So This Is Life...

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So this is life... For the first time I feel like I'm really living. I started classes 2 weeks ago and I've been in Valpo for 3 weeks and I just can't get over how fabulous life is here. Gone is the pressure to "work 'til you die" and stay "busy, busy, busy". That's how I was feeling in the States before I left. Things are ridiculous here. There's spontaneity on a grand level, there's adventure in small things, there's rest, there's excitement, there's beauty, and there's relaxation! Every day when I get out of class there's cool stuff to do and fun people to do it with ALL the time. Bri will ask me, "Hey, wanna go grab an empanada and get a margarita?" And I'm like yes! Or someone will ask me, "Hey, wanna go explore?" And again, I'm like yes! Last Wednesday alone I got invited to do five things in the span of 2 hours! Carter, this guy from my Chilean culture class, asked me if I wanted to go find the print shop with him to pick up our books. Rebecca asked me if I wanted to go get dinner somewhere. Benjamin, another guy from ISA, asked me if I wanted to go snag an empanada and then go to the beach. Leigh Anne, another Texan, invited me to go get some drinks and I already had plans for Bri to come over and have dinner with my family. It was krunk! Then later when Bri came over, we laughed and talked and hung out in a hammock out back overlooking the hillside dotted with vibrantly colored houses. It's like, who lives like this? Who lives this awesomely? Apparently I do! :-) This is my life here in Chile and it's going to be extremely hard to leave. I heard that reverse culture shock, when the person goes back home, is WAY worse than the initial shock of immersing in a new culture. And I believe it. It's like you spend so much time living this epically fly life that doesn't even seem real. Then you have to go back. I've never been away from home for so long but I can honestly say that besides family, friends, and certain foods, I miss nothing. Nothing.

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Photos

This is the life!
Me and Rebecca going nuts.

Shall we dance?
Being silly with Claire. :p

Well, someone's on tilt!
I'll spare the names. ;p Haha!