Eyes of the Cosmic Whale
“…leaving the heavens naked, glistening blue-black, like the belly of some cosmic whale…”Archive for Travel
May the new year really be happy!
I know I haven’t posted in ages, but I can fairly blame it on my life. Moving from one country to another is apparently the third most shocking thing that can happen to you. The first is when someone close dies and the second when you (or your parents) divorce.
Peru was, with all its defects, a good place to live. I’m going to miss it. Sometimes I miss it already, and I’m not even in Washington yet. And when I say I’m going to miss it, I don’t just mean the city. I also mean everything it is and represents and all the people we met in it. I will miss going through Benavides and chuckling at the fact that there’s like 10 chifas in just one avenue, and I will miss awing at the Christmas lights in Alamaeda Monte Umbroso, but I will miss more the people who really made my time in Peru worthwhile. They were the ones who gave it all sense.
Thankfully my family stays with me. Other than God, it’s one of the only things that have been stable wherever I go. I mean stable as in “there, with me”, because thinking again, family is one of the less stable things there is! Hopefully you got what I mean.
As I was saying, leaving people you love tears you apart. The whole “you never know what you have until you lose it” is true, but I think in this case it’s less true. I have the Internet, oh the wonderful Internet. MSN, Facebook, E-mail…it’s not like I’m REALLY losing something. I’m not. I won’t. These people are much too valuable to let go, just like that.
Lizzy tops the list. But I WILL see you again, and we’ll seriously stay in touch and it will be like no space is between us. I hope so, at least.
Ok, this is turning into a rant (and I haven’t even gotten into what I feel about going to Washington D.C. *shudder*), while I meant it to be a cheery New Year’s Eve post.
What do I mean with all of this? Sometimes life is mean to us. Actually, most of the time we have -some- problem we have to deal with. It’s never easy. Ever. But we need to have optimism. We need to be able to believe that however bad things are now, they can be better, and they will. So we have to believe in God.
(And if you don’t, at least try for some time and you will notice the difference. Seriously.)
This year will be freaking tough for my whole family. I can’t remember fearing so much the beginning of a year before. But it’s necessary to be optimist and believe that God will be with us. I know it will be OK, even if I am feeling really insecure.
Apart from believing in God, believe in yourself. We have so much inner power, we really do.
I told this to someone earlier today and I will put it here. Today, let’s shake all our fears and the terrible things from 2007 like dead skin and freshly start the new year.
And may it really be happy.
Plugged into another world
Long time no write. I’m back now from the three week holiday. It’s paradoxical how, looking back, it seems to stretch out and out, but now I’m here in Lima, it’s as if barely any time had passed.
It was probably one of the few times we returned at daytime. It’s so much different from returning at night! I felt like I had been plugged into another world. (Notice the use of the word ‘plugged’. A plug can’t plug itself. ‘Plugging’ suggests that the change wasn’t voluntary- someone else forced it).
I guess the change between Europe and Peru had never been so evident. We can start with the weather. Coming from sunny, blue skied, warm Barcelona, grey grey grey Lima hit me hard. Not so much the cold, because I was clothed enugh but still. It was all so gloomy! Then the poverty. European streets are all filled with fully built houses, and in places like Amsterdam and Barcelona, it’s all about the architecture. In Lima, (hello!) there is no architecture. Thinking more about it, I realized we live with the poverty so much, it doesn’t seem out of place anymore. We get used to it. And then we really really notice it when we have a clear picture in our heads to what we can compare.
Anyway, it all seemed so different. And the greyness of it all was choking. Honestly, if Lima was sunny all year long, it would be so much different. Even with the poverty. Well, at least there are things to look forward. (Though not the mocks. AT ALL.)
Today we put on the fireplace and now it’s all more cosy, and at least the atmosphere isn’t as frozen as when we came into the house.
I felt like writing a bit 
. I was (yet again) avoiding homework. These physics past papers are killing me slowly and painfully.
Ah well, I will write about the trip when I have the time.
