Alli and I got back from our trip to the south on Saturday the 5th early in the morning and right away, on the metro ride home, we were greeted by a hilarious interaction with Chileans as a group of high school aged guys threw around all the English phrases they knew, said "It's like the UN on this metro," and we took turns giggling.
At first I thought this would be a strange limbo week because most of my friends were still traveling and I was alone in Santiago with not too many loose ends to tie up. I did get to do some of the things I meant to before leaving but I also watched a lot of TV. On Sunday I took the funicular up to the top of Cerro San Cristobal in Parque Metropolitano, where we had gone during orientation but I wanted to see the view of the whole city in the summer. The park was full of bikers enjoying mote con huesillos, which I tried for the first time. It is a traditional Chilean drink with wheat husks, peach juice and a rehydrated peach in it and I agree that it is rico because I had it twice more that week. I walked all the way back down through the rest of the park, which I had never seen, and found a great pool, a small Japanese garden and lots of picnic areas. I went souvenir shopping a few times and finally got that out of the way. On Wednesday I picked up the last of my money at the Tufts office and went up Cerro Santa Lucia for the first time, which turned out to be a pretty big park. On Thursday I had my oral exam/interview with Peter Winn about the internship and he brought galletas, which brought me right back to orientation - except this time I wasn't scared of Spanish and felt at home. I had my last interaction with the gypsies by Santa Lucia, my last amazing ice cream at Sebastian, my last meeting with my history professor when I went to pick up my paper, my last trip to Patronato and Bellavista, my last jugo natural from La Vega, my last sightings of park PDA and my first walk through Parque Forestal. So somehow in between the excessive hours spent at home in my bed in pajamas I managed to stop by a lot of my favorite places and finish off the semester with some pretty great nights.
On Monday night Diego invited me over to his house for a last carrete (party) before he left to work at a ski resort in the US for his summer break. Needless to say it started with piscolas and ended with dancing around a dark living room with some of my favorite Chileans to all my favorite reggaeton, with all of my favorite chilenismos in between. On Thursday night a bunch of my friends got back from their travels and I went to Becca's house for Javi's birthday dinner. I think her family wasn't amused by the "Oh look, there's the virgin!" story (we think the virgin on top of Cerro San Cristobal is a great conversation starter). Just as we were about to call it an early night we got a call from Raul who invited us to a friend's house for a party which went almost exactly as we predicted. My self-imposed rules that night almost prevented bad decisions. Sleep schedules this week were either barely sleep at all or spend all day napping with periodic breaks for food and Facebook. Friday Alli and I went out to dinner to a Chilean restaurant in Bellavista, for our last pastel de choclo, with her friends from Tufts, Zack and Ellie, and then hung out with them at bar. Because going out for part two of Javi's birthday got called off it ended up being a low-key evening, which was perfect. I had no big expectations for the last night because lasts and firsts tend to be overrated but it ended up being a great ending. Daniel invited us to his house for burgers and a despedida so we spent our last night almost the way we spent the night when I first met them, when we had completos and played kings. As amusing a night as any with them and I even left with my very own Chilean nickname: La Muchacha.
Sunday I packed and everything surprisingly fit back into the two suitcases I came with. I didn't have an emotional goodbye with anyone, they were all rushed and words were left for emails but it is better that way because there isn't much that is original to say. 5 months of my life in two suitcases, a few dozen new Facebook friends, hundreds of photos, a bunch of passport stamps, and too many journal pages. I guess what stayed the same was the number of times that I questioned who I am and what I am doing with my life. Like the song, I think that I am differently the same. Sometimes my instinct is to say something in Spanish, sometimes my eye is drawn to a different part of the world map, maybe I know a little bit more about the world. I think that this was an amazing experience and I was lucky to have it and maybe by someone else's standards I didn't take advantage of it the way that they think I should have but for me, it was great. One thing I learned is that for me, no matter where I am, the most important things are relationships with people. Now I just get to be one of those snobs who says that guacamole in the US has no taste and says that her semester abroad was the best time of her life. List of life goals: study abroad...Check! Addition to list of life goals: Go back to Chile.
Now I just have to get used to the cold and the dark at 4:30.
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