Laptop Saved, Ticket Home, Student Protests, Oven Fried Chicken, and 4th of July in Winter

So my laptop is alive!

A Chilean friend helped me by taking it around to repair places.  Long story short, he got a place to clean it out for 10 dollars.  Ideally they would have replaced the keyboard, but they didn't have any in stock.  Now it has a few nuances about it:

1. The right arrow key doesn't work.
2. When it turns on it beeps angrily at me until I hit the right shift key three times.  After that it loads normally.
3. Once it loads up, any time I click on something it automatically scrolls over to the icon to the furthest right side of the screen.  The solution?  Hitting the right shift key three times.

I was so relieved to not have to shell out money for a new laptop, as I'm considering getting a new one when I'm home visiting in February.

So yes, as I always do with my planning, I already have a ticket home to visit.  I'll be getting in to JFK February 7th, and I'll be home until the 28th.  I wanted to be home to celebrate the 4 family birthdays, and this year is a big one for my dad since he'll be 70.  My plan is also to get in a visit out to Los Angeles again to see friends and escape the Jersey winter for a week too, and on the way back to Santiago I'll be in Colombia for about 8 days.

The student protests in Santiago have been ongoing, so last weekend I decided to take a stroll around downtown with my camera and take some pictures to document.  And here they are:

This is near where I work in downtown. 

The phrase "en paro" means on strike in Spanish.  ICEI is the abbreviation for a school.

Someone cleverly put a bandana on this statue, and my guess is that they are making reference to the government being robbers with the education system.

Free education

Translation of the middle sign: Engineers taking over for a public education of high quality

A lot of buses have things written on them in protest of the education system.  Lavin is the Education minister, and many have called for him to resign.  It looks like this says Lavin Educriminal.

This is from a public school a block from where I live.  "We want a quality education!  Liceo 007 taking over!"

Another photo of the same school.  "Now it's our turn!"

There was a huge protest here on the 30th, starting in Plaza Italia and going all the way down Alameda (the main street of Santiago.)  The reports vary between 100,000 and 400,000 people marching, but in any case it was huge.  I had a class in downtown shortly before it started, so luckily I avoided it.  I considered going back to the office after my class, but I decided to avoid the possibility of teargas and the like.  I tried putting a link to a news article from the Santiago Times on here, but unfortnately their website wasn't working right to view it.

I've been meaning to post pictures of this for a while, but I finally got around to taking pictures and getting them up on here.  I've found a really good recipe for oven baked fried chicken.  I usually also make a salad and mac and cheese, and so here's what it looks like:

And it's hard for me to believe that it's the 4th of July already.  Due to Movistar not yet installing internet and cable in my apartment, I'm actually sitting in a Papa John's that has wireless, bundled up in multiple layers due to the cold weather.  I'm not much of a patriotic person so I'm not doing anything tonight, but yesterday I went to an event at California Cantina (a gringo bar here) that had burgers, fries, a drink, and apple pie for about 10 bucks.  I normally don't like going there, but it was a nice afternoon event for a change.

And that's all for now.  From Santiago, wishing everyone back in the States a happy 4th of July!