¡Que casualidad! (What a coincidence!)
If you're a coincidence non-believer, you may have to adjust your brain for the time it takes you to read this blog entry. Either that or I expect a two page, single-spaced report on just what in tarnation you think is going on here. I first noticed it in 1986, when,...
Architecture Disrespect in Santiago and beyond
Architecture disrespect is a term I coined one day when I uploaded this photo to my flickr stream. It's a picada, or sort of a snackbar at the corner of the Alameda (that's Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins to you) and calle dieciocho (thus the nubmer 18 on the...
Feria report, and finding your closest farmer’s market in Santiago
Something that I love down to my crunchy granola toes about living in Latin America, or more specifically, Santiago is the ferias. Ferias are our weekend (or weekday) fruit and veggie stop, a place to yammer with your neighbors and thump the melons (but not too...
Lessons from a three year old
This is not about Chile and it's not really about New York, and maybe you will forgive me or maybe you will aggressively click elsewhere because you prefer to gaze at your own navel than watch me pontificate on my own.I recently made a trip to the states and one...
A little splash of Santiago autumn in your winter (or summer)
They say that a sudden cold snap gives the very best foliage leaf-peepers could ever hope for. Looking at pretty, color-changing leaves is written into my history, as crispy shufflewalking to school as a child reminded me of crunching through the first layers of...
Papeleo in Downtown Manhattan
If there's one thing that Latin America does better than the United States, it's the papeleo. This word comes from papel, meaning paper, and has to do with anything that involves pushing papers this way and that, whether it's under a window or through the mail or any...
Seasonal Jetlag, and coming/going home
It's a kind of strangely New-Yorky cold out lately in Santiago. It's crisp but not bitter, but there's a cold wind that will catch that strip of skin that shows when your shirt rides up and your pants don't sit at your waist.I was in the car with a friend recently...
Santiago Nor-Poniente. Northwest Santiago. A bikeride against all reason.
Saturday morning was beautiful, if somewhat puddly, and I decided to go out for a quick ride around the neighborhood. Instead what happened was this:Those of you who are either from or now live in Santiago are rushing your hands to your heads in feigned (or real)...
Chile vs. Honduras, World Cup and seeing a happy city!
I love seeing Chileans happy. I mean, I love seeing everyone be happy. But especially in Chile, where I feel like people are often just kind of muddling along, where the ecstacy meter doesn't budge off of not really, seeing people be elated is extra super special....
Domingo’s tree and my own ignorance
Many evenings, as the darkness envelops the city and the dogs run barking down the street and people who study in the evening turn up on corners, smoking cigarettes and joking around, you'll find me riding my bike down a street that runs to the west from the middle of...