On the road

Hi everyone,

I´m currently in Valdivia, a picturesque town in Southern Chile that is located at the junction of two rivers. This past week Emily, Jesus and his friend Clemente visited me in Chile. We had loads of fun in Valparaiso and Pucon. I´ll probably write about them visiting later but first I want to write about leaving Antofagasta. (This blog could lose chronological order for a little bit because I have a couple of blog entries written on my laptop that I have not been able to load online due to lack of internet)

I´m going to miss Antofagasta. At times I hated the city, its perpetual cloudiness, its dirtiness, my distance from downtown. But I created a little niche for myself; lucked into a host family who loved me and made me feel part of it, a school with frequently amusing, tiring but basically good students, and friends who I could chat and relax with. Its weird that the things that through eight months had become standard events aren´t going to happen again. Roughing housing with my family, walking to the grocery store to buy bread, going to the disco until dawn and then walking for a mile or so (for reasons I still dont´understand) until you could catch a collectivo, calming overanxious students down with phrases of no importa o no te preocupes, walking to the other side of the street to avoid a barking dog.

My host family has been very cute since I´ve left Antofagasta, calling me throughout my travels to southern Chile. Through the internet, I´m going to be able to stay in touch with them. I´m very grateful to them for all that they´ve done for me and am regretful that I´ll not be able to see them again for a long time (if ever).

Still despite all of this, I am very happy to be going home soon. I look forward to seeing my family, hanging out with friends, and being able to be independent again.