Sentimental at Dusk

Hmm, where do I start?  I suppose I'll start with the "big" news:  I officially have a ticket booked to return to the States!  (March 6th if you're wondering)  As excited as I am, I was having a sentimental moment as I was walking home at dusk from meeting my two Chilean friends for ice cream.  It was our "goodbye" and ice cream just seemed like the typical Chilean thing to do.  Plus, I had to get my fill of the delicious frutos del bosque and coco flavors before I left.  Anyway, I was walking home in a really pretty part of town and the sun was just about to set, so the Andes were looking fabulous and I thought to myself, Wow, I am going to miss this place a bit.  It's true.  I am going to miss Santiago a bit and Chile a bit more.  It has been an amazing six+ months.  I have experienced more than a blog can ever properly express.  I have seen more than I ever imagined.  I have been places that top the charts and truly are wonders of the world.  I have met people that I will most certainly never forget.  And I'm now getting ready to leave, to say goodbye.

Now don't get me wrong, I am beyond excited and beyond ready to come home.  But before I do a blog post about how pumped I am to board that plane, I think it is only appropriate that I pause, get a little sentimental, and give Chile a proper goodbye.  Chile has been good to me.  Well, actually, God has been good to me.  When living/traveling/studying abroad, there are so many factors that are beyond our control.  And God came through big time for me in Chile, (like He always does.  Still trying to figure out when I seem to always doubt Him!)  One of the biggest ways God has provided for me in Chile is through the people.  I am such a people person.  Thus, having such an amazing host family was key.  And then there are the amazing friends in my program, the instant Chilean friends when I arrived, a missionary couple that has been more than hospitable (in fact, I am still living in their home!), the incredible family whom I worked with at the summer camp, not to mention all the wonderful people I met traveling...  The list could go on!

Yes, Chile and I have had some rough patches.  I mean, I'm still not too keen on their cuisine.  Come on, Chile, too much mayo!  But still, I cannot hate on their food.  The avocados are amazing and I can still taste that amazing empanada de mariscos that I ate in Concón over Dieciocho.  Yes, I am ready to leave Chile, but it's not her fault.  It's just time.  Time to go.  Time to go home.  ((Yes, I will get to what's next in another post, but bear with me for a bit))

Okay, so I was walking home, getting all softhearted etc. and just really thinking about how much I have enjoyed Chile and how blessed I am.  Leaving is always hard, but as the saying goes It's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.  As sappy as that is, it holds some truth, especially when I apply it to my abroad experiences and saying goodbye.  Yes, it will be hard saying goodbye, but I'd much rather have that hurt than have never had this experience...  I just hope that I can leave Chile well.  When I arrived in late August, I was a bit of, well, a mess.  In hindsight, I was scared, scared of the unknown, scared of leaving my comfort zone once again to brave this big world flying solo.  I didn't know what I was doing, where I was going, I didn't have a plan.  And in that respect, things haven't changed much.  I still don't have a five-year plan or anything but I'm at peace, whereas when I left for Chile, I was not.  That is absolutely a result of not trusting God, with everything.  If there is one thing I have learned these past couple years, it is that I am not in control, He is.  And that is a good thing.

It's terribly hard (especially for a planner) handing over the reigns to God and trusting in Him for it all, but it is terribly freeing as well.  One of my favorite passages regarding "plans" is in Isaiah:  I am the Lord your God, who teaches what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.  If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.  Trust God.  Follow Him.  And walk in His ways.  Thus, coming to Chile was hard, okay, downright difficult because I was trying to call the shots of my life and fit God into my own mold.  So in reality, God bringing me to Chile was even more of a blessing because it was here that He got me back to where I needed to be, which is in the center of His will.  

So I guess what I am trying to say is that yeah, leaving Chile will be bittersweet and it will be sad, but I am able to leave Chile with a peace in my heart.  I know it is time to leave, time to move on.  And I am so very, very excited for what He has for me next...  ♥

PHOTOS!!!!

Hi everyone!!
Guess what?! I finally got a spare moment to upload some photos.  Since I took over five hundred photos on my journey down south, I chose about fifty to make a "Best Of's" album entitled "Go SOUTH!!!" which you will find on the left-hand side of my blog page.  However, I am sorry to inform you that photobucket.com failed me again and all the pictures are in opposite order of how I took them.  (So I guess the album should be entitled "Go NORTH!!!")  Thus, imagine you are first in Punta Arenas and work your ways backwards.  Also, for some reason I can't figure out how to add captions so you all can know what you are looking at.  I'm working on it, trust me.
Enjoy!

The End of the World (or pretty darn close)

Hello hello everyone!
If you didn´t already know, I am writing to you from the ¨end of the world.¨  Yes, that´s right, Punta Arenas, Chile - latitude of 53 degrees south and approximately 6600 miles away from Burlington, Iowa.  I think I can safely say this is the furthest I have ever been from home.  With that said, I have so much to tell you all and describe to you that I think it might be easiest (and most fun) to hash it out in list format.  Ready?


