What's it all about, anyways?

So lately I have been having an internal struggle that is often on my mind when it's on idle... you know, when your brain has no difficult computation to makes and is just... there, conserving energy until the next time it has something to do. I guess you could say that it is a question to the effect of, "what's important in life?," but for me the question goes deeper. The question is not about how I spend my time, but how I value life and the instruments that I use to value it.

So what could I possibly be struggling over? I consider how I spend my time, how I spend my money, and what my theories and ideas of our world are, but I realize that all of these... I dunno, aspects of my reality do not quite match up as I would expect. I say that I believe in parity for everyone, but my actions do not align. What does it mean that I am willing to spend money on new technologies that I will enjoy, but I ignore a grassroots advocate who asks for support of their campaign? How is it that I think that all life has value, yet I cannot bring myself to look a homeless person in the eye when I walk to class? When you are in a place of privilege looking down, it is easy to ignore the realities and hardships of others around you. However, not for me, not anymore. I feel like I am in an intermediate where I know that I need to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, but I feel like it would be so much more comfortable to retreat to the securities in which I have learned to identify, forgetting the experiences of others.

A few of you probably do not understand what I am trying to say, a few probably have felt the same way before, and a few of you may say that I am accidently turning into a communist! But that is not the point. The point is that I am trying to determine how to remove the dissonance I currently experience in my life and continue moving towards a place of social action. I want to be able to determine what's important in my life by the impact I am making and the experiences I am having, not by the amount of goods I have in my name or the associations I have made in my life. To me this is not political, it is just me appreciating my interaction with the world around me. So yes, reading this, it looks cheesy, but this is what my mind mulls over, day after day, as I wonder when I will come to a resolution!

Back from my Break

It's customary to take a break from blogging in October, right? I mean, the internet needs a break every once in a while from me hogging up all of its space... Yes, yes, I am quite aware that I have not written a blog in a long time. A VERY long time... so I am here to correct this grave error. So what is there to say about a month in your life? I guess we'll find out together...

TRAVEL LIFE

I took two great trips during October. On one weekend, I took a bus 10 hours south, and, guess what? The follow weekend I took a bus 10 hours north!

The trip south was with a group of guy friends to stay at the house of one of my friend's brother. The first day that we were there, we went to a town called Entre Lagos (meaning "between lakes," and you would be correct to assume that the town was next to a bunch of lakes!) and stayed in a cabana. While we were there we went hiking in a national forest, and let's just say that I need to start working out more consistently if I am going to going hiking with that crew again! The next two days were spent driving around to different cities in the southern part of Chile, including Puerto Montt, Puerto Arenas, and Valdivia. There is some amazing history to be told about those areas, but I will not bore you! I will note though, that Valdivia is the location of the largest earthquake to be recorded in history--the town was completely destroyed and a huge tsunami decimated the region. We had an absolutely awesome time. Check out the pictures to the right!

The trip to the north was a totally last minute thing (which took its tool on my check book) but was also a great time. The intention of the trip was the see a phenomena called 'flowering desert,' in which seeds in this desert region grow when there is enough rain that year; however, the information we had was wrong and there was only limited flowering desert! Nonetheless, we still had a great time and made a lot of the weekend. Some of the highlights include taking a four hour stroll on the beach (where my feet got so sunburned that they did not even start peeling until recently--gross!), seeing total desert back up to the pacific ocean (an amazing juxtaposition), and staying overnight in a cabana in a tiny village with only like 50 inhabitants that live there to fish. Again... pictures to the right.

SCHOOL LIFE

I am so happy to say that I have only two weeks of school left! I am so thrilled to be done with classes. Here is the thing, I enjoy my courses, but I am getting bored with the topics. I dunno, maybe it is because I am not being challenged enough in the classes, or maybe it is because I am used to only taking one class at a time and getting down with it after a month. Whatever the reason, I am counting down the days until I am done. Being the good student that I all of the sudden became while I was here, I have done a really nice job of working on final projects ahead of time, so while everyone else is stressed right now, I only have two more projects to finish in the next two weeks. One realization I had a while back is that I am working way too hard for the credit I will get from the classes... I only need to "pass" my classes to have the credit transfer to Cornell, and I have A equivalents in all three classes. I guess we will just say I am doing to work so I can have the personal satisfaction of learning as much as I have.

SOCIAL LIFE

It is sad for me that I only have a little bit of time left before I leave the friends that I have made here. I suppose I am ready for it, as I have done it a million times before, but it always stinks. The nice thing is that it is so easy to stay in touch with people now-a-days so I know that the relationships that are most important will maintain. We have had a few great get-togethers recently that I have really enjoyed.

GRADUATE SCHOOL LIFE

As of now, I have completed 6 of my 14 graduate school applications. Once I put my mind to it, I will finish the other ones very quickly as well: all I need to do is modify my personal statement for the remaining schools and submit it with the application and I am set. From there it is a waiting game where I will need to start practicing getting rejected, because there is a lot of that to come! Remember, these schools are accepting like 4-6 students out of 100 or more. Yikes!

SPANISH SPEAKING LIFE

I chose the wrong country to feel good about speaking Spanish! I still feel incredibly defeated regarding my skills and it is so frustrating! Of course my Spanish gets better every day, but I am positive that I would feel so much more confident if I were to be speaking in a different country.