It’s been three and a half months since I
left Vermont and there are three and a half months until I return. It seems
like it has been a lifetime since I left and the idea of going back seems
fantastical. Traveling by myself, I feel like I left a whole world behind to
inhabit an alternate universe. The distance isn’t measured in space, but in
time, producing the strange feeling that I’m moving quickly even as I stand
still.
And yet it has only been half of the time.
While it feels like time is racing by, in retrospect, it has actually been
taking long and slow strides. I feel like I must take advantage of everything
all at once because time is so short, and then I realize that every minute can
contain an eternity. Time is the most illusive, shape-shifting concept for
me to try to wrap my head around.
I have the freedom to think about such things because I have a long weekend for Labor Day and have decided to declare
this Friday my Sabbath (writing doesn’t count as work, does it?). Exams just
finished and I am looking forward to some time to relax and enjoy the island. Sometimes I contemplate how later I'll miss the smell
of the ocean, the lazy palm trees or the calming breeze when a photo or
a samba sends me back in time. I will truly miss the laid-back
Brazilian attitude towards life, spending most of a day in a hammock, the poetic
language, all the fruits, and the list goes on. I suppose that's one of the reasons for keeping a blog.
Here are a few pictures to keep the blog up to date (more or less):
The view from school
Beira Mar on the bus ride home
The Jesus hill
A pirate ship
