Wow its really time for an update! Well we have all been busy with fieldwork for the last week or so. At night we have usually just been tired and ate dinner at home, but on Monday we went to a great pizza place called Tiramisu. It was a big restaurant with lots of small tables with candles on them for light, and there were so many different kinds of pizza to choose from, at least 30! I ended up getting a ham and pepper pizza that was very good, and the pizzas are bigger than the plates! Awesome! Also, we have discovered a new awesome food here called papas duquesas, which are basically fried balls of mashed potatoes. So like a french fry on the outside and mashed potatoes on the inside. They are so great, I have no idea why we don't have them in the U.S.Another thing that we have been occupying our time with is watching some television in Spanish. We only get one channel, so the selection is limited, but we have gotten into a soap opera that airs every week night called Martin Rivas, and it is a story about a law student in Santiago in the 1800's. It is based on a Chilean novel that most students read in school here. Anyways the show is pretty bad, but we are hooked now! And we found the website, so we have been able to follow along a bit better knowing who more of the characters are.For field work right now, we are tracking the degus with radiotelemetry, so we listen to the beeping sound from their radio collars to locate them. Some of the frequencies have other strange sounds that have led us to name some of the degus, and I also just discovered the new paint program on my computer so I have drawn their pictures! Ex:
Degu taxista (Taxicab driver degu)
Degu cortacesped (Lawnmower degu)
Degu extraterrestre (Alien degu)
and Degu fantasma (Ghost degu)
Sadly, this degu was recently eaten by the burrowing owl at our site, who we have named Oh chasquido! (Oh snap!)
Oh, and we got to see a degu up close too!
One night last week Rachel and I were walking back to our apartment after buying groceries and there were a bunch of people standing outside. At first we thought maybe there was a fire alarm but when we got closer, we could see that people were taking pictures of someone. So I took out my camera and tried to take a picture of the guy too, who we learned later was Mark Lanegan, the singer from Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age. Sadly I didn't get a good photo, but apparently there is a concert venue behind our apartment building, so maybe next time!
Oh and one day last week I got a sandwich the size of my head! But you will have to check out Rachel's blog for the photo! And I still love all the dogs here! We have a new favorite we call perro con manoplas or mitten dog. His feet are so furry it looks like he is wearing mittens, and it is awesome!
radiotelemetry for a while. We saw a bunch of degus running around, lots of birds, a fox, and a burrowing owl! Yeah! Tomorrow Chile plays again in the World Cup, so we will be starting real field work on Tuesday.
Moorhead or Andover. I got to ride the subway a few times already, which was really fun, even though we can walk to most places. And yesterday morning we went to a grocery store that was underground! We had to take an escalator from the street level to the store which was under a plaza-like area. The food here is really interesting, I have been taking pictures of my more interesting meals. The first day I had a completo italiano for lunch, basically a hot dog with tomatoes, guacamole, and mayo. And Saturday for lunch I had a sandwich with meat and tomatoes and tons of green beans! In the afternoon we watched the World Cup U.S. vs. England game, which was really fun. They are crazy about the world cup down here! Chile plays their first game tomorrow morning so that should be interesting! Yesterday we watched Germany beat Australia pretty bad, 
and then we climbed up Santa Lucia, which is a rocky hill in the middle of the city. The views from the top were amazing! There is a larger hill, San Cristobal, which we might go up on another day. It had just rained when we went up Santa Lucia so most of the smog that is usually around the city was gone. The Andes are so cool! And it seems like they are surrounding the whole city! Way different than Moorhead for sure! Oh and my favorite thing about Santiago so far is all of the stray dogs, they are everywhere! And they are all so friendly and cute!!! I am pretty sure if I lived here for real I would have a pet dog in about 3 seconds. Ok more updates later, this week we are going into the field and I will get to see a degu!! I can't wait!