My ex-boyfriend (current friend and climbing partner) gave me Songs in the Key of Life when we first started dating. It remains one of both of our favorite albums. Today though I've been listening to Kate Bush, I got into Kate Bush my first year of college and she remains a favorite on quiet afternoons. So her songs today feel like Songs in the Key of Quiet Afternoons.
The weather here is beautiful in the morning, and so I try to go jogging just before or after 10am. I can get in about 30 minutes jogging from our flat to just past Sylvain's University where the shopping plaza of Paris and Jumbo are located back to where the bottom of our uphill climb starts, its gotta be about 3 miles or just under. It's really flat and mostly pavement which is not good for my weak arches, but I miss my daily jogs. Today I headed out for more work making photocopies and posting my fliers, I finished around 1 and headed back home the sun was strong enough to make me take my light jacket off, but I stopped for a coffee and did some prelim sketches for the design I plan to paint in our room (I'm doing a sort of 3-D geometric wallpaper design) so I headed back home around 2pm. Around 4pm here the wind builds up to an angry attack; it has been like this all week and it is chilling both inside and out. Last night we went out in the evening when Sylvain got home from school to Cafe Vinilo and had a glass of wine and another plate of tapas- this time half rounds with a sort of eggplant tapenade topped with sun-dried tomatoes and creme anglais; yum. Our two block walk home was bone chilling and I shivered for the next 2 hours.
Sunday we have been invited to the home of a Smithie who has a second residence in Quilpue. She lives and teaches in Santiago with her Chilean husband and 2 young children. I sent her a cold call email before leaving New York, along with the 3 other Smithies living in Chile. She responded immediately; apparently she has a parallel story- she was teaching elementary school in New York, took a leave of absence and moved to Vina del Mar (right next door to Valpo). She ended up meeting her husband and I guess she'll fill in the rest of the details this weekend.
Sylvain's laptop is struggling. He's been using mine for a Spanish powerpoint he's presenting tonight on some Virgin Mary Holiday they celebrate here Dec 8th. There is some problem with his power cord, when he plugs it in the light doesn't turn on and doesn't charge, so there must be some faulty connection. This is a bit of a pain, you can buy replacements on Amazon, but what if it's a bigger issue than buying a new cord- and could he find a cord here and test it, he has and ACER laptop which I thought was probably a French brand because I'm only really familiar with Dell, HP and Mac, but it seems after a little online research that ACER's are available in the states.
Everyday it seems, wind, drafts, laptop problems and dirty kitchens, I'm grateful I did this. I don't miss New York at all, it sounds dramatic, but I feel like I escaped. I was festering, uncertain where to go, when to move, and the stagnancy was doing my head in. I went to New York because I loved visiting and it seemed like a great way to get away from Boston, a perfect opportunity to get my MA in Art Education and an adventure of it's own. Over the years I imagined leaving, I plotted my departure for San Fran and then aborted that plan; on slow days at work I would waste hours looking at apartments on Craigslist in cities other than my own, wistfully imaging cheaper rent, outdoor space and more room. Ask anyone and they'll tell you I loved London best, it wasn't their charming accents nor the fish and chips, it was the living abroad. Naturally curious and independent, the experience suited me, and I find here, whether Valpo has ideal weather, or whether the city itself is well-suited to me (which I find it is), the experience again of living abroad is what I find most thrilling. I love the challenge of learning Spanish, of assimilating, of never feeling completely settled, of being an expat, discovering cultural differences; everyday offers new experiences. I'm lucky this opportunity came to fruition but even more lucky I'm not the type of person to let it pass by.
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