Across the street, on the terrace of the airy loft, the director and the director of photography are walking thru the last details of the shots as the crew set up the props. A pretty girl in a dark blue mini dress is leaning against the handrail, pulling on the matching blue balloons' string trying to get in the zone. Sunset is near, there is only one shot, she will have to pull it off or else...
Next door, a young sporty type is doing his daily cross fit in the kitchen as his plump Golden Retriever is watching from the balcony crib, wondering why in the world is he practicing in the kitchen instead of the Park Forestal down the street? Many of his jock buddies doing burpees there and canine friends are out there getting busy sniffing a wide spectrum of mysterious smells.
2 floors below, the young writer is going thru a writer's block, she has not sat down at the desk for over a week now. She has been procrastinating, watering the flowers, dusting the floors, trying on her new summery dresses and so on. She even went on a long weekend over to Valparaiso, but no luck, her grandfather's typewriter on the desk is collecting smog dust and the empty piece of old fashioned yellowish letter paper is all wrinkled up, because she left the window ajar while gone.
A prospective tenant couple are looking up and down the street, taking pictures out the adjacent window. They would have bought the apartment right away, it had had at least a small balcony. They are hesitant because this building neither has "enough" character nor balconies, unlike the other mid century buildings do on Monjitas Street.
Busses zoom thru Monjitas, hoping to catch the green light at the end of the block, but it is the rush hour, peds heading down to nearby chic Lastarria street for happy hour drinks, keep pressing the green light button, interrupting traffic.
Other peds in the know, get on the bus at the lights in front of the freestanding "never open at the right time kiosk". It's clerk is the owner, thus he does not really concern himself with other people's schedules, his siesta time is whenever it is his time. He is on his way to Bella Vista across the river, for his usual evening fix now.
Gyro guys nextdoor are in the store day and night, except before lunch time of course. They watch Palestino football matches there, a local club founded by Palestinian immigrants back in the days. They even have small parties late at night in the store when they roll the gate down and keeping the door open to expose the private party to the street.
Adjacent bottelleria does the same, rolls the gate down, keeps the door open after about 21:00 to sell liquor, beer and tobacco until the wee hours, for private parties elsewhere.
During the day Bellas Artes Museum down the street is open, but is under renovation, thus only shows a small selection of temporary exhibits. A room full of blue dogs by Antonio Becerro are portrayed busy doing their own thing, just like the real ones on the street are busy minding their own business, in the most "dogged" country of the world, Chile.
Siamiese twin of Bellas Artes Museum, MAC, is the host to visual illusion via architectural interventions by Georges Rousse, taking over the main hall with a somewhat deconstructivist structural concoction, where you have to find the vantage point to spot the star in the opus.
Across the River Mapocho at Santa Maria Clinic emergency ward #34, Ayca got diagnosed with acute laryngitis, doctor prescribed granizado pina (pineapple juice ice drink) and antibiotics, and this provided some relief for us.
Prior to the doctor's call, we were mostly immobilized due to her sickness, and basically had to spend about half of our time in Santiago at our AirBnB apartment, temporary "home" on Monjitas Street in Bellas Artes neighborhood. We made short daily excursions out in to the city to discover the sights, but for the rest of the time, Monjitas apartment balcony was the "mirador" (belvedere) to watch and appreciate the everyday life in this city.
And spending mandatory time at "home", after being on the road for so long, initiated what might be the initial symptoms of homesickness...
This featured blog entry was written by ayca ozer from the blog SiestaFiesta.
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