Chilllllll(e)

Hello All!
Writing here after a really nice weekend to a small town in Chile called Curicó where two friends Amy, Will and I spent time hanging out and looking at some Beautiful waterfalls! We left on Saturday and arrived in the afternoon to walk around and hang out in Curicó. There wasn´t much to do there (not even a movie theatre!) so we just kind of relaxed a bit and went to the mall (where the Supermarket is, of course!) to get food for our hike the next day. We then went to this restaurant because the lady at our hostile didn´t let us use the kitchen, and had a really good meal. Then the next day we got up and went to find a bus to take us to the town from which we would take another bus to get to the National Park. Well, we missed the bus to the National Park, and ended up successfully hitch-hiking the rest of the way to the park. We then hiked and played amongst the rocks of this beautiful, clear, turquoise river and marveled at the Waterfalls. on the way back and got a ride from this Colombian couple that were Really nice, Really cool, and Really stoked about how awesome Colombia is. (Confirming that, yes, I AM going there this summer...). So in all, it was a successful fun trip.
There´s this attitude in Chile that is "work hard, play hard". And seeing as how I don´t really work, per se, I do quite a bit of playing (and by playing I mean relaxing...). The whole concept of time down here is just SO different from that of the US. There isn´t such an obsession with controling it. It is not something to be manipulated or to be used against us. It seems down here as it exists only to enjoy and to be taken advantage of. Being late to something is not as heavily penalized here, because who knows? Maybe you were doing something awesome that ran over a little, and thus caused you to show up "late", or something... There is just this air of mystery concerning the concept of time, and once you get it, and stop trying to control or fight it, it flies by and is passed like the breeze. So many of my days down here have been passed so easily, and I can maybe count on one hand the amount of times I have been or felt STRESSED for any substancial period of time. "Shit, I am running late for class-where is my Metro card, I may miss it and be late, ugggghh..." then"well, I missed the Metro, but wow the clouds look nice today, I wonder if the Professor will be there on time (if at all) hummde dummmm." and that´s it. Stress for one second tops, and then back to enjoying my life. Stress is such a funny thing. It is great that we have an instinct to warn our bodies of over-stimulation, but when we remain in that state (or any state for that matter) for any sustained period of time, it doesn´t serve us. As humans I feel that the Only thing that is constant is that we are constantly changing. (Did someone famous already say that?) Every moment, every thing we see, hear, think about and feel changes us. Even if just for a second, we become different. I could easily write a blog every day about funny things I see here: Dogs going through the trash, a mom helping her little boy Pee on the sidewalk, the guy in the Metro playing Clapton and Bach on the wodden flute.... It is endless, and every day something is different. These things I experience (that we ALL experience) do not necessiarily change us immediately, rather they open up new pathways in our minds as to what ELSE. What else is Possible, probable, acceptable...What else is Out there? What are we thinking!? As individuals, communities, countries, as a planet? Is it just noise, or is there something else. Maybe there is an underlying rythm without language, without Politics, without wars, energy, food, money... Maybe there just is. A pulse, maybe? Can we hear it? Do we have the Time to stop and listen to it? Do we even care??? Because what is it, really? Why do we get up at a certian time every day? Go do our things "on time", get home "on time". What if we just let it be. Sleep until you feel like getting up, do what you feel like doing when you Are up. TAKE time, Enjoy time, have a GOOD time. Because it IS limited. One day we will die. Will "time" exist then???
shit, I don´t know...
Until then, however, I am going to make the best of my time and let it happen. Wherever we are-there we are. Thanks for taking the time to read this. :)
Chau Chau!