I'm almost ready to do it...

I've been in Casa SIT for 9 hours now. You'd think that that would be an incredible time in order to get work done and take a huge chunk out of my load. You'd think that!

Really I've spent the day here (because I had an interview, but the guy is sick and forgot to tell me, and then because I wanted to work, then it wasn't worth going home before the dinner I've got in half an hour) working for a little while, browsing the Lonely Planet forum, working for a second, looking for sites about Patagonia, browsing facebook, maybe working, gossiping with Rossanna, going on a search for a delicious manjar treat (manjar is directly translated as delicacy.. perfect), and maybe working. Eh, I worked a lot this weekend, it's all good.

The truth is, I feel like I could write my paper at this moment and so have little motivation to go put myself in really awkward and vulnerable places to gather the perspectives of the people. I really just need to talk to graffiteros, and that doesn't generally happen in the middle of the day.

Except for this guy. My new best friend. Margs and I went to south Santiago Centro to talk to people about carabineros and graffiti, and when walking back to the metro ran into him. I could hardly talk to him I was so excited! First person at random in action. Paradise! The guy on the left does images, and the guy on the right is a tag artist. He really gave me a whole lot more respect for tag. Apparently there are whole unspoken laws about it in and among the community of artists, and they're not conglomerations of lines, but rather designs inspired and driven by the artists own experiences. His always include the words 'ideas.' Look for it.

We met a lot of really interesting people, who were all more than willing to talk to us about their opinions. It's amazing how open people are with complete strangers, and especially with people who are obviously coming from a whole different background and set of ideas than they are. Two old men on the street talked to us about how bodies had to be burned during the dictatorship (that or how people set themselves on fire... was that really the reflexive they were using?) and an old hairstylist ranted about how foreign influences are screwing up the economy and social heirarchy in Chile, making delincuency rates rise and making her son's occupation (carabinero special forces) that much more dangerous. Once you scratch the surface of anyone, you're bound to found answers to questions you never had.

We also saw some really incredible art, most of it tags, covering every public wallspace. Here's an example of why it's so amazing to study a subject in depth. This picture to you guys looks like the graffiti artist wearing something weird. But from this, I know that the artist is probably a Socialist and participates in protests, usually on the violent side, and that he is most likely late teens to early twenties. He probably is also a biker. That's just the part of the code that I know... Think about what else this could mean. And what about the murals that are more complex, or have different images? Also one of the reasons why graffiti does not achieve the political and social goals it sets out for.

This weekend we cooked again, woohoo! I am really discovering the joys of cooking. I was trying to get us all started, getting pots and such, and David made some comment about how I must be starving. I wasn't - I realized that I really just wanted to stir that chicken, to sniff out the right spices, to watch the onions change color. It's incredibly fulfilling and gives me this warm and happy feeling inside. Or maybe that's just the good company I associate it with. Anyways, this time we did Mexican food at David's house, it was delicious, and we even found Corona! That really reminded me of nights at Cosmic. We were all going to go dancing afterwards, but since we didn't start cooking until 9:30, we didn't finish up with dessert until 3. I have to admit I'm getting more used to the Chilean way of doing weekends... It's not just about staying out late. It's about making the time that you have last as long as you can. They never hurry through anything, and will often opt for a conversation instead of getting something done. So when we get together, even if we start when the sun is still up, often we won't feel the urge to leave or get on to something else until much later than we 'should' have. You can feel this sense of things everywhere. I went to one of my interviews the other day, and the guy I was going to talk to brought his buddies from the TV station. We went and bought sandwiches, talked about fútbol, then the station, then cigars and digital radio, then whatever else. When we got there, Cristian laughed and told me he hoped I didn't have plans. I've learned my lesson here - my day was free.

The guys at the interview yesterday (which is the tomorrow of some of this entry... I didn't finish. Yay for internet saving capabilities!) are also the perfect example of how incredible people here are. I didn't make them unnatural in any way, and they did the same for me. They kept joking and talking and arguing like all friends do, including me in almost all of it. They did threaten me once - when I tried not to eat the half-sandwich they offered me. I had two choices - eat it, or leave. Gotta love that hospitality! It was also assumed that I was coming back to help out with their programs, which I am, but tonight would have to go alone so didn't go. My director forbade me.

