December 4, 2018: Flying back to the US... Is this real life???

Today's the day.

July 18 feels like aeons ago. I boarded a plane and had no idea what to expect. I landed in Argentina July 19. It was pouring rain, very cold outside, and I hadn't slept all night. I drove past deteriorating buildings in silence with my taxi driver and wondered if I should've come here after all. Now, 139 days later, I know that the answer is yes: I should have came here and I am forever grateful that I did!

Like the night of July 18, I barely slept last night. I had a super congested nose and not to mention, I felt very anxious about this being my last day in Buenos Aires. Instead of trying to fight against my stuffy nose and sleep more, I got out of bed and went for an early morning run. I ran to Rosedal for the last time and enjoyed the sunny day with people out and about.

When I got home, I ate breakfast with Clarisa because we weren't able to eat dinner together anoche. We avoided, mostly, the conversation about me leaving cuz it was too sad for either of us to think about. I gave her one last little gift and a letter and then headed upstairs to wrap up packing.

Goodbye, empty room.

I finished up packing the random things I had laying around and then worked on my blog post from my trip to Bariloche with Adam. I came downstairs to eat my leftover pasta for lunch and Clarisa's niece, Julia, was there too.

Around 2:00pm, I headed to the plaza to meet up with Loli one last time. She gifted me an envelope full of photos we took together which was so sweet of her! We sat in the plaza and talked about how crazy it is that I'm leaving, and she told me funny stories from her past like she always does. We headed to a cafe after a while and she got some coffee and ice cream. She ordered a croissant but they gave her ice cream instead... interesting swap up there.

We walked to my house and I gave her a little dulce de leche square and then failed to hold back my tears as I hugged her goodbye. A taxi was already turning onto my street so we didn't have time for a long goodbye. I thanked her for her friendship and told her I love her and now I look forward to seeing her again sometime!

I worked on this blog post once I was back in my room and then Clarisa gave me some really cute hair ties as a gift! Then I got all my stuff ready downstairs to head to the airport. Cassie kindly ordered the Uber for me even though she's in Pittsburgh and luckily none of the drivers canceled on me this time!

Clarisa and I waited for the Uber on the corner and these were our final moments together :( Neither one of us cried, surprisingly, but it was definitely a sad moment. Moving to live with her changed my study abroad experience 5,000% and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made. Sometimes I see an older version of myself in her and I'd be very happy if I grew up to be like her.

Clarisa told me she truly would miss me and commented, much to my amusement, that she's had a couple of students she didn't miss. She informed me that she has a new student coming for the month of January and I hope that's a great experience for her. The new student is definitely very lucky to have Clarisa as her host mom.

We hugged and said "chau" for the final time and then I closed the car door and was off to Ezeiza. In Argentina, you never know if things are going to be running on time (they usually aren't) and so I headed to the airport 5.5 hours before my flight. I arrived 4.5 hours early, waited 30 minutes until I was able to check my bag, and then made it through migrations and to my gate with 3 hours to go before my flight. Seems like waiting for unreasonable amounts of time in the airport has been a trend of mine lately...

I am currently sitting at the gate waiting and it's 6:52pm and my flight takes off at 9:35pm for Miami. Luckily there is free wifi here so if you haven't figured out yet that that means I'm going to watch food videos on YouTube you clearly don't know me well enough!

By the time you read this, I'll have already landed (hopefully) but pray for a smooth flight for me, eh?

I plan to do a few more blog posts about my experience post-study abroad and a feature on the neighborhood where I lived so this won't be the last post. Talk to you again when I'm in the U S of A baybee.

Song Recommendation of the Day: "Coming Home" by Dirty Money (I had to)