last week, i met a group of lifeguards who are are
also camping in the seaside village of Rada Tilly, and
¡ay caramba!, has it been good hanging out with them!
they´re all mostly my age, not from here so eager to
make friends, share the same love of nature, and
(probably most importantly,) can actually hold a
conversation instead of just staring at me like i´m a
curiosity. for the first time since leaving buenos
aires, i´m having intellectually stimulating
conversation beyond the usual ´where are you from´
introductions and daily chitchat. learning about how
life works here from their viewpoints has been
UN.BE.LIEVABLE. and that they´re all extremely
attractive and gallant is not entirely lost on me
either: inviting me to their get-togethers for
christmas and NYE, taking me to see movies,
accompanying me for ice cream adventures, opening tin
cans for me.. it´s like i´ve got 8 boyfriends, but
without the stress/work - really, could life be any
better? i will be truly sorry to leave them when i
head south - i´ve gotten quite close to a few of them.
(NOTE: following paragraph - serious. if you want to
maintain the festive spirit, skip to the rest of this
email.)
despite all this, - or rather, *because* of this, -
when i´m by myself, i´ve been a tad morose of late,
thinking more and more about opportunities and the
distinction between those who have and those who
haven´t. we are so goddamned *lucky* (excuse the
blasphemy) in the developed world that it makes me
sick when i hear people talk about what they ´can´t´
do, or what they ´wish´ they could do. WISH is when
you´d like to better your chances of survival by going
to school but CAN´T because you earn barely enough to
feed yourself by selling wilted flowers on the street.
not having enough money/food to survive is a true
obstacle - not having enough willpower or courage to
do something that you want to do is *NOTHING* in
comparison. and unfortunately, that´s how most people
in our world (australia, the states, europe,..) think.
(sorry, i needed to get that off my chest. now to my
standard random drivel..)
a couple of days ago, it started thunderstorming, so i
had to go to the beach and pretend i was a mermaid, or
Enya in the ´sail away´ song. the water was so warm
after 5 glorious days of sun; it was incredible! then
i hear a whistle, and one of the lifeguards has come
out to get me out of the water (one that´s not staying
at the campsite, so didn´t know me) because he thought
that someone had stolen my pants, or that i was
feeling melancholy and looking to drown my sorrows, -
in short, i got into trouble. i felt like i was back
at school being told off for going somewhere that was
´out of bounds´.
last night, i used an intimidating ´if clause´
structure in spanish for the first time - such joy!
i´ve been avoiding it for so long because it scares
me. (to clarify, in english it would be something like
´if i could have ..., i would have...´ - very
complicated in a foreign language.)
this morning, i was in a particularly good mood, so
when a group of construction workers whistled at me, i
waved back and wished them a good morning. they looked
stunned that a girl would actually respond to their
´piropos´ and started discussing in a very confused
manner what they were meant to do next. i shook my
head and moved on.
in the film ´a history of violence´, in one of the
scenes filmed in a pub, there´s an ad for a beer
called ´yuengling´s´ - apparently america´s oldest
brewery. i feel famous!
i´m currently reading julio cortázar´s ´un tal lucas´,
which plays with ideas in writing the same way dalí
played with ideas in image. it´s so good that i get
very frustrated having to pause to look up various
words in the dictionary.
one of the lifeguards was all sad yesterday, and i
asked him why: ´oh yuen, i don´t know what to do, -
one of my friends said i could take my clothes to his
mum´s to be washed, but i don´t know, i´d feel bad
accepting, but at the same time, i really hate washing
my stuff myself..it´s been bothering me, because i
don´t know what i should do..´ - i still smile now:
the thought of this big tough lifeguard being troubled
over this moral dilemma.. ¡ay!, boys are so *cute*,
how can we not love them?
(more photos: 'rada tilly' gallery)
