More death... and bills

Last night I went to yoga for the 4th time and with yet another teacher... On the way home I needed to break a large bill in order to give Sylvain some change. Conveniently, I also needed some tampons and so I went into a pharmacy - all products whether their pharmaceutical or not, are behind the counter here and you have to ask. So I am approached by a man and he says the spanish version of how can I help you- I tell him I need some Tampax (universal brand for tampons- like Band-Aid or Kleenex), and he gets a female coworker to assist me; even though they are directly behind him- she explains to me how many are in the box (duh) and other insignificant information (its not a car I'm buying, its tampons) and then charges me $4.50 for 8 tampons. There is no way the average Chilean could buy tampons at this price- it must be a gringo import.

I head home, wave to the old guy who works in the tailors- we've become waving friends- pet the kitten that looks like Manny and when I get home I run into Sarah at the door. She's sort of upset looking- as if she's been crying. I ask her if everything is ok- she says I have no idea what your saying and I repeat todo es bueno? She responds with a long diatribe of which I catch Papa- and I think maybe her dad has died (Sarah is about 40 years old)- since I have no idea whether this is the case, or just something bad, I say lo siento twice in a heartfelt way. She is my roommate but we are not close; we don't understand each other most of the time- I speak the kind of spanish she never understands, and I understand about every fifth word she speaks- she doesn't speak a word of English... I tell this to Sylvain- both of us seem to think her dad was recently diagnosed with cancer. 

Later Sarah comes in to tell us she's leaving for Santiago because her dad died of pancreatic cancer. She'll be gone for a week and that we should pay her rent at the end of the week and gives us her bank details. Whenever Sarah comes in I always stop what I'm doing and pretend to listen because I feel like I should, but I never understand more than what they are talking about- but none of the specifics- when Sylvain got up to hug her and give her a kiss when she explained what was happening, I knew her dad had probably passed- when she started saying banco a million times and writing down a number, I knew rent was due, but beyond that I'm ignorant to the specifics. This time I knew something was expensive- because Sylvain (whom, I can understand in Spanish) said wow that's way more expensive than France or New York... So, it turns out we had to pay $60 each for gas and electric every month... 

We are considering moving- Sarah doesn't seem to pay rent- between what we pay and what our other roommate pays that would more than cover what this apartment should cost... this sort of practice happens in New York, but what feels worse than getting screwed... On top of that the bills are insane... We have a nice apartment but it's nicer than we really need... So, we'll see if there's anything out there worth moving for...