Speaking of director... I met with him today, seeing as he is acting as my advisor now. He pretty much pointed out all of the really interesting things about my paper that I was skirting around, and now I am going to restructure it almost completely. (I would say have to, but I'm loving it!) It's all the same information, and I can still use almost all of my info/interviews, but I have to go back and reanalize them from this new perspective. The weight of the new topic would frighten me if I didn't recognize the fact that I am a student doing a study for less than a month. That said, René told me that if I can pull this paper off the way it's proposed, I could start the beginnings of social revolution. My paper has to do with alternative communication as a voice for the parts of society that are nonrepresented in a'liberty of expression' democracy.

Democracy is an idealogy. This amazing man pointed out to me that the only difference between a doctrine and an idealogy is that within an idealogy, the system works to hide the elements of itself that are contradictory. Think about it. Apply it to life. Here's an example. Chile claims that with democracy came liberty of expression and representation for all. However. All major TV channels and newspapers are owned by the extreme right, some of whom hosted concentration camps or torture centers in their buildings. The government will give no no-strings-attached funding to community methods of communication (which are almost always from the Left) because of who knows why. The structure of the electoral system here has somehow prevented any representation of the not-surprisingly large population of Communists in Chile. They have a bipartisan system (more or less) - one from the right, and one from the center-right.

At first look, we all think that the growth of democracy in Chile is a fantastic thing. But it doesn't work. Now let's look at another country. The United States? How's that working?

The picture above says "Histories that never happened, for fear of making sense."

Here's a picture of me in Valpo listening to Michelle Bachelet's State of the Union address (or the equivalent). All the streets were closed, they wouldn't let us in to Congress (but why? We're not extranjeras or anything..)

I don't know if I've written about this in here, and if I have forgive me. This is one of the most influential yet subtle realizations I have made during my time here. 'Democracy' is not synonymous with 'government.' In fact democracy is really just one way of looking at things. You can have a society that is as far away from democracy as you can be, and that society can be happier than we are, and can run smoother than we do. It's all perspective. My friend Abel lived four years in Cuba, and wants to go back even after he's seen the 'American dream' style of consumerism. When we asked him how it compared, he refused to do it. There is no comparison, he said. They are completely different. How can we pretend to know that our way is better, or that we can assume to know 'better' than their government?

Also, side note, did you know that Cuba has a representative government compelte with Congress and all that jazz? That Fidel is a just a figurehead? That the people love Fidel, and the system, and want it to continue? Maybe I'm just showing my ignorance, but I find it amazing that I always thought that Fidel was a heavy-handed dictator. We need a revolution.

One of the founders of the community channel I talked to told me this: First you start the communication revolution. Then you start the social revolution. You can't start the social revolution if the people don't know anything.

Let's change it up, ladies and gentlemen.

Long political offwind. Sorry. Margs and I went to Valparaíso on Monday. We talked with a lot of scary-looking carabineros and realized that they are all amazing people. Nice, intelligent, looking out for people. One captain that we spoke with showed an incredible amount of self-awareness and social consciousness. He pointed out that Chile is in a cycle of violence, a cycle that every country is in to some extent. The way it goes is that one side raises the bar and gets more fierce with the other (we'll say gvt). Then the people have to react with great violence in order to enact change. The government becomes more violent, so on and so on. Eventually you are left with a military government that solves everything with violence.

People down here also consider Bush to be the winner of a political coup. Some say military. Think about that.

Whoops, another political branching off. Too easy down here.

Valpo was amazing. It was incredible to be able to breathe again. Right now in Santiago, it's rare to see the mountains. When I got here they loomed over half of the sky. It's gross. But Valpo... ah, the ocean! Good food, nice cops, great views, amazing friends, and a day to relax. We had to wait two hours for the bus back, but spent it dissecting English, gossiping about boys, discussing the meaning of life, and devouring papas fritas.

We like cheesy photos. Here I am in front of the place where they held the day-long ceremony - replete with speeches, the Cueca, and the army on parade - around the State of the Union. (And yes, I know it's not called that but I don't know what they call it and that's our equivalent.) I could have seen Michelle Bachelet!!!

All in all, it's starting to get cold. Debra should be buying my plane ticket to Peru in about 30 minutes. Maybe by the time I get there I'll have some sort of travel plans. The crew is all rolling back to Santiago in five or six days. I'm excited. I'm sad. I'm going to try and convince my Chilean brother to travel with me for the week I'm solo. I realized that I'm going to miss him terribly, and we are just now getting to the point where we can really talk. I also might try to be in Santiago for Lorena's birthday. También le voy a echar de menos.

