Alriiiight there's so much to report from my 6 days back in the states! First, I had a wonderful wonderful wonderful time. It was so very nice to see so many people I love all back-to-back like that! I felt like I was on some celebrity tour, but in a very lucky way.
The journey back to Chicago was tiresome, literally. After taking a bus overnight, I had to spend the day in the Santiago airport and then catch my overnight flight, finally getting to Chicago at about 6am Friday (over 32 hours after leaving the house here in Angol). Oh, and my luggage was lost, had never even been registered in my connecting city of São Paulo. BUT I was reunited with my mom, so I couldn't be mad! And, as weary as my flights were, I did get some amazing views crossing over the Andes, and then of both São Paulo and Chicago at night.
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| a glittering São Paulo |
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| still São Paulo. I gotta go there someday! |
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| outskirts of Chicago. look at the difference in the layouts of the two cities! |
After a long hotel nap, and the arrival of the rest of the family (which made me very happy!), the rehearsal dinner was upon us. It was at a cool old Italian restaurant in Chicago (Orso). We were all out on the patio, which had a beautiful terrace roof all stemming from the same huge grapevine. We took a lot of obnoxious family pictures, as if we hadn't all been together in 7 months or something...
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| together at last! |
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| so pretty |
The next morning we met my aunt and uncle for breakfast! I realized that breakfast foods were what I had missed most, and it was very hard for me to pick just one thing on the menu. The strawberry waffle that I devoured in about 60 seconds (and my side bagel) did not let me down! So distracted was I by my breakfast revelation that I didn't get a picture with my aunt and uncle! Next time : )
We had some time to kill the afternoon, which of course meant shopping/wandering. I had several requests from students for Chicago Bulls paraphernalia, so I spent a while chasing that down, only to find that I had forgotten how expensive things can be in the U.S. So that was a dead end. But after lunch it was wedding time!!! The ceremony was in this beautiful church right downtown, and everything was perfect! My cousin Andrew and his beautiful bride Sally were stunning, and so deliriously happy throughout the whole day that I felt like we were all the large cast in their rom-com. We could all tell they're going to be very happy together! Congratulations to Andrew and Sally! Ok so, commence the photos:
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| Chicago Temple |
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| look how excited they are! |
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| look at that handsome Boots bunch |
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| awww |
Then we had a reception, and then dinner at the City Winery. It was a very fancy venue, if I may say so, and all the cousins were seated at a table together so we had a damn good time. The food was delicious, but, more importantly, there were fake moustaches for each table and an open bar all night. Oh yeah, that's right. Plus the wedding band was amazing, and they played the whole night so we all danced the whole night. We had a blast!
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| claaassic Hen |
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| she might kill me for putting this on here... |
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| mothereffin' gentlemen |
Fantastic evening. Also, I finally got my suitcase! The following morning we had a big family brunch (hello, America, nice to see you again) and headed back to good ol' Indy. I only had 3 days so I crammed in a lot of visits. Got to spend an afternoon in Bloomington to see my IU ladies, and have a good family friend over for dinner, and see a friend's new house, and have two more lovely family dinners, and meet my best friend's baby nephew, and help celebrate a special birthday!
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| reunion with the Lucymeister |
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| good luck in Italy, Abby!! |
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| and, of course, one of a zillion photos Lily snapped of us |
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| what a big little man! |
Also spent an afternoon picking out some gifts to bring back for my host family. It was an odd sensation to walk around the mall looking for the most American things available that they couldn't get here. I settled on some tee shirts and ranch dressing. AMURICA. Don't worry, I got them more than that, but, ya know, that just sounded funnier. In that whole process I stopped by my old stomping grounds at NCHS and got to pay some more fun visits! (and bring my sister Steak n' Shake. Three cheers for Steak n' Shake!)
I had to leave Thursday to come back to Chile, and thank goodness the trip was not as strenuous this time. But I left completely thrilled with all my time at home! As strange as it was for me to jump from a small town in Chile to Chicago, and then home, and then back, I'm incredibly glad that I did it. It was so gratifying to spend even that small amount of time with all the people I love back home! And now I'll be seeing them again in December, which will be here before we know it : ) I will leave you with this:
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