Riots, or Lack of Exercise

I woke up yesterday morning to a dull roar outside my window.  It was tough to tell what exactly was going on, but it sounded like a parade or something, with floats, kids yelling, and the whole 9 yards.  I took my time getting ready for the day, and ended up leaving my house at about 12:35, normally plenty of time to arrive at my 1:00 PM class.  I walk out of my apartment complex to the end of the block, and I notice that the ground all around the park is soaking wet.  It seemed odd, as there were hardly any clouds in the sky.  Providencia is pretty good about maintaining the park/watering the grass, but this was excessive.  Then I look to my right...

Yup, there was a parade of the riot squad/water tanks rolling around Parque Bustamante, quelling the kids.  Now before you email me telling me how unsafe this area is and that I should move out ASAP, just know that this was by far the tamest protest I've seen so far.  It was literally just a bunch of students yelling, and occasionally throwing rocks at the trucks that passed by.  There was no damage of property, no malicious acts, no government buildings touched.  That said, I didn't feel comfortable walking to my normal Metro stop (right beyond the water tank above), so I ended up walking up to the next stop.  Along the way, I got to walk past the "police line", which was kind of cool.

 The paddy wagon (aka zombie apocalypse-mobile) for any fletes needing to be detained.

The police line, which more or less contained the "riot".

I ended up being a couple minutes late to class, but I still beat 2 of my 4 students to the classroom.  The people around here are not nearly as concerned with punctuality as Americans are.  Everything is "ballpark".  Don't worry though, Dad.  Save for events like this, I'm still always on time.


I have another theory for why all these riots are taking place around town: these people simply take in a ridiculous amount of calories in their meals.  For your consideration, a "completo" is a hot dog which includes tomatoes, sauerkraut, and mayonnaise.  I passed by a place recently which advertised "2 completos and a coke" for about $3.  I normally can put down 2 hot dogs with ease, so I decided to try it out, and this is what it looked like:

The hot dogs drowned a mayonnaisey death.

I decided to try another one later on, called a "completo italiano".  This includes chunks of tomato, as well as mayonnaise and palta (avocado paste).  I got smart this time and only ordered one.

  This was still too much, I was out of commission afterwards for a while.  My state of catatonia did include a smile, though.

Go Blue!  Time to crush ND tonight on international TV!