Well, this morning exactly a month ago my eyes were a big wet salty mess as I said goodbye to Caro and her dad and walked through the terminal at the airport in Santiago to board my flight out of Chile. It was a long, shitty 48 hours after that, getting held up in Panama City when I was supposed to be in Costa Rica picking up all the things for people I had promised. Anyway, right about midnight between the 14th and the 15th I saw the panorama of the city as we passed the Robb Drive exit in northwest Reno and I had to admit that it wasn't all a dream, I wasn't still in Chile, and that it was going to be a while before I got back.
I'm pretty much adjusted to life in Reno now. I've stopped accidently bursting out in Spanish to people and I stopped calling Sak n Save by the name UniMarc, which was one of the supermarkets I frequented when I lived on Calle Salvador. I've loaded up on 19 credits this semester and I'm gonna have 19 more next semester but goddamnit I'm gonna graduate in May regardless of what my stupid Spanish advisor has to say. I'm probably gonna start wiping ass again at the old folks home tomorrow, which is good, not bad. The best news besides being able to graduate in May is that I've already got my ticket back to Chile for winter break. I didn't get a chance to be in Chile for new years last year seeing as I was still in Nicaragua. Caro and I are thinking of heading down to Valparaiso where 2 million other people from all over the Southern Cone (Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay) will also be. I'll be there just under a month and I'll miss the first week of school next semester, but really, who cares?
Aaron and I are throwing around the idea of going to Homer, Alaska next summer to find work, which is exactly what I want. Earlier I wanted to go even farther north up to Nome which isn't too far from the Bering Strait but then realized that too much isolation over 3 months could very easily turn us all into alcoholics, and nobody wants that to happen. So Homer it will hopefully be, then back to Reno just in time for Burning Man, then I'm either going to stay around town for 2 months to work and sell off as much of my crap as possible before heading down to Chile, or I'll just say fuck it and leave to get there in time for September 11th and "el dieciocho" which is the Chilean independence day. France doesn't figure into these plans yet, basically since I want to know more than 2 semesters of college French before I go and goddamnhell I just really miss Chile. Sounds good, eh? I think so.