Category: Thoughts

All Hallows Eve

Happy Halloween, I guess. Do people even know what Halloween is? Where did it come from? Why is it celebrated? Most people do, I hope. History has it that Halloween falls on the night before ‘All Hallows Day’ which is Nov. 1st. It originated from the Roman’s ancient ‘festival of the dead’. A close relative to it would be the Celtic’s celebration of ‘Samhain’. In any case, the purpose of Halloween is to honor the dead (for the Romans). The Celts, however, believe that on All Hallows Eve, the boundaries between our world and the world of the dead overlap, and the dead would come back to life to, well, basically fuck our world up. Dressing up and disguising using costumes is one of the ways to keep oneself out of ‘harm’s’ way. Scary pumpkins and bonfires are also used to keep the ‘spirits of the dead’ away. Nowadays, most people don’t even think about the history or the meaning behind holidays and festivals because they’re all so commercialized and conventionalized. Ask any college student what they’re doing for Halloween and nine out of ten will tell you that they’re dressing up and getting trashed. Chicks would dress up as slutty as possible and dudes would wear as little cloth as possible (given that they’re in shape). This might not apply to you in which case, good for you! If it does, no offense.

Quoting Forrest Gump, “And that’s all I have to say about that”.

Happy Halloween.

It was only a kiss…

Stop looking for deeper meanings. It’s a simple gesture. A simple hug, a simple kiss, why make it so complicated? Pft…look who’s talking. Yes, it’s understandable that we want to believe that there’s something more, it’s our basic instincts driving us to find meaning in everything and it’s hard to fight against that, but, sometimes, things just happen. Call it coincidence, fate, destiny…life. Doesn’t matter as long as it makes us feel comfortable, as long as it fits our beliefs because, when we get to the root of it, there are only two outcomes: either you believe that there’s an ultimate consequence (in which case your life is adding up to that last moment some call ‘eternity’), or you believe that your actions here and now are all that matter, nothing more. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t always get what you want.

This world has so much to offer…

I’m not sure if I’ll ever stop and settle. Lewis Carroll once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there”. The problem is I know where I want to go, I just don’t know which roads to take. Robert Frost took the one less traveled by and that made all the difference for him, however, the two roads were the same. The more places I visit the stronger my desire to travel. I loved almost every country and place I’ve been, I just wasn’t in love with it. I love it here in Valdivia. It’s so beautiful and the people are great. There is so much to see here and I doubt I’ll be able to see everything. Then to think that this is only a small city in a small region in a small country in comparison to the world, I mean, come on. Am I going to stay? I don’t think so.

I’m still learning something new every day. Knowledge is power. The more I’m around other people, the more I learn about the world and myself. It’s pretty amazing. 3 more months left here in Chile. After that, it’s time to move on and do it over.

Winter vacation!

My second month in Chile is almost over…time has gone by sooooo fast it’s insane. The second semester is starting on Monday. Anyhow, winter vacation was awesome. We pretty much saw most of what Northern Chile has to offer. Not gonna go into details, that’s for my journal.

Let’s see…we left on a Saturday night from Valdivia to Santiago. Spent a day in Santiago waiting for Katie then left at night for La Serena, which is about 7 hours north of Santiago. La Serena is a beach town and it was beautiful there. Sunny for the most part, but still cold. From there we also visited Vicuna and the Elqui Valley where the famous poet Gabriela Mistral lived (She was the first Latin-American woman to win the Nobel Prize of Literature). It was cloudy that day so we didn’t get to see much. We had navegado though (Navegado is hot wine with oranges and cinnamon and amazingly good). We spent another half-day back in La Serena then left for Copiapo.

We tried to go to the Parque Nacional de Tres Cruces located east of Copiapo but it just wasn’t meant to be…it was a holiday, the tour offices were on strike and we found out from a local that the road to the park was blocked because of snow the night before. So, we packed up and headed to Caldera which is only an hour bus ride away. Caldera is another beach town on the coast and the saying that everything works out in the end held true, it did work out because there was a celebration that day in Caldera. It was the celebration of the construction of the first railway by the Norris Brothers in 1850 in South America I guess. So, we went around town checking out the festivities, napped right on the beach, and then got wine and drank on the beach. Saw some more festivities then decided to go to Empenapolis (City of Empenada) and get some empanadas. They were bomb ass. I know things taste good when you’re hungry and buzzed, but those empanadas were so good. After that, we headed back to the hostel, listened to some music, and passed out. Nichole went down one of those air-filled bumpy slides.

