Mechoneo

There's a strange tradition in Chilean Universities, and it's the tradition of the week of Mechoneo. At some point in the first couple weeks of school, there's a "group activity" where the upperclassmen get all of the freshmen together. At this activity, the freshmen are covered in paint, eggs, ketchup, fish, mustard, tomatoes, confetti, and everything else imaginable, their clothes are torn, and their shoes are stolen. Then, they're all sent out into the streets to ask the general public for money. The money is to replace their now ruined clothing and to buy their shoes back. The shoe money then goes to throw a big party for everyone. Several days when I've been walking around in the street, I've run into large packs of freshmen asking me for money. It seems like hazing to me, but I guess it's a bonding experience and a way for the students to show the public that they are now enrolled in a university.

The university I'm in is Catholic, so I didn't have class yesterday afternoon, and nobody has class today. Last night I went and played cards with some of the guys on the frisbee team. We started at around 10:00 pm and finished around 8:00 am. It was a lot of fun, and I hope we do that again.
My dad is coming tomorrow to visit, so I'm very excited about that! We'll be traveling to the south for about a week. New birds here we come!

These aren't my pictures, but it's the same thing that I've been seeing: