Illustrations by Grace McKenna I spent the past weekend cleaning out my prized top floor room of a residential student house in Providencia’s Eduardo Hyatt Street. It was a largely successful post-semester purge; a distinction I quantified by the three large plastic donation centre-bound bags I hauled through 30-degree Santiago. Unburdened of earthly possessions and three Chilean child burns victims helped as the store assistant repeatedly reminded me (one per bag!), I headed

Illustrations by Grace McKenna Two weeks ago, two friends and I completed the W-trek in Chilean Patagonia with ten complete strangers. However, we did not follow the classic route that carves a ‘W’ through the notoriously unforgiving landscape, but a personalised route that Strava’s GPS satellites recorded as a stodgy box shape.  The substantial size of our group and our tour agency’s meticulous ethos meant our provisions were strictly rationed into four boxes of industrial q

Illustrations by Grace McKenna After much deliberation, last Wednesday my flat mates and I treated ourselves to dinner out. A Dane, an Italian, a Spaniard, and an Englishman (and woman!) put their culinary fancies aside in the name of a shared common love, albeit with a twist - Chilean sushi.   The previous night we had gathered on the wooden pallets-made-seating of our common room to muse on our one month of friendship. The mood was nostalgic with a latent hint of domestic d