Too Many Goodbyes

      So I guess after 5 months of BIENVENIDOS A PERU!!!, it's time for the goodbyes.

      Saturday night was the last time this year I will ever go party and dance in a Chimbote discoteca with my Peruvian buds. Fabian, Jhoselyn's primo, and some of our other friends came over and opened some celeberatory bottles of wine. Then her dad came home, was a little surprised, thought it was funny that we'd drank a bit, and gave us permission to go dancing at 1am. I still can't believe we brought out my big baby to the disco!! But we took care of it and got some awesome photos :) We danced our worries and goodbyes away until 4:30 in the morning, an early night. :)

       Yesterday we had our last AFS gringo reunion (without the AFS volunteers :P) for my gringo goodbye. We went and had pina coladas in a cafe across from Plaza Mayor and then went for pizza one last time at Gabriels, where we always went after AFS meetings. (and where Clemens once encountered a chicken tooth on his pizza xD). Clemens, Ondine, Mona, Emily, Louise, Laetitia. (Johanna is in Lima). I'm going to miss them stupidly. Sooo much. I brought some bottles of contact solution for Emily, and all the girls poured it in their eyes to make it look like we were crying. Really it was just to cover up being teary. I was talking to Clemens about returning home, because he lived in Australia for a year and knows what the return home part is like, and he said it is hard. Some friends expect you to be the same old bud they knew and haven't changed at all, and some are disappointed or surprised with the new changes. Everything is strange and new again, and he was surprised that after a full year away, nothing had changed back home. Or not in the way or level of changes that he'd experienced. He was surrounded by friends but felt alone and strange. I totally understand and am totally afraid. Worried. I almost don't want to go back... i'm not ready for that. This.

        Today is my final, final Chimbote goodbye party, at 7pm en la casa. We invited everyone we could think of, including my colegio friends that I haven't seen in awhile. All the AFSers will be there too. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of love and farewells I've been receiving. "Miaaa, no te vayas! Te vamos a extranar oyyye Miiia mejor te quedas conmigo en mi caaasa. Porque te vas?"  God this is gonna be hard. Tonight we won't need the contact solution. Better put my waterproof makeup on.

xo