pictures

although there are quite a few "super" supermarkets here in santiago that develop photos - complete with the kodak picture machines and one-hour digital processing they are quite expensive. the norm are family owned, little "photo studios"

i've gone to the same shop since i moved here, a cute little one called Garcia Color - a man, who i think was a school photographer in the states, and his kids - who run a low-cost photo studio with those really horrible backgrounds and a much higher class of framing and developing.

the first time i went, i met the mother. she was impressed with "la gringa" who taught english in "the church" and we've maintained a friendly relationship since. her son however has never really been nice to me. he never said anything, eventhough he was 100% in charge of digital processing.

so, yesterday i went to get some pictures of samil developed, and he looked at my feet. weird, right? but then - after three years of never saying anything more than "hey", he says "i knew you were american because you always have either sneakers or flipflops on"

what?

yah. apparently my attempts to blend in have been ruined by my choice of footwear.

go figure.