Saturday, 09.24.2016 - 10:34 am.
I was looking forward to this week and weekend being quiet, after last week with JC's visit and attending a couple of social events. Work (in the PhD program) was very slow this week. As for weekend expectations, it turns out that today there is another social event to attend, a farewell to a Chilean man and his family that are very well-known and dear to the community in the city. He came for a PhD but in the meantime set up a support and language exchange group for local and international students. His wife and daughter were equally involved in many things and looked after our cats when Andrew and I went to Scotland.
I'm sorry to see them go. It's the second Chilean family that goes back to their country this month, upon one of their members finishing their studies. It's particularly sad because they don't want to leave such a wonderful city. So I get sad for them and sad for me, because I know that that will be me in a few years.
For the time being, though, I am having the time of my life. Andrew and I ride the bus to the city centre everyday, and work in our new office space at the Psych Department. All postgrads are now in a big, single, shared space, and I thought I'd hate it but it's great to see peers and say hello to them. They don't always say hi, and I myself have an automatic response of shying away that people may confuse with being stuck-up. But, you know, it's great. And we have the city centre to go for a walk or for coffee when we need a break.
Oh, wait. I was saying that this weekend did not turn out to be as quiet as I expected, not only because of the farewell today, but because we have a couple of guests at home. A young Chilean couple arrived a week ago and they were running out of money and places to stay while they get they apartment this Monday. The Chilean community in this city has a very nice, welcoming, helpful Facebook group (a few members arrived running away from the 70's coup and following dictatorship), so this couple contacted us through it, asking if it would be too much trouble if they stayed with us for the weekend. I was glad to pay forward all the help and support that Andrew and I have gotten since we first arrived here, a year ago.
This couple is alright, so it's not like my weekend plans have been ruined. We don't have to show them around or anything, not a lot anyway. They're just...here. We'll spend some time with them to help them settle but that's all. So at the beginning it did sound like I was complaining, "my weekend will not be quiet", but it's ok, really. I still have time to myself and my writing.
The writing is going well! I update my three blogs once a week, as I do with this diary. The one with the comics is turning out a fucking joy, even if no one enjoys them reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. Though I did get two comments yesterday after posting the last comic, along the lines of "But what happens next? What a cliffhanger". So I suppose at least two people are reading and indeed waiting for what happens next. And then there's AF, the story that now is going on for 120 pages. I still think it may take me a year or two to finish it, even if I'm working on it everyday. And I am! I just could spend all day on it. But another part of me is anxious to see the finished product.