It's raining!

I am currently sitting on the couch of my new apartment, listening to Billie Holiday, Bonga, and other appeasing classics, recovering from an amount of piscola that i cannot recall. Piscola is a combination of Pisco(the local alcohol) and coca-cola. It is a common Chilean drink, known specifically for its efficiency in getting you very drunk, very fast. As you may already know - you probably don't actually - Chile won the Copa America last night, beating Argentina in penalty kicks and achieving the first Chilean victory in History. Rolando, and his Chilean friends were overwhelmed with joy, they watched the match events over and over again, drinking piscola, and shouting from the balcony "Vamos Chile!" and "Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le!" to passersby who answered with the same chants. I joined in the enthusiasm as much as I could, Rolando gave me a Chile T-shirt to wear ,I now know half the words of the traditional Chilean Football chant, and of course, I drank piscola.

It's raining for the first in 4 months today, as if even the weather is celebrating the victory. Somehow the rain is a perfect weather for this Sunday, it suits the emptiness of this hungover city.

Tomorrow I start working again, get back into the rhythm, I expect that they will give me work this week, because last week, all I did was invent my own work and try to look productive.

I'll finish on that note as I need to go back to doing nothing.

Another Bee in the Beehive

Chile won against Peru, and is going to the final, but that is not what I want to write about today.
Tuesday was my first day at work, CRU Consulting : the firm that knows everything single detail on the mining industry, especially Copper (Cu); given that Chile is the largest manufacturer of Copper in the world.

To get to the business district from my small hostel in the city center, one has to take the metro...

I got off my first crammed train at Baquedano  station and needed to make a transfer for line 1. I got up the stairs and the entrance to the next line was blocked by two security guards holding two barriers together (like those you see at cinema lines for example). I saw that everyone seemed to be flocking towards the barriers so I figured that that must be the right direction nonetheless. I then realized that, for some reason, everyone seemed to be taking a stance as if he  had instead fired a shot in the air after counting down from 3, everybody started running towards the platform, a swarm of suits and briefcases rushing for the next metro. Once I arrived at the platform, I saw why people were running, a crowd big enough to full up two whole trains was standing on the platform, waiting calmly and patiently until a train arrives and everybody begins the frenzy of pushing and shoving to reach the inside of the train. My technique was to just sink in the crowd and let the movement created by the pushers, slowly direct me towards the train, I don't know precisely by what mechanism I finally ended up in a metro, but I managed, alive. My face stuck against the window, my button-up shirt sticking out neatly over my cotton jumper, I was just another hen in the chicken farm...