Chau!

I absolutely cannot believe I'm leaving for the airport in less than an hour. Yesterday was Argentina's Independence Day. Fran and I went to their country club place again to drink mate and hang out for awhile. Then the family had a nice going-away "tea" for me around 6:30. I rushed from that to a restaurant where all the soccer girls were meeting for a goodbye dinner. We were supposed to get there at 9:30. I got there at 10:05 and was only the third of 8. Argentina. Anyway, the dinner was very fun, and we got a quick drink after that before heading home. Today I've just been trying to shove my whole life into my suitcases. I'll just say that my mother will be appalled when I open them...Tonight I fly out from winter in one continent, to summer in another. Crazy. Goodbyes are so hard, especially in another language because you can't really say anything you want to and I for one have trouble speaking Spanish while crying. I've been thinking of how last winter I had a little spiel I'd say when people asked "So why'd you pick Argentina?" Now everyone will ask "HOW WAS ARGENTINA?!?!" And that cannot be answered in a 2 minute spiel. Nor a 2 hour one. Five months of the most action-packed and interesting life I've lived. I went white-water rafting, skiing in the Andes, zip-lining, and mountain climbing. I had tedious and lazy days when I did absolutely nothing. I got to know an entire culture. Not just the tourist attractions, but the politics, the education, the family structure, driving habits, holidays, fashion, food, greetings, exercise, romantic gestures, I could go on and on. I feel like I know what it is to be Argentine. Maybe more than I know what it is to be American. I will have to write a closing summary of the experience when I get home, when I've had 12 hours to reflect on the airplane haha. But last night I finally got around to writing in my real journal (with my novels on here I'm just never motivated to actually put a pen to paper as well)...here's an excerpt:

"How is it that tomorrow I leave Argentina? Impossible. Tonight is my last night in my little bed. Never again will I hear the keys locking the door and hitting the silver tray. The sticky bathroom door opening. Fran's wooden blinds cranking down. The squeaky swinging door to the laundry room right by my head when I lie in bed. Claudia's pill reminders on her cellphone. The screech of the sliding door when we let Cleo inside. The garbage trucks at 2 AM. All of a sudden it is these little things that are hitting me. This is my home now. This crappy pillow actually feels good. The creak of the bed. My rows and rows of shallow closet doors. Another girl will move into MY room in a week. Use my chipped San Martin de los Andes coffee cup for cornflakes. And the red cracker tin. The tiny spoons. The faded dinosaur cups. Hear Futbol de Primera droning in the background. I will always remember walking on a glacier, taking my finals, getting robbed. But it is these small, everyday details I'm worried I'll forget. The smells, the sounds, what the bathroom looked like. How interesting is the psychology of place. How quickly minds forget. I want to memorize Fran and Claudia's faces, their laughs. What a weird sensation to be leaving people who've become loved ones and honestly not knowing if you'll ever see them again. I'm just in shock, neither sad nor happy to go at this point. Just shocked that yesterday I was sweatily entering these tiny white halls for the first time, dragging my huge bags behind me and absolutely TERRIFIED of what was to come, and tomorrow I leave, it's all over. Just like that. And an eternity passed in between."

Bueno, CHAU ARGENTINA...GRACIAS POR TODO!