Being here in this atmosphere, in this program, studying what I am with the people who are helping me... At times I feel like everything is political in some sense. We exist in society, which is run politically. Even culture is politically driven, and our expression of ourselves. There is no way to ever be completely happy with it. But there are definitely ways to make it the best that we can, for everybody. And I'm going to do my best.

"Smile! You too can change this prostitute world."

Salí en la noche...

Things have definitely started looking up.

First of all, I have something muy bacán and utterly awesome to tell you, but I'm going to wait until the end so you have to read the whole entry! bwajajaja

I realized that one of the main things that was getting me down and angry was my project. Now, this is completely rational because I have a very difficult project to achieve and my consejero is useless. Was - now I have no consejero. But that's a different story. So last Thursday I spent nearly the entire day just sitting and thinking about my research and what I've found out, what I think, what the books have said... And I figured out that I have some very strong opinions about graffiti and political art that were getting in my way. Once I discarded these prejudices, my work started to flow much more easily and the connections started clicking into place. While I am not happy at all to be writing a paper that is contrary to my own opinions, I guess that's one of the disadvantages (benefits?) of doing research in the field. You're always being challenged.


Another thing that made that one week awful is that I had a huge case of the awkwards. They went away, as much as they ever can with me.

Friday night Marguerite came over and we watched some strange Helen Hunt movie with my mom until she fell asleep, knitting still in her hands. It was good to sit and relax and just feel comfortable there for a while. When everyone you're with is either a new friend or doesn't really understand you, that good old I-can-walk-around-in-the-morning-and-not-care-if-my-hair-looks-funky feeling is rare. While sipping wine from coffee mugs and chatting on my floor, my brosef races in, races out, and invites us to a university party. University parties here, by the way, are like a big house party of ours. All your buddies are there, people are walking around with boxes of wine or beer or whatever, they're smoking... except it's usually in a big courtyard or a huge awesome room, with cool lights and a great DJ all night. And I'm talking from 11 to about 5. So they're rocking. Margs and I danced like madwomen! They played salsa, so naturally. I also got to hang out with my brother (I almost got him to dance, even) and we met a bunch of his buddies. Afterwards, we went to La Bamba with Tomás. Guys, hate to say it, but I have found better end-of-the-night food than Cosmic. These things are huge - they're called AS, and they're real beef, fresh tomatoes, avocado, mayo, and ahí. ooommmmyyyggoooooddd. delicious.


Saturday I celebrated Mother's Day with my fam here, and afterwards we went apartment shopping. It was really fun. Besides the fact that my family rocks all around, I really felt like a part of it all. They were asking me what I thought, and in every blueprint it was "my room, your room Cristobal, and this one for Abi when she comes to live with us." All in all a very good, relaxing day.


We cooked again on Saturday, this time in Elizabeth's house, and we opted for good old hamburgers. With avocado. Naturally. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, all of the girls together laughing and joking and talking about how frustrating all of our projects are. We've started voicing aloud thoughts and ruminations about project direction. It's amazing how much simply putting something out into words instead of on paper can help you get it all organized, especially now when we've all got tons of information and no method to channel it all down. Margs and I went and played on a playground afterward. Awesome.


There is no way for me to express how much I love my group. Each day or week brings a new dynamic into it all, or some incredibly development. I can't believe that in a little over two weeks I'm going to be leaving most of them. I refuse to think about it. Every single one of them has their own gifts and their own contributions to who we are now. There was one person at the beginning that always bugged me. It got to the point at times where I would move at a table so I wouldn't get too irritated and disrupt the evening because she was next to me. Then I got over myself. I realized there was no point in being that was with someone who is comfortable with who they are, and that I should stop being so judgemental and give her more of a shot. She still has habits that grate me, but now it's just a part of who she is, and they don't bother me so much. She's got a lot of insight and amazing aspects to her as well, and I was blinded to that. I want to tell her the effect that she's had on me because of this, and how much she has helped me with my project, but how do you walk up to someone and say "You used to annoy the crap out of me, but now I think you're wicked cool." It doesn't happen.


Sunday we had an asado. (social heaven, no?) We cooked up some pizzas, watched the Matrix 3, played circus games and sang pop songs. (This is why we love Chilean boys - not only do they like to impersonate boy bands, they also like to sing along to them.) After lots of hanging out and kind of soupy brownies, we decided to go dancing at Maestra Vida, a dance club that has free salsa on Sunday nights from 11 to 3. Perfect! That was really incredible, especially since two of the guys we were with are quite possibly the best dancers I have ever had the pleasure of moving to the beat with. Here we have, from the left, David, Niko, ?(shoot)?, Kevin, and Alejandro.


