The parents are headed home...

Well, I just left my parents at the aiport. They're on the overnight back to Florida and I am back in my room at Edgar y Maria's. We had to be out of our hotel by noon so we had the whole afternoon to kill before needing to be at the airport. Which mostly translated into us sitting at Starbuck's, then sitting at a nice little outdoor Italian restaurant for lunch, then sitting at the airport restaurant... you get the idea.

I think they enjoyed their time here; no doubt it was sometimes a struggle for them to not be able to speak the language or have any idea what was going on around them but we got to do a lot for the little time we had and I know that Mom was particularly impressed with the kindness of the people here. Even without being able to speak the same language, people constantly showed her kindness in both big and small ways and it made a big impression on her. Dad remains impressed with the huasos (cowboys).

Since our hotel was in such a lovely, tree-lined area of the city (sometimes you totally forgot you were even in a city) which also happened to be just a few blocks away from where I took my classes the first month, we also spent some time walking around there so I could take some pictures. This was the area where I spent every day for a month, where I hung out with my friends and caught my bus and ate lunch and shopped and meandered about, and it made me kind of sad to realize today that this was the last time I would walk through it.

So we chilled today, which was nice. It was beautiful and sunny and warm (low 80s) and it was nice to be able to just walk around and enjoy the day and appreciate being able to sit outside. I'm afraid I've become spoiled by a month and a half of sun EVERY day (I'm not exaggerating) and the constant warm temps. I think that if I have to go back to PA and put on anything other than short sleeves and sandals, it is going to be VERY ugly.

I was thinking that I would also fly out of Santiago tonight or tomorrow to move on to my next adventure but, looooong story short, I'm still in Santiago and will be here until Wednesday morning. The one upside to this is that Edgar y Maria were gracious enough to have me come back to their house so I get two more days with them! It was strange to walk back in here tonight and have it feel just like I still belong. I thanked them for being kind enough to let me come back and I was met with a "Don't thank us. This is YOUR house". And they meant it. Wow.

So two more days here... two days of laundry, going to see the "Bodies" exhibit which happens to be in town (I saw it in Florida but am dying to see it again. FAS-ci-nating. If you get the chance, go see it!) and trying to organize all of my junk and figuring out how on earth I'm going to carry home the humongous clay vase I bought. It practically needs its own seat on the plane.

It was a little sad to see Mom & Dad walk off into immigration tonight, but then I realized that I'll seeing them back in PA in just about another week and a half. Which is it's own kind of sad.