mote con huesillo es la cosa más rica del mundo

Hola Amores,

I´m feeling super anxious and unhappy about being inside right now but wanted to check in anyways. I´m alive, I´m well, I´m feeling the magic. OK, it´s not so magical. I´ve spent the last 15 minutes getting sucked into labeling my pictures on flickr. Tedious, maybe avoiding this blog...

Anyway, I had a great time yesterday, didn´t meet up with anyone at the protest (which turned out to be very small), but had some good scores at the flea market (the cops had gone away for awhile when I got back there), and I learned abt what´s going on with this mining project in the north. Pasua Lama. More later when I´m feeling more relaxed. Stayed out at Rafa and Paula´s house late late late, took the metro there (still avoiding el Transantiago--the new micro system--more later on that) and then a taxi home at 4 with Marcelo´s new roommate Mauricio (my old flat is just three blocks from Polo´s).

Got kinda lost on my bike in some crazy super poor parts of the city (I was pissed I didn´t bring my camera, I saw some amazing, beautiful, and ugly things), got a flat, had a sweet old man at the Taller Ciclista (bike workshop) around the corner from my old place fix it for $3, and now I´m here. The walk from where I was lost--and where I aproveché el momento to tomar un mote con huesillo SOOOOO RICO!!! --it´s wheatberries in peach juice (with a canned peach in it, you eat it all with a spoon and then drink the juice), the best thing ever when it´s hot--and then discovered my flat tire and thus, had to walk... was full of something I have no polite word for, so I will describe it as a mental screw. That is, turning over so many things in my head that can have no possible solution...The Left in Chile, the radical graffittii (is it ultra-left? is it anarchist?), how much I could possibly understand, how much my destiny is in my hands, the role of dispatch, if I can be myself on this blog without fearing familial repurcussions, who I am, the meaning of the universe, you know...

I think I´m going to have to go back to the bus station and buy my ticket for Mendoza now, before they´re all sold out and I´ll never get out of this town. Polo says he has friends in Valparaiso and Valdivia (one of my favorite cities), but I don´t know how social I´m feeling about being with people I don´t know, or being in cities where I know less of what to do to keep myself (safely) busy. Maybe I´ll come back through Valdivia after my time in Chiloé, I´ll probably be anxious for people my age, after my time with Mirta. But who knows, maybe I´ll meet rad kids at her hospedaje. Looks like I finally get to hang out with Polo tomorrow, for lunch, and then a chat date with my gringo boyfriend, and then sleep, and then a pass across the cordillera to Mendoza Wed. morning to hang out with my comrade in that chill town, hopefully not get lost trying to find any vineyards or falling out of any rafts.