"Even if I got rid of all my problems, I'd just go out and get new ones..."

No, I haven`t been kidnapped by Columbian terrorists
5:09 p.m. on 2003-09-16

Am sitting in what maybe the slowest internet cafe in the entire world. The whole place is run from one dial up which frequently crashes. Add to this the fact that I have just handed my washing in to an overpriced laundry where I suspect the hippies who run it steal nice items and sell them to other hippies, and my introduction to Chile hasn`t been the nicest one.

Am also suffering from a stinking cold. Kept myself awake last night coughing and am now exhausted. Dammit!

Little over a week to go until I return home and I can`t say I am disappointed. Not that I haven`t enjoyed myself - this has probably been the most amazing experience of my life. But I miss my friends, my family, my bed... oh, and not living out of a rucksack. My clothes are in a permanent state of crumpledness, and I miss jeans!

It has been weird hearing from my friends about all that they have been up to. Of course, I have been plenty busy myself (spent the other night playing "arsehole" with our group and experienced the "tunnel of death," but enough said) but it is weird to think that they are busy together and I am not there. At uni it was different, since we were all split up, but now I am the only one who is out here and they are having experiences without me. No fair!

In the meantime, plans for the decoration of my bedroom continue unabated. Doesn`t help that I have been busy buying various items to adorn the walls. South America has some fantastic textiles.

Random thing: listening to early 90s dance music while in the Uyumi desert.

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