So this morning the protests started about ten which was about the time I was waking up to eat breakfast. I had received my usual email yesterday that classes for Chilean students would be canceled in the afternoon but international classes would go on as usual. There was no reasoning but school is canceled pretty frequently here so I didn't think much of it. This morning at breakfast my roommate told me there was a protest close to our house but once again I really didn't think much of it because there are protests here literally all the time and you may run into a bit of tear gas but just go about the day as usual.
We both have class at two on Wednesdays so we leave after lunch and head for school. My roommate had went down to look at the protests after breakfast and said there were about 1,000 students but it was peaceful and the students were just marching and so we left for school...if it gets out of hand we usually get an email and the protests are usually over within a couple of hours anyways--I figured it would be over by this time.
We turn the corner to the main road that we walk on to get to school and walk about two blocks and run into students sprinting at us--across the street was a water/tear gas tank spraying the protesters down in the street. There were big black tank vehicles in the streets and police in protective gear chasing students not far away. So of course, we didn't want to get arrested (for walking in the street, I know right?) and at this point the tear gas was unavoidable so we ran about a block to get away from the chaos. I stopped and asked a guy my age if we would be able to get to school and he told me that the protests were worse down by school and there was no way we could make it. I have a moral dilemma against missing school so I was already over it but of course it's definitely an experience to walk into history in the making if you know what I mean. I never really thought anything of protesting because what I have seen back home in the states is peaceful compared to what went down here today. I definitely had one of those "oh wow this is real life" moments seeing a black tank racing through the streets after student protesters. Granted we got out of it as quickly as we could but today the protests affected most of the city.
When we got home Papá and Mama were eating lunch. Papá told us he had ridden a bus home from work and had to cover his nose because of all the gas and the bus had to take many different streets to avoid the protests and get him to the right street. We sat down and had a beer with Papá and all was good....just a day in the life here in Chile.
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