As you notice, I am talking about future right now... and I can, since I now can use simple future tense in Spanish as well. Life is expanding from the present moment into past and future.

The fact is, I am really ready to leave Santiago. This city is too big, too noisy, way too polluted to my liking. Too much traffic, which makes the air really hard to deal with. I constantly carry eucalyptus oil in my pocket (and use it too), and definitely feel the pollution in my contact lenses as well. Yet, this week has been good. I have picked up lots of Spanish, met a few interesting people, and had a good week of transitioning from my comfortable life in Canada to a different culture and mentality. I am taking my culture shock in measurable doses.

A few days ago I visited a museum in Santiago, as a group trip with my Spanish class and our instructor - of pre-Columbian Art, telling the story of the various cultures and tribes that lived on this continent long time ago. Up to 3000 BC. Here are some interesting facts.

There was a tribe that had a very sophisticated technique of mummifying its dead. Interestingly enough, they had the technique about two thousand years before the Egyptians.

Another tribe had what is known to be the oldest computer in the world. Using a combination of ropes and threads, tied together in specific manners, they would count and keep track of people, property, and what not. The knowledge was passed from generation to generation in specific families.

Chilean ATM machines are funny. They are great, because not only I can get cash, but also check my balance. Since the balance shows in local currency - Chilean peso, it feels amazingly great to be a millionaire, in Chilean money and on paper. I don´t think I ever felt as one... and it is impressive for a moment, at least for me. However, the person programming the user interface in English, was obviously not a native speaker of the language. After the withdrawal, the machine asks, "You want slip?" which means a copy of the printout. And bids me farewell with "Thank for preferring our finance."