The next day we went to Bahia Inglesa which is only a colectivo ride away. The beach there was amazingly beautiful. I’ve seen some pretty beaches in my life but this one definitely makes it to one of my top 5. Even though it was still really cold. We sat on the beach, napped a little, ate lunch, went around a little more, and stopped near a cliff and threw rocks. After that, we went back to Caldera to watch the sunset then took about bags and camped out at Americano restaurant to wait for our night bus which took us to San Pedro de Atacama.

The night bus arrived nearly an hour late. We got to Antofagasta and changed buses to Calama, then changed buses to San Pedro de Atacama. Many hours later we finally arrived and found a hostel. Then we signed up for the Valle de la Luna and El Tatio Geysers tour. That same afternoon/evening we walked through Valle de la Muerte, saw the Tres Marias, and watched the sunset by the sand dunes. It was so breathtaking because the Cordillera (Mountain range) changes color as the sun sets. Definitely another sunset that makes it to my top 5. After that, we went back to the hostel and slept because we had to wake up at 4 am for the Tatio Geysers tour.

And so we woke up around 4, the van came to the hostel and picked us up, there was supposed to be another Brazilian couple coming with us but they weren’t there. So we ended up leaving late having to wait for them and shit. We were in a van and it was just us and the guide. It took over an hour to get there and the road was a dirt road with bumps and rocks so we pretty much were shaken up the whole way but off-roading for me was awesome, loved it. Anyway, we arrived at the Geysers and it was blistering cold but the water there (Geysers) was boiling hot. Steams were all over the place and not far from the Geysers water turned to ice (literally 30 feet away). Absolutely crazy. Our tour included breakfast so our guide hard-boiled our eggs in the water. After breakfast, we went to the hot springs. Nichole and I took a dip. The water wasn’t extremely hot, but the sand under it was. It was a nice bath though, met and talked to some peeps in the water. Not long after we got back into the van and headed to Machuga, a tiny village with 8 people living in it. Ate some llama meat with onions, very tasty. Went back to San Pedro, chilled, and left for Arica that night.

We arrived in Arica in the morning, found a hostel, and met another German guy (he just went up to us at the bus station and asked if he could come with us to the hospital because he didn’t know any around), slept till noon then walked to the centro. Got up to the hill with a huge statue of Jesus and some cannons. Arica was one of the important places during the War of the Pacific where the army of Chile took Arica from Peru in under an hour. That hill overlooked the whole city. After that, we went around centro again. We wanted to watch Harry Potter but the lady at the box office said it was in Spanish…which sucked cause I was so excited about it. So, instead of watching Harry Potter, we started drinking. We bar-hopped, chilled, drank some more, encountered 2 other volunteers, bought some more alcohol, took a colectivo back and drank some more, listened to some music, and passed the hell out. To rationalize and justify this amount of alcohol: it WAS our (quartet) last night.

The next day we had lunch and bid goodbye. Kevin and Nichole were continuing up to Machu Picchu and Katie and I started our journey back to Temuco/Valdivia, respectively. We got on the bus at 15:45 on Tuesday the 21st and arrived in Santiago at 21:00 on Wednesday the 22nd…30 hours of bus ride. Then I got on the bus at 21:50 and arrived in Valdivia at 08:00 on Thursday the 23rd. 40 hours of bus ride. I’m pretty proud. So that ends what I must say an amazingly fun and amusing trip. Damn!

School starts again on Monday. I’m still waiting to upload some pictures (need the cable back). That’s about it. I’ve also been thinking about life after Chile…really not sure where I want to go or what I want to do. I slept for 12 hours last night and had so many different dreams it was craaaazy. It was, in a way, my brain releasing almost everything I’ve thought about. Every time I woke up and fell back asleep it was a different dream. One was in French and two were in Spanish, the rest was in either English or Chinese. The bus ride has something to do with it, or so I thought anyway.

