random blogfest...

so first and foremost, huge props to my mom for joining my blog AND for figuring out how to add a picture!!! and a fantastic one at that! i haven't even figured out how to do that!!

so i get to go to the park on monday!! woop woop!! i'm going to jump onto a 5 day, two person guided trip that's going in. the guide is a chilean and knows everything about the park so that will be rad. weird to think about going on a guided backpacking trip but it'll be cool because i may be able to do some guiding later on this season (yay) so it'll be nice to see what exactly the guides do... mom, i'll get you a detailed itinerary so you'll know where i am the whole time, ha ha ha!

speaking of weird, that is the oddest word. what ever happened to the i-before-e-except-after-c rule?? highly ironic that weird ended up with such a weird spelling. apparently whoever wrote the dictionary had a sense of humor....

work is going swell. it's pretty slow but we definitely have the chilean approach to things. if i feel like taking a break, i just take off. if i'm the only one here, i just put a note on the door. if it's cold, i can hang out in the hostel next door where it's nice and toasty, and people just come find me over there if they need help. i'm slowly getting used to the long nights (during the busy season i'll be working until 11pm some nights!), it helps that everything here happens late so this is the norm rather than the exception to the rule! that's why they have the siesta - everyone stays out super late and then gets up at 8am and then takes a nap for lunch. it'll get busy any time now so things should pick up soon. until then i'm filling my days listening to fantastic music really loud and playing with the tents and trekking poles and other gear. it's a gear whore's dream here....which is really funny since up to last year, this building was a whore house! no joke! the madam was in here yesterday to pick something up.... so ha ha ha it's a fitting place for a self proclaimed gear whore....

it's really starting to feel like home around here. great people in the hostel! a few people have stuck around for several days helping out in exchange for free room and board. it's amazing to sit and talk to people and hear their stories. i'm really surprised at the number of people that have been travelling for over a year. how do they do it?? it's a bit rude to ask people if they're independently wealthy, but i can't think of any other way to travel for that long. well, when i win the lotto, i guess i know what i'm doing with the winnings! most of the people are from europe, the united states, australia, and new zealand. everyone has been rediculously cool. this hostel is by far the most comfortable one i've ever stayed at, and i've stayed at quite a few. people come in and just relax - there's such a wonderful mellow family feel to the place. and breakfast totally rocks - we have a breadmaker and the guys make fresh bread every day (it smells sooooooo good). i've got my own room for now; that may change when we get interns (ie travelers who are willing to help out for at least a month in exchange for room and board) later on in the season. but for now it's just me! we had a sweet cat, BC (mom, how weird is that - another BC cat!), up until today but he got the boot. he had a habit of going to the bathroom where he wasn't supposed to which really doesn't work in a hostel so he now lives at our friend scott's house just outside of town. so i'm bummed, he was a cool cat and slept on my bed last night and everything, but we'll be getting another one in a few days. if there is one thing there is no shortage of here, it's animals that need a home....

nights continue to be a bit rough. haven't really written much about that (hey i'm trying to make this a happy blog that people actually want to read). it's so strange to be away from everyone because it's really easy to convince myself that ry guy isn't really gone - i just haven't seen him in a while. and i haven't seen morph or my folks for a while either so it's not like i'm around everyone except for him.... but then i'll see a photo or hear a song and poof - a part of me is suddenly gone again and i'm feeling all broken. days are easier - i don't know anyone here all that well and would prefer if they didn't think of me as that crazy yank that walks around crying all day - but nights are something different altogether. some are ok, but some sure aren't. dad made a photo thing with a picture of ry guy from each of his 28 years and i still haven't been able to watch it. i've never been one to talk about tough things so now i'm trying this writing thing instead. and that's surprisingly easier than talking about things. but still therapeutic so thanks for listening, my captive audience.... i'll try to keep things cotton candy and fluffy bunnies but there are some days that i gotta get some things out and today has just been one of those days. but the nice thing about days like this is the knowledge that tomorrow will be better. i guess there's going to be days like this for a long time but every day we're all healing a little bit more and eight months from now we'll all be together - one big happy family again. and that's rad.

so one final story before i head home from work (this whole working next door to where i live is awesome - best commute of my life!!!). the weather continues to amaze me here. i lived in new zealand, where they have songs about "4 seasons in 1 day". well, dear kiwis, you guys have got nothin' on natales! so i was lying in bed the other morning listening to the breakfast talk (my room is right next to the kitchen so i don't even need an alarm clock - i just wait 'till everyone else gets up and then i do!). and i heard someone talking about it snowing outside. no way i thought! so i got up to investigate, and sure enough, it was snowing! not too hard but before too long is was really coming down! it wasn't sticking on the ground but there were some big snowflakes! so i jumped in the shower and ran into my room and got dressed so i could go to the market before work. threw on all of my warm wet weather gear - wool shirt, down jacket, gore-tex jacket, gloves, fuzzy hat....the works. came out of my room and walked outside to find.....stunning sunshine. blue sky and everything. seriously, it had been less than a half hour and it was sunny and not warm, but totally pleasant. hmmm..... so i went back inside and put my gloves and gore-tex back and put on my sunglasses instead. walked a few blocks to the market and had all sorts of fun on my first grocery shopping trip (more about that one another day). came out of the store maybe 30 minutes later....and it was snowing. no blue sky whatsoever. so then i walked a block to the fruit market and got a few things and walked back outside...... and it was sunny again. stayed sunny for most of the day and had to be at least in the high 50's (sorry i haven't switched over to celsius yet). so new zealand may have 4 seasons in 1 day, but we've got 4 seasons in 1 hour here!! the nice thing though is that if the weather is crappy, as long as the wind is blowing (which is pretty much all the time), you can bet that it won't be crappy for long! but man oh man, it's REALLY hard to get laundry done! how are you supposed to put all of your laundry out on the line to dry when there's a good chance on any given day that it'll rain or maybe even snow sometime??? so when y'all come down to visit me, don't be surprised if i'm wearing dirty clothes... really it's not me, it's the weather!!

until later friends, thanks for being there. be kind to yourselves and each other and i'll see ya on the flipside, coke :)