I´m sitting in the airport right now, with my Vincent Van Gogh style earpatch, awaiting my flight home. It´s two weeks early and without a trip to Antarctica, but for even more than that there is a weight of sadness.
The last time I travelled for a bit, I was gone for six months, a fair bit of time. However, I never stayed and settled down, so when my time came to go home, I eagerly awaited my flight. I can say I was 100 percent excited to go home.
However that´s not the feeling I have now. I spent a long time here in Chile and I have a deep affection for the people and the place that allowed me to share the last 9 months with them. I feel sad, because I know that my Chilean mom, Pati, will not make it up to the states to see me. I can only hope that she saves enough so that Pato and the Patis can make it. The most likely thing is that I will have to go their to see them, and with the looming possibility of a real job, and only two weeks vacation, I will be seeing very little of them
I guess these are just the realities of travel, and I knew that they played a part, but I was unaware how strong my attachment and relationship would be to these people. I mean I almost cried on the bus today and that´s really saying something considering I didn´t cry for either of my grandparent´s deaths. I´m not sure what it is about my makeup, but I just don´t break down much.
So with a heavy heart, I´m heading to my gate. I´ll sit down, probably text my mom to let her know that I´m on my way, and then I´ll take off. I´m sure that my sadness will be lifted when I get home and see my mom at the airport pickup, with Cali hanging out the window. And when I get home and have a few beers with my brother and the crew, but it´s definitely the first time that I´ve really left part of my heart in some place since Hawaii when I was a kid. What´s even stranger is that I seem to be enjoying this weight of melancholy, because even though it´s a normally negative emotion it comes from a huge emotional gain. The Pati family is a group I will never ever forget, and a family that I already miss. I miss Pati cursing like a sailor, Claudio´s singing, Pati Sue and her prankster craziness, and Pati Paz and her sweet (albeit rarely shown) caring side. Even Pato, with whom I´ve spent very little time, I can only hope that I´ll here from him from time to time.
I just know I´ll be back.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Ear Muffs
Friday was not a good day, although at the start it had heaps of possibility. A perfect sized swell was on the way for my good bye weekend, we had the kick of party the next night, all my friends from Pichilemu were coming back into town and I was getting ready for Antarctica.
It just seemed to get better too, because I went down to Nacho´s place and found that he had fixed my board and not charged me for it. I have been surfing my single fin a lot lately so I was really looking forward to getting back on my thruster. I waited for the wind to die down and then I went out for a surf with brian to catch the last hours before dark.
It was really fun, and we were pretty much the only people out in the water. We spent two and a half hours swapping waves and having fun. It was even starting to get better as the sunset was approaching. The wind was continuing to lay down and the swell was starting to line up better and suddenly we found ourselves getting even better waves.
I was stoked and decided to stay out in the water longer because I´m leaving tomorrow and won´t get a chance to surf a wave like this for a long time. I then see this beautiful wave line up and I can tell that it´s just going to be an awesome wave, but I´m a little out of position so I scramble over to a spot further outside. I get there in time but I have to have a late takeoff and as I spin and go my hand slips and I dive headfirst into the water with my hands behind me. Normally I´d have my hands on my head and nothing would happen but this time my board corked up and the rail gave me a vicious blow right to the ear.
When I surfaced I was really dizzy so I immediately grabbed my board and went in. I could feel the dizziness dissappear but I was having a hard time hearing out of my ear. I figured that it wasn´t much and that I´d have it checked in the morning.
Chris and Val just had a baby girl, Emma, and were driving home from Santiago and I was invited to go over to their house and have a little surprise party for them. Everyone was sitting by the fire and hanging around when my ear started to hurt a bit, not a lot but enough to be somewhat disconcerting. I waited for Chris and Val to get back, I congratulated them and then quickly split and went to the hospital to have my ear checked out.
Ruptured ear drum
It has to be one of the worst sounding injuries, up there with punctured lung. This of course meant that I am done surfing for a while which severely depressed me. So I got back and sent a text message to my folks letting them know what happened that I was alright, but not calling them on Sunday because of the ear and the fact that I just wasn´t in the mood for talking. So what happens? Of course, they call.
