It’s a good time to start writing, since so much in my life is changing right now. After graduating from the University of Chicago, I am leaving the city for 3 months in Santiago, Chile. I intended to start this blog a couple times before, but lots of things, only partly lack of time held me back. During the first few weeks of a quarter, I felt like my brain was burning with new ideas and tangents that I at least wanted to record, if not flesh out into something substantitive. (Of course, this was before the periods closer to the end of the quarter, when I would smash something delicate because I was shaking it too hard ormake four separate trips from the table to the kitchen for the cereal, milk, bowl, and spoon, becuase my common sense and motor skills had been ruined from all that higher thinking.) So I had all these good ideas, but I hesitated. Unlike most of humanity, I imagine things as better than they are. Especially my own writng. Ever since I have been able to critically assess my own writings, I’ve been a little appalled at how the concise, intricate gems in my imagination were manifested as crude, sloppy, and obvious scribbling. I want to write better, and forcing the habit of writing whatever is in my mind seems like the best way. I also realized that blogs really are a new literary form, and one that’s particularly suited to the way I think, in short bursts.
What really pushed me over that edge was a request from a few people that I write some kind of email travelogue of my journey. I decided that I might as well use this little page that I whipped up as a more permanent record I meant for this thing to be more of an insight-into-the-nature-of-humanity-in-the-cosmos-that-you-only-realize-while-staring-off-a-cliff-into-an-exotic-desert kind of blog, but if people want to hear about the tasty meals I eat and the silly spanish things I say, I am happy to oblige. And if you weren’t even interested in my introspection in the first place, I’ll make sure to add some categories so that you can just click on the “travel” link to see that stuff.
It’ll probably be a rough first week or so, while I play with the format and all, but with all the stuff I have to say, I expect this to be a pretty good blog. Make sure to leave your comments, good or bad.
Really, what’s ‘fanboy groupthink’? And when are you going to post again? Honestly, for those of us still making separate trips to the kitchen for tea and teacup, it’s nice to hear anything from those who have found life beyond the quarter system. It gives us hope. And not even just the insight-into-the-nature-of-humanity-in-the-cosmos-that-you-only-realize-while-staring-down-into-a-plate-of-perfectly-grilled-chilean-seabass-with-a-glass-of-south-american-chardonnay-in-your-hand stuff, though that sometimes gives us a tingle of the sublime. Just hearing about the most mundane details of life in another hemisphere can be transporting. So give us some more, dammit!
Please, I love the in-depth introspection, but I’m dying to read about the worst mistakes you and your friends make speaking spanish. Even people who are fluent run afoul of the local dialect, so don’t be shy, share your mistakes with those of us who only get to make embarassing mistakes in our native tongue.