Riots, or defying the digestive Gods

At this point, I am comfortable in saying that Chilean water doesn't make me sick.  I've had coffee with it, I've brushed my teeth with it, I've even had a cold glass or two of it over the past 8 days living here.  I also recently started eating lunch at the cafeteria in the Instituto, and I've had a large plate of fresh vegetables each day.  No problem whatsoever.  Before I came down here, everybody's second comment (after "are you crazy?") was "Don't drink the water, you'll get the trots."  "Stay away from freshly washed fruits."  "And don't eat the produce, either."  But up to this point, I have yet to experience anything outside of normal body function.  Is this because I normally live a non-germophobe lifestyle?  Possibly.  Maybe it's because I've also included a lot of grains and simple sugars in my diet that help promote cohesiveness. 

Despite this, I believe the most compelling reason for my lack of digestive issues is the fact that I packed down 4 different types of anti-diarreal medications.  No joke.  It starts with immodium and goes all the way through 3 different levels of perscription-grade colon-clumpers.  If I was stopped and searched at customs on the way into Chile, the agent would have thought I had the intestinal constitution of wet toilet paper.  However, despite my sizeable arsenal in my anti/bacterial arms race, I have yet to use any of it.  So, karma gods, consider this my act of defiance to you.  DO YOUR WORST, I DARE THEE.

I had 3 classes today, starting at 9 am and ending at 9:15 PM.  About halfway through my final class at night, I started to hear banging pots and pans from outside the building.  Upon leaving the building, I saw this:

It's difficult to tell from the picture, but there are people standing at the corners of the street, as well as up and down the street on ground level banging spoons against pots and pans.  It is incredibly annoying, especially because I had no idea why they were doing it.  After hopping on the metro, I went about 8 stops away from where I was, and walked out to this scene:

Again difficult to tell, but there were probably 500 people or so all gathered together at this space banging pots and pans together.  Not in unison, of course.  That would be much too enjoyable for people to hear.  Through my 10 min walk back to my apartment, I ran into more and more people outside, making noise and honking horns on the street.  Upon arriving back at my apartment, I asked the landlady what was going on outside.  She said it was everybody's way of demanding cheaper public university education.  It's definitely admirable how the entire city has banded together to voice their discourse like this, I just wish they could do it a little farther away from me and my eardrums.