Dia de Pacos

I apologize for posting again so soon, i promise I won't make a habit of it. Yesterday, a roommate of mine took of for class only to return minutes later. He told me that there was a protest on campus and all classes were canceled. Furthermore, his face was white and eyes red because he got blasted by tear gas. I thus quickly grabbed my camera and we set off for the U. We arrived to see people basically destroying what they could. They then proceeded to move off campus toward the nearby main street. In rout, they but rocks and whatever they could to block off the road that runs along side of the U. However, before making it to the main street, the cops arrived with their armored vehicles. All of the protesters then receded. When the vehicles entered the parking lot, the protesters proceeded to throw rocks and ect at the vehicles. There was one small jeep looking vehicle that sprayed tear gas out the sides. There was also a very large tank type vehicle that had a large spraying gun on top that discharges tear gas. The third vehicle was an armoured bus carrying several cops. The exchange of rocks and tear gas lasted for some time before the cops decided to attack on foot. They ended up arresting only two people. See the pictures for a more vivid, well, picture.

All the while I was just watching taking photos. I was not scared because there was alot of people just watching. However, it was quite intense. I'm not exactly sure what they were protesting, but there have been several other protests this year, but with less action. What I'm told is that during this time of the year there are always protests for various reasons, usually against the government.

I was quite displeased by this protest. They did alot of damage to the U, and I'm not sure why. The protest was against the gov, not the U. Anyway, I was told that the protesters were not from our U, they were from other U's and the majority from high school. This kinda pissed me off that they used my U as there stage of destruction. But, these are just the things that happen in Chile and I may never fully understand them.

Later in the evening when I was going to bed, I was watching South Park on my computer. My battery was really low and was about to die at any moment. I then heard this high pitched ringing noise. I thought it was the fan or something in my computer because it was dieing. So I plugged it in, but the noise continued. I was confused. So I left my room for some water and the noise was louder. The noise led me outside of the house. There I found several roommates and other people from the neighborhood. The noise was a house alarm. What had happened was someone was robbing one of our neighbors houses, and when the alarm sounded, two of my roommates saw out there window what was happening. They then ran outside and detained the guy until the police got there. The robber ended up being a drunk university student being stupid.

Anyway, it was an entertaining day with lots of police. However, don't worry, I'm totally safe and was never in any danger. Nor have I ever been in any danger here ever. Seriously, mom, all is ok. I only wrote about this because it was notable, funny and entertaining!

Paz
D