Keep it real. Peace out.

Out of sight, out of mind

Not really.

Too tired right now…I’ll expand on it later.

—–> 4 days later…

Solo cuando no hay aun un secundo para pensar. Algunos pueden ahuyentar todos los pensamientos pero no lo puedo. Es difícil porque me cuesta mucho tiempo dormirme, aunque sea cansado. Dice que si no lo soñarle se vuelve loco, quizás, porque todos lo que obtiene el mente subconsciencia durante el día están en el mente pero la consciencia no los trata entonces, la subconsciencia los trata cuando la consciencia está descansado en la noche. Y esos pensamientos se forman los sueños. A veces las cosas que pensó todo el día se forman los sueños también. Hay un dicho en Chino que dice “lo que piensa en el día, lo piensa en sueño”. Bueno.

Seis días…porque solo es ella. Aunque sea por un minuto.

Will I ever stay?

The answer is a very simple no. I’ve asked myself countless times. Traveling and moving always come first. I can see myself settling down but I just can’t get around to actually doing it. I hate leaving things behind I do, but once I’m in a new place all those things don’t seem to matter as much. I have my health, my memories, and my experiences with me…what more do I need? I really don’t care about a lot of stuff, not that they aren’t important, I just, well, don’t care.

Someone once asked me: Will you ever stay…for love? The simple answer would be again, no. Nevertheless, people tend to follow these yes or no questions with…why? Well, simply because my desire to travel is stronger than any other feelings I might have. ‘Pero el amor es el sentimiento mas fuerte que los demás’. Sure, I agree with that, and I’ve come very close to compromising but somehow, the thought of traveling and seeing the rest of the world comes out on top. I would give it a shot, I have been giving it a shot, but it’s just not happening. ‘All you need is love’, not me. ‘Love can withstand anything’, perhaps. If that’s true then love can wait (I am kind of in love).

I’m generalizing though…there are so many circumstances and I’m about to contradict myself by quoting Spider-Man: ‘Sometimes, to do what’s right, we have to be steady and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams.’ Truth be told this quote is definitely one of my favs. If my family needs me to stay, then yeah, I’m willing to give up my dreams, but if they “want” me to stay, then maybe. Now I’m gonna quote House: ‘You can’t always get what you want’, and now I’m gonna quote Into the Wild: ‘When you want something in life, you just gotta reach out and grab it’. On the surface, these seem like contradictions, but really, they go hand in hand. Think about it…no really, think about it! I’m not about to explain. Hmm, my wifey was just on tv with her music video”Suerte”.

All in all, take what has meaning, and leave the rest behind.

Beware of thoughts that come in the night

They aren’t turned properly; they come in askew, free of sense and restriction, deriving from the most remote of sources. ~ William Trogdon

La mayoría de estos pensamientos en la noche son deprimidos. Es extraño, es oscuro, es triste. Es difícil entender porque no sabe de donde vienen estos pensamientos. Por eso muchas de las conversaciones que ocurren son profundos. Hay algo trata con la oscuridad. Bueno, cuando está despejado y enfocado el mente, especialmente durante la noche (aún dentro de un sueño), el subconsciente tiene más espacio para funciona. Estos pensamientos son suprimidos por el consciente durante el día (por lo general). No sé que quiero decir exactamente porque estoy cansado. Pues, tengo que trabajar mañana, voy a dormirme. 

Why do all good things come to an end…?

Flames to dust, lovers to friends, why do all good things come to an end? –> Great song by Nelly Furtado.

My good friend Andrew is leaving to go back to Atlanta in the next 8 hours or so. We had a great farewell party for him and also mixed with a birthday party for Julia and I. Bidding goodbye is the hardest thing to do. Time doesn’t really have much to do with how good a friendship is. It’s all in the moment. I’ve made great friends from knowing them for only a weekend, a month, a semester, to friends I’ve known since I was little. It’s all about connections, common grounds, and always a little bit of fate. When we think about how small this world really is, it’s destined, in a way, that certain people cross paths. Two people from different corners of the world with completely different backgrounds end up doing the same thing in the same place at the same time.

