2006|03:55 pm] |
As I reported recently, secondary school students have been protesting for the past few weeks across chile. I'm so impressed by their dedication to stand up for their rights in the face of opposition by the police and fear of arrest. The police have actually used tear gas, water cannons and physical violence to stop the mostly peaceful protests. On Friday a lot of new schools were occupied by students, not just the ones in the report below. (Including a school some of my students go to, one of them sneaked out of the sit-in to come to my class, I told her I was proud.) I saw a big group protesting in the square near my house, it was really inspirational seeing kids in school uniforms organising a grass roots protest. I saw two teenagers come to talk to the police and explain why they were protesting, asking articulately if it was ok as long as they didn't block the roads. Then they all sat in the square while several people took turns giving speechs. Imagine kids in UK standing up for their education. basically the public schools are terrible here, more thatn 50% of the population go to private schools and there is a clear class divide in access to education. More power to the kids for doing something about it. Tomorrow all the schools and uni's are striking so it should be interesting.
CHILE STUDENTS CONTINUE CHALLENGING BACHELET GOVERNMENT
Some Opt For More Peaceful Demonstrations By ‘Striking’ At School
(May 23, 2006) High school students at the Instituto Nacional - one of the nation’s oldest and best known public schools - announced Monday an end to their illegal occupation (or “toma”) of the school, saying they had “changed tactics” and will no longer attend classes until the government responds to their demands. The students said their school “strike” will continue indefinitely and that they will not call for further street demonstrations.
The call for more peaceful protest tactics follows three weeks of oftentimes raucous street demonstrations led by public high school students demanding greater support from state authorities. The demands, premised on language in Chile’s Constitution that guarantees ‘free’ public school education to the nation’s school children.
Demands include unlimited access to the school transport pass, the repeal of expanded school hours (the Complete School Day, or JEC) and the 1990 Education Law (Ley Orgánica Constitucional de Educación, LOCE) which allowed the mostly municipally run schools to plan and apply their own curriculum. Students are also asking for an end to municipal control and for schools to be administered by the central State.
The decision to end the street protests was explained by the Instituto Nacional student leadership in the following way: “We are talking about peaceful protests … we are not going to protest on the streets. We believe that, unfortunately, they have given rise to disorders and been infiltrated by lots of people who are not concerned with high school issues and only take to the streets to cause trouble. Because of this, our school is not going to participate in these protests,” said Matías Gomez Monday, member of the school’s “toma” political committee.
Student leaders at another occupied high school - Liceo A-13 Confederación Suiza - joined with the Instituto Nacional in the newly devised peaceful protest, saying they would discontinue class attendance until their demands are resolved by government officials.
But the “toma” at another high-profile public high school - the Liceo de Aplicación - is set to continue indefinitely, after students forcefully entered school property on May 19. Student spokesman William Valleros said Monday that the students continued to be “very united” in their action. An attempted “toma” at the Lastarria School on Sunday night ended after just five hours.
Students took over the Instituto Nacional and the Liceo de Aplicación on Friday May 19 after Thursday’s unofficial national protest failed to force the government’s hand. Instead, the Ministry of Education and local governor’s office reiterated their refusal to negotiate with the protestors while they employed aggressive and violent tactics (ST, May 19).
Liceo de Aplicación Vice president Juan Ahumada explained at the time: “We are ‘taking over’ the school precisely because the protests aren’t working.”
Seven hundred and twenty-two protestors were arrested across the country last Thursday during the student protests, 566 in Santiago. Authorities dispersed groups of protestors who had congregated in Santiago’s Plaza Baquedano, using high pressure water cannons and riot police. Their response followed the previous day’s warning that the unauthorized demonstration would not be tolerated. Some students were found armed with guns and knives, leading to greater concern from both authorities and student leaders.
The government has thus far responded in part to the student demands. The PSU university entrance examinations, for example, will be free for the poorest 60 percent of the country’s students. But other demands have gone unanswered.
Ahumada said students want to discuss the broader education system: “We have an open agenda to discuss … not just a ten pesos reduction in the bus fare.”
The student protests are criticized by the governing Concertación coalition, which has stopped negotiations until demonstrations cease.
Metropolitan Governor Víctor Barrueto said Friday, “The truth is … they are unable to control what happens. When this (violence) happens, we are talking about something completely distinct from the student’s demands and aspirations.”
Students disagree. “It was a peaceful demonstration, the police acted unnecessarily … by stopping it. I think we will pursue legal action against them. We were not obstructing traffic, we were not throwing stones,” said student spokesman César Valenzuela.
