I came to notice that Slava and Martin finally went back to Czech. Those two were the very last banners we had at Union; nowadays, some other guys are the international students on campus, which makes me a little jealous, I gotta say. Others get together at Seward 207 every weekend for drinks and, probably, it is not What's Up? the song they're singing there now; that makes me a little sad, I gotta admit.

We spent a whole year together. We experienced lots of similar things: we all learned to speak English -neither of us actually knew how in september 2005-, we all went together to our first frat party and we learned how to understand we were not extras on a sit com, we all learned to approach an American girl -well, most of us, girls went through the opposite expirience, we all did things we never thought we would, I don't think I have to name anyone...

We were from everywhere: Czech, France, England, Belguim, Japan, Chile, Honduras, Nigeria, Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Senegal, Morroco, Germany... five continents (cuz there are no seven!) all gotten together in a small American college in a small town up state New York.

I met an American girl the other day, who is an international student here at my university. And she got me thinking about what do I miss about Union. Do I miss the food? Nope, I got my Frank's Red Hot. Do I miss not being able to smoke everywhere I wanted? Nope, I couldn't do that. Do I miss Keystone Light? Nope, I like my piscola. Do I miss crashing in frat parties? Well... yeah. But what I miss the most is my buddies.

What is left from Union is spread all arround the world now. The Czechs are back in Czech, after Martin, Slava and Stana stayed all summer long traveling the States. The Germans are back in Germany, working as the good Germans they are. Gary is heading to Bahrain. The Japanese girls: Azumi went back to the U.S., although, now she is living in Wisconsin. Hikari went back to Japan, while Erumi has another year in Schenectady. Myself, back in Chile, working my ass off (who would've thought so?!).

At Union we left some things: gringo friends and lots of memories: Sunday's brunches telling Gary and Martin what did they do on Saturday night; kicking some gringo's asses on soccer every Tuesday; shut-down parties by Campus Safety; getting naked at Ozone; naked runs arround the Nott (Did I wear any colthes while I was there?); singing our lungs out... "What's going on?"...

If you ask me what is left from Union, it is a lot; but I'm pretty sure that a big part of it it is not in Schenectady anymore but it is spread all arround the world.

Here is a video... maybe some us remember:

Here you got links for almost every photo I took at Union (I might have skip some...):

• 1st week at Union.
• Union @ winter.
• Walking through Schenctady (How many of us did that?).
• Colin's birthday (One of many parties).
• Czech party... relocated.
• Christian, Gary and me went to Boston.
• Party in the gardens.
• The very last party at LHA.

I hope I will see comments of everyone... C U.

Today is Wednesday, but here it feels like Monday; and it is better because it is actually Wednesday which means that Friday is not to far away and the next weekend is closer than ever. Long weekends… best thing ever!

This last one, though, is special. I use the present tense because –although it is true that this very last weekend was awesome– every September 18th we Chileans celebrate our birthday. This year we started on Friday, mostly at the office or schools with some special event, most of the times typical food and drinks and some music (I took my guitar to the office and we sang); then we had Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of non stop party all weekend long. Why? Because both Monday and Tuesday were holydays: the 18th is kind of our own Independence Day and the 19th is the Army’s Day. Whoever decided to put these two day together did nice.

When I say kind of our own Independence Day is not because I am trying to stand that Chile has never been independent… well, it have not, but that is not the point now; it is because September 18th 1810, which is established as Chile’s anniversary, it is not the commemoration of the final battle neither the signing of the declaration of independence, but the anniversary of the conformation of the First Government Junta. Which swore to protect the Kingdom of Chile till the king Ferdinand VII came back to the throne (He was captured by Napoleon’s army, taken prisoner and replaced by Joseph Napoleon). It was not till 8 years later when Bernardo O'Higgins together with José de San Martín signed the Declaration of Independence on February 12th 1818, conmemorating the battle of Chacabuco (1817), in which the Spaniars left Chile's Central Valley for good.

