santiago-go-go!

hola a thousand times over, dear friends.

now, in am attempt to at least start off with good intentions, i bring you sudamerica blog entry numero uno, which promises no grandeur, eloquence, or intense revelation, but more so just a chance for me to outstretch my hand and tell you how i'm gonna give this thing a shot, but a different kind of shot this time. im gonna strive to get less caught-up in feeling obligated to provide such even-spread detail and put forth a greater effort to slam my updates on the internet's face with a bit of regularity, even if they turn out to be lacking in wit, structure, even editing.
this tripped me up before, so much so that i more or less ceased to write entirely, which brought about great shame and guilt (and i know what you're thinking--being jewish, i must be quite used to that by now), but that's not how this is supposed to go down. things will happen or not happen, and i will tell you some and leave some holes so that our futures can consist of sidebar conversations and delayed revelations.

all that garbage being said, let's get you up to speed. by way of lima, i arrived in santiago this morning. hyperbole has never been so needed as now when i tell you that this day feels as though it consisted of 86 hours. arriving at the airport at 6:30 am with no more than 20 minutes sleep (and some weird "breakfast" in my tank), i then found my way to my hostel, showered, met some girls from santa cruz en route back to the states, bought some snacks at the market, coordinated dates and accommodations for the next week, wrote and allegedly posted a blog entry that seems not to exist, hung by the pool, teamed up with a german girl who works at the hostel and a set of aussie & english boys who just arrived from new zealand, walked about town seeing cathedrals, hilltop views, and eating ice cream, then hanging at the pool again, going to the market again, cooking dinner, and then having beers with a group in the hostel's backyard...and that is pretty much what gets us to the here and now. too much detail, right? well, it's day one; get off my back.

it's pretty stellar how i go from feeling kinda loopy and directionless to gallivanting with a multicultural clan citing quotes from "snatch" (a la the epic brad pitt). i suppose it's an ultra-cheesy but good reminder that nothing happens when you just sit around waiting for it and whining. you gotta start stirring things up yourself, and that i did. hopefully this bodes well for the days that follow, though i do feel an awkwardness after being removed from the vagabond scene for a few months. surely time will cure this and warm me up inside so i recognize the peter pan gypsy i was/am/will be. day one could've so easily been a wash, a waste, an insignificant and uncomfortable adjustment to the reality that i have actually flown one-way to another continent with no discernible long-term plans. but it was much better than that, and i feel my confidence boiling up inside like i'm the goddamn hulk of mysterious budget adventures.

i anticipate it being rocky, but i am gonna rock this.