First of the Lasts

When you go on a trip or do some other extended activity there are certain milestones that you hit.  The midpoint is one simply because you are half way, and of course the end is another milestone.  In one of the first blogs in this series back in July, I described how I was camping with Seth at Wilderness on Lake Michigan for a few days and how it hit me that it was going to be the last swim in Lake Michigan for the year, the last camping trip, and so on.  Last week was my first "last" in Chile in that it was the last day I would be working with the Policía de Investigaciones. Actually it wasn't the last day as we are going to do something tomorrow, but it was the last day that I would be working with them in the labs.

Today was the last day of my classes at the Universidad de Chile.  After class, I gave a presentation in the auditorium on cyber crime, digital forensics, and incident response.  Many of the students that attended were people I've not seen before.  You can tell when you have people's attention and this was one of those circumstances.  I've found the classes and activities surrounding the UC to be enlightening.  The educational system seems to more closely resemble Europe than the US in the way it is conducted with regard to format.  The people have been very nice and the UC has been accommodating.  However, although it seems like pushing an elephant up the stairs when trying to get things done at Ferris - that is just the warm up here.  It isn't just the UC; to a large degree it is the culture.  As a wise Dutch professor once told me, the entire Spanish world can be summed up in one word: mañana. (tomorrow)

One of the things that is a normal routine is the way I would get to the Universidad.  Walk down to the subway station, get off at Republica, and walk to the campus.  It is about 2 kilometers walking and 12 minutes on the subway.  With traffic lights during the walk and such the total time is about 35 minutes. On the way back I go to a different subway station that is a bit less than a kilometer from the UC, transfer trains, and then take the same walk back home from the station.  All told it is maybe 3.5 K of walking. Today was the last day of that routine, which is something that I actually came to enjoy.

Last night Erin and I went to "tea time" at the professor's home who sponsored my activities.  I was clear to ask if 6pm was 6pm Dutch time (a punto...sharp) or 6pm Chilean time (630 to 7). It was a punto.  Part of this was because he has younger children and part is that Chileans eat supper late - perhaps 9pm.  So supper is really late to visit, hence tea time.  We had things like juice, tea, crepes, and bread.  It is a nice way to have conversation.  Of course we walked to his place - probably about 4K.  This "ir de pie" - go by foot - is something that is approaching a last as I live so far out of town in the States that "ir de pie" is not practical - particularly in the winter when there is a few feet of snow on the ground.

Our favorite restaurante has been a Peruvian place named Costa Verde.  We walk in and are immediately greeted with pisco sours la casa invita (on the house).  You can often hear mis amigos de los Estados Unidos están aquí (my friends from the United States are here).   Soon it will be the last Peruvian pisco sour.  The frothy part is from egg white and the little dark spot is bitters.

The other is our standby meal - seco de vacuno.

Perhaps the last thing we will do before going to the airport on our last day will be one final trip to Coasta Verde.

end of post