Today is our last day in Santiago, Chile. I woke up at 6:50, ten minutes earlier than usual to make sure I packed everything. I went to have breakfast with the whole family for the last time before I left. I had toast with avocado on it. The avocados here taste better than the ones in the US. That is one of the many things I will miss when I have to go back home. I also tried a new fruit. It was the inside of a cactus and had many seeds. Interestingly enough it was called tuna. When asked if I wanted tuna, it wasn’t what I had in mind. I’m glad I got to try it before I left because you can only get them in two parts of the world, according to my host father. After breakfast I took my suitcase to the car and my host mother gave me my snacks for the day. It reminded me how thoughtful she had been this whole trip. For example she got me a coat because I packed for 60 degree weather, not 30. I would really miss her. I gave her a hug and said my goodbyes and got in the car with Cristobal, his father, Carolina, and Nico. As we drove out of the driveway, I realized that this may be the last time that I see this house and it made me sad because I don’t like thinking about places I’ve been to for the last time in my life. We got to school and my host father dropped us off at the curb and I thanked him for being such a good host to me. I thought about how generous he was with taking me and the family to fancy restaurants so I could get the full Chilean experience. I walked with Cristobal, Carolina, and Nico to the gate and said goodbye to them just in case I didn’t get a chance to later in the day. I didn’t see Carolina again, but I saw Nico. I hope I will get the chance to see them when they grow up to see the people they will become. I went to the administration building to drop off my suitcase. I then went to meet Cristobal in homeroom for the last time. I won’t miss that! After homeroom we went to go read to the lower schoolers, starting with the first grade. We went in there and read a book about fathers for fathers’ day. Then they proceeded to ask questions about us. One of the kids asked if Suki, Milen, Osamah, Maya, Nadeen, and I were all siblings. The families here are pretty big so that might be why he thought that. The younger kids were more hesitant about speaking in English than the older ones. I noticed a lot of the signs in the classrooms were in English, so they must start them early and integrate 2 languages into other classes. This is different for classes in the US because Spanish is only taught in Spanish class. I saw Nico when he went to recess and I said bye again and he gave me a war head for the plane which was nice of him. After we visited each grade, we had some free time before lunch. We hung out in the hall and talked about the trip. That was all we really had to talk about. It’s been such a big part of our lives for the past 2 weeks and it will be weird to go back to my old schedule. After that we went to lunch. We tried to snag a table big enough for the whole group so we could have a last lunch together. However, not many of the boy host students were there because of a football (soccer) game going on at lunch. I would have appreciated Tatiana’s barbecue more if I knew that would have been the last chance we could all hang out together. After we ate we went back to the 10th grade hall to say bye to the friends we made outside the exchange. We took pictures to remember everything and everyone. It was all very sad. Maya was the first to start crying. When the bell rang, Emily and I went to math class. All the students got their tests back and they were just making corrections so we were rather bored. However, the 40 minutes went by too fast and before we knew it, we had to leave. The students with exchanges were dismissed to say bye to everyone. However people not participating in the exchange had to stay in class. However Sofia and Flo tried to come with us to say bye. When I walked past a classroom to the administration building, Samirah ran out of her classroom to say bye to me. She only could stay for a second because she would have gotten in trouble. I felt really honored that Samirah, Flo, and Sofia cared about us enough to risk getting in trouble. It made us all really sad that we may never see them again because they weren’t on the exchange, making leaving even harder. We took pictures in front of the admin and got our suitcases and then we had to do what we dreaded the most: leave our students. We all said bye to each one personally and many people cried. Even Suki, who yelled at Maya earlier for crying, did. We stayed until Señora Solis dragged us onto the bus. I took a look at the mountains surrounding the school. It was going to be weird to not see them everyday. I had gotten used to them. While everyone else was on their phones airdropping pictures on the bus ride to the airport, I looked out the window. I wanted to soak up every last bit of Chile that I could, because who knows if I will ever return? When we got to the airport, it felt like a whole new day started. We had to get our boarding passes, tickets and check our bags. All of those take forever. Then we had to go through security. After we got through security, we had dinner at Johnny Rockets. Most of us are together. Even Señora Solis and Señor Craig ate there. However they were at a different table and pretended not to know us. We were all focused on how much we would miss our students, I don’t think we realized how much we would miss our fellow Cary Academy students. I had grown accustomed to seeing them everyday, I am sure I will be lonely this summer. We talked and enjoyed each other’s company for a final time in Chile. We had a great time. Suki and Maya even danced with the waiters! Soon enough, it was time to go to our gate. While we were at the gate we thanked our amazing teachers for taking us on this trip. And especially Señora Solis for organizing it, which we all know took a lot of effort. It was definitely one of my favorite trips I have ever taken. Plus we made all the other trips jealous! I definitely think we got the best trip! We boarded the plane and took our seats. I sat next to Megan and Emily. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I was too busy thinking about the trip. I remember the first day of the trip, Suki said that it still hasn’t hit her she is in a different country yet and I agreed. And now on the final day, I felt the same way. It seemed like we were there for so long, it started to feel like a second home. After watching a couple movies, I went to bed thinking about how sad it will be to wake up the next morning and it would all be over. All that we have been looking forward to for the last year would be over. But now we can look forward to the Chileans coming to Cary in December, so we can make new memories with them. Memories just as amazing as the ones we made in Chile.