Thursday, September 25, 2008

American Holiday

I´ve been on vaca. In the past week I´ve taken a horrendous 16-hour bus ride up north to Iquique -- where seven other volunteers live -- and had official girl-talk with my two loves, Bree and Kate, for the first time in almost two months. I´m saying ... as a girl, you don´t know how much you´re gonna miss girl-talk til you´re living in a tiny city with only two other boys (one an hour away) who sometimes seem to speak another language anyway. The first two days in Iquique I couldn´t stop saying "Wooooowww....this place is soooo big." It´s a city on the beach with a couple hundred thousand and it made me realize how very much I´ve missed the city. I can´t believe it´s taken me this trip to finally admit, I am a city girl through and through. We pàssed a mall while driving and I had to be physically restrained. I walked into the grocery store (which was basically a Chilean Target) and I swear I heard angels singing. I loved it, but mostly because they have the beach and something about sitting by the ocean always seems to make everything ok. Our hostal was one block from Playa Cavanche and all 8 (or so) of us just sat around in bathing suits talking and laughing and sunbathing (except for Bree who, unlike Kate and I, finds "playing catch" with the guys appealing) until the sun set and my first day back with all my friends I kept thinking "this is my perfect moment." It was beautiful, it was fun, as expected I drank and ate way too much but here are some quick highlights:
  • I had a surf lesson. I learned "officially" how to surf and it was FUN! The water was freezing and I soon discovered a very-dormant fear of huge waves, but I am told by my friends -- who are far too nice -- that I "stood up" about three times. Take it as you will...
  • Kate and I cooked (mainly Kate, of course) a big family dinner for seven of us in the hostal, complete with salad, pasta, veggies and wine. And we all sat around the table like one big family (which really, if you think about our situation, we are) and gave our "high´s" and "low´s" of the vaca.
  • We went to a discoteca, snuck onstage only to be escorted directly back off, and danced until 6 in the morning. I can´t remember the last time I crawled into bed as the sun was rising (and remembered the next day why ...)
  • We rented a car and drove two hours into the desert and saw crazy geoglyphs on giant sand dunes in a place called "Cerros Pintados" and then stopped in the tiny desert oasis town of Pica, where the fruit is so fresh and abundant you actually smell the lemons and limes as you drive in.
  • Did I already mention the girl-talk...?
  • I visited Bree´s school and found she works far more hours than I, but that her students are far less "flighte" aka ghetto (which would be the case with mine)
  • And lastly, my last day, after everyone had gone but me, Bree (who lives in Iquique) and I had an "American Tuesday." We went to the movies (I almost dropped dead at the wonderfulness of the option) and saw a heart-breaking film, while munching on popcorn, that left me sobbing. Then we sat on her bed and watched cable in English, while stalking Kevin on facebook. If you have been reading my blogs you should notice that 1) I don´t have cable/English t.v. 2)There is no movie theater in Vallenar (and if there were you can be sure there would be an absence of English films) 3) I have no laptop (it broke promptly as I arrived in country) and 4) There is no internet in my house. I truly felt, for a whole day, like I was back home with everything at my fingertips. Let´s just say it was a welcome change of pace and had it not been for my American Tuesday and Iquique trip in general, I might have had a mental breakdown sometime quite soon.

But ... arriving back home and seeing Dora´s look of surprised glee, when she opened the front door to sweep out some dirt, and found herself standing face-to-face with travel-ridden me (complete with huge backpack and several carry-on´s), it felt good to be home. I consider this my home now. The teaching inner-city school kids thing, still beats the crap outta me, but thank God for my Dorita. After lunch today, as I was drinking my daily mid-day coffee (it´s all instant here, I´ve mentioned that right?), I was chatting with Dora in the kitchen while she dried the dishes and I told her how excited I was for her to meet my Kevin when he comes (Nov. 21) and she said that in a sense, she´ll be sad to meet him because that will mean it´s time for me to leave her. She turned around and she was tearing up and I wanted to wrap my arms around her and scream "I´ll never leave you Dorita!!!" But I told her my hunch, "I think Kevin is coming here to get me for just that reason, because he knows if he doesn´t, I may never leave ..." Couldn´t I just bring her with me?

4 comments:

RrrrreBecca said...

Carreteando is fun...si po!

GlobalSisters-GSisters said...

What a great trip!! I'm soooooo glad that you got to get away for a bit and enjoy the city and the beach with your girls aka ya yas!
I hope you have gotten some of my comments before. I haven't seen them but hope you have. I love reading your blogs and I translate them to Lita, as much as I can. I'm sooo proud of you, my sweet girl. Keep them coming.
love aunt jo.

edcayce said...

Oh! Dear, it all sounds wonderful, your assertiveness in that extrange land is really commendable, being in all those different places with all kind of experiences will be unforgetable, however, you should always remember, the people you meet along the way is what makes them interesting. You have friends in Ayacucho that you will never forget. Hope it all continues well, love Papa

Bree`s blog said...

I love this blog and I miss you dearly....can't wait for some more "girl talk" about all our womanly emotions and the physical attributes that distinguish us from our male counterparts