chi-chi-chi-le-le-le!

Buenos dias gente!

Pardon the gap in my postings. I spent the last week in Chile and had such a grand old time that I didn't find a spare minute to post... I arrived at my old host family's house last Tuesday night and immediately felt right at home- almost as if I had returned from a long excursion back into an old life. Though it has been two and a half years since I have seen them, I was welcomed back with open arms and a hot meal. I found myself sitting at the same kitchen table where I had spent so much time, chatting with my host parents who seemed not to have changed in the slightest bit. So warm and fuzzy was the feeling that I could not bring myself to tell my host mom, who had just served me a large plate of rice and chicken, that I no longer eat meat!

The vast majority of my week was spent hanging out with either my host family or the group of chilean guys that I spent tons of my time with during my semester abroad in Valparaiso (3 years ago! Yikes!). The guys were psyched to see me and it was so fun to see how much they had matured in the last few years. For whatever reason, they suddenly saw me as a bottomless resource of random information, cultural observations, and linguistic comparisons. Everyone was quite entertained by my now very argentine accent, to the point where it generated several interesting conversations on the differences between Chilean and Argentine spanish (which are countless) and Chilean and Argentine culture (which are also quite abundant). Even when I made a tremendous effort to speak as chilean as possible I was always inevitably asked if I had spent time in Argentina recently... at some point I just gave up. However, back in Argentina now I have twice been told that my accent sounds Chilean! I can't win... I speak what I hear! Anywho, I arrived excited to hang out with some casual friends, and left feeling like we had really come to know each other on a much deeper level. Though I did much less exploring and visiting old hot spots than I thought I would, it felt like a very productive and satisfying week.

There was, as always, a new group of exchange students staying in Valpo. One of them lived with one of my Chilean friends, and thus I was around a group of juniors in college doing exactly what I was doing exactly 3 years ago in the same place. Listening to them talk about their semesters thusfar, about plans, about activities they had already done, about their classes, etc, was so familiar that memories from my semester seemed to line up almost perfectly with their current experiences. I was stuck between feeling infinitely distant from that time, and feeling as if it was just months ago. Amazing how much has happened in 3 years!

My week in Chile helped me to repaint my overall feelings about my semester there in a much more positive, satisfied light. While I have always had good memories and bad ones from my 6 months there, I realized I had skewed my attitude towards the negative, leaving me with little desire to return. Now I find myself fondly recalling my experiences there, and easily recognizing the good fortune I had to meet such wonderful, magnetic people. And isn't that always what it's really about? What's a place without it's people...

Thanks for all of you who have been reading and responding! Missing you!