Algún día volveré.....

I apologize for taking so long to finish up my blog, but its part of a resistance to admitting my travels are over. But according to all available evidence, this seems to be the case. I've been sleeping till 11am, eating lots of Special K and Tropicana OJ, spending my free time garage sale-ing and reading the TU and getting a lot of love/abuse from Moriah. Yup, I'm definitely at home. 

But before I landed here in Delmar, I spent a wooonderful week with my friend Allison in Buenos Aires. Allison was busy but made time to show me ALL the important spots in the big city. It is quite big. We saw a drumming concert, walked around every neighborhood, ate lots of dulce de leche and stayed out at a clubs till 6am (thats what BA is famous for they tell me). On my birthday we went to an INCREDIBLE vegetarian Asian buffet and then a sweet jazz club and a crazy dance club, celebrating with all her friends who I had met in Mendoza. On my last day we took a boat to Uruguay and spent the day at a beautiful bed and breakfast owned by the director of Allison's program. It was there that I had my last asado, which happened to be one of the most incredible asado's of my trip. It was a great way to end my travels and it was so fun to see Allison. I safely made it back to New York last Sunday morning. 

As I was saying before, its wonderful to be home. After four months of always feeling like a foreigner, you can really appreciate a place where everyone speaks your language, eats the same food as you, and understands you in a way that comes only with a common history. On Tuesday I even got to go back to Wesleyan where I arrived unannounced, surprising all my friends. It was so great to see everyone again and to be welcomed back as if the five months hadn't even passed. Anyway I won't bore everyone with too many reflections on my trip and what I learned-- I'll save that for my own diary. But quickly I'll just say that I am proud of what I did during my gran viaje. I learned spanish AND learned to survive chilean spanish, made friends all over, saw a large portion of a beautiful country, was welcomed into a new family and into my office, learned to love Osorno, and to love meat for just a little while and came back with four months of wonderful memories and lots beautiful pictures. 

Plus, I kept an awesome travel blog. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed sharing my travels with me. Now that I'm back in the country you don't need to read about me online, but you can see me for real. So if you want to hear what I edited out of the blog, see some of my pictures, or mostly so I can see you all again, please give me a call. This weekend I'll be at graduation at Wesleyan but I should be home in Delmar/Glenmont/Albany for the whole summer (I'm still looking for employment-- any suggestions!?!?). I think the blog will have to be officially suspended for now. I say suspended because as I told all of my chilean friends, algún día volveré. One day, I'll be back to Chile. Entonces, you can be sure to check in to Rice n' Chile. 

"¡Te queda poco!"

You´ve only got a little bit left! Tío reminds me at least twice at every meal. Te queda poco.

Well despite the fact that he´s annoying, he´s correct. I´m wrapping up at all ends. I´ve finished all of my work at the office and now spending the rest of my time bothering my colegas and taking advantage of free internet to plan my voyage. The past week hasn´t been filled with too much work anyway. I´ve recently assumed the role of party planner for the office. Monday I spent the afternoon buying and preparing completos (uber decked out hot dogs, a chilean delicacy) for a goodbye celebration for my friend Koni. Then Wednesday I spent all afternoon decorating and preparing for a surprise birthday celebration for my jefecito. My officemates have discovered the convience of my disposable labor. Little did they know that organizing social events is my expertise. Fortunately, the celebrations continue on this week. Last night was Javier´s birthday and we sang and ate torta together and we are going to celebrate on Saturday by making a curanto (a dish that includes various kinds of seafood and carne that you cook in white wine). Tonight, I´m going out to the disotecas with the girls in the office to celebrate my departure. And next Friday they´ll have a despedida celebration for me in the office. All of this includes an incredible amount of cerveza, torta, dancing, facebook pictures and energy. But what a way to go out, right?

Tuesday will technically be my last day in the office and in the afternoon I plan on shipping out to Argentina. Unfortuantely I kept pushing back my trip to Bariloche and now its going to be soaked in rain. But I have no choice because I need to update my visa. I´m not sure how much the place has to offer in the rain, so I´ll try and find a really cozy hostel. At least I´m getting out of here before the rainy season. It would really suck to be here without any sunshine. Anyway I´m going to get back to my other tasks. I plan on writing a whole slew of mushy notes to my friends in the office and making some sort of gift for the family. I´m planning on making my boss cry, and hoping that Tía doesn´t cry too much. Sometimes it seems like my life is just one big series of goodbyes. But as always, its nice to leave a place knowing your presence mattered and you will be remembered and missed.