We can start with the last night before the tripping. It was a basketball match Spain-Lithuania. Yes, it was just a friendly game, preparation for the championship, but for us, to whom basketball is a religion, it’s still a huge thing. So we went to the bar to see it. Of course, I managed to find a bar with a crappy signal, so instead of watching first quarter of the game, we only saw a low quality pictures slides. Finally some guy, totally pissed because of the situation got to the thing and, well, I honestly don’t know what he did, so let’s just say he restarted it and finally, we had it all: company, beer, game. Would have been better if at least the result of the game was promising, but oh no, our team lost.
Well, what can you do, you can’t have it all, now can you? We said our last goodbyes and I went back to my mom’s place for the last night in this country. Who knows for how long.
The next morning I woke up early, way too early. With my stomach still asleep and head still spinning [not from the beer from last night, by the way], I packed the very last pieces of my things and we hit the road. First vehicle: my mom’s car. Route: Mom’s place – Kaunas’s bus station. Estimated time: ~15 minutes. No surprises in the station. The bus was almost on time, was late only for a few minutes, I said my goodbyes to my mom and went on the road. Again. Second vehicle: Bus. Rout: Kaunas – Riga international airport. Estimated time: ~4.5 hours. I was doing almost nothing and together whole everything in that bus. I made up my mind then I changed my mind, then I made it up again. Non-stop changes in my head gave me little sickness, so I stuck to reading a book and listening to the good old songs scenario. I knew I have to save my book, but I just couldn’t stop reading it. It grew on me. No, not the same way as Murakami. Somehow it reminded me of myself, even though it has nothing to do with me. It’s about that same old casino on the edge of the world.
I got to the airport. Ok, 5 hours to kill before the plane. That’s not bad, right. Have more hours to kill. Oh, hadn’t we million of hours to kill. 5 hours – piece of cake. I decided to give my check-luggage right away. I mean, why bother to carry 20 extra kilos on me, even if I am walking only around airport. I got to this very interesting guy. He was extremely cheerful, talked to me in all possible languages: Lithuanian, Latvian, English and Russian. We managed to communicate. He didn’t check the weight of any of my bags, just took it, gave me my boarding pass and wished a good trip. Left me with a smile. There still of course are nice people in ex Soviet countries. That guy – is a complete example of that.
Of course saving my book plan did not work out to me. I finished it before I even crossed the securities at the airport. So, knowing that I have some Latvian money with me and being not completely sure what to do with them or when would I actually need them I bought a book. I bought a shitty book, I may add, but it was the choice between shitty and shitty – you take a pick. And it took me good 20 minutes to choose. I’m still not sure if I managed to get better or worse, but who cares now right? I most probably won’t finish it anyways.
My reading plan fell through when I gave in and completely blacked out with sleep. I don’t even completely remember how it happened, but I managed to dream some weird strange things and wake up with a totally messed up head. I look at my watch – who knows how long I slept, but if I recall correctly, it must have been two hours. Two hours in full of people waiting room for the plane!! What if I over slept my plane? I didn’t though. But I got at least a little scared, so decided against playing with my luck and just tried my best not to fall asleep again. I can sleep in the plane. If I don’t wake up when it’s time to leave – they will kick me out. So I’m safe.
So I waited patiently, pretending to be reading a book and reading it from minute to minute. When it was time to board, my eyes caught 4 guys. 3 of them were definitely Japanese [even if I don’t speak the language, I can differentiate it from other Asian languages], all, with all of my sincerity take it, more feminine than I am. Seriously – died hair, make up, skinny jeans [awfully too low, so fantasy has no work anymore], probably fancy and shiny shoes, big sunglasses.. Do I need to keep on going? You got the picture. If that wasn’t enough [I mean, I am tolerant person, you live how you want, just don’t try to change my way of living], but one of them wanted to take my seat. Ok, I don’t really give a damn where to sit, but somehow running a risk of having `no seat` wasn’t that attractive after the Chinese incidence. So I took him out of my seat. Although I can give credit to him about that – he was very nice and gave away my seat right away.
Since I don’t even remember I take it that I fell asleep right away in the plane and slept till we hit the grounds of Paris. I looked at my watch – ok, so we are a little late, which gives me a little less time to get out, find check-in desk, check myself in again and then find another plane. The airport, I may add, is very strange. On the surface it looks like half-balls are all over the place and the whole world boils under ground. It’s a little messy and a little difficult to understand. Luckily I found where to get out, my check-in and the girl, who now actually weighted my hand-luggage [no kidding, according to TAM Brazil airlines rules, I overweighed twice ], but said nothing and just send me to the gates, that are open, and I’m quoting `now`.
It was a big plane [well, of course it should be, we were flying through the Atlantic], and the line to get into the plane was extremely long. I waited. I got bored, so I got myself a small beer. Just as to celebrate, I made it to the plane.
