The Sound of Settling

I am sick. I have been attached to my bed for the entire day, drifting in and out of consciousness, getting up only to take a quiz at school, only to immediately return to my pitiful position. I hate being sick. I hate being unproductive, rather. Which is the reason why I have been procrastinating about writing in this blog.
I feel like I have passed into a new phase of my stay which I couldn't make sense of until I wrote about it to someone else. I was feeling like I had become kind of lazy. I was bored, but not just bored. I was also mad that I was bored. I felt guilty and lazy. In the back of my head I imagined people thinking that I was ungrateful or that I was wasting time. Now I realize that its not that at all.
We have started a new phase in our experiences and now I remember why this feeling is so familiar. Its what happens every time you move somewhere new. It happened when I moved to Brazil, when I went to college, when I moved to New Hampshire. At first everything is new and new is always exciting. Its all peaches. But, over time the excitement wears off and things start looking more like pears (I am not very fond of pears). It is not that I do not like it here, its that I have gotten accustomed to it. Not all of it of course but a lot of it. Like living in a city, taking public transportation or walking everywhere, living with my family, and exploring many of the things my surrounding to offer. Now I have settled, like the tea leaves in the bottom of my cup. And like the settled tea leaves, life is covered in honey. I live here, I have a life here and this settling is something to be proud of.

Drinking some tea, only instead of honey, there is lemon cheesecake, which is just as sweet.

I have also not been as lazy as I thought, I have been getting into my fair share of shenanigance. I have been going out a lot and experiencing all of the funny, awkward and enjoyable experiences that go along with partying. I have come to terms with the reality of being taller than just about every guy I meet and that no matter how much I compare, Chile will never be like Brazil and Spanish will not be like Portuguese. The sidewalk will always have holes in it, stray dogs will follow me home at night and grown men will always whistle and make cat calls.

More stories, this really has been a while.
Vina caught on fire. I suppose this is worth mentioning. It was quite scary actually, I have never witness such chaos first hand. I was at the beach with a friend when we looked up and saw that the sky was black. We didn't notice it at first because we were facing the sea, doing homework and having our own little problem with heavy winds kicking up sand trying to bury us alive. It may have been the sirens, it may not, but for some reason our attention got turned towards the land where we saw the smoke billowing out from the hills. We asked some girls if they knew what was going on, they didn't, but they were very nice and we ended up going to a party at their apartment over the weekend. So my friend and I ventured into town to make sure that it wasn't either of our houses that had caught fire. It turned out to be a forest fire. It was incredible. I have never seen so much smoke or heard so many sirens. There were fire trucks doing rounds trying to get it under control along with planes carrying water from a near by lake. We ended up sitting on my friend's balcony with some tea and banana bread to watch the madness. Everything turned out fine, well, sort of. It turned out alright is what I suppose I am trying to say. Vina is still standing but the trees in the hills certainly are not as tall.

This is what Vina looks like on fire. That plane is about to make it rain.

I lost my shoe in Algarobo. They happened to be my favorite pair. Long story short I threw my shoe into the ocean while trying to beat the shit out of some bees who were trying to eat our Asian sesame chicken salad. I am an idiot. It was the day before easter. I prayed to the easter bunny to bring me my lost shoe for easter, but he didn't. Rabbits don't know how to swim I guess.

Shoeless and pissed in Algarobo
Then Easter happened. I sat in the sun on my balcony all day. It was a perfect way to celebrate a holiday from a religion I no longer have much faith in, doing absolutely nothing. Despite my status as a non-believer the easter bunny did find me after all. Its not my shoe, but it'll do. Thanks Meg! Mi mama Chilena!

From now forward I suppose I will be doing things that settled people do, exploring tea houses and having girls nights on Thursday. Going out to Cafe Journal on Wednesday night and club hopping during the weekends. I also am in the midst of planning two trips. In about two weeks I will be on my way to Machu Picchu and then off to Easter Island in June. Oh life, how did we ever get so comfortable with each other?

Drinking tea and eating cake at the Tea Corner

Girl's lunch on a Friday afternoon overlooking the bay.