and now WE'RE BACK!!

Just arrived this afternoon. Had a fairly uneventful trip, the only snag being that one of our suitcases for stuck in Paris, but it's been tracked down and should be here tomorrow. I think that's the first time that's happened to me, amazingly. Sierra seems ECSTATIC to have us back home. =P It's nice to be back. Even having to speak French to the cab driver on the way home from the airport... Geneva is still a foreign place, partially still feels like we're traveling, but it is nice to come back to our house, and our cat, and have gorgeous, sunny weather waiting for us.

So to finish up on the narration of our travels... Wednesday night we had dinner with Gonzalo, Alejandra, and the twins Juan Fe and Manuel Jose. We've had such a great time hanging out with all the family. I think now to what it would have taken, if we really had moved to Chile (our plans right before the Swiss option conveniently fell into our laps) and I almost get sick thinking of all it would have taken-- all the stress from moving here, doubled by the fact of doing it alone and with no money. But it's also really cool to see a glimpse of what our lives would have been like, the friends we already would have had through family connections. Zach talks about how after he gets good at French we'll have to go live in a Spanish-speaking country for a while so he can get fluent in Spanish. We haven't ruled out a move to Chile yet, perhaps someday in the future if job stuff works out.

But anyway... then Thursday morning we got up, packed, had breakfast, walked down to the beach, then caught the bus back to Santiago. We dropped our stuff back off at the hotel, then dashed off to see Tia Dotty again. She's such a neat, spunky lady. We only got to hang out with her for a couple of hours, as we then had dinner plans with Peter and Macarena. We went to a little Italian place they knew about that had these great pizzas, then had some ice-cream for dessert. It's almost a shame that we live so far away, as they're a couple I could see getting to be good friends with. But I'm sure we'll keep in touch one way or another.

Then Friday was our last day... We had breakfast with Daddy, then walked around Santiago a bit more, had some empanadas, and then were off to the airport. I can't believe I let 11 years pass by since my last trip, Zach and I are already talking of when we'll go back (hopefully within another 2-3 years). We need to explore the south! And the north! There's still so much to see and do. I'm still holding out hope for a family reunion down south, with me, Jenny, Cristina, JC, and Mom (and Philip and Zach and any other spouses that happened to come along) all going to Chile together. It certainly would be neat.

So... now, back to "then grind." ; ) Zach has work on Monday, and I'll go back to class. I have a lot of catching up to do, internet-wise, and let's not even get started on the 700+ pictures I've taken over the past 3 weeks... It'll probably take me all week to get them all uploaded, sorted, organized, up on snapfish and flickr, etc. Wish me luck!