August?

Today is the last day of July.

8 days left.

I do not know where the time went (This is so cliché). If feels like it was just yesterday that I was flying in to Santiago for the first time and now I am looking forward to my last weekend here.

As much as I would love to have a crazy adventurous last weekend and go to Bolivia or back to Argentina or something like that, I don't think it is going to happen. Instead, I will be settling for a couple days in and around Santiago. It sounds like Saturday I will be going to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, getting some lunch with a friend, and then maybe going hiking in the Cajon de Maipo (but there is a good chance that last bit won't happen). Then Sunday, I will be going to Pomaire over near the coast where there are a lot of artesian markets and think of that sort.

Next week, it sounds like we will be having a little goodbye lunch with some of the administrators who set up my internship. Then, I will have to be finishing up all my projects at work as well as for my online class -- I'm such a wild woman. It sounds boring (and it might be a bit boring), but a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.

I wrote about this before, but there was so much I wish I had done on this trip that didn't end up happening either due to a lack of time or money (or both). It's slightly disappointing, but at the same time this trip was a good experience for many reasons.

I finally got over speaking spanish to native speakers -- I didn't really have a choice -- and in certain situations I can feel almost fluent. At the very least I am able to communicate whatever message I am trying to deliver in some manner, which is a good skill to have. Especially as I hope to come back to South America in the future and travel on my own.

I also get some amazing experience for future jobs. I have plenty of new marketable skills and thanks to the assignments I was given at work and for my online class I have plenty of things to add to my new ePortfolio -- that makes me sound like such a grown up. I don't like it.

I am kind of looking forward to getting back to the US and getting back into a somewhat normal life. Although I will be starting training for my job about 30 hours after I land and it will last all the way up until classes begin, so I guess I'm not really going back to normal life. Knowing that I have a hectic schedule awaiting me does make me feel better about my relatively mild plans for the weekend.

For now, I am going to do my best to make the most of my last week in Chile!

p.s. This was the view from our apartment today...I'm really enjoying living on the 18th floor.