wrapping up

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad to be wrapping things up in South America. Three weeks was nothing... my backpack doesn't smell much yet; I'm not nearly sick enough of repacking it everyday; I still have a few things I never wore (really... I brought too many tanktops); I've gotten to the point where I can understand 99% of anything anyone says (might be closer to 94%?) but I have a long way to go with my speaking; I could eat a bag of Milo Nuggets (little crunchy chocolate candies of goodness) everyday; I'm MUCH closer to the ocean now than I am in MN and yet I won't get to see it; there's just something about Latin American that I find endlessly endearing. But I truly am deeply grateful for the family, friends and community that the Twin Cities holds. And I am looking forward to spending less time on buses, to guaranteed hot water, to celebrating my neice's birthday and the Powderhorn art fair this weekend, to some MN summer days.:)

I really enjoyed Myriam and her family in Medellin (we're back at Myriam's sister's apartment tonight) - wonderful Colombian insight that really left me wanting more time to work on my Spanish to help with relational connections. And our jaunt through the Colombian coffee-side was beautiful and relaxing. We spent two nights in Salento, I finally got to see my cloud forest and we toured a great coffee farm, too. The seven hours we spent on the bus this afternoon/evening was great motivation to look forward to my car. And so now my backpack is packed and my alarm is set for 5:15 am to get the return journey started. I'll send Michelle and Ali off with well wishes for sunny beach days as they send me off to hop back to MN. I've got a long layover in Miami - I've never flown standby, but here's hoping something works out because otherwise I hit Chicago in the evening and then arrive in Minneapolis at 11:45 pm. Phew. We'll see how it all goes.

When I'm back to the MN side of life (and probably from the Miami airport... cause I'll have the time. ha.) I'll update more and upload photos with all the posts as well. But for now... it's time to get a bit o' sleep. Hasta!