I'm back at Paradise after my brief break to the big city. Overall, successful. I took the bus from Pucón on Monday night, slept for much of the journey, and arrived Tuesday morning. I easily found Fabi's place, which was centrally located near Universidad Católica.
I napped, then woke to the dazzling Santiago sunshine and met up with Daniel to go to the printer about the poster. It was interesting to see him after living with his family. Last time I was in Santiago, we always spoke English. This time, we spoke Spanish. He was quite impressed, and I felt quite proud. We talked with a lady at an office who said that we should go to the actual printing location to talk to someone there. Bit of a waste, because she could have told Daniel that by email and saved us the trip. We went for ice cream, then walked around the city for a long time, chatting through the various parks. It was a beautiful day and there were tons of people out.
I returned to Fabi's before heading out for the 15 minute walk to the venue. Along the way I met some Santiaguinas (local girls) also going. When we finally found the place, there weren't many people there and everything was quite unorganized. I had bought my ticket online and was supposed to go to will call with my confirmation number, but the people at the venue refused to acknowledge anything to do with the website that sold the tickets. I ended up becoming friends with other Santiaguinas in the same situation, and everything worked out fine. One works at a winery that I might go to with my Mom, and 2 are art/design students. They were very cool.
The show was incredible. It lasted exactly one hour, then a DJ started playing kind of bad 90s techno for the after party. I stayed with the Santiaguinas for a while, then dragged my tired self home.
Wednesday, I had to go with Daniel to the other printing place. I brought my computer, since I had a feeling I would have to tweak some things. I had never been given exact measurements for what I was making. Prepare yourself for computer lingo: when I gave the file to the printing guy, he put it in Photoshop and zoomed in. He said that the resolution wasn't good enough and that it would look terrible printed the size we wanted. On my computer, it looked great even while zoomed in. I had the idea to change the paper size before creating the PDF and then put it in photoshop again. I said, give me 15 minutes. Unfortunately, when I changed the paper size, all of the formatting was lost. I basically had to recreate the entire poster again, arranging all of the photos etc. Daniel just looked over my shoulder the whole time. Some other guy came over and said, why don't you use Photoshop? I replied, I don't have it. I'm working with what I've got (what is free). I finished and put it on the printer guy's computer, and he zoomed in again. Voila! Resolution was much better, which meant that the photos wouldn't look all blurry when printed really big.
We left to go make lunch at La Casa Roja. It was nice to see some familiar faces and have them cock their heads to one side, like "I recognize her...what is she doing here?" I chatted with the rock climbing guides and the ski guys and sat around in the sunshine. It was fun to talk to them, now that I am settled in the South. All of them want to get away from the city and go on vacation to where I'm living, while I was doing the opposite. If you can live where others vacation, why not? Some complained about the weather in the South, but since I am there for so long, the rainy days don't bother me. I have plenty of time to do what there is to do, compared with the visitors who have a rigid 3 day itinerary locked down. After lunch and hanging out, Daniel went to nap, and I went to shop for a bit (that is one thing that is definitely better in the city).
I liked the vibe as a change from Pucón and also realized that I still knew my way around. Santiago is definitely newcomer-friendly. Back to Fabi's, then back to the bus station to sleep my way back down South.
On my groggy way from the bus station in Pucón, I was so glad to be home. I heard the familiar squawking of birds that I have grown so used to. I didn't have to hop on the metro to get back to my house. I just walked a few blocks, seeing familiar street dogs along the way. I embraced the chill and the clouds and the lack of smog. Vacations that are wonderful but also make you glad to come home are the best. I was greeted by Gloria who invited me to coffee, but I immediately went back to bed and was shortly joined by Runa. She is certainly glad I'm back.
When I finally woke, Gloria informed me that she had gone behind Daniel's back to a printer in Pucón who is cheaper. Basically, everything I did in Santiago was for nothing. She consulted with this new guy, who has ideas of how to make the poster better, so we will continue working on it this week. I was ready to be done, but after spending so much time it would be a waste to not have a perfect finished product. I also offered to fix their website, since the most recent update was to say that the building had survived the February earthquake and since there are a lot of errors with their English.
Mom, you are being a bit dramatic. I do not have a blood clot. I will be able to fly home. I don't need to go to the doctor. My bruise is less purple and not really growing anymore.
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