Plane itself surprised me pleasantly. People surprised me also. I remember all those times when you fly to southern countries here it goes: they are walking slow, having way too much luggage, making people-jams and etc. This time – nothing like that. Probably Latin Americans can be fast and efficient. That´s promising. I got to my place, but soon was asked to change it. Well, an older couple wants to sit together – can you blame them? I had my book as a company, I couldn´t care less where to sit. Food was great, as for plane food, the little monitor in front was kind and offered me pretty good kind of movies. I was surprised – not old, boring, not interesting movies. Some of them were actually pretty good. Of course, I didn’t get too much time to watch them all, since the long day finally kicked in and I fell soundly asleep.
It was around 11 hours over Atlantic ocean to Rio de Janeiro. And after, people left in Rio and we, all, who were flying to Sao Paulo [is that the name correctly?], stayed in. It took us around 1.5 hours, people cleaned the aircraft, me and others were just bored. No music, no movies, my book was way too boring for such an early morning, so I just co-existed. Not that much interesting, but at the moment I couldn´t think of anything else better to do. Flight to Sao Paulo was almost 1.5 hours, but after those 11 it felt like a total piece of cake. They also brought us food and I managed to watch a movie and some TV shows. I like TAM airlines.
I got off the plane in Sao Paulo and it was still dark. I didn´t have to wait that longer and it was time to get into another plane. This time – the final one. At least for now. I watched again some movies and I tried not to fall asleep. I know how I can be if I sleep during the day. I didn´t want people in Chile to know that. We took off and it was still almost dark. But then, that one particular moment, I looked through the window [I wasn´t sitting next to it, so it was a little complicated] and I saw one of the most amazing sunrises in my whole life. Brightly pink sky made Steffany made this squeeky noise, which was supposed to be excitement. But the view really was worth a million.
So I got to the place, in one piece, but a little late. While waiting for the passport control, I send a text message to my host-brother that I will be late. At the passport control the guy was very nice, very surprised I was from ´Lituania´, but let me through. My baggage came, so there was left only one thing to worry – customs. I already threw away all of my apples [or so I thought], but I still had some dried herbs and technically – you cannot bring those into the country. I decided to be a good person and ask, if those were ´ok´. The guy told me he ´no hablos ingles´ and send me through the customs. They only said thanks. I am still not sure if I brought the stuff illegally, or is it not fobidden. Now, I guess, I will never know. After a few days, I actually found one apple, hidden in my bag. So apparently, I did bring some illegal stuff with me. Ups.
I got out of the place and was surrounding by cab drivers. I went out and then started thinking – how am I supposed to find my host-brother in this sea of people. And then I heard someone saying my name. Ok, it is definitely not a Spanish name, so it much have been me. I look up and I see him. I didn´t even need to find him – he found me. Later he told me, it was fairly easy with my brightly green sweater. Oh well.
He brought me to his family and I got caught up in the middle of the family thing. His sister was leaving for an exchange the day after, so like a ´goodbye´ lunch was in progress. I sat with family and pretended I am not hopelessly deaf for Spanish languages. I did get some words, but not the whole conversations. It was nice though. I immediately realized why this brother told me they eat a lot of meat. It was a lot of meat on the table. Tasty meat as well. Good I am not a vegetarian.
After dinner the female part of the family took me ´shopping´. My kind of shopping also. It was fast, effective and took no more than 20 minutes. We got back home and I was suggested to get some rest. I thought they were right. Jet-lag was kicking me and I was tired. ´I will lay down for couple of moments only´ - I said to myself. Do I even need to mention that never happened? I woke up in a few hours [I´m guessing though] but I just could´t get up. I´m guessing I missed dinner, farewell party and etc., but at least I caught up on my sleep [or so I thought].
The next day. Everyone went to the airport, to say goodbye to the sister and I went out so I would get to know the area better. Not that much of a use, since we are soon moving [not sure still when though, but it is in progress], but I wanted to know where metro is and where the shop is, in case I will need something and there is no one around. I was promised to find home unlocked around 11:15, so I figured – no problem. So I walked around, fascinated by the mountains that you can see just outside your door.
It was cloudy and foggy, but hey, can´t mistake mountains for anything else, right? I found all I needed and even more. It was a good morning.
I got back around the same 11:15, but no one was at home. Ok, then, I am going for more walk, but honestly, I got tired and started to have some impatient needs. Host-mom came an hour later. Of course, no one could blame her, traffic in Santiago can really be a female dog sometimes. I was only happy I will make it to the office [my official working place and reason why I got here] on time. She even took me to the office, so I don´t get lost. So sweet. And here I went in.
