Hola amigos y amigas. I am now home in Birmingham, just getting back from dinner with my dear friends kelli justin and mary at "pinches tacos" which appeased my desire to hear a little spanish (at least in the menu :-)...justin thanks for offering to teach us!) Thanks to all of you sweet friends who offer to listen to stories of my adventures - its so hard to truly capture an experience by words and translate it. I have been back in Birmingham and America for almost two days now. I arrived early yesterday morning, didnt sleep very well on the plane en route here from chile (despite wine/pisco/benadryl!) but that is to be expected, so yesterday after taking care of some business I took a nice nap, then took the evening to grocery shop, unpack, unwind. Today I really longed for Santiago and the Latin American culture. Thankfully pandora.com allowed me to listen to lots of south american music (mecano, shakira...in addition to my portuguese favorite "nosa, nosa"!) while unpacking . It felt so wierd to not kiss everyone I interacted with on the cheek, so commonplace in most other parts of the world except here in America, I still wonder why? I think that spending such a large amount of time on the streets walking to work or on the metro in transit, etc, helps teach social skills and creates a sense of community. Maybe I will live somewhere like this one day :) The following paragraph was written on my last night in santiago - this blog always keeps you on your toes!....
"last night in santiago".... Buenos noches to all - my body can feel the timer on my time here in santiago counting down the seconds until my departure - i dont want this month to end. thankfully uab peds and dear friends await back in bham (yay for sweet home bama and also family in west virginia) but i could stay here forever. i wish time would stand still but i took physics in college so i get it, but the time here goes by so fast it doesnt seem fair. after a fantastic day with the valles and exploring los domenicos markets yesterday (see march 31 blog) mom and i slept well and woke up (10 30 am..again...wow!) and walked to top of cerro san cristobal and spent time with the virgin mary at top of mountain. today is palm sunday in the western church so there was service at the top of the mountain and many palms all around. this was very moving to me, that we all celebrate the same hope and faith and have many similar traditions despite being from completely different parts of the world. after much walking and venerating we went down the hill (down in funicular after steep walk up) and enjoyed some cappucino at il maestral (amazing cafe in patio bellavista) and then had ceviche and vino at lunch at azul y profundo p possibly one of my favorite places so far. mom and i shared a large platter of ceviche WOW, ended our meal with some espresso and meandered a little more in the patio. For our last full night in santiago i planned an evening with carina filippe and cony. I chilled some "espumoso" from a famous winery (undurragga). They arrived around 8 pm for a toast to good times, my mom enjoyed meeting them, we all went for dinner (in chilean style, left the apartment around 9pm...'ish'). We had a beautiful night of sharing stories, cony and philippe were so interested in learning more about my mom and our family - we talked about differences between chile and united states from a superficial level (like things my mom noticed while being here for a week). Cony was glad to know that mom and I are very close. Sadly all good things must come to an end so phillipe took us home once the wine and food were all gone and the clock struck midnight. I did not say goodbye though, we said "hasta luego" (see you next time...maybe i didnt spell that right)
I did not sleep well during my last night in santiago, my body knew something was not right....i dont wanna leave! Mom and I really packed it all into the final day (our flight left santiago at 8 pm), we went to all of my favorite spots...wonderful cafe, lastarria, saw changing of the guards (wow what a presentation), catholic university to see dr fabres and my resident friends, lunch at emporio la rosa (yummy empanadas and salad with PALTA...best avocado!), santa lucia markets for last minute shopping (i love chilean copper and lapislazuli). That pretty much wrapped up our last day, we made it to the airport with no complications, thank God, and an overnight flight later I am back in birmingham and my mom is now in myrtle beach for her spring break.
Chile was by far one of the most rewarding months during residency and definitely during my whole life. If you ever get a chance to go...go! Thank you so much for reading our adventures!
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