t minus twenty-four days

This is not a dispatch from a long and skinny nation. It is a pre-departure ramble from a nation with significant girth both in latitude and longitude.

Having found the cheapest ticket possible--via some bartering of manual labor for my dad's frequent flier miles to Fort Lauderdale, my jump-off point--I've officially begun preparations for the Southern Hemisphere. Got a big old rush of adrenaline today when I told Expedia.com to book me a flight. I depart PDX on October 2nd, depart Fort Lauderdale for Santiago on Oct 3rd, arrive in the wee hours on October 4th.

I've got a feeling that preparations may not amount to much, this time around--after Costa Rica, I'm ready to survive with minimal luggage and minimal worrying. So as not to travel for travel's sake, I've trendily planned to WWOOF and to work for a Patagonian conservation nonprofit. What I'm really concerned about is making sure I don't end up on a farm where I'm doing slave labor and not learning anything or practicing my Spanish. More research and contacting farms is on my to-do list. Also on my to-do list:

probably I should learn some Southern constellations (and learn the song "Southern Cross")
do field guides of Chilean flora and fauna exist?
shall I purchase some Neruda poetry or other Chilean literature? must ask Ben what he recommends.
Can I go to Pumalin or is the whole "huge volcanic eruption" thing really that big of a deal?

A one-way ticket is extremely exciting. Life is open-ended in general these days, so it seems representative. Of course, I'll be back by January 12th, barring refusal by both the jobs I applied for. But where I'll be coming from is a mystery. How much I'll have to pay for the return ticket is also a mystery....I might get price-gouged if I have to come back in early January. Thinking of all the places I could go in Chile alone is pretty overwhelming, let alone thinking about adding in a bit of Argentina or Peru. Should I spread myself thin over most of the country or explore a few regions in-depth? With three months, I can do a lot--¡ojala!

Y también necesito repasar como conjugar verbos en el subjuntivo (de presente, futuro, etc.). Me preocupo un poco sobre el lenguaje muy idiomático de Chile. Gracias a Benja, ya sé unas palabras y expresiones idiomáticos del país, como "pololo" para "novio" y "po" para "pués" y unas más. El pronunciación será el problemo más serio, creo, por lo menos en el inicio. Ya puedo leer y escribir muy bien, y hablar más o menos bien--pero escuchar y comprender es lo más difícil siempre. Mi objectivo es hablar, leer, escribir, y soñar lo más posible en español. I'm really looking forward to engaging my brain again in a different language--I wanted to write than in Spanish but I couldn't remember the verb for "look forward to" and I don't have my dictionary handy. All right--time to start carrying it around with me everywhere.

¡Buenas noches!