We are now within about 2 weeks from leaving Chile, and while there are moments of sadness, especially with all the goodbyes we have to say, in my heart I know its time to go. It has been an amazing experience here, with some serious ups (the travel, the friends, the culture) and some serious downs (the pandemic, the social unrest)but I think the biggest testament to all this, is that if we had to make this choice again, I would not change it for the world. There was a time in 2021, probably at this time last year, where we were sooooo close to packing up and leaving early. And thank god we did not. This experience would not have with our last year here, to reconnect with people that we were cut off from in the pandemic, to see the country return to some sort semblance of normal, back to work, and to get another chance to discover more of this amazing country.
It is difficult to wrap up 4 years in a post. I sometimes think about it, and go what the hell were we thinking? uprooting our lives in Vancouver with a
one and three year old to move to a country halfway across the world that I really knew nothing about. And it was intenseI think back to the first six months we moved hereI think about the to moving and everything we had to do. It almost crushed me to be honestit was a super difficult transition, and there were days in the first half a year here where all I wanted to do was give up and go home. The language, the culture, work, kids school, driving etc etc etc. Everything was different. It is like the proverbial drinking from a firehouse, taking on an experience like this. Like the anxiety that you feel when even a simple conversation with a grocery clerk is basically impossible, it is overwhelming.
Some to mind that are particularly poignant. Trying to leave a parkade and realizing that you have to pay before you get in your car (the machines on the way out will not take a credit card like in Canada) and sitting there and trying to explain to the attendant in my six words of Spanish as angry Chileans honked at me to movegod damn, that
sucked. to work those first days and sitting in a lunch room full of people, not a single one you can understand. Hoo boy. But look a long way. We built a life here. We learned and we got it done. And whatever got thrown at us we managed. I think of the absolute depths of the Pandemic in June 2020 when we had been in quarantine for three months without leaving the houseor the day in 2019 when it felt like the whole city was rioting and we were sitting in a Starbucks waiting for them to declare martial law...I think of sneaking up to our friends house during the 2021 quarantine to spend the day bbqing and having our kids play together just so we could have an interaction, any interactionor all the clueless nodding I did to get through countless conversations I didnt understandthe countless hours spent at work trying to adjust to a job for which I had not experience, and a language the proved much more difficult to understand than I ever thought.
to be here. It gave us an experience that living in Vancouver the last four years never could have, and it challenged us to adapt and learn and grow. As much as the idea of change is anathema to me, I also realize that living new things is brain food. It keeps me going, and creates excitement. And Ill miss that as we move home. Look, I will be happy to call a restaurant and make a reservation without any language issues, but you know whatit was also fun that interactions as simple as that, when successful here, gave me a source of pride (holy shit, I know Spanish!).