Punta Arenas is...


1. one of the southernmost cities in the world
Yup, that´s right.  Like I mentioned previously, Punta Arenas sits on, or around, the 53rd latitude line south of the equator (or at least I think that´s how that works... it´s been awhile since my last lesson in geography).  The capital city of Chile´s southernmost region also sits on the edge of the Strait of Magellan, named after the explorer Ferdinand and also the most easily navigable passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean but also quite difficult to navigate due to unpredictable winds, currents, and narrows.  (All of this courtesy of Wikipedia, por supuesto.)  Anyway, whatever you like to call it - Punta Arenas, the end of the world, Tierra del Fuego - this is as far south as this girl is gettin´ ... this time, at least.


2. cold, windy, and full of coffee shops
So what have I been doing these past three days at the end of the world?  Well, not sunbathing that´s for sure.  Right now it´s about forty-eight degrees fahrenheit outside but last night it dropped to around thirty-three.  Thus, for the first time in months, weather in Iowa might be a bit more agreeable than where I am.  Shocking, I know.  And the wind... almost rivals the Windy City... almost.  Anyway, since it´s a bit chilly outside and since I am at the end of my month-long trip and am a bit burnt out on seeing stuff, I decided to play a game while giving myself a walking tour of the city.  The Game:  Every time I ran across a coffee shop I had to go in, sit down, and have a coffee.  Result:  Eight coffee shops in two days and a caffeine high like no other.  However, my favorite was definitely the jazzy, vintage, bohemian coffee shop called Tapiz where I had one of the best macchiatos.  I could have stayed there forever (in fact, I think my waitress thought I might and was relieved when I finally asked for la cuenta.)  


3. duty-free, or at least the Zona Franca
Sooo besides drinking entirely too much caffeine in Punta Arenas, I also visited the Zona Franca, which is the area of the city that is duty-free and thus the place to go to buy electronics, cars, and imported alcohol and chocolate.  Before I went, I really didn´t know quite what to expect.  I thought maybe it would be just one big store where they sold a bunch of random stuff.  To my surprise, it is much, much more than that.  In fact, it was quite overwhelming.  Store after store, aisle after aisle of stuff.  Materialism on steroids perhaps.  Halfway through the Zona Franca I had to sit down and have a Coca-Cola Light because I was just so overwhelmed.  Finally, after a few hours of going down practically every aisle and going in almost every store, I left.  My only purchase - peanut butter.


4. a small world
I never would have imagined the end of the world to be such a small world but indeed it is.  Why so?  Well, here are two stories to prove that as large as this world is it is also quite small.  The first occurred while I was riding the ferry back from the penguin colony, which I will describe later.  As I am sitting there, two gringas walk by and I was struck by one of the girls´ faces, which was unmistakeably familiar.  Since I knew it would bother me not to know how I recognized her, I got up, tapped her on the shoulder, and asked them both where they went to school.  Somehow I don´t think I was as surprised as I should have been when they said Loyola University in Chicago.  Small world indeed.  As it turns out, they arrived to Chile a little over a month ago through a different study abroad program that Loyola offers and will begin their classes in March.  Crazy, eh?  The second unbelieveable store happened while I was wandering through the aisles of a huge warehouse store in the Zona Franca.  As I am in a daze walking down aisle after aisle, out of the corner of my eye, I see this chica invade my personal space.  A little taken aback, I snap out of my daze and realize that it is KAREN, a woman I studied abroad with in Santiago.  What?!  For the past month, Karen had been taking a mountain climbing course in Patagonia and is now travelling with a friend doing treks etc. in the area.  I still could not believe I ran into her.  I mean, out of all the places, out of all the places in Punta Arenas, out of all the stores at the Zona Franca, out of all the aisles in this huge store... we literally ran into one another.  It is a small world afterall...


And last but not least...
Punta Arenas is...


5. full of penguins
Although being able to say I have been to the end of the world is pretty cool, the real reason I came all the way down to Punta Arenas was to see the penguins.  So on day one down here, I took a two-hour ferry to Isla Magdalena, home of thousands of Magellanic penguins that come down every summer to this island in order to breed.  Definitely the highlight of my time spent in Punta Arenas, walking amongst a few thousand adorable penguins waddling around and flapping their wings.  It was such a surreal experience.  I mean, come on, penguins are just so darn cute!!!  (Pictures to come, of course!)


Anyway, that really is a pretty good overview of what I have been doing down here.  Tomorrow I will take a plane back to Santiago and honestly I can´t say I´m that sad to be done with my trip down South.  Don´t get me wrong, it has been a blast and I have enjoyed every second of it.  I have done some amazing things, seen some spectacular sights, eaten some delicious food, and met some incredible people, but after a month of living out of a backpack, I´m ready to unpack, take a real shower, and have some variety in my wardrobe.  As for the photos, I should have the Best Of´s uploaded by Saturday.  So once again, stay tuned...


¡Ciao!