By Mikhail Saavedra

I write this as I head to yet another event in solidarity with the earthquake victims. I do so with a heavy heart which betrays the obvious. I am a product of that long, conflicted yet creative and generous land.

We are people of the Sun. We have at times overcome throughout our history a custom for suffering and saying “yes, but not so much” which has provided such good inspiration for our comedians.

We are crafty and ingenious even if now getting meat, oil or water for many may be a miracle only the Holy Virgin Mary could achieve.

I wanted this letter to be a rallying cry to make it all better, but the will is lacking as I begin this note. The truth is I have been missing Chile, I have been needing Chile. I have tried to stay strong but I am failing. It isn’t just the distance, it isn’t just nostalgia for a game of outdoor soccer (Pichangas) or the celebrations announced by church bells or wine or beautiful flying comets. (Volantines)

By Ola Roks

Unrequited love has to be the hardest pain to endure. You can’t really be mad at the other person for not reciprocating, but the agony of still having those feelings – that’s a doozy.

Boozing it might help.  You might run into someone new at the bar or the club and they may make for a good distraction, but for a while that one person will always sit in the back of your mind. It is haunting. The worst is being absolutely convinced that the person is “the one” and that you just need to do some convincing to get them to agree with you.

You can’t make someone love you back. It’s tragic, right?

By Yasmeen Finjan

INT.  APARTMENT – NIGHT

FADE IN:
ANDRE puts on a puffy prune coloured bomber jacket and looks at his mother EVELYN who hands him a five dollar bill and adjusts his collar.

EVELYN
Okay, so remember.  I want you to get a loaf of bread.  And not that white crap.  You’re a growing man and you need the nutrients.

ANDRE [annoyed]
Okaaaaay mom.  Anything else?

EVELYN
Hrmmm.  Oh and a carton of milk.  And don’t be going spending the money on any sweets or anything like that.  I’m not a bank.  Are you listening to what I’m saying Andre? Andre?  Don’t forget.

By Jennifer Finjan

Attracting that someone special can be a daunting task. So many of us focus on being taken seriously in our professional lives that somewhere along the way we forget to loosen up a little and project a more friendly and approachable side in order to meet new people.

You see it everywhere, guys and girls standing in clubs with their arms crossed, frowning and huddled closely amongst their clique of  friends.  Later, they complain that can’t meet anyone or that they don’t see anything out there that interests them.  In reality, they only have themselves to blame.

By Ola Roks

Kids these days are so sheltered from the world. In my days as a child living in Munich, the kindergarten teacher would hack butts in the park as we wailed down a steep grass hill on these big yellow bouncy ball things. I am not talking like one or two kids at a time, I am talking like thirty rowdy four-year-olds, bouncing down a sharp incline, one trying to get ahead of the other in a race to the bottom of the hill.

Nowadays this would not be possible. I only know this because quite a few of my friends are school teachers and they tell me all kinds of fascinating stories about how these days you can’t eat peanuts at school or how they play dodge-ball with soft foam balls so no one gets hurt during gym class.