Tempus fugit!

Time indeed flees.

I could feel guilty about not posting more, though "guilty" isn't the right word.  Perhaps "undisciplined" is a better one.  But, I've decided that blogging is something that I do when I have time.  As Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his essay "The American Scholar," "Books are for the scholar's idle times."  Perhaps blogging is too. Because during the last few weeks there has been precious few idle times.

So many things have happened that I feel like this is kind of a "catch-up" posting, but so many things have happened that I feel such an entry would be merely listing.

For instance, one man that I encountered on the street in Viña de Mar deserves his own blog post.  I encountered him on my walk from the hospital (more on that later) to work on Avenida Libertad.  He was a too common type on the street:  a scraggly charismatic type who seemed to be hawking something for a meager payout, like many of the "independent entrepreneurs" who sell random things off a blanket on the sidewalk or who entertain drivers stopped at traffic lights with juggling or break dancing.  Because Chilean "Español de la calle" is still a mystery to me, I couldn't quite understand what his intention was when he held up two long, galvanized nails in his hands in front of any random person he encountered.  Being the good gringo that I was, I didn't stop to find out or much less make eye contact.  But fate brought him to me.  Stopped at the light on the corner of Libertad and 1 Norte, I felt a person brush pass me and stand in front of the unsuspecting young couple next to me.  The man in question held up the two nails, one in each hand, and said something.  He then proceeded to insert one of the nails into his nostril in a perpendicular fashion.  He wasn't so much inserting the nail up his nose as into his skull.  This is the sort of thing from which I can't ignore nor turn away.  But he still had the other nail, right?  That one followed the first one.  There stands the man, two nails sticking out of his nostril while a wide grin spreads below them.  I felt like the best thing for me to do at that point was simply to hand him a 500 peso coin and proceed across the bridge.

That's what I mean.  That was just a random episode.  While more colorful than most, it is representative of the surprise that I encounter every day.   Fortunately, the vast majority of those surprises are delightful and edifying.

Such was the case of the the four days I had in Santiago meeting with and getting to know the other 11 Fulbright Scholars in Chile for this semester.

Fulbright Scholars with some family and Fulbright Chile staff at Concho y Toro Vineyards

 After having the pleasure of sitting on a selection committee with Fulbright Chile Executive Director, Antionio Campaña (first row, furthest left) and Cultural Agregada from the US Embassy, Mary Sue Fields (not pictured), I got to enjoy hearing what the other Fulbrighters are doing in Chile this term.  Humbling, as in "how in the hell did I get in a group like this?" Then there was a family day where folks joined together for a trip the Maipo Valley to visit the Concho y Toro vineyards and to eat at a traditional restaurant.  Great experience and so interesting to return to Santiago after a few weeks in Viña.  I think this is the first time in my travels that I've ever returned to a city that I had visited before;  unlike Copenhagen or Amsterdam or any of the other cool places I've had the privilege of visiting once and not yet returning, I re-entered Santiago with a confidence that made the trip relaxing.

As it turns out, the week that I was in Santiago was the same time that some of Erica's family had planned to visit in order to go skiing, so Zachary and Erica were up in the Andes while I was in Santiago.

That's when things took a turn.  Erica got a nasty infection, cellulitus, and had to be hospitalized.  Our first foray was into the Urgenia at Universidad Catolica in Santiago followed by an admission to Clinica Cuidad del Mar in Viña.   Despite the sunny disposition evident in this photo:

this was a very hard week for Erica.  Z and I had to step up and find a way to function without our fearless leader.    All is well and Erica is back at home recovering nicely, but, damn, what a week.

So I close with a picture from before the whirlwind of the last couple of weeks.  Before Santiago and our adventures in the Chilean health care system (which was excellent, by the way), we had a great day exploring Valparaiso with Erica's family.  This is probably going to be the family Christmas picture, but I also hope that it is a positive harbinger of good times to come for us as we enter our second month of our sojourn in this great country.