Orientation

I have never been good at consistently keeping daily journals.  For my whole life, I have tried to keep journals of my thoughts, starting whole new books, only quickly forgetting each time that I had started in the first place.  Many people in my family have been good at this.  My grandfather is a good example.  "Pop-Pop" Ray entered short, half-page entries into journals for years on end, eventually filling up at least 7 full-volumes comparable to an Encyclopedia Britannica set (if anyone even remembers what those are).  This, like everything else about Pop-pop, is an inspiring thing.  His life-stories, his great adventures, his exploits in WW11, will be remembered forever by him and by anyone with enough patience and interest to sit down and read.  And believe me, his stories were interesting.  He was the second of (at least) three generations of my maternal family to go into military service.  In the army, Pop-pop traveled, often on foot, all over Western Europe by age 25.  Inspiring, no?  My dad has similar stories, most of which took place in the cockpit of an Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker that flew all over the Pacific. 

So how does a 22-year-old college graduate with zero intentions of going into military service, in an attempt to live up to the family name, live such adventures for himself?  He decides to make it his goal to work as a civilian in a foreign country after graduating.  This, as you can well guess by now, is exactly what I did.  Or, at least, what I am about to do.  See, I had this crazy idea in my junior year that I wanted to work in Spain, the home country of one of my most influential professors.  But with the financial structure of the Eurozone beginning to melt, giving rise to what Spanish journalist Antonio Jiménez Barca coined “La generación de los Mileuristas” (a whole generation of extremely well educated and qualified young Spaniards who were unable to earn more than 1000 Euros per month), I decided that little work was to be had in Spain.  Instead, over the subsequent year of college, I began to look south.  At that point, I had 5 years of Spanish language experience, and had spent two weeks wandering around Costa Rica, drinking and making friends. Eat your heart out, National Geographic: I can handle anything.    

This brings me to now, when I must make good on all of that (possibly misplaced) confidence.  On August 3^rd, I leave for Santiago de Chile to complete a certification for teaching English as a Second Language, and to fulfill a 6-month teaching contract.  I will be living in the city, hopefully with my own apartment, a decent job, and too much free time.  The plan is to use this experience not only for the physical certification and teacher training, but for the opportunity to solidify my fluency in Spanish.  If all goes well, I will be proficient enough to take a Spanish-English medical interpretation exam when I come back.  Speaking in economic terms, this seems like one hell of an investment in human capital, an investment which will hopefully lead to a job that does not involve troubleshooting orders of pasta. 

 

                It may be a bit presumptuous to start a travel blog a month before I even travel anywhere.  I understand this.  However, I have been thinking about it a lot, and I feel that getting it started counts as one task checked off the vast to-do list that separates me from beginning my journey.  But let’s be honest, lots of things separate me from beginning my journey: summer plans with friends, spending time with the love of my life who I will be leaving behind to accomplish my goals, taking care of family members who are ill, not to mention the downright terror of living somewhere new after 21 years on the same side of town. 

 

All of that said, I will try to keep things relevant.  Before I go, I will post only interesting things that pertain to this experience (whatever that means).  After I arrive, I will try to post regularly about the things that I learn. Of course, I’ll be busy enough that I may revert to old ways and forget to post consistently.  I’ll try not to let this happen.  I will also have a personal, hand-written journal for when I have no internet, or just to write more personal thoughts.  I may, at times, transcribe some of these entries into this blog.  All in all, there should be plenty of things to read, if anyone is patient and interested enough to read my story. 

 

Stay tuned.