Happy Holidays

The last two days I've had off school for Independence Day (yesterday) and Armed Forces Day (today). The break was a nice oppurtunity for me to get healthy again...an oppurtunity that I completely missed as I am still sick. I think I'm going to schedule a doc appointment for Thursday as I've been sick for 10 days, kind of unusual! I don't feel terrible I just have constant and unchanging cold symptoms, how bothersome.
Yesterday I asked a few Chileans for a recomendation on where to check out the festivities of the day. They directed me to a park saying that it was an authentic celebration and that was definastely true as I was the only non-Chilean I saw the entire time. Chilean Independence Day doesn't involve fireworks but these huge street fairs with lots of food, chicha (an indigineous fermented beverage), vendors, and some extremely bizarre carnival games. The games are fairly normal (throw a dart and pop a balloon) but the prizes are extremly strange. Pretty much every booth had a prize consisting of cooking oil, or various forms of alcohol. In fact, one game consisted of a giant wheel with coresponding numbers that were placed on giant bottles of beer, chicha, pisco (a chilean brandy), and wine. You were guaranteed to win some sort of alcohol. Today was much less eventful with most people staying home until the military parades in their respective neighborhoods. The parade I attended was fairly short and equated to people loudly applauding high kicking soldiers wearing funny hats. Unfortunately the parade was at night and most of my pictures didn't turn out, so use your imagination. I'm off to continue with my favorite hobby until I'm healthy, sleeping. Ciao for now!