Santiago, Chile

Santiago, Chile

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Update


It’s funny how the longer you spend in a place the less you have to say about it. I realized that I hadn’t updated my blog since last October, so while I’d like to say that it’s just because I am so integrated into Santiago culture, it’s probably because I finally had other things to do. It’s been a busy 8 months: I met Din and we started dating in November (the primary reason for my blogosphere absence), three of my friends came to visit over the summer, many other friends have gone on to other teaching jobs or headed home (lots of despedidas), and my grandmother passed away in February, which required me to make an unexpected trip back to MD. Before that trip I had moved out of my place due to “personality conflicts”, and so I’d been crashing with friends and the bf. When I returned to Santiago I decided to take a risk and move in with Din despite only having dated 3 months. No regrets.  In April my dad came to visit and we toured around the south, then my latest nephew Jake was born and finalIy I went back home again for my mom’s wedding in May. Eight months in brief: birth, death, marriage, traveling, friends, family, hellos, and goodbyes.

Since winter has hit things have slowed down a bit, thank God. At work I have some new responsibilities (yawn) and I admit to having no scruples about spending a whole weekend doing chores, going to the gym, and watching every illegally available movie on cuevana. But to be honest, now that I have free time again it would be nice to pursue new things. I have effectively given up capoeira (having a new bf makes it a bit awkward to revisit site of the Chilean redneck aka ex-whatever-he-was). It would be nice to take a class but I have no girl pals to drag with me to dance lessons, and apparently pursuing new hobbies isn’t so common (or affordable) in Chile. Based on recent Googling, my options are Chinese medicine, belly dance, makeup artistry, guitar, and English. Yikes. I think I will stick to agonizing about my near and distant future, fueled by the excessive English-language broadcasting of TLC and Discovery Home&Health shows. What are my chances of getting a job in the US? Must I rely on my dad for financial support? Will I ever qualify for a mortgage? Can I pull off a bilingual and binational wedding and raise adorable mestizo babies? I know, I’m thinking way ahead. For now, I will save up money from my boring job, figure out how to maintain the household I’m living in, and updating my LinkedIn (and my blog!) on the regular.

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