What's the Difference between Chileans and Americans?

I get asked this question a lot. I hate it. It's right up there with "Can you translate this song for me?" After a few months of living here, I came up with the following answer:

If I decided tomorrow that I wanted to climb Mt. Everest, an American friend would say, "Awesome! Go for it! Keep me posted!" A Chilean friend, on the other hand, would say, "Why in the world would you want to do that?! You better be careful, you might get hurt. Are you sure they'll even let you into the country?"

¿Cuál es la diferencia entre los chilenos y los gringos? Ni se imaginan cuantas veces he oído esta pregunta. Al principio no supe que contestar. Pero al cabo de un par de meses en Chile, surgió la siguiente repuesta. A mi juicio, ilustra a cabalidad la diferencia.

Si mañana se me ocurriera escalar el Everest, un gringo me diría "-Bacan, te deseo lo mejor! Cuando regreses, me tienes que contar todo!" Un chileno, en cambio, me diría "-Para que queri hacer algo así? Teni que tener cuidado, te podi lastimar. Estai segura que es algo que quieres hacer?"

(fyi, the italicized words are Chilean slang. You probably won't find them in a translation dictionary.)

Photos Pending

Here are the pictures I promised.
The yarn...so shiny, sooo perty (45% acrylic, 55% nylon)

This is my progress so far. Check out my new fangled stitch markers (lol)

Close up

(So NOT) Mindless Knitting

Okay, so I'm almost done with the hot pink cardigan. Yippeeeee! Soooo, I decided to get started with another project. Knitting lulls are death for any knitter.

Here's the new project. Last week I saw the perfect yarn. It's kinda shimmery and light-weight. Yesterday I bought it in a pearly- blue tone (photo pending). I was so psyched!

Alright, this was my logic. Since the hot pink cardigan has a lacy pattern, I thought I'd try a more challenging pattern. After all, I've risen to the occassion so no biggy, right? WRONG! Huge biggy.

I've started with the lacy part and have already had to rip back three times!! It's really slow cuz you can't make the slightest mistake. You can see by the photo that there are four different patterns in each row. To top things off, my gorgeous yarn is really slippery, so it doesn't hold the stitch for long when I have to rip back. x(

Right now I'm working 4 rows at a time and everyone is forbidden from talking to me while I knit. hahaha

All I can think of is that I must be insane. I'll keep you posted on my progress :)