Dec 14, 2005 21:49
hello again, Big List Of Cool People,
It's about time for me to bid farewell to Santiago, and I thought now's a good opportunity for what will be the second-to-last installment of my occasional massive email list updates of the semester I've spent in South America. A lot has happened since my last e-mail, when I had just returned from a fantastic vacation in Buenos Aires and making the final academic/musical push to finish things off in Santiago.
Well, I survived.
I finished my classes with a minimum of stress and trouble, my trombone exam topping everything off last Wednesday. Playing for a grade, being evaluated by accomplished musicians who hadn't heard me before, as well as my teacher, was a good experience. I was pretty nervous, but the nervous energy helped a little bit I think, no major goof-ups or anything. By that point, I felt very done with Santiago. I had applied for (and was offered) an internship to return and work with the US Embassy in Santiago during the summer vacation, but judging by how exhausted I was with Santiago I decided to turn it down. Also, to celebrate, I bought myself another plane ticket to Buenos Aires.
Let me just say that I am in love with that city. I felt slightly out of place in Santiago always, but in Buenos Aires I was completely "metido en la onda" -- difficult to translate but I'll say "in the swing of things" -- there. I just got back today, with new friends and a TON of new music (I brought my computer with me this time, so I burned a lot of their music onto my computer, and made them about 50 blank CDs worth of stuff off of my hard disk that they didn't have.) My only regret is not organizing myself well enough to say a proper goodbye to Santiago, who hosted me for the first two nights there before handing me over to Joaquin. I also managed to leave my camera at his place, woops. But those are details compared to how great of a time I had there, between jam sessions, parrillas, and conciertos (Santiago and Joaquin's trombone quartet, Cuatro Varas, played on Sunday night while I was there!) I felt like I accidentally stumbled on a new adventure that I can't quite start, because I'm headed home so soon. But I kept telling everyone there how badly I want to come back, how I hope to see them at Trombonanza 2006, how much fun I had there. So although I didn't feel quite ready to leave this morning, I feel that I'll be back in the somewhat near future, and that there's another international adventure waiting for me.
As far as Santiago goes, I am feeling more concluded with it now that my family is on their way down (they're arriving on Friday morning because of a flight delay) and classes all finished. I still have a good number of despedidas (goodbyes) to make here, but I feel pretty much terminado (finished). I have decided that, after my somewhat dismal experience with the COPA Spanish class here, that I'm done with Spanish classes FOREVER. Heck yeah. My Spanish has reached a point where I can swear and know what I'm saying, not get laughed at (except for speaking chilean in argentina or vice versa, not for speaking like a gringo), get mistaken for south american (in chile, argentino; in argentina, chileno), and can pretty much almost always know what is going on around me, even in a big group. I'm really impressed with how much my facility with the language has improved just by living here. It's really the way to do it. I downloaded msn messenger today (the "chatear" program that everyone outside of the US uses) to keep in touch with some friends here and at least to some extent remain speaking spanish while I'm back in the States. it's not the real thing, but it should hold me over.
The prospect of returning to the US is getting more exciting the closer that it comes to reality. I feel like I am coming back with so much to bring with me -- not in the form of things (although I definitely plan to pick up a couple of bottles of pisco to show off when I get back to Amherst) but in the form of new perspectives to apply to old problems. I can't wait to catch up with everyone in Portland, then have a fresh start at attacking my music major at Amherst, and seeing where the adventure takes me from there!
Living here, so far from home, has forced me to expect anything and try everything (especially food -- last night at an amazing parrilla I bravely tried some morcilla, blood sausage, but didn't really like it), and now I hope that I can take that attitude with me back to my familiar routines and give them fresh life.
Strange to think that upon my return life feels just as unpredictable as when I was leaving.
Next week, relaxing on the beach, I'll try to absorb enough sun for all of you suffering winter right now in cold and snowy places. And not get too sunburned.
May all of your white (or in the case of Northwesters, grey) Christmases be fantastic and family-filled. As always, I love to hear about how things are going up north, so drop me a line when you're taking a study break or relaxing at home!
All the best from the end of the world,
alex