Nos da Cymru!

  Cardiff, United Kingdom
Sunday, September 9, 2007

   
Yipee, I almost managed to finish everything on my gigantic to-do list, just completed the final freelance work stuff before I leave the island. Will have to have my hair cut, sort out lap top, go to the bank, buy shoes, see everyone I missed and write that article of an American asylum seeker another time I guess.

Thanks everyone - it was lovely to see you all in Buffalo last night. Cannot believe that all you great people came down all the way from Pompey, Roath, Grangetown, Pontcanna, Froom and London, dog and all, to join our little party in Cardiff :) I had a fun night. I will definitely miss my fabulous friends (including Elin and Laura), Wales, its lovely hills and the funny language!

The fabulous girls

I will miss these gorgeous views

Special thanks goes to lovely Shan in the Cardiff Uni Postgrad Office whose helpful husband Ian arranged for someone to pick me up from Santiago airport. I think after travelling for over 24 hours a lift to the bus station will be much needed. Plus it will be a bit of a riot day, which often turns violent (according to British Foreign Office) because in 1973 an old man called Augusto Pinochet took power of the thin country. He tortured and killed lots of people and I think he was not a much liked man by many people. He died about a year ago and I have a feeling Chileans will have mixed emotions when it comes to his dictatorship. Did he provide stability for the country or was he a deluded man with silly ideas?

For the first time, since I started my law degree in France a million moons ago, I will have time to read real books without the voice at the back of my mind telling me I should be doing something more productive. Half of my backpack will therefore consist of books that I intend to read during these months. Cannot wait to have some quality time with my selection of books. The plan is to start with Isabel Allende's Casa de los Espiritus.

For three months I will be staying in a market town in the middle of the country called Chillán, which has been destroyed quite a few times by earthquakes - in the latest big one in 1939 over 30,000 people died. I wonder whether there are lots of spirits and lost souls wondering around the streets. I will be staying in the city centre with a retired teacher/professor (both words are the same in Spanish) who I expect will have some stories to tell from times of dictatorship and more.

Very exiting!

Jätän siis brittikännykän Walesiin mutta mulle saa soittaa Chilen numeroon sinne taloon missä asun.  Mulla on myös suomipuhelin mukana mutta se ei ilmeisesti toimi Chilessä.