Day 135- UPDATE FOR WEEK 19

NOTABLE EVENTS:
· Going to see La Pequeña Gigante (read on for the explanation...!)

WEATHER:
Today it is unusually cool and overcast. Strange weather! It is around 68º as I am currently updating my blog this morning here. But it looks as if the clouds will pass, and accordingly, it will probably warm up. Oh what a difference the shining sun does make on the temperature! I am very cold right now... wearing sweats and two layers of long-sleeved shirts. The week prior to this has been very nice though- not too hot and with nice weather. It is usually in the low-to-mid-80s, and with a soft breeze blowing. On one day, it was quite windy indeed however, and sometimes at night it really starts to blow. However, it is a nice wind, usually warm, and fabulous-feeling when I go for runs either in the morning or at night, during the cooler times of day.

MISSIONS PROJECTS, EVENTS DURING THE WEEK, and AROUND THE HOUSE:
This week I mostly just stayed at home and worked in my routine of getting out to exercise in the morning and evening as well as going about the video-transfering process. I did a lot of reading with my time as well, since I finally received a package from home with a couple more books! It took the package 21 days to arrive (when it was mailed for arrival after 4-7 business days). The Chilean postal system is not so timely right now, as the Thurstons have been waiting nearly a month for another package to arrive from the States, and we have been researching and tracking the packages, coming to the conclusion that the inefficiency is occurring once the packages arrive in Chile. They just chill somewhere for a couple weeks, apparently.) On Friday, I spent the majority of the day cleaning and organizing Jim's office; he has a lot of files and papers and equipment and such that really clutter up quickly, so I thought I would surprise him when he arrived back in Santiago with a clean office (I have cleaned it twice before since being here). When he came home, he came searching for me, saying that he needed my help... he couldn't find his office! haha. He loved it. I organized his piles and dusted! Whew! What he really needs is just more space to store all his files and papers in more shevles, file drawers, or cabinets! Ack! See before-and-after pictures lining this paragraph on the left and right, accordingly.

Now I will indulge you concerning the exciting events that happened in Santiago, Chile this week...! There was this four-day theatrical work of art that cost $1.5 million, and since January is "honor the arts" month in Chile, a production was sponsored (mostly by private individuals supporting "the arts") over the course of four days... Let me start from the beginning. On Friday morning, Señora Mercedes said she was on a bus headed downtown and heard talk of there being this HUGE bus and car wreck downtown in front of La Moneda, the President’s house and office. She had watched the news that morning before hearing that though, sso she knew there was really no such wreck, and it was a part of this larger-than-life production. So, here's the story behind it: in Santiago this weekend, there was a huge machine-operated puppet doll (called "la pequeña gigante," or "the little giant") and a huge rhino as well. Over this weekend, the rhino was on the loose around the city of Santiago, but "nobody could seem to find it!" It wreaked havoc and created destruction at night, and so during the daytime, the doll set out to find it over the course of Friday through Sunday. She would take a nap during the day, or do some sort of entertaining thing, like eating a popsicle, etc. While she sleeps, her eyelashes close (she blinks too!), and her tummy moves up and down and she breathes! Then during the evening hours, she would get up (followed by a procession of hundreds of thousands of people), and walk around the city (to a predestined area, which would be announced on tv through news stations, in the papers, etc.). She was "looking for the rhino," and ended up another place for the night. At that place, she put on a show, or rather, 10 to 20 operators moved her mechanically. On Friday, she danced salsa moves up in the air, held by a crane. Who knew what sort of terrible scene would show up the next morning, caused by the rhino, which nobody could seem to find. So, over the course of the weekend, the storyline unfolded... I took some pictures and posted them in my photobucket account (you can follow links to my photos at the end of this week’s updates). News stations and the papers followed the whole work very closely, seeing as the event is so very unique. It has only been shown in five other large cities in the world, and has one more to go (somewhere in Asia, the news said) before the doll is retired. It is really quite interesting… a large, mechanical work of theater that progressed over the weekend for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people to see!

So, as for my personal experiences and encounters with the theatrical work… On Friday evening, Paul and I went downtown to see the hubub, and got caught up in the swarm of people. This crowd was huge, and it was only the first day of the weekend’s drama, before millions of people came to the city to see the occurrence that will only happen once before it is sent back up to Valparaíso to be shipped to Asia for its final showing. Anyway, on Friday, we went to the Plaza de Armas (top right picture), downtown, and got quite caught up in the crowds, as you can imagine by looking at my pictures, http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j96/Chile_girl/CHILE%20PHOTOS/Day%20132%20La%20Pequena%20Gigante/20La%20Pequena%20Gigante/. It was stinky, sticky, yucky, and hot, crowded with all sorts of people. I as apalled that families actually brought strollers and their infants down to this event, where there is hardly any air to breathe, contaminated air at that, lots of noise, confusion, etc.! So, I have established the fact that the crowds were INSANE! I have never been in such a huge and tightly-packed crowd before! Literally, through the streets and down in the Plaza, there was barely any room to budge, let alone walk across the street/on the sidewalk. But I am glad I have this experience under my belt and in my book of tales to tell! It was a spectacular sight to see, as well as interesting to follow in the news over the next few days this past weekend. After the plaza, Paul and I walked up to the site of the “rhino’s destruction,” (see the picture on the bottom right) where the doll and crowds had just come from in the last couple hours. The area had cleared out a bit, and I could actually take pictures of the “wreckage.” The site was in front of the President’s house, La Moneda, which is on a very central street in Santiago, where much traffic passes on a daily basis. It was fun to take my pictures in that area as well!

Basically, what occurred after that night was this: She slept in her bed! in the Plaza de Armas (where Paul and I had gone to witness her dancing salsa), awoke Saturday morning and took a shower and got changed out of her bedclothes (quite the spectacle, as the French puppeteers hurried around her, velcroing and fastening her clothing articles), she ate an icecream popsicle on her walk through the city to the Museum of Fine Arts, where she hung out and napped in the daytime, and then she moved on in her search for the rhino. She ended up “finding” him downtown in the Plaza Italia on Sunday evening, under the watch of thousands of people. On our way to church Sunday morning, the plaza was already crowded in apprehension of her arrival during that evening, and all along Alameda, the main street, crowds had lined the sidewalks, waiting for her to pass by on her journey. Well, now that it is all over and she found the rhino (as has been reported on the news and in the papers this morning), I’d have to say that it was a pretty special event to be here in Santiago for and to witness!

Check out these links about the event (they are newspaper articles that list more details about this intriguing work of theatrical art):
number 1 (a report from day one) http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=12838&topic_id=15
number 2 (a report from day one) http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=12846&topic_id=1
number 3 (last day’s report) http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index.php?nav=story&story_id=12860&topic_id=1

To see a couple little movie shots I took on my camera while in the Plaza Italia, check out these links:
http://www.esnips.com/doc/84ebee05-5f2a-46fe-9cdd-edd90e2a87b4/Pequeña-Gigante
http://www.esnips.com/doc/3f1abfcd-9832-4c12-a9de-396303a17f8b/La-Pequeña-Gigante
http://www.esnips.com/doc/bdca4cda-694c-4eee-b36c-21866baed703/La-Pequeña-Gigante

Take a look at new pictures I have added from this past week in the following bins:
Day 132 La Pequena Gigante
me working
(all my pictures are in labeled bins at:
http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j96/Chile_girl/CHILE%20PHOTOS/)