yu-en-me ´a man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher, .. he who goes from country to country guided by blind impulses of curiosity is .. a vagabond.´ - oliver goldsmith

to tell the truth, i really don't know. but today
marked my 3-month anniversary here in Santiago, and i
thought i'd pop open a groupmail to celebrate. (and
this particular groupmail is more interactive than
usual - yay for you!)

walking home from work the other day, i was accosted
by a uni student. uni fees here are quite high, and
there are a number of philosophy/literature students
roaming the streets in their spare time giving out
poems they've written in the hope of earning a spare
buck (or a spare thousand pesos, i should say).
sometimes i give, sometimes i don't. as it turned out,
i had nothing on me that day, but the following
exchange took place anyway:
him - excuse me, do you have a second?
me - umm...
him - are you chilean?
me - no
him - do you speak spanish?
me - yes
him - hey wow... so do i!!!
whereupon, i took advantage of his surprise at this
revelation to run away and catch the end of the
france-portugal semi-final.

and while we're on the topic of pointless exchanges,
here's a failed way to engage me in conversation:
'hi... you know, i really like chinese food...'

chile has one of the highest incidences of earthquakes
/ tremors in the world - every 20 years on average,
santiago experiences one big enough to knock buildings
down and take lives. the last such one was in 1985
(you guys do the maths...). but although we're all
holding our breaths and hoping the next big one
doesn't come too soon, there's a really cheap thrill
that comes with feeling your whole bed shake and walls
vibrate every time there's a tremor hitting 4 on the
richter scale..

the great thing about meeting new people all the time
is the frequency of strange and uncomfortable
conversations. my new housemate (i moved into a house
closer to the centre, and 10 minutes walk from
Santiago's version of Fitzroy) was briefly seeing a
canadian porn star, who overheard us giggling about
orgies one night. he obviously got the wrong idea,
because on 2 separate occasions, he confidently
invited me to join them. i think he was expecting me
to be flattered (he'd mentioned previously with no
small amount of pride that girls threw themselves in
his path all the time), and it was with great joy that
i smiled politely and declined. however his ego was so
big that he couldn't leave it at that, and the second
time i rejected the offer, he insisted on a reason.
(interactive Toastmasters activity: how would you
reject an internet porn star?)

the japanese film 'the ring' is called 'el aro' in
spanish, literally meaning 'the earring'.

my recent bout of edginess here (sorry that a few of
you had to cop it..) had a lot to do with the fact
that i felt my spanish skills were affecting my
personality. i seemed to have reached a plateau where
i had enough to maintain a boring everyday
conversation, but not enough to enhance interaction
with wordplay, more sophisticated remarks, etc. as i
mentioned to a friend: how does one pull off double
entendres, when even the first entendre is a struggle?
here's a social experiment for you to try at home: try
going a single day with a me-tarzan-you-jane language
level. sure, you'll get by, but i can guarantee that
you won't get any intellectual stimulation, nor be
able to laugh at anything besides the frustration of
the situation.

but i digress: the above was written in the past
tense, because in the last couple of weeks, the
learning plateau started to curve upwards again. i can
actually make people laugh now, - not by making
mistakes or through visual humour, but with WORDS. and
the other day, when i was by myself, i bumped into the
coffee table and said 'ay' instead of 'ow'. surely
this is proof that my spanish identity is getting
stronger? ah, amazing language, how sweet the sound; i
once was lost, but now i'm found.

here's another aspect distinguishing chilean spanish
from other varieties: the spanish phonetic system
naturally encourages higher-pitched voices anyway, but
the chilean accent and intonation enhances this. grown
women sound like whining 9-year-olds, and i get a
shock when seemingly masculine men open their mouths
and i hear michael jackson talking.

one of the friends i've made here is a hyperactive
little gay peruvian. wow, i thought *i* could dance
all night long, but this guy is the Energizer Rabbit
to my pathetic Duracell self. what's startling about
our friendship is that i happened to mention my plans
to stay here in south america for quite a while
longer, and he extended a *sincere* offer of marriage
to help me out. even though i haven't even clicked
'send' yet, i can already hear both my parents' hearts
stopping, so i hasten to add that i will NOT be taking
up on his offer. nevertheless, it's amazing how
frequently these types of arrangements occur. as it
is, i'm helping a chilean with filling out some forms
in english, so that he can go over to the States and
marry a girl there. i feel so naïve.

my feeling of extreme naïvety (i just wanted to get 2
umlauts into this email...) is also enhanced by
experiences such as the 11-year-old girl who knocked
on my door the other day, when it was pouring down.
she was going from door to door asking for food
donations for her family... and i'd just been
whingeing to myself about how frigging cold it was.

the only other interesting bit of news to add is that
i've recently taken a temporary vow of abstinence and
toned down my lifestyle. i don't care what 'they' say:
it IS possible to get too much of a good thing. ..and
besides, i'm too old and too female for michael
jackson anyway.

feeling disgustingly nostalgic and missing all you
buddies back home (this always happens to me after 8
months, faaark!)