I’m going stir crazy. Cabin fever. Whatever. You’ve probably heard that from me before, invariably at some point at being stuck in Olympia Vancouver for more than five or six days at a time. After all, that’s how long it took for me back home. I was always coming or going, and was rarely in any one city for more that four or five days at a time. Bu when thinking about my future in Santiago, the idea of going stir crazy or having cabin fever just never crossed my mind. It’s a huge city, a new city to me, one 6,500 miles away from my home. How on earth could I feel antsy in it?

But it’s still just one city. One city that I’ve been in one month and two weeks. Which is approximately 35 days longer than how long it takes me to go stir crazy back home.

It’s not necessarily for a lack of things to do. There’s always something, be it teaching, hanging with friends and going out, getting a taste for the sights, exploring my new neighborhood and the little shops within, even a world famous international music festival. There’s certainly always something to do.

But being stuck without wheels, without the money to go and do whatever I want — this is something I’m just not used to.

But on to other things. Like the haps as of late. They’ve certainly been plentiful

Perhaps the most exciting thing to happen lately was Lollapalooza Chile. The world-famous festival of art and music, started by Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell 20 years ago, celebrated its second decade by hosting its first international counterpart — in none other than our slightly smoggy Santiago.

Now, if you’ve been reading this blog, you know that I have this 30 before 30 list, and one of the items just happens to be attending a music festival. Well, consider it checked off.

OK, so before we get into the whole swing of how the concert went, let me tell you a story about will call. This is a story that will better explain the always erratic system of organization here in Chile.

Most of the people I know that bought tickets to Lollapalooza did so while they were still in the States. Thus, they had to pick up their tickets at will call. There had to have been several thousand people in the same boat, since most of the festival attendees seemed to be foreign.

We walked all the way behind the park to find a massive line. We waited for a few minutes before realizing that the front of the line looked like this:

Read: clusterfuck. Basically, the guy in charge saw the several thousand people who had to pick up their tickets at will call, and decided to set up a tent with two ladies working it. Everything else would work itself out, of course.

Well, when in Santiago, you do as Santiaguans do: participate in said clusterfuck.

Shortly after my friends inserted themselves into the chaos, things started taking an odd turn. People started getting angry. The two ladies in charge of handing out the tickets said that if they wanted to, they didn’t have to hand out any more tickets. At which point, people tend to get angry, and in those numbers, they could easily riot.

In march the carabineros, Chile’s finest. They roll up in two armored buses, march out, and start dividing the group by both nationality and name. They bring in gates for the people in line. Even though my friends were at the front of the line, it took a full three hours before they finally got their tickets.

Awesome.

Anyway, the festival itself was pretty efficient. As far as I know, the only acts that went on late were Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Kanye West. The Zeros were 35 minutes late because of technical difficulties, while Kanye was 10-15 minutes late because he’s Kanye West and he can do that kind of thing. The food and beverages weren’t outrageous, and it was overall a really awesome couple of days.

As for my personal line-up, I saw Cypress Hill, listened closely to James from afar, saw Edward Sharpe in the sauna they call the Tech stage, Empire of the Sun, and the Killers on day one, and 311, Flaming Lips, Sublime with Rome, Jane’s Addiction, and Kanye West on day two. This whole week I’ve been incredibly exhausted, but it’s been more than worth it.

Life outside of that has developed into something resembling a routine. I walk to work at 7:40, observing the people I pass, wondering about their stories. I teach my classes, and try to not let the students drive me out of my mind. I talk with my friends between classes, eat lunch with them on Mondays and Wednesdays. Head home early Tuesdays and Thursdays. Sometimes I made dinner, otherwise I pick at little things that I have. On Fridays I wake up late and go to the market down the street, clean the apartment, and get ready for the weekend.

I find it odd, how even so far from home, I can still find comfort in a routine similar to the one I’d be doing at home.

As I was surrounded by Americans, Europeans, and other travelers at Lollapalooza, I often wondered what brought them to this little country at the ends of the earth. Was it the festival itself? Was it the exotic nature of a country so thin at the edge of the southernmost continent?

I found myself scribbling their stories in my head, as I often do with people I don’t know. Whywhywhywhywhy. What brought you here? Was it hard to leave? Do you like it? Etc, etc.

And then every now and then, I realize that I don’t even really know my own story. But then, that’s part of the reason I came here.

My mom always says that I was born content. I’ve transitioned into life very easily here with the support of my friends and family back home and a network of new friends around me. After six weeks of being gone from home, I’ve felt only vague shadows of homesickness — of course, I miss my friends and family, and some weeks more than others. I’ve felt nothing similar to the homesickness I’ve heard described to me.

As much as I love my home, my friends, my family, and as much as I look forward to seeing them again in December, and as much as I miss shopping and perusing the clearance rack at Target (trying to find a damn folder in the stores here has been a nightmare), I’m content. I’m happy here. It’s everything I thought it would be. And more. And maybe a little less at times.

But I can’t wait to take a short trip out of this city…