RTW: Exchange in Chile

Beach, party, rodeo

Now that is what I call a way to prepare myself for the mid terms.. Last week we had the semana mechona, which means the week when the new students are "properly recieved". Good thing that we, the intercambios, were not considered as new since at least one local university threw paint at the new students, ripped their clothes to shreds and made them beg for money on the streets. I do not know if this was the case for UAI as for us the semana mechona was more about partying..

As usual, the party was in Viña and there we went again. This time I was crashing in at Charlotte's (the beforementioned Swedish girl, next to me in the picture), but eventually most of the time we were on the beach. The greatest part was when the bar we went to opened the doors and let the people on the beach with a huge wide-screen playing music videos, coolers full of beer and everybody partying like crazy. Of course, the next day was spent chilling on the beach again -you just gotta love those Viña's casual fridays at the beach..





The highlight of the week was still the national rodeo finals that were held in Rancagua, some 1,5 hours from Santiago to the south. We headed there with Gael early in the morning to see as much as possible as the rodeo started at 8 AM and the tickets were a little pricey. The first 50 runs or so we were trying to get the hang of how they give points for the performances. Because I am sure you all are dying to find out as well, here goes: there are two vaqueros that drive the bull around the arena between their horses, with the aim of trying to hit it with the horse and lift it up the wall at certain points of the arena. Points are given based on what part of the bull hits the wall, head giving only one punto bueno and the ass the maximum of 4 puntos buenos. If they miss the running bull, they get two puntos malos and if it escapes from between the horses while running it is one punto malo.

Ok, there you have it. The real deal was to see the skill of the riders and the perfect control of their horse (they actually ran sideways). Now what made it all a bit less intriguing was the treatment of the bulls. As one might suspect, they got pretty banged up every now and then, and there were two guys whose job was to get them up and running again. This included hitting, pulling their tail, flipping them over (see pic), shouting and kicking. That was not for everybody, even I hated that part of the treatment of my future meals.

Nevertheless, a good show and a long, hot day with quite a few tasty beers and greasy food. Nothing like a weekend with all that to get me prepared for the exams..

posted by Kassu @ 4:51 AM