brr-ozeman

well this is kind of weird to be writing about the states when im supposed to be in chile but also kind of cool. Like im playing hookie or something... I just got back on wednesday from my TPL interview weekend in Bozeman, MT. Home of Montana State University, the infamous rockin' R bar and the wild and beautiful jordan schmidt.

It was such a shock when i passed through customs in Atlanta at 630 in the morning on saturday. People yelling and pushing and walking around with 94 ounce starbucks coffees and US weekly magazines... i almost scrambled back to the plane. But as I moved further west, it started to make more sense to me and when i had to dodge a policewoman on a mountain bike in the SLC airport I knew i'd be ok. When i flew over the tetons and saw little victor, idaho from the plane i knew i'd be more than ok.


My friend scott came up from salt lake and we had a lot of fun running around town, up snowy mountains, and down springtime canyons. It was also really nice to have a good friend there to get a hug from when i was freaking out or really excited... it was a very - uh - intense weekend. I ended up having 2 days of interviews where i just got grilled, and i grilled back as best i could. There were times when i thought i totally shot myself in the foot and when i knew i absolutely just killed it. I want this job so bad its almost maddening but it's out of my hands and i should find out on tuesday or wednesday. It looks like there are 2 candidates still standing... me and my "phantom contender" so i have to ask for all of you to send some good vibes towards seattle and bozeman for the next couple of days. Preferably they include "hirekellyhirekelly" or something similiar.

I figure with forces coming from thailand, new zealand, korea, south africa, boston, dc, tahoe, san diego, london, sacramento, richmond, burlington, denver, jackson, LA, salt lake,new york, alta, japan, and everywhere else my favorite people are scattered they'd have to fight pretty hard to get a "no" out in my direction. But you never know, right?. Things always happen for a reason i just hope this time they're the reasons I'm thinking of.

Ahhh! the suspense is killing me.

cross those fingers please....

un abrazo. k.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

Ahhh.. thank you David Bowie for such a great theme song (and Dave Wells for your accompanying interpretive dance moves that are permanantly burned on my retinas).

It looks like we're back in change mode friends.

Here in Santiago, summer has given up her fight and fall is most definately here, marked by the descent of a thick blanket of fog/smog/clouds that released a deluge of rain and chill in the city this week. It's chilly in Chile! I scurried back and forth to work in the dark and just-past-dark, my hands in my pockets and cursing the huevones who took all of my jackets off of my hands recently.

I love seeing the seasons change though, and I especially love being burried in down blankets in my cozy pink room while the storm pounds our house. Yay weather! Tapka the dog is also becoming cuddlier, which is nice. I'm breaking her walls down... Ha.

I also have some exciting news to share that has the potential to be another good change. I applied for a position with the Trust for Public Land in their Northern Rockies/Greater Yellowstone office about a month ago... I've been going through a succesion of stages in the application process - reference checks, phone interviews, all that fun stuff. I was feeling a bit shaky about my standing but 2 weeks ago they invited me to move to the next stage and are flying me back for an in-person interview! So in 4 days I'll be on a plane headed for Bozeman, Montana for the weekend. Is that wild or what? I was so excited when I got the e-mail I nearly hurt myself jumping up and down! My mom was here at the time so she helped in the jumping up and down too.

I wasn't going to post this for fear of jinxing my luck so far but I think I'm going to need a lot of good vibes coming at me to make this one happen. So please, think lots of good thoughts on the 24th. More details if all goes well!

Which leads to my next big change... I have decided to move back to the US in June. It's been a wonderful experience here in Chile and I've learned a lot. A lot in my internship, a lot about people, a lot about what I was looking for, what I want in my life right now and most importantly where my heart is. Many more thoughts to share but blogs suck for this kind of thing... so I'll save it to be talked about over a good bottle of wine or some cheap beers. Or Jenna, if you're reading, that's a nice big glass of fortifying milk, OK?

I do have some more time to enjoy here though; I finish my work with NESsT on the 15th of May and then have a plane ticket to the end of the world... I'll be spending two weeks in southern Patagonia and Torres del Paine, running around with guanacos and closing out my time here in one of earth's most incredible places.

And after that... a new chapter that I'm very excited to start! Cheers!

“In the beginning of time, God created the wonders of the world. When he was finished, however, he saw that he had many leftover pieces. He had parts of rivers and valleys, of oceans and lakes, of glaciers and deserts, of mountains and forests, and of meadows and hills. Rather than to let such beauty go to waste, God gathered them all together and cast them to the most remote corner of the earth. This is how Chile was born.”

So the legend goes...
And I am now a true believer. Chile’s coastline stretches over 2,700 miles and runs from the world’s most arid desert in the north to the Antarctic Circle in the south. In between, the land passes through forests, mountains, valleys, volcanoes, lakes, glacierfields and a wide range of climate zones. Still, for all its diversity in geography and climate, Chile is never more than 110 miles wide. I feel like we experienced almost all of it last week. True to our nature, my mom and I made a whirlwind tour of Chile in our not-so-speedy set of wheels that we affectionately named “The Silver Bullet”.


After a short pit stop at the Bellavista farmers market on Sunday to fill our cooler with nectarines, plums, homemade goat cheese, black olives, tomatoes, avocados, a couple bottles of Escudo (the Chilean king of beers) and Camenére we hopped into the silver bullet and were bouncing down Ruta 5 SUR. Tina Turner in and out on the radio, maps and guidebooks piled on the passenger’s side, a requisite happy hour at 4pm, waves from the stand up drivers of 3-horse carts, split-second decisions for off-ramps and delicious roadside Parillada lunches… this is how I remember the drive. Between our time in the car we hiked (almost vertical, right mom?) to triplet mountain lakes with a view of Volcan Villarica, spent a few days in the Colchagua Wine Valley in an unbelievable hacienda we had to ourselves, said hello to the Pacific Ocean and weaved through mazes of stacked hilltop neighborhoods in Valparaiso.

It was a lot of fun to be able to share with her so many things that have made me fall in love with Chile and also be able to laugh about the wacky shit about living in a foreign country that is even more hilarious when you have someone who gets the joke. There were so many high points, and we kept a mental list of all of the wonderful things we ran across (or over). Best wine, best hand-built and wood-heated hot tub, best view, best wine, best sunset… did I say best wine yet?

I have just one negative thing to share… unfortunately the Silver Bullet had to be retired halfway through the trip after some jerks broke her back window, pillaged the radio and a lot of my gear (including my treasured Cloudveil softshell, my favorite pair of jeans, the best rainshell I've ever owned AND my cowboy hat) at the ranger station of a national park. Halfway through my angry tears, I realized that I don’t own very many things. And now I own even less. I hope that at least someone is running around in a grove of Araucaria trees looking quite dashing in my fire-red rain jacket and my cowboy hat. Argh!!

I tried to convince myself it was a sacrifice to the gods of southern Chile, and a promise I’ll be back. And maybe more training in not being so attached to Things (see Britt? I'm getting better at it!) To be honest, we had such a great time I would do it all over again even if it meant re-losing all of our stuff. Only next time we’d plan to hide in the forest of Monkey-Puzzle trees to give them a good punch and yell my newly minted Chilean curse words at them as they ran with the loot. Ha. That’s right. Thanks for such a great time Mom and I hope you all enjoy some of the photos.