Monday started swift. Went in to Casa SIT to get some work done and had a contact handed to me by Rossanna. Went that afternoon (poor, dangerous neighborhood at dusk. Yikes. My colectivo driver was named Oscar and wore this incredible old felt hat, wizard glasses, and a salt and pepper beard. We chatted like old buddies the whole ride, and he wouldn't let me pay him. Incredible people are everwhere.) and the woman gave me another contact and some good information. Next day I went back to Casa SIT to get some more work done, and Rossanna handed me another contact. Went that afternoon to meet with him, and ended up with an hour-long interview of quality talking. That I understood in total. More contacts. Something very excited that you're still waiting to hear about. Pumped!


Watched Spiderman 3 in Niko's house, which is really a hostel that he lives in by himself. Whoa.


(Here's a picture of us after the marathon carrete last weekend... David's face pretty much shows how we all felt after dancing until 6:30 in the morning: delirious and Dali. These are hte two really incredible dancers - David and Abel.)


Wednesday I went back to La Legua to meet with this other guy, and he never showed. Bummed. But I spent some time while waiting talking to this incredible store owner right next door who lives above her tienda and is working hard to pay her kids' ways through college, which is a rare thing if you come from a neighborhood like this one. She talked to me about the work of the youth in the community, radiating pride at the strong values and communal spirit they all shared, and assuring me that nothing would happen to me in this neighborhood. When I left she gave me a big kiss and told me to come back and see her. Again, incredible people everywhere.


Wednesday I also had an interview with this old Communist who sells earrings on the street, and who is really quite interesting and involved in the cultural side of Santiago. We ended up having a bit of an argument about the purpose and effect of graffiti and political expression in general, and it was pretty fun. He also talked to me a lot about how Santiaguenses always go to hotels to have sex, and how the women are much more demanding now, and how Italian women are even more demanding, and oh when he was in Italy! ...That was a little uncomfortable.


(Here's a picture from Debra's birthday with, from left, Debra, David, Alejandro, Santiago, Theresa, Jorge, me, and Lauren. It was cold. I am not normally Babushka.)


Thursday was awesome. My project is finally organized in my head, and is just waiting the last bits of real-time and observation. Margs and I went to Bravissimo and got the special, two flavors in a bath of chocolate, for the price of one flavor. I wonder why I'm getting fat. My brother and I spent some time chilling together when I got back... I'm really going to miss that kid. I feel like I don't know anything about him sometimes, but at other's like I know exactly what he's thinking. Not to mention he's one of the most caring people I've ever met.


Now, are you finally ready for this muy bacán and incredibly awesome thing? Last night I went out in the darkness to paint with one of the brigades. Paste, really. I went out with Chacon, who are responsible for the many huge poiltical banners that call for governmental responsibility and social involvement and leftist ideas. They're everywhere, and I've always wondered how they got there, who does it, blah blah. Well, it's five people who spend the week working their jobs and living their lives, and painting banners on the side. Everything Thursday night they take all of these banners, a mixture of soda caustica and flour, and they go out pasting. It's almost just like you would imagine... a small group of people in dark clothes and hats crammed into an old beat up truck, buckets of paste in the back and the banners under the seat. You pull around into a corner, everyone hops out and is in action. Glue, glue, glue (with rollers), guy comes behind with the banner, hands up brush up get that stuff smoothed down don't tear it almost done and we're walking away. Get into the truck, on to the next, joking and talking about your wives or girlfriends or the webon that didn't show up last week or the march next Monday. All of the banners are pasted in the center of the city, and it was only around 11 so there were people still up. We pasted one on a major road, turned around at the finish to see lots of cars stopped at a red light staring at us, and a packed bus stop of blank and somewhat confused faces. And we just walk away. Social change in the making. We had two people come up to us - the first to declare that he fought against Pinochet, and what were we trying to accomplish? How could this do anything? What was the point? I was confused about that because it seems like he would recognize it's pretty much the only way for a leftist party to make their views heard, seeing as there is no representation in the government. The other was a young guy begging to know how Chacon does it, and if they can help his banner group get off the ground. When the cops drive by, you just start walking away. It was a great night. Sometimes it felt like a game, like what we were doing wasn't real, or that it was something we do to fill a role, like what Marguerite was saying yesterday. Like this is just what the Communist party does, they go out, they paste their banners (we ran into another section of the PC pasting too), and then the banners get ripped down. But a very cool experience. It's very interesting to know that an operation that appears so large and covers so much of the city, that so many people see, is really just five guys working out of a basement.

