A few observations I've recently made....

[Photos courtesy of Elizabeth Linehan's great photography skills]

[Take the time to stop and smell the roses]

1) It is so easy to compare ourselves to others. Although it makes no sense because even if we love our life and feel accomplished and happy, it is so normal to compare our lives to others. I always have to remind myself that this is nonsense especially because we are all such different people! For example, I am not a political and economic person. It is just not me. And I am going to work on it because I have Meg and other people I can talk to. But when I meet someone who is "political" I always find myself wishing that I was more like them. Then I have to stop myself by asking: OK what things do you know that they haven't learned? (Disclaimer: I don't actually speak this out loud to myself. That would mean I talk to myself and I am not crazy. Ish.) Anyways, I am working on not comparing my life to the life of anyone, but rather being appreciative of the other person's accomplishments amidst appreciating my life too.
2) "A relationship requires a person to not think too much but to think enough." This is a Gary-ism. So wise. Another good one is: "It's not usually accurate to judge people by their photos. People don't take pictures of what they always do. They take pictures of what they don't usually do."

[Case in point: We don't always tour UCSC]

3) I have come to grips with the fact that I am a quite random person. Thank God that I am funny because that means that all the randomness that comes out of my mouth finds some pleasant coherency in the form of humor...otherwise I would be no different than the loonies on the bus. Ha. But I figure that my randomness is the product of having a memory that holds on to every little thing that has occurred in my life. I can spout a story to Megan in detail about a thing that happened in 6th grade. I can tell Lee Lee what we talked about "that one night" in IV during the movie 'My Date with Drew'. haha Plus randomness makes life a surprise, right?

4) I LOVE WORDS. Oh my gosh I am obsessed. I was already obsessed with words in English but now that I am sloooooowly learning Spanish, I find myself looking up every word and trying to memorize it. It's especially toxic because Willbur gave me this awesome hand-held translator. Thus I find myself using it all the time and then all the words I discover are eventually written down on a collective paper and then transferred to fichas (index cards) which I put on a ring and study insistently. Yesterday Sam was sitting behind me in the EAP class and I pulled out the translator (ok that's a lie. it was definitely on my lap the entire class. haha). And he was like: "Yeah girl. Pull it out. You get it girl." And with a quick turn around, I managed to whisper a that's what she said amidst the lecture and received a dissimulate high-five.

[at the mission in San Diego]

5) It's not until about two or three months of living in a foreign country in the house of a native that you realize that you have forgotten to do a lot of things that help to lower your stress. They are usually things that we took for granted in the states like singing in the shower or biking or going to the beach. But all the same, we don't realize their benefit to us until we realize that we are stressed or overwhelmed and we are looking for that "fix" that we are so used to getting. For me, that is singing. And unfortunately I feel that I can't do it here because I live with a Chilean mama and other extranjeros. BUT there is something that Sally taught me that will stick with me forever. She said that only in the last 2 years did she get over her nerves of singing in front of people and acting super goofy, etc. (And she's 27 so that's still a long time to live without letting it all out in front of people! :) hehe) Inside joke. Anyways, I don't know why I have this apprehension of singing in front of people. That is another thing I would like to work on bettering during my time here. I think that as long as I tell people that I will be singing for like 20 minutes a day, it would be a great way for me to de-stress and just flow. (HEAL: Flow activities! Everyone has one! You should find yours...)

[Nostalgia: Off to our hard days of 9th/10th grade]

6) I talked to my Lee Lee yesterday after receiving her 2 page letter in the mail. This made me realize the difference between emails and letters in the mail. Everyone acknowledges the aestetic touch of snail mail but I have come to realize another thing. When we sit down and write a letter to someone special, it makes us more philosophical and memorable in our writing. We know that the letter won't get to them in 2 minutes like an email (oh god its probably way less time than that these days but you get the point) and so we write things that are timeless and nostalgic and from the heart. So Lee Lee: thank you so much for taking the time and I love what you wrote. It is so true that we had the best year of our lives last year in IV. I will never forget those days and all the memories we made my little Nozzle.

[Our Summer in the South 2008]

7) There was a guy on the metro yesterday who was reading through printed slides of...would you believe it? Kinesioterapia para geriatría....basically exactly what I want to do in the future. Physical therapy in geriatrics using my knowlege of kinesiology. And this guy in front of me was studying it!! Well obviously "our kind" don't grow on trees so I had to talk to him and without even thinking twice, I said: Para que estudias eso? He answered me with: "Quiero perseguir con mi maestria en este topico de estudio." And we talked for the rest of the subway ride about what he wants to do with his degree and how useful it is to study this. I am just amazed that it is such a small world. I mean...I haven't exactly picked the most common thing to persue. But then again, that happens a lot with me.


8) En el fondo, la vida es buena. Hago lo que hago en Chile para mejorar mi caracter y mi mentalidad y para desfiarme a aprender sobre una cultura nueva. Sin embargo, al mismo tiempo, despues de mi tiempo aca, voy a estar lista para regresar a mi Santa Barbara y mi San Diego para continuar con mi vida alla. Le extrano a mi familia pero yo se cuando salga de Chile voy a extranar la gente que he conocido tan fuerte como mi familia en los EE.UU. Entonces, la sola cosa que puedo hacer, como todos los otros que han venido antes de mi, disfrutare mi tiempo en Chile a pesar de los desfios para que pueda tener orgullo en mi mismo cuando yo este en los EE.UU. viviendo una vida no tan exigente. Efectivamente soy una persona que acepta cualquier problema y trato de solucionarlo pero despues de mis seis meses en Chile, recordare mis logras mientras me diverto en la playa con amigos y ceno con mi familia preciosa y...mas. (Por si acaso: casi me muero para no poder usar accentos pero me confien que los habria usado si tuviera la opcion!)

[Painted by Leigh Anne Linehan]

Voy a correr ahorita pero gracias por leer mis pensamientos. Ayyy me sorprenda cuantas palabras espanoles yo se ahora! Quiero un vocabulario amplio para que continue perfeccionar mi hablar. Espero que pueda usar todos mis palabras nuevas para no las olvidar. QUE LES VAYA BIEN! CHAO!