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Though I certainly don't miss the blizzards and ridiculous amounts of snow and ice that they're getting blasted with in the Northeastern U.S. right now, I miss the hell out of our families there. I sometimes think we expats (or maybe it's just me?) try to push out of our minds the fact that we even have families so as to miss them less. Because when you see your family once a year (if that) pretending they don't really exist is a.) not that difficult and b.) easier than admitting how much it sucks to be so far away. And maybe it's just my hypersensitive emotional state (hello there pregnancy home stretch!) but it was terribly hard to say goodbye to my husband's parents this past week. Tears and introspection aside, we had a fantastic time while they were here, filling up their short six-day trip with as much of Chile as we possibly could.
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We strolled our old neighborhood in Santiago and put places to names while we retold stories of the old 'dark days' (good riddance!) that really didn't seem so far away in their retelling. The robberies, the sick pups, the eating of rice for days and pawning of the camera to finish the roof. We visited beaches and turned my father in law into a lover of Chilean seafood. There was lots of red wine drunk and even a vineyard trip added into the mix. Everything we saw spawned a new story or anecdote about Chile and it was so therapeutic to finally be able to show, not just relate over Skype, what we have done and been through here at the bottom of the world.We also did a whole lot of relaxing and sitting around which was a lovely break from our usual mile-a-minute speed of house construction and projects. Reconnecting with them after so long was wonderful, especially for my husband who hasn't been back to the States in two and a half years.So for now I'll keep missing everyone and planning our next visit back. But who knows, maybe someday we'll all end up farming a huge swath of land together, traveling back and forth from the States like birds going South for the winter. I hear the South of Chile is nice...xo and thanks for reading!