Sunday, May 11

Today Cata, Louis, and I woke up around 11, and I decided I needed to go home early to be with my family after we hadn’t seen each other for over a week. Louis’s dad came and picked him and me up and dropped me off at my house. I walked in and was only to talk to my parents for about 10 minutes about the trip and everything I’d done and everything they’d done before we got surprise visitors. Next week, Sally’s friend Eduardo had invited her to the gala of the air force school where he studies, and his friend also needed a date, so Sally invited me to go as Eduardo’s friend Nicholas’s date. Nicholas and Eduardo had decided to stop by my house on their day off to meet me and reassure Manuel that I would be in good hands at the gala. We all awkwardly sat down in the living room and talked for a few hours. I tried to make it as not awkward as possible by telling jokes and funny stories, and the boys tried to do the same, but basically everything that Manuel is involved in is very uncomfortable for everyone else, and this was no different. We still had fun exchanging meaningful looks about how bored and uncomfortable we were, and when they left a few hours later, I knew that the gala was going to be really fun with these guys. After they left, I went upstairs to put on a jacket, and then we got in the car and went to Donihue to visit Lilian’s family for the day. Today is Mothers’ Day, so I got Lilian a moai statue from Easter Island and wrote her a card, and I wrote Nancy a Facebook message, and Sally and I planned to take them out for coffee tomorrow after school (it’s fun because we share the same two Chilean moms, so we can do things for them together). We spent the day in Donihue chatting with Lilian’s awesome family and eating the great food that’s always there. My little cousin Luciana came to her grandma’s house specifically because she knew I would be coming, which I just found so adorable. Luciana is 10 and she’s an only child too, so I totally relate to how she feels and what she’s going through (she’s honestly a lot like I was at that age), so we have fun together. After once, Lilian, Manuel, and I returned home early so I would have time to Skype my real mom for Mothers’ Day. I told her how much I love her and how crazy it is that we will be seeing each other face to face in less than 2 months now. I still don’t know if that makes me sad and depressed because I’m leaving Chile or ecstatic because I get to see my family and friends back home again. Anyway, I was still tired from staying up so late the night before, so I went to bed early.