Normally my parents have a great soothing effect, but this time they seemed to have forgotten it. I had been cleared for travel by the doctor but they didn´t even ask what he said and were somewhat persistent in trying to get me to skip out on Antarctica and just come home even though going to Antarctica has been something that I was really looking forward to doing. It would be really cool to see all the sea life down there, the leopard seals and the orcas and the blue whale (the biggest mammal in the world). I was already in a bad mood and since they weren´t doing anything but worsening it I was really curt and quickly got off the phone. Should I have been nicer? Yeah, probably but in that situation I think it is at least somewhat understandable.
It should have ended there, but the next day I go to the internet and rummage through my email to see that there is a message from the organizers of the Antarctica Cruise.
Its fucking cancelled.
So now I´m not able to do anything because I´m on meds, I have a ringing in my ear, my plans have fallen through and I have two weeks left to kill and plane tickets to the south of Argentina that aren´t really worth anything to me.
So you know what I´m going to do?
I´m going home. I´m going to go to the LanChile office and trade all my tickets in for the first flight home. So whoever´s around I should be home by the weekend. See you soon.
It just seemed to get better too, because I went down to Nacho´s place and found that he had fixed my board and not charged me for it. I have been surfing my single fin a lot lately so I was really looking forward to getting back on my thruster. I waited for the wind to die down and then I went out for a surf with brian to catch the last hours before dark.
It was really fun, and we were pretty much the only people out in the water. We spent two and a half hours swapping waves and having fun. It was even starting to get better as the sunset was approaching. The wind was continuing to lay down and the swell was starting to line up better and suddenly we found ourselves getting even better waves.
I was stoked and decided to stay out in the water longer because I´m leaving tomorrow and won´t get a chance to surf a wave like this for a long time. I then see this beautiful wave line up and I can tell that it´s just going to be an awesome wave, but I´m a little out of position so I scramble over to a spot further outside. I get there in time but I have to have a late takeoff and as I spin and go my hand slips and I dive headfirst into the water with my hands behind me. Normally I´d have my hands on my head and nothing would happen but this time my board corked up and the rail gave me a vicious blow right to the ear.
When I surfaced I was really dizzy so I immediately grabbed my board and went in. I could feel the dizziness dissappear but I was having a hard time hearing out of my ear. I figured that it wasn´t much and that I´d have it checked in the morning.
Chris and Val just had a baby girl, Emma, and were driving home from Santiago and I was invited to go over to their house and have a little surprise party for them. Everyone was sitting by the fire and hanging around when my ear started to hurt a bit, not a lot but enough to be somewhat disconcerting. I waited for Chris and Val to get back, I congratulated them and then quickly split and went to the hospital to have my ear checked out.
Ruptured ear drum
It has to be one of the worst sounding injuries, up there with punctured lung. This of course meant that I am done surfing for a while which severely depressed me. So I got back and sent a text message to my folks letting them know what happened that I was alright, but not calling them on Sunday because of the ear and the fact that I just wasn´t in the mood for talking. So what happens? Of course, they call.
Normally my parents have a great soothing effect, but this time they seemed to have forgotten it. I had been cleared for travel by the doctor but they didn´t even ask what he said and were somewhat persistent in trying to get me to skip out on Antarctica and just come home even though going to Antarctica has been something that I was really looking forward to doing. It would be really cool to see all the sea life down there, the leopard seals and the orcas and the blue whale (the biggest mammal in the world). I was already in a bad mood and since they weren´t doing anything but worsening it I was really curt and quickly got off the phone. Should I have been nicer? Yeah, probably but in that situation I think it is at least somewhat understandable.
It should have ended there, but the next day I go to the internet and rummage through my email to see that there is a message from the organizers of the Antarctica Cruise.
Its fucking cancelled.
So now I´m not able to do anything because I´m on meds, I have a ringing in my ear, my plans have fallen through and I have two weeks left to kill and plane tickets to the south of Argentina that aren´t really worth anything to me.
So you know what I´m going to do?
I´m going home. I´m going to go to the LanChile office and trade all my tickets in for the first flight home. So whoever´s around I should be home by the weekend. See you soon.
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