o just another typical thurs, last thurs i was on my way to argentina, this thursday i saw a protest and parade. i just went to valpo to celebrate may 21st which is a holiday here to remember a famous naval battle that chile actually lost and "knew" they were gonna lose but went in fighting anyways to show their courage or something. anyways, it also happens that today presidenta michele bachelet was in valpo giving basically her state of the union address and we went to try and see the things going on around there. so we got to the congress after her speech, but we got right to the door just by pulling the "gringo card" acting like we didnt know what was going on and getting through barracades telling the cops we were going to say bye to a friend who was going back to america haha. there wasnt much to see there, then we walked down the street and there was a protest, i actually saw people being cleared using a water gun on the top of a military truck and there was tear gas, we just saw it smoking and went the other way, it still made us all teary eyed and sneeze, but we werent really that close. then we saw broken bottles all over the street (we just walked around all the closed off roads) and there was paint that had been splashed everywhere, then we saw some guys with their faces all covered and pulling the recycling bins into the street and breaking into it to get the glass, but we just walked away. then we tried to find the parade...chilean parades make no sense. we literally chased and followed it around. there was lots of macrching and bands and then cueca dancers but not like floats or candy or cheering...it was all kinda serious and just lots of military/navy things, but u had to go from street to street to see them. it was also the best weather ever. it was really fun and so interesting, only in chile.

and i should really write about last weekend but im lazy and a mary kate and ashley movie is on, so ima go watch that instead. ciaooooo