SOURCE: LA TERCERA, EMOL, RADIO COOPERATIVA
By Cristina Dunn (editor@santiagotimes.cl)
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| Tru til Death! |
[May. 11th, 2006|10:59 am] |
This weekend we went to the "South America Hardcore Festival 1" which had 2 Argentinian bands and 3 Chilean, so not really well named, and I'm sure there was a no 1 last year too. We turned up the usual 2 hours hours tardy after Peruvian food with Juan Carlos and as usual everyone was hanging around outside as it hadn't started. I still haven't got used to "Chilean time." But the first band played shortly after we arrived, a bit metally for me but pretty good and with great female vocals. The other bands were pretty boring, same old, sXe stuff, apart from our friends Fuerza de Voluntad who play ace youth crew. The atmosphere was incredible though, the usual humongous circle pit and lots of stupid kicking and flailing of arms. I was pleased that when Fuerza.. played people danced like normal hardcore kids, not poser sxer's. The highlight of the night was discovering that the bar did indeed sell alcohol and being one of 5 people ( all known to me) with a beer. On our second beer, me and stu raised glasses and sang along to one bands' cover of Chain of Strength's "Tru til death." Some people laughed, others proabably hated us. *********************************************************** In other news, stu's best mate, and a good friend of mine Loz is coming here in June to work at my school. He's been teaching in Jakarta for a year. I'm very excited, it will be great to work with him, although strange to have him here. I hope he likes it. I haven't seem him in ages but have been informed he's sporting a fine moustache at the moment, which should go down well here! Right, off to read my John Peel book. Interesting JC and Ariel (our "death cab for cutie fan" friend) both own Peel sessions and didn't know who he was until they saw my book. |
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| Police brutality |
[May. 4th, 2006|10:22 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  irate | ] |
| [ | music |
| | BBS Paranoicos | ] |
In my class today a group of school kids marched past protesting about conditions at their school. This happened last week and I was informed that there was a riot afterwards, one of the other teachers got caught in a cloud of tear gas while trying to get to work.
So after my class I headed down to the square off Cerro Santa Lucia and the main street in Santiago. There were hundreds of school kids in the road and the square was surrounded by riot police and water cannons. They were "escorting" the remaining kids out of the square and it looked like it was all over. The police prescence was so heavy, it was like something out of a film, full riot gear, armoured cars, all for kids.
So I got on the bus as I had to get home and as we were leaving another group of kids came marching round the corner from another directon. I almost got off the bus, but didn't have anymore change to pay again so I thought better of it. Within minutesd Stu phoned me as he had just arrived in the centre and said the police were firing a water cannon at the kids and running at them with batons high. He said it was awful, I wish we'd had cameras. I can't belive what a response the police were taking., they were literally kids in school uniforms, the oldest maybe 16, some looked about 12. And all they were doing was peacefully protesting. I'd expect this under the military dictatorhsip but I'm deeply diasappointed in the new president Michelle Bachelet.
I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't stay around to watch, but then I don't fancy getting water cannoned. Yesterday there was a smiliar protest when we were on the bus and everyone had to rush to close the windows as the water started coming in. And on May 1st there were riots in the centre after a huge march. These are things I won't be telling my mam!
We don't realise how lucky we are in UK to be able to protest legally, but then in england kids wouldn't protest. They'd go home and play on the playstation. More power to the Chileno youth. I guess the history of the country makes people more militant and willing to stand up and fight.
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The other night we saw this band "Fiskales Ad Hoc" on the local MTV like station ViaX. It was so strange, they played live and were interviewed. They're quite a popular punk band as they've been going 20 years, since the Pinochet regime. But last time I saw them we were chatting to the bassist and drummer cos they're mates with Juan Carlos. Funnily enough I couldn't understand anything they said on TV but could understand them in "real life" I'm not sure if this means they're rockstar sellouts now. Nice guys though. |
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| Up the punks |
[May. 2nd, 2006|11:47 am] |
This weekend I went to Valparaiso, a town on the coast, with Laura ( my friend I used to work with in barnsley) She's maybe got a job there startign next week so we went house hunting for her and then out on the piss. We had the usual many men staring at us, it;s worse with her cos she is actually blonde, so it was almost correct for them to shout " oye rubia" at us.
We managed to escape alive and got back to Santiago on Sunday in time for Juan Carlos to persuade me he could sneak us into the MXPX gig. Now I'm not a fan of MXPX, but I have a strange interest in them as they are from Bremerton, Washington and my best friend from when I lived in Washington is from there. When I was there in 97/98 we saw them a few times and i stayed in Bremerton. So I wanted to go to the gig but the price was $17.00 ( about £20). Now who is gonna pay that much to see MXPX, and more to the point why should anyone in a Latin American country be expected to afford that. But JC convinced me "there is a way" and when we arrived outside we joined the gangs of kids making offers to the promoter " 5 for 15000 pesos?" Thanks to JC's contacts we got in for $10000 for the 3 of us. I love South America, imagine going to the cockpit and bargaining over a ticket price.
