how I lost a Japanese girl today.

So, I was supposed to take our new Japanese student Saori home (her metro station, to be more exact) after our AFS city tour for the exchange students. Her host mum Viviana told me to leave her by boletería (the ticket office). Even though Saori barely speaks either Spanish or English (and all I can say in Japanese is konichiwa and sushi), I tried to explain to her that boletería es la tienda donde venden las boletas. Well, even if you too can only say gracias, te amo and ¡maldito asesino! (good old Mexican telenovelas), you definitely notice the word tienda in the sentence, and that might sound familiar as well. Well, so I leave her by the ticket office, return to my metro station, and at the moment when I'm just about to hop on a bus to get home, Viviana calls me.

"She's not here."

Bang.

Oh, and she still doesn't have a cell phone in Chile.

For the following three centuries both of us were panicking all over the place, thoughts like "I hope they don't need her liver" rushing through my mind. Can there be a better commencement of volunteer experience in Chile than losing a student? Too good she was found some time soon later, wondering in the mall next to the station (you see, she had also only understood the word tienda, and thought of the mall or tiendas as the place to be, rather than the metro station I hope I'll never have to return to) alive and with her liver in the right spot, because otherwise I wouldn't have ever forgiven myself of losing someone from a country cool enough to have sushi.

It's us, the exchange students staying in Santiago and AFS volunteers, all still happy and together at the top of Cerro San Cristóbal, the highest natural point of Santiago.

In other developments, I've finally had my first musical experience in Chile.

As I represented the international audience in the concert of La Banda de la Mente, the next global superstars, I will also use the opportunity to introduce you to some good music.

Here's some more. I actually wanted to put this video, since it demonstrates better the vibe of the night, but apparently they're too cool for YouTube to recognize the video. And, hey, they also have a fancy looking homepage, where you can download their LP. I'm so not giving all these links just because I offered Juan Pablo, one of the band members and one of the few people I know already, to make them famous among the 10 people who care to read my blog. I really like the music, even though the only lyrics I can grasp by now are qué estás esperando.

Summary of the weekend:

Lost Japanese students: 1

Found Japanese students: 1

Musical discoveries: 1

P. S. I'm sorry, I just love palm trees too much.