Saturday, June 14

Today Katie woke up around 7 and couldn’t go back to sleep. I finally made myself wake up around 8 because I didn’t want to leave her alone. We went downstairs quietly so as not to wake anyone up and made French toast for breakfast. Then we went up to her room and just talked while she slowly packed up the last of her stuff, weighed her suitcases, realized they were overweight, took out some unnecessary clothes (and gave me a few shirts and a skirt), and cleaned up her room. I went outside for a while to be alone and write her a goodbye letter. I was happy to finally be able to write her something that really expressed how important she is to me. She has been not only one of the most important people in my exchange but also in my life in general. She taught me how to be a teenager, how to be loyal to my friends, and most of all, how to be exactly who I am and not care what anyone else thinks about that. A little while later, Katie H, Louis, and Nicolo showed up. We ordered pizza (I got better at talking to the pizza guy over the phone), and while we were eating Papa John’s, Sally and Anto (one of Katie and my school friends) showed up. We finished eating, then sat around and talked for a while. Katie brought her bags downstairs and made the final preparations. Then around 3:30 Katie’s dad got home and they were getting ready to go to the airport. That meant it was time for us to leave. Sally, Louis, and I left together. We all just hugged Katie. I told her that this wasn’t goodbye and that I would see her at Disneyland in a couple months. It was a little weird and sad and strange walking away from Katie’s house to catch a micro home and knowing that I will probably never return to that house and Katie will never be there again and won’t even be in Chile for the rest of the time that I am here. I was also a lot calmer than I thought I would be. I already had my meltdown on Thursday in the movie theater, and now I’m really at peace with the fact that goodbyes are sad but necessary and that I just need to get through them in order to be able to get on with my life. I know I will see Katie again sometime, because a friend as amazing her is not one that I could so easily lose touch with.

Anyway, I got a micro home, went for a run, and came home to work on my blog for a while before joining Manuel downstairs to make once. We ate together, and then we sat in the living room next to the heater talking until 11 at night. I was trying to wait up for Lilian because she had gone to her sister’s mother in law’s funeral and I had felt really bad that I couldn’t go with her to offer her moral support because I had to be with Katie. I ended up getting way too tired and I went upstairs to watch a movie and go to sleep.