I found an apartment today. I had been trying to see this guy’s place for a week now, because I thought I would really like it, but apparently he is a phone person and I am email person, so I would get lots or replies like “Sorry, I was out and didn’t see your email about coming over until just now. Could you call me and tell me when else you can come?” So, I let him suggest a time and then made sure I could be there. The apartment is just across the street from Cerro Santa Lucia, a giant hill in the middle of downtown with an ancient fort on top of it. If I knew more about history, I would probably say something about how the fort was used to repel invasions in the stone age or something. But, I don’t: it’s just a really cool hill with lots of trees and old stone walls. It’s actually amazing how tall it is, because it’s hard to see the top from ground level. The hill is also very wide so you keep being surprised as you ascend that there is another level and then another and another, until finally you are higher than most buildings in Santiago and have unobstructed view of the Andes, Cerro San Cristobal (an even bigger hill that I’ll talk about later), and all of Santiago stretching out around you. My room is just across Avenida Santa Lucia to the west and faces east. When I arrived, it was around 3, so I am not sure when the morning sun will rise above the crest of the hill and shine on my room. Santa Lucia is a very busy part of town, and there was a fair amount of street noise, even some construction to the West, but it was actually a little less noisy than where I live now, as there are some dogs halfway down the block that really enjoy seeing who can wait the longest until the neighborhood is almost asleep before they bark three times and then four times, then three times, then four times… Where was I?
Jorge seems like a good flatmate, very accommodating and a little nutty. When he learned I was a physics student (physicist?) he told me about some new kinds of numbers that he invented. I couldn’t understand his Spanish completely, but they sounded like a cross between palindromes and irrational numbers. I am not really sure how that could be possible, but it was interesting. He also had a table full of speakers, wires and drum machines. He explained to me that he was an aficionado of electronic music, and sure enough, his friend Jose Luis came over with a brand-new laptop and asked Jorge to install some bootleg copies of Reason 3 andPro Tools on it. For those of you who don’t know, or can’t guess (see below), these are very expensive drum machine and digital synthesizer programs.
I stayed at the place for a while because I liked it so much. It felt very homey with all the bizarre junk - deer skulls, mannequins, an old suitcase full of wine corks. Jorge only asked for 100.000 CLP ($174) a month, so I figured it was a steal. Now all I have to do is pack up the rest of my stuff tomorrow and move it across town. Did I mention my room is much bigger than the one I have now? Paradise, here I come!
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