Marguerite and I are now inspired to paint a mural on the uncomfortable white walls of the institute. We're thinking something inspired by Reading Rainbow - bright colors and a butterfly. Te parece?


Two more weeks... It's hard to imagine. This has been such a formative time in my life, and is a place (physically, emotionally, mentally) that I'm not sure I want to leave. The people, Chilean and EEUU, the places, the lifestyle, the language... I'm going to miss it all. And it's not like I get to see all my buddies at home after this. Oh no. It's simply another beginning. In three weeks' time I'm going to be a free woman, roaming South America with just the pack on my back. I'm really excited for that too, except right now we don't have plane tickets to Peru, or a plan of where we're going, or any idea whatsoever of where we're going to sleep. I guess that will all come when we need it the most. Hopefully. It's hard to plan when Kira and the others who are going to Peru are all in Buenos Aires, busy with their lives, and me busy with mine. Wow, time flies.


I'll leave you all with this characteristically long entry... I have work to do that I haven't been doing for several days now. I love you all, and hope that your summers are well on their way to being memorable!

Coffee headaches assualt beautiful mornings

It's been a while since I've written in here, and I have to admit it's not because I haven't had the chance. Rather, several times I have sat down to give you all the news, and have decided against it because the mood wasn't right. The mood still isn't right, but if this is indeed to let you all know what life is like down here for me, then it should include the bad times with the good.

The truth is, this period of the semester started out fabulously. I don't know what happened, but something clicked and all of a sudden it was a social paradise! I was hanging out with a lot of Chileans my age - we went to an asado with a group of buddies, to the march en el Día de los Trabajadores, to grab some chelas (beers), dancing, all sorts of things. And the amazing part for me was that the language wasn't a stress factor. For that first week I was just existing and not worrying about the words coming out of my mouth because they just seemed to be coming. It was like our Spanish teacher said the first day - our learning process is like an upside-down pyramid that you're filling with sand. At first it fills up very quickly, but thenthe higher it gets the slower it goes. Sometimes you don't even notice that it's filling up. I just realized that I've slowly been pouring sand into this upside-down brain of mine. Now the pendulum has swung back. Oh well.

The march was really amazing. Protests in the States have a lot to learn from Latin American manifestations. Banners, flags, vendors, live music, performance art, cheers, chants, costumes, and over seventeen thousand people. It was the first time ever - even in the States - where I felt really comfortable and passionate about being in the march. Many times in the States I feel like the demonstrations are too partisan, and it puts me on edge. Here there is no sense of separation entre the groups, but more an overwhelming sense of community power. This march was probably a little more so too because it was to honor and protest the situation of the workers of Chile, who are in a bit of a tight spot at the moment. Hence, very strong emotions and a lot of community involvement. Our Chilean buddy Tomás told us before hand that there was a distinct point in wihch the march got violent (last year was pretty horrendous) and that when he told us to leave, no questions were to be asked. He gave us the signal when Illi Illuminati went off the stage, and five minutes later we were seating ourselves in a cafe watching on TV the police terrorize protestors with their tanks of tear gas. Good timing, I'd say.

Going to the march, listening to the talks, chatting up people all served to push me a little further down the road to declaring myself Socialist. That actually makes me feel good too, because I've never felt comfortable saying I'm a Democrat. This slow-growing revelation stems from something that I've realized since being here - that so much of my thoughts and prejudices I didn't know I had have their origen in the fact that I am Estadounidenses. For example, Communists are not bad people. Anarquists are not always violent (actually, I agree with a lot of their ideals). Globalizacion is not the great thing it's cracked up to be. A lot of concepts (mainly political, gotta say) have crossed my mind and challenged me to pick them back and look again, to examine where my emotions are coming from. Tomorrow I'm going to meet some of the Communist youth to solicit their help. I'm going to chat them up on their beliefs, naturally. When else will I get the chance to talk to someone so proudly and clandestinely Communist? Certainly not in Pittsboro.

