Just an Update

I'm due for an update. I haven't forgotten about the blog, just been ignoring it in a way. Throughout the past two weeks i've been telling myself that there's nothing to report, though to think that two weeks can pass with nothing to report is to think that a day isn't filled with events. Gripping or dull, events can be reported.

Early on I called this the "vacation semester." That title isn't apt anymore, and can be replaced simply with "semester." I've had three tests in the past two weeks. None of them were easy. All of them were essays written in class...in Spanish, of course. There's a tremendous amount of reading to be done. Always. A part of me, the student, feels a responsibility to do all the work, and do it well. But another part of me, the traveler, feels as though he shouldn't be spending all his limited time in Chile in the library. You've got to find the equilibrium. The result, though, of any decision made--whether to study or to travel--is always cognitive dissonance, a conflict between thought and action.

Well I took the tests, and I studied plenty for them. But I've also done a bit of traveling. Went hiking for last Saturday just an hour outside of Santiago. It's incredible how much cleaner the air is just an hour away. We had thought of maybe finding a small mountain to climb. Where we went, however, there are no small mountains. You need professional equipment to climb, we of course we lacked. We crossed a mountain biker who took one look at my friend Sebastian's skateboarding shoes and assured us that if we attempted to climb, we would surely die. "People die all the time up there," he said. So we settled for some minor climbing, forging our own path to a set of rocks and took a seat. In Chile, the view from any height is almost always overwhelming. One set of mountains is only the beginning of what becomes another set of mountains, and then another, and so on. When you climb a little and look out, you realize why it took the Spanish so long to find Chile. You just don't meander over the Andes, especially not on horseback carrying the makings of a civilization.

Next weekend we're off to the Atacama desert, apparently the driest in the world. It's the second organized trip with my program. We're flying this time. It's way up North. They say it's the best place for star gazing. No moisture or light. Well, no artificial light, just the light of the stars. I'll be sure to give details when I return.

It's been quiet around the apartment lately. Betty's working alone now in her grocery store. Her daughter Nicole, her only other employee, decided to move on to something else. So Betty does it alone now, working dawn til dusk 6 days a week. She comes home around nine, makes me dinner, then heads straight to bed. We haven't had a real conversation in quite some time. I feel bad for her, and somewhat guilty, as she still insists on doing EVERYTHING:cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. Me make my own dinner? I shouldn't dare ask! Look! I made my own bed! Nope, it's not perfect, and besides, she wants to change the sheets anyways, which she does every weekend. So I let her do her thing. She never seems tired, or certainly doesn't show it if she is. She's a machine, and we expect machines to perform and hope the technical difficulties aren't too costly.

That's all for now. I hope this finds all readers well and in good health.
Ciao