ange's musings

so i´m here in Vitacura, a fairly middleclass, upmarket part of Santiago, Chile, Sud America. i arrived last friday and have had quite an introduction into Chilian culture, being greeted with the warmest of latino welcomes and the coldest of seasons. Here in Chile they are experiencing one of the coldest winters in the last 30 years. Spring is on the way, September I hope it comes fast. its been a wierd transition to be honest, as i have just had a really great summer in bristol, my home. I´ve just really enjoyed being and God definitely blessed me with lots of fun times and good memories, I think leaving that behind and feeling quite disconnected has been harder than I anticipated, but already i am starting to believe that this time away will be good, will involve so many new experiences and gifts. already i have had the joy of hearing stories of so many people´s lives and how they came to know real life, the real gift that i and them know and live out according to his grace. several

i realise that this is quite a crazy title for a post but its kinda how i feel i want to be right now or that i actually am deep down somewhere, but i am worried that its long and lost and may be lost forever. okay, so please excuse the drama for a few more seconds - i promise i am not having a moment. i think i am just having a reaction to the way that society demands for us to do something with our lives that fits into these boundaries of appropriateness and usefulness and whats successful and what's not and frankly its only by grace that i happen to be training to be someone who has good standing in society and an amazing income and all this stuff which i don't think is right that i get, whilst a woman down the road has ended up with a completely different role in society and a corresponding sense of being an outlier/outcast or whatever..... wild and untameable are adjectives that people in the west just don't want applied to themselves but that is completely what i want

i'm in a transition phase which has actually been really good because until this week it has not really felt like transition. after 'via' ended on 22nd July I had two weeks of meeting up with old friends in Bristol and Bath and just hanging out. also got a new car which was very exciting and started to enjoy a new found independence, which is pretty cool. i just kind of let loose for a couple of weeks, and enjoyed some of our lovely British Summer. Think the most exciting time was on Sunday July 29th in Bath where Matt, Jacqui, Paul and I attended a guitar concert by Thomas Leeb and Stuart Ryan - two of the most talented Acoustic Guitarists in Europe - it was actually a divine experience and I wish I could listen to them every week for two hours!!! Since then I have been spending 3-4 days a week in Southmead hospital Medical Admissions Unit trying to remember what it is like to be a medical student! 'Trying' really is the operative word - as I certainly have a lot o