My project started off really well - I read a lot of theory to get a good base on it and it really opened up my eyes to a lot of elements of the theme that I hadn't thought of before. Now I think it's going to change again, but my current question is how the parties/supporters of the left use graffiti as a means of provoking or strengthening social educacion and awareness en today's society. Underneath that, of course, is an analysis of informal and non formal education and how graffiti fulfills the role of communicacion. All with a focus on leftist parties. Which I thought was going to be cool, because I could chat up the Juventud Comunista, el Partido Socialista, la Fuerza Anarquista, etc. Except, oh wait, I'm just a foreign student asking them for contacts of people who do illegal activities. Whoops.

(If there's another protest, I'm talking to them this time... This is stenciling, and there are some pretty fantastic ones around the city.)

That's where it gets frustrating. I didn't meet with my advisor until Tuesday, and he didn't help me out at all with this aspect of my project (or really with the structure at all, just gave me books on the brigades and told me we'll visit some this weekend). So I just don't know what to do with myself this week and have been sitting around a lot. I went into the city to talk with some people about graffiti, and it's just really freaking hard. Hard enough to approach strangers happy with their day in your own language. I actually met someone last night who was in the middle of spraying and got to talk to him for a while, but being as tontosa as I am I was so excited about meeting him I forgot to get contact info. Great job, right Abi?

It's just been a tough week. As if it's not bad enough to be two months away from my family and all of my closest friends, the switch to the independent project meant that, wait, what is this? My closest friends are leaving? So now the people in whom I always confided in South America are now beyond reach. That and having nothing to do give me lots of time to think about the over two months that I still have left (which is really amazing, but at the same time not.) Insult to injury is that I hit it off with a guy last week and things were awesome, but I'm awkward, and this other girl was funny. Same in all languages, I guess.

OK, I'm being overly pessimistic. It's really not horrible. I've been spending a lot of time with my family, and my Spanish with them is definitely improving. I've realized that I'm pretty bad at talking whenever I'm in a situation that typically makes me nervous or uncomfortable (new people, confrontation, yadayada). I've also realized that I'm almost a whole different person. I can't joke in Spanish, nor can I tell stories without stumbling over every conjugation, and I just don't talk very much. But this will all change, I'm hoping. My Chilena mom almost got abducted by aliens. That came from an amazing night of conversation.

I think I need to get away from the city. You couldn't see the mountains this morning because of all the smog.

We had a delicious dinner at my house this past Saturday that was a ton of fun. Tomás and David joined the SIT girls in Santiago for a grand old time, which was followed by a missed concert (my brother's, the huevon told me the wrong time), pool, a party with my brother's friends, dancing at a club where some friends work, then continued dancing in somebody's apartment that had an amazing view of the city. I got home about twenty minutes before Lorena got up. Whoa. Here's Tomás with the delicious fideos and chicken that we whipped up, complete with palta salad!

Last night was Debra's 21st birthday, and I finally got sushi. oh man. It was about time! I haven't had the staple raw fish of my diet in forever, and I'll be damned if this wasn't the best sushi I've ever had. Also followed by some beers and spontaneous dancing on the way home. Got home at five. Shoot me? But it was definitely a good birthday. We figured out weird things we can do with our bodies. Here are David and Debra being pregnant. I've got to say it doesn't surprise that the girl is better... She's sitting up straight, btw. That girl is amazing. We also had spontaneous singings of the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. Not only do Chileans singing in English crack me up, but it's so much better when they do it to such classically great music.

I also bought a bicycle. Ceeeeelebrate good times, oh yeah! I'm so glad to not have to use TranSantiago anymore, and now I have something I can escape on when I really need it. Except I don't have it yet, since I bought it off the Chilean CraigsList, and the woman hasn't called me back yet. Soon! Soon! No hallo las horas!

Entonces... Here is your update. Pessimistic, cynical, and dry. Not quite so eloquent as usual, but that's just the way the words are coming today. Tomorrow will be better, I'm sure, but I wouldn't want to deprive you of this side of things either. Most of the bad emotions come from the possibilities that I can see and my inability to realize them. So there are definitely worse things that can happen.

I miss you all and wish you all the sunniest of days in this, the beginning of summer! (lucky) I'm sure I'll be home before I know it, with all of you wonderful people, and then I'll be wishing I was back here! Swing on those Haw River ropes for me, sleep late, and maybe watch a sunset in the Appalachians. I love you all dearly! Have a fabulous weekend..

PS - We've had four somewhat major tremors in the past two days... does this in any way mean a big one's on the way? (crossed fingers)