Dancing in a cage, in cellophane or with a crutch!

What's up everybody?
So, I wanted to use this thinger to complain and complain about the new ball of negativity that rolled into class this morning, but instead of doing that, I am going to talk about stuff I really like about my life (slowly becoming more interesting) here in Santiago.
I ended up going out with Benja´s friends Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I can't say enough how lucky I feel to be included. Friday night we went to a bar where "Los Cariñocitos"- or "The Carebears"- played Creedence, Stones and James Brown covers. Also that night someone at the table accidentally called my brand new cellphone, and the next day I heard a recording of my own voice- it was horrifying! From now on I'm trying to read my book out loud to improve my pronunciation but, as Benja pointed out, the gringa accent is hard to shake! Saturday I ended up going out dancing (we got there at 3:00 am, natch). Unfortunately the only girl in the group (Rose, who is so awesome and sadly moving to the US tomorrow) decided to go home on the way there, so it was me and about 6 guys. I would dance with one (one had just had knee surgery and was dancing with his little crutch, hilarious) while the others supervised from the bar to make sure he wasn't acting like a "jote" (a bird of prey/sleazy guy). The most ridiculous part of the night (aside from the 9 dollar cover) was the dancers on the stage, men and women, all covered in glitter and zebra print and a few in a cage! One of the guys I was with gestured to one of the zebra men and pointed out just how "gay" the dancing was, probably to assure me that he was not, in fact, gay. The homophobia here still gets under my skin.
Sunday I saw another kind of dancing with Stebrushka at the 165th anniversary for the University of Chile- modern dance by students there covered in cellophane outfits! They were truly spectacular, although the funk/rap band playing outside was more my style.
So anyway, life goes on here! Can't say enough how much it helps to read emails or even just look at the pictures on my wall.