Inspite all that, we celebrate every September 18th as our Independence Day, most people do not even know what I just told you about, and we celebrate it big. Last year I went -I was in Schenectady, NY- without knowing anything about Manhattan, to the fonda organized by the Chilean colony in New York, lucky me it turned out to be Sunday! This year, back home, I spent it eating, drinking and dancing all together with my family at our place in the country side.

We ate probably more than we should. For sure, we drank more than we should have. We started at noon and we came back home -after going to town for some party- arround 5ish AM. We danced cueca and we ate empanadas; we did not drink more wine, just because there was not more of it.

The whole family together, from my grandfather and his sister till my newborn niece... well... lets see... she is my grandfather's sister's grandchild, which would made her my niece in Spanish; because she is my cousin's daughter, being him my cousin because he is my dad's cousin son. That might have became too complicated, but the bottom line is there was four generations under one roof eating and drinking because 196 years ago, some French dude took the King of Spain prisioner and the Spaniards here did not recognize Napoleon's new king.

September does not have 30 days; at least not in Chile. It has one: the 18th. As well, it looks like no other month has an 18th. September 18th is probably the most important day of the year down here.

You may click here or on the pictures to go seeing the rest of them. There's a lot.

I just love this song:

At Union we got wireless internet everywhere. Library, dorms, houses, classrooms… We are just one click away from the rest of the world. Imagine that same thing all over Schenectady. Can you realize how it would improve the Schenectady’s quality of life? Education, Health Care, Government bureaucracy and telecommunications would become much more fast and easy.

This thought bears from two major events which happened these past couple of weeks. First Google announced the implementation of WiFi all over Mountain View, California. This 70 thousand people city is located in the heart of Silicon Valley and there is where Google Inc. has its headquarters. This free access network not only will help Google itself, but Mountain View’s whole community. This is the first American city with broad band for everyone.

Last Monday September 4th, a Chilean senator, Fernando Flores (in Wikipedia), brought up Mountain View in Salamanca, a small 25 thousand people town in the Coquimbo Region in Chile (about 200 miles northern from Santiago, Chile’s capital city). He spoke to 2.500 people in the municipal gym, among who we found the Chilean President, Ms. Michele Bachelet, the major of Salamanca, Mr. Gerardo Rojas, several senators, members of the Parliament, State secretaries, business men and women, lots of journalists and, of course, the very inhabitants of Salamanca. What brought all these people together?

Salamanca is the first city in the world with free wireless internet access. It is so since a month ago when 11 antennas were installed covering the entire urban area of Salamanca. Last Monday, this project “Salamanca flies with internet” (English for “Salamanca vuela con Internet”) was inaugurated, “but not finished -stated Mr. Flores-, this is just the beginning. We have to keep educating the people of Salamanca; it’s worthless to be connected if no one knows how to use the Internet”.

That is the second edge of the project -the first is, of course the technical approach, I mean, installing the antennas-: educating. According to Andrea Salinas, from the Mercator Foundation, Volunteers -for the most part, college students- dedicated their winter break (in July) to digitally alphabetize 309 inhabitants of Salamanca, and they are waiting founding to proceed in September with a huge alphabetization campaign which goal is to educate 4800 people, about 20% of the total population in around 4 months.

The Mercator Foundation (English for Fundación Mercator) is commanded by Mr. Flores, leaded the project, together with Salamanca’s City Hall, the mining company Los Pelambres and D-Link who provided the technological supplies. “This is how -said the President, Ms. Bachelet- both business and Government, together with citizens institutions, merge towards building a better country”. This is a major event in Chile’s history. This is the first city with WiFi, but there is already 15 other interested, including Puerto Montt, a 176.000 inhabitants city.

After Mountain View, Google said “it has no plans for national WiFi service”, according to the New York Times (August 16th, 2006). Down here, after Salamanca, we do.