After all the excitement of the trip to Valparaíso, quiet days ahead in Santiago. Friday saw me doing my laundry, having breakfast in a café, spending time at a pool, sorting pics, flickr-ing and blogging, having another (iced) coffee…
And in the evening I was set to go out for dinner or drinks with a friend.
Alas, he announced it would be later, as he had to work. Fine with me, I’m flexible… but it was really late. I only heard at 11 that he won’t make it. By that time I was so bored with myself and it was too late to call anyone else.
And I can’t call up someone, the second on my list, and propose something, at that point. I had also turned down the invitation for dinner by another friend, so I felt I really … cheated?
I wanted to go out, have drinks, go to a club, have a good time, it’s the last weekend in Santiago! Maybe I should have gotten really drunk and go out nonetheless…
I went out to Bellavista by myself and went into a bar that played Madonna’s Superbowl show on its screens, had a Pisco sour and got tired… It was also too early it seems, the bar wasn’t filling up, so I went home. In quite a bad, depressed mood.
This is my nightmare while being on this trip, the weekends alone that I cannot really spend in my place. As nice as they might be, they’re not my apartment where I can get lost in my DVD or CD collection or a book. Also I lack my network of friends nearby that I could call up for a spontaneous visit.
And I know it will happen again, I have already written about this in past posts, and it’s ok. It’s a side effect of trying to maximize my time here, and sometime things don’t work out, and that’s life. It’s ok. I just realize that here, on this trip, I have nothing to balance it with.
But then, life balances itself out all by itself. Today, in the afternoon, I saw Sebastián spontaneously for a beer in Bellas Artes… and we ran into Hannah and her friends in the place.
The moment I run into someone I know in a new city is very important to me. It’s like the moment I feel like I can call it home.