Puertecillo

Las Primeras Impresiones

It's been just over a week now and we've seen, tasted, and experienced much more than we could have imagined before leaving. In fact, I can hardly believe that just 10 days ago, we were stuffing our belongings into boxes, tugging on our winter coats and running off to the post office in Amsterdam.

We arrived last Friday night after a 28-hour journey through Germany, the Dominican Republic and Panama and were greeted at the airport by Simon, G's new employer and the head of the new project he's going to be working on at OAN (el Observatorio Astronómico Nacional). He drove us right to our new place in Las Condes, which is a posh suburb in the north-east of Santiago. The house is situated at the foot of a hill known as Cerro Calán and hence just a 10 minute walk from the observatory. It's also enormous by any standard and even more so because it's just the two of us here, but we're very comfortable and have quickly gotten used to enjoying the use of our garden, the enormous terrace which gives us a beautiful view of the city, and the spacious living room complete with two big, soft couches which we usually crash onto at the end of the day and heave a sigh of contented exhaustion.

Por Casualidad

"I began to fantasize, once again, about this utopian era. I thought, without fully believing it, that everything must have been more beautiful and more intense, that it was worth it to live one's youth burning the candle at both ends, under a heavy sun that turned everything erotic, even the petrified rocks on the seaside." Ibiza. Henry Roy (Hobo Magazine).

Reminds me of Hawai'i. Or Camus's Nuptials in Tipasa. Great piece, excellent find!

Elskede København.

Pienso en aquel día.

I am moving to Santiago de Chile. In October. For three years. Wow. Leaving the Netherlands had been part of the plan for some time now, but somehow it feels different to say so now that it's ceased to be a vague goal and become, rather, a concrete course of action. There is much to be done, many aspects to be arranged, many promised visits to be made good on. Nearly a decade after crossing the world to begin a new adventure here in Europe, I am packing my bags and heading off for undiscovered territory once again. It's enthralling, inspiring and just a tad frightening. But it is an adventure I cannot wait to set out on!

A New Year & All That Jazz.

Is it already that time again? Let's have a quick recap.

2009 was the year I took G to Hawai'i, moved to the Bagijnhof, travelled through Morocco and Portugal, joined a mass pillow fight on the Dam, Vondelparked the summer away, celebrated my 7th year in Europe, MCed a wedding, danced my ass off at Dour & then the Gentse Feesten, lived like a vagabond between Delft & Amsterdam, celebrated a wild and very intoxicated Thanksgiving with my favorite group of Eurotrash, rang in my 26th year, spent a wonderful Christmas in Poland with my best friend and her lovely family, sang, laughed, lived, and never stopped wanting more.

2010 will be the year I finish my degree, spend an entire summer in the islands, pass the DELE, learn to sail, finally get my hands on the Digi SLR camera I've been drooling over for ages, gain at least a basic level of Polish, say goodbye to The Netherlands (at least for now), finish War & Peace, get published, and write, write, write my heart out.

Tomorrow Kasia and I are off to Berlin to spend New Years Eve there with a good friend of ours and her boyfriend. What a lovely way to say goodbye to one year and welcome the arrival of the next. It's going to be a good- no, a phenomenal year! I can feel it already. Kerouac said “I was going to be left alone on my butt at the other end of the continent. But why think about that when all the golden land's ahead of you and all kinds of unforseen events wait lurking to surprise you and make you glad you're alive to see?”. I am glad indeed. Here's to unforseen events and a prosperous, happy and eternally adventurous 2010 to everyone! See you on the other side!

As always,

J.

المملكة المغربية

We will never again feel like we did under the skies of North Africa.

Somewhere In Between

Our last day in Hawaii was spent lounging on the sand and swimming in the pale turquoise waters of Waikiki. After a spectacular sunset, a meal of laulau and poi and a bus ride back to the hotel, we closed our eyes and said goodbye to this beautiful place where we had spent the last three weeks. As we boarded the plane the next morning, I could feel that something inside of me had changed, a slight and barely perceptible shift of the way in which I had regarded and remembered this tiny piece of paradise on the other side of the world. I didn't want to go back; no, not this time. I peered out the window and felt my heart surge in protest, my eyes fill with tears. I closed them tightly and leaned back into my chair, biting my tongue to keep a cry of protest from escaping my lips.

Thirty hours, ten thousand miles, two books, countless naps, and a few silent tears later, I am back here once again, back in that place between two places, to my home between two homes, somewhere between happiness and utter despair.

"I didn't want to go back. Not the first time, I didn't think my heart could stand it. But the airplane is a wonderful thing. You are still in one place when you arrive at the other. The airplane is faster than the heart. You arrive quickly and you leave quickly. You don't grieve too much. And there is something else about the airplane. You can go back many times to the same place. And something strange happens if you go back often enough. You stop grieving for the past. You see that the past is something in your mind alone, that it doesn't exist in real life. You trample on the past, you crush it. In the beginning it is like trampling on a garden. In the end you are just walking on ground. That is the way we have to learn to live now. The past is here." He touched his heart. "It isn't there." And he pointed at the dusty road.

- A Bend In The River;
V.S. Naipaul