MXPX were predictably rubbish, but we got into the box (this was a theatre) with some of the hardcore kids and me and Laura laughed at the rubbish they were saying in English which no one understood "Santiago, make some noise. Jump as high as you can etc..." We translated for those around us and Laura got chatted up by some SxE kid who thought she was a punk and gave her a flyer for a Sxe concert which she wants to go to but really can't. If you think the scene is cliquey in Uk ..... she won't know what's going on when they the circle pit starts. Anyway it was worth going to laugh at the rockstars and tell one of the liggers that they deserved getting all their stuff nicked in the airport for charging so much at the concert. I hope this got fed back to them. The only highlight was a cover of 500 Miles and trying to explain to a group of punks that it wasn't by Down By Law originally. The proclaimers were lost on them.
This week, more work, more sleep then a hardcore alldayer on Saturday. |
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| Books |
[Apr. 25th, 2006|01:51 pm] |
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Recently I looked at a book called "1001 books you should read before you die" or something. I sadly did calculations and had read 127 of them. Not bad I suppose. This sparked a debate of how many books I've read in my lifetime, I think at least 500, though Stu begs to differ. So I've decided to keep a list of books I read this year, to try and get an average. I read a lot now but in my uni days I probably read twice as much.
Books of 2006
Angels and demons - Dan Brown
Emma - Jane Austen
The Secret Life of Bees - Can't remember
Light on Snow - Anita Shreve
Love in The Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Yellow Dog- Martin Amis ( almost finished)
Next Now
John Peel - Margrove of the Marshes
Next
Everything is Illuminated - Jonathan Safran Froer
100 years of solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez |
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| Cuanto tiempo! |
[Apr. 25th, 2006|01:43 pm] |
I haven't updated for a while. Again. Same old shit has happened, been working a lot. Last week was the midterms so I had a bit of a break reading during the tests ( that's the sign of a good invigilator)
Yesterday my friend Laura came to stay. She's hopefully got a job teaching here, I used to work with her in Barnsley at the refugee centre. I was working this morning so I sent her out to her job interview with a map and instructions and money for the bus. I hope she makes it back alive!
(wow, they're playing the postal service on the radio!)
Today I went to my "intercambio" with my ood student Norma, but we didn't really speak English. I feel bad, but it was good for my Spanish. I even told a joke and was funny! I did teach her how to say shit. So she did get something out of it.
This weekend is another bank holiday, even though we just had easter, so I think I'm going away to a beach town. For Easter we went to Pichelemu, which is a surf town with the second highest waves on the pacific coast. This scuppered my plans to take a surfing lesson as I remembered I'm actually scared of swimming in the sea. But I did enjoy the cute surfer types hanging around.
I need to eat before my class at the catholic boys school. We have the test today, so making them be quiet should be fun. I'm almost used to the wolf whistles when I arrive now. Almost. |
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| We will rock you. |
[Mar. 24th, 2006|11:28 pm] |
I'm so tired, 5 days of getting up at 6.45 have ruined me. I really want to sleep, or at least read in bed until my book falls into my face, but its not going to happen.
The good part about living near the national stadium, about 10 blocks, is I often get to hear concerts for free. I quite enjoyed listening to thousands of Chileans singing along to Don't look back in anger, when Oasis played last week. It was almost moving. And the idea of hearing a pink floyd and then Queen tribute band last night seemed great. But this is Chile, and they don't have any environmental concerns. So letting a concert finish at 12.30 on a week night is no concern of the authorities.
I might sound like a wingebag, but fuck me, it;s so loud it's like I could be there. Last night I managed to drift off to sleep only to jump out of bed at 12.05 wondering why someone was singing "Bohemian Rhapsody" in my ear. For a moment it seemed cool, but then I realised just how tired I was and lying there listening to BR, We will rock you and then We are the Champions really wasn't amusing. Especially with Stu snoring beside me oblivious. Why am I such a light sleeper?
So tonight is the second day of the festival. At least they're real bands, but very crap sounding ones. And still fuck loud. Imagine if I lived one block away! Tomorrow it's Deep Purple, but I'm going to a party so I'll miss the free show.
Tomorrow afternoon I'm going to a free concert in Plaza Brasil in aid of Animal Rights. I imagine it will be full of crustie types but I'm hoping there will be a stall selling soya burgers. Apparantly a group of people make them and sell them mail order. I need contacts.
wow, silence. I may be in luck. Night, night. |
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