This very sweet lady at the front desk told me something in Spanish and all I could do was smile. I told her I didn´t speak Spanish, but I am here as an intern, so she looked at me and asked: ´And where did your Spanish went?´. Jeees, I thought, I have to learn it fast. She introduced me to a girl, responsible for me, she introduced me to all of the rest, explained me my duties and sat me at my desk.
I was already ready to leave, when they introduced me to these two volunteers, who were planning on going to the movies with other interns and volunteers and invited me to join. Well, I have never been a girl to reject meeting new people, so I went. It was a stranger Wood Allen movie ´Whatever works´. It wasn´t bad, just strange. I enjoyed it, although jet-lag and sleep was kicking in harder than expected. I got back home with metro [thanks to me I walked around in the morning, so I found house with no troubles at all], skipped dinner, skipped everything, went straight to bed. I needed my sleep.
The next day was a little unsuccessful to me. I went to work a little earlier, so I could wonder around the area and find a map. Do I really need to mention that didn´t happen? The place I found on-line turned out to be hotel. If that wasn´t enough, it was closed hotel and so – no map to me. This lead to me coming to the office earlier than expected, but I worked till the end of the day and I finally got back home. I needed to get home this time on time, because my souvenirs and other stuff from Lithuania were waiting for their time to be given to my host-family.
All, except for the elsest son, we sat at the table for some, how they called spaghetti, but I would very much want to call it noodles. Looked completely like noodles from SEA. Made me sentimental again. Arghhh... SEA... Anyways we ate and then I brought my gifts. Mead was not tasted at that moment, so I cannot tell you anything about that. Cake, the next morning, was half gone, so I guess it´s a good sign. Souvenirs were chosen according to people´s likes, so they must have been ok. My jet-lag wasn´t completely over, so I went to bed pretty early. What was happening with me?
The next morning I woke up early, did some Spanish learning and went out. This time I was hoping I got a good address of the tourist information office and my goal was to get back home with a map in my hands. I got lucky. I found the office with a very sweet lady there, she explained me a bit about Santiago, gave me a free map and asked me if I saw it snowing. Of course I didn´t, it was raining, but not snowing. Besides everyone told me not to expect snow in Santiago. So maybe I missed it I thought. I moved on walking in the rain. I was walking, looking up front and thought ´this is weird. This rain is falling in white pieces. Oh. It´s snowing!´ I couldn´t believe my own eyes.
It was actually snowing. In Santiago. When I was there. And I didn´t miss it. I stopped to make a picture. I couldn´t possibly loose it. It was wet snowing, so it was dropping on my camera. Then, out of nowhere some girl came to me and put her umbrella over my camera. Wow, I thought, were else would you experience anything like that? Amazingly nice people.
I moved on, smiling like a peach, watching the snow falling. I got into one store, hoping to get a ticket to the concert. It was easy to buy it and minutes later I held it in my hands. I am going to Eric Clapton´s concert. Oh my, I am actually really going to Eric Clapton´s concert.
It was an awesomely perfect day! I got into the office all happy, because of the ticket, map, snow and all the rest of the things. Then it was time for a Lithuania-Spain friendly basketball game. With no trouble at all I managed to find a website where I could watch it and I had my one eye on it, while working. It hit me, that it´s such a perfect day, would be even better if Lithuanians won. And what do you know? They did! This day was getting better and better by minutes.
After work we took a little walk, went to the metro and I got back to the house. Good day it was today.
The next morning I woke up and got surprised. Not even a cloud in the sky.
I have got to go sightseeing. Who knows when I will get another clear day. So I did. With a map in my pocket and Kryptonite in my ears, I moved around the old town, took pictures, got greeted by strangers, went into a little nice church.
At the end of my walking I climbed on Santa Lucia hill. A small hill in the city center, but with a very nice scenery from it. And with a clear day as today – all of the mountains around the city were clearly visible. It was amazing.
I got into the office even a little late, because of my tripping, but almost on time, so in Chilean time- it´s ok. The day haven´t changed a bit. Still full of sun and happiness.
You know what? I really like it here.
Off topic
It´s not funny, it´s probably more sad, how this song, I accidentally found, is totally about us.
/If I go crazy then will you still
Call me Superman
If I'm alive and well, will you be
There holding my hand/
I hear what you are saying, but I also see that even you do not believe it. Something doesn´t add up. Something doesn´t match. Something is up.
I´m not sure anymore if I am willing to clear it all up. I ain´t no don Kichot. I ain´t fighting wind mills.
Money cant buy happiness . . . but somehow, its more comfortable to cry in a BMW than on a bicycle.
Place your bet. In that same old casino at the edge of the world. Who knows when they let you in next time. Yeah, I´m still here.
I told you once: ´Take me as I am or watch me as I go´. You call me crazy, but all I can respond is: ´I'm not supposed to be normal... I'm supposed to be me.´
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