9/11 end of socialist revolution 9/18 national day- one week of holidays

Lately we wake up to band practice somewhere seemingly outside our window. The other day while jogging I saw them marching near the bus station. This is all in preparation for the national day and the ensuing week of NO SCHOOL festivities. 

Last week someone knocked on our door- oftentimes we ignore it unless someone is expecting something, once a little boy asked Sylvain for some food, and no one really feels like running downstairs to open the door for a solicitor of some sort so it's only when the mood strikes us that anyone is moved to put aside what they're doing and answer it. So last week when Sylvain was moved by curiosity  to answer it there was a guy selling Chilean flags, we of course were not really interested in flags; but the man told Sylvain if we didn't hang them from our window on the national day we would incur a fine. We debated whether this was actually true, or a load of bull, and then Valentin came into the kitchen and joined the debate. No one was entirely convinced but an air of "could this really be true" lingered; eventually we checked online and in fact, it is no fiction $60 if you're caught without a flag.

To get from one place to the next in Valpo there are a few options. The ascensors are a traditional option and Sylvain likes to take them, especially after a trip to Super Lider, but more often than not I convince him that as long as our legs work, we will be walking home. There are two types of taxi's as well, the first is a traditional taxi, you hop in, give the driver directions and off you go. The other option is a collectivo taxi which waits by the curb until it's full and drops the off passengers one at a time. I've never taken one of these but when Sylvain and Valentin have been late for class they take them for a dollar or two. There are buses here that take people where they want to go, they're cheap, but slow, and oftentimes a collectivo is a better option. I haven't really seen any bikes except for once while I was waiting outside the university for Sylvain. A young student had a bike but as he mounted it he knocked the seat off with his leg, the seat was not attached to the bike itself, he just rested it where it was supposed to sit. 

I'm still trying to wrap my heads around why things are packaged the way they are. The manjar or dulce de leche comes in a bag- its caramel, and squeezing it out of a bag is a messy endeavor. You can also buy yoghurt in a bag as well as jam. Tomato sauce for pastas and whatnot come in cardboard boxes similar to juice boxes, but squeezing the last bit out is impossible; of course there's always the option of buying it in a bag too. Almost everything you can imagine comes in a bag or a box; some things have a little spout on them, like the mayonnaise and the ketchup which I think are a vast improvement over our squeeze bottles and jars, but without the spout your refrigerator and hands are destined to sticky skid marks from dripping bags.