Yesterday was quite the experience! Dr. Jay already wrote a little about our little experience, but I'll tell the whole story with some pictures at the end. The whole class was split into smaller groups in order to do an exercise involving observing the Chilean people. My group consisted of me, Alan Clutter, and Dornella Leal. We decided that we would be a little adventurous and take the metro for our observation assignment. There was a popular cafe we had been told about a few metro stops away so we set off to get lunch there. When we arrived at the Plaza Italia and walked up the stairs to the streets our eyes and nostrils started burning, which was our first clue this would not be a normal lunch! We started walking through the crowded street to the cafe when we noticed that our way was blocked by police in riot gear. I looked around and realized the police were surrounding the Plaza and focused on the crowd we were walking through. It was then that I realized this wasn't just the crowded street of downtown Chile at lunchtime, but was actually a student protest!
Once we realized that, we quickly crossed the street to be closer to the police and away from the protesters. We noticed some other pedestrians watching the protest from this side of the street and Dornella, our Spanish speaker, asked them what was happening. They told her it was a student protest against the high cost of a university education in Chile. They didn't seem threatened by protest, and we felt safe because of the strong police presence, so we decided to spend our 20 minutes observing the protest. While we were watching, one student threw a bottle at an armored vehicle and the police responded by releasing tear gas upwind of the crowd. A group of policemen then circled around behind the protesters and arrested the student who threw the bottle without any further incidents. Shortly after that, the police started leaving the Plaza and we went back to the hotel to get lunch.
