Awakening

Days and days and days and days and days… piling up on my bookshelf as if I had died and spent my afterlife hopping from novel to novel never looking up, down, or outside the fickle margins. Are there more ahead or behind me? You can never tell and that seems to be a thought that wants to play chess nightly but I try not to let it. I’ll never win, and what a strange experience this is, so full of symbolic paths and fascinating gadgets I could’ve never imagined. Where are the spirits on your side of the river? I’m faulted to see things with my eyes, turning clouds and houses striped on blue marbles in outer space. You are made up of what?

Loving it more and more. The battle with Castellano is nearing a tie- I’ll never win but at least I can gain ground. Spanish-speaking dogs have entered my dreams. My experience here has been everything but empty; I’m truly enjoying myself and the environment around me. I can feel myself already looking back and missing certain moments and scenes here. Are you scared of losing your memories? Age will bring them as gifts then rob them. Some physical travels I’ve embarked on within the past months have given gifts to my eyes, ears, and memories…

A while ago I embarked on a group trip to this rugged orange nest of beauty, Jujuy: a northern region of Argentina that borders both Bolivia and Chile… and pretty it was.

Furthermore, I have found my favorite city I have thus-far seen in my 20 years of existence…

Valparaíso, Chile is purely gorgeous. In a nutshell, the city IS color. The art lives on the streets and buildings as if it were a swarming species of scorpions constantly infecting us with its joyous poison. Walking the tilted hills (cerros) at dusk felt like a drug trip to a wonderland existing simultaneously in the past and future. It felt as if the people there don’t see color like the rest of the world. And a pure blue ocean lying underneath the softest of clouds serves as their protection. Not too clean and not too dirty, just rich in vibrancy and character. It is everything but simple, and yet I felt as if I understood it. It seemed too unique to be real. Each step taken up the hills was like preparing for a new world to come when you’re ready to turn around and absorb it all.