This world of ours is definitely a wonder. I mean, I never thought I would be here in Costa Rica teaching English. How did I end up here? What if things were different? What if I never moved to the US? I always try to imagine what it would be like. Maybe in another parallel universe, there’s another me that never left Hong Kong. Speaking of the universe, check this article out.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is I’ve bid a lot of goodbyes. I’ve been to 2 different elementary schools, 2 different middle schools, and three different universities. Some of the friends I completely lost contact with, others are scattered all over the world. It’s probable but unlikely that I’ll see many of them again. With the new age of the internet and social networks, keeping in touch is very easy, but different. Sure, we know how our friends are doing, what they’re up to, etc. but it’s different when we actually hang out with them, go out, have fun, and whatnot.

It’s sad to say goodbye, but we have to keep moving on. Just remember all the good times and bad, all the tears and joy, ups and downs. Treasure the memories and experiences that define you. Use it as strength to continue on with life. That’s how I always feel. Feels like I’ve been here forever, but it’s only been a month. Next thing you know, it’s time to leave. At first, it’s sad, then you feel glad to have made all these friends, and after you’re optimistic about encountering them again, and in the blink of an eye, you’re taking deep breaths and looking ahead, looking out the plane window or bus or whatever kind of transportation remembering all the incidents and such. Then smiling, then eyes get watery, then the guy/girl sitting next to you starts to eye you like you’re loco. That’s how it always is, for me anyway.

With that, this entry has come to an end. I’m heading to bed…it’s 6 in the damn morning…damn.

History in the making

I thought it was going to be a closer race but Obama ran a perfect campaign. The promise of change is definitely coming. He reminded me of Martin Luther King when he was giving the speech in Chicago. “As a people”, the same as King’s ideal.

This is history right here. Go, Obama!

Democrats took the majority in the House and the Senate…what a change this is.

P.S. The hologram thing on CNN was awesome, just like Star Wars: “Obama Kenobi, you’re my only hope”.

A trip down memory lane

I came across some cartoon theme songs that I remember listening to and watching growing up.

Link here

It’s in Chinese, Cantonese to be exact. These aren’t just some random cartoon songs, each one of them has meanings that guided our generation basically. It related to us and still does. Back in elementary school, I remember getting out of school, going home, and watching these cartoons. I dare say most of us watched and know all of these. Every day, cartoons first, then homework (maybe), for us boys we go down to the park after to play soccer and whatnot. That’s where you learn your swear words and such. Back then in Hong Kong, there were many neighborhoods, and most of them were, and still are, “estates” or “courts”. Each of them has a park, a market, and a mall. These neighborhoods are equivalent to barrios (en español). We were defined by the town or the area in which the neighborhood is (much like East Coast vs West Coast, or even area codes). Anyway, listening to these songs brings back many sentimientos and images en mi mente. 

My time frame of my childhood is basically stuck in the 90s because in 99 I left for the US. It’s interesting because I remember many times at home with mi amigos and the TV would be on a Chinese channel. I understood everything, but mi amigos, nada. This Chinese culture side that I have I rarely use or share, it only pops up occasionally in conversations, and most of the time I end up having to explain a lot. 

It’s weird cause I only have a few really good Chinese friends in Hawaii and a few in Hong Kong. That’s pretty much it. At one point in my life (high school I think), I avoided anything and everything relating to Chinese culture. I was resisting it and didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It didn’t make sense to me at the time, but now, of course, it does. Like every kid with a new toy, I despised the old ones because they’re old and they ain’t cool. Not until college did I appreciate how old and deep this culture is.

On another note, it’s Halloween tomorrow. One day where we can dress up as anything and no one would care; one day where we can pretend to be someone else; one day where we don’t have to be ourselves (Unless you’re an actor or actress). Time goes by fast around this time, Halloween then Thanksgiving, and before you know it it’s Christmas and New Year’s. Actually, this year will be the first time I’m spending Christmas and New Year away from home. Gotta plan something.

So, go trick or treating, watch some horror movies, eat some pumpkin pie, and carve some pumpkins on this All Hallows Eve.