hace dos meses...!

Feliiiiz!

Yo he pasado dos meses en Sur America. Dos meses! Mucho tiempo! Y habria mas!

So many things have happened. Last week, we sweated under some hot hot sun and irrigated a field where we will plant somewhere near thirty thousand horn fruit plants. I can now dig trenches, lay pipe, and connect drip lines. Things you will never learn in Morningside Heights.

This weekend was full of unexpected goodness. I witnessed my first futbol game in Chile: Universidad de Catolica vs. Universidad de Chile. It wasn't even really a contest--Universidad de Catolica had some pretty sweet footwork and coordination which even my untrained eyes could appreciate.

After the game, Jeremy and I managed to put together last minute costumes that turned out quite well--he as a maid with a kickass rainbow duster and me as Dionysusa (how would you feminize that?) with a sarang-turned-toga and a homemade wreath (supplemented by flowers from nearby parks). At the Halloween party of some fellow WWOOFers who had stayed at our farm earlier, I had some profound conversations with Jesus from the future and two of his disciples (Judas and Peter), plus a French diablo with a trash bag cape. Maybe one of the highlights of the night was when Osama Bin Laden gave us a ride home.

And then today, on the Dia de los Muertos, while the committed Chileans paid their respects in cemeteries, us gringos (plus one Chileno) made our own pilgrimage to Oktoberfest and tried some excellent local beer and sausage.

:)

I'm beginning to love the way that speaking Spanish draws breath from different spaces in my throat. There is such emphasis on vowels, to the point where I feel like consonants just signify different ways to launch into a prolonged vowel sound: que riiiiiico or even simple question words, like cual, which feels like a love affair between u and a, held together in the space between the curve of your tongue and the roof of your mouth by a precariously placed l. In English, I feel like vowels are so often buried in the firmness and definitive sounds of consonants: you don't even hear the vowels in that word.

In any case, Meg has arrived! And I have found a possible next farm, on Chiloe island, with vineyards and animals and seafood. I think I will slowly make my way down there next, and soon. Olmue gives life but it will continue without me.