Life in between

This week marks 4 months since we stepped off the plane at the Santiago airport.  With a cart full of (too many) bags, we hopped into a rental car and drove into a foreign city that we would call home for the next two years.

A lot has happened in a short period of time, and it occurred to me that what I normally share here only reflects one side of our experience.   Yes, traveling and exploring this part of the world has been a big part of our time here, but there are also a lot of small, seemingly boring moments, that really make up what it means to live abroad.

During our first 6 weeks here, we were focused on taking care of the basics.  We found an apartment, bought a car, set up a bank account and made more trips to the mall  in a month than I made during the 10 years I lived in Cincinnati (oh, how I miss Amazon Prime).  We made trip after trip to the notary (nothing gets done in Chile without a notary), and learned how to pay our bills.  I memorized my Chilean ID number, or RUT, which, unlike a Social Security Number, is used for almost every transaction and linked to everything from my bank account to my loyalty rewards at the grocery store.

Some time in April we started to feel like we could exhale.  We still had a lot to learn, but my list of questions for my co-workers shifted from things like, “Where can we get an oil change?” and “Is it normal that my landlord is asking us to write her all 12 of our rent checks ahead of time?” to “What are the best hiking trails near the city?” and “What website should I use to find new restaurants?”

We were starting to get our bearings, establish routines and even make a few friends.  We struggled hard with Spanish, but continued to improve.  I made my first presentation in a new language, and finally started to feel like I could have a conversation with an employee who knocked on my door without feeling complete and utter panic.

We continued to travel as much as we could, but as we entered May, winter crept into the Southern hemisphere and our lives started to slow down.  We spent evenings discussing what to eat for dinner, and Saturdays on the couch watching Netflix.  We made Sunday afternoon trips to the grocery store, and I packed lunches to bring to work each day.

Living abroad is something I always dreamed of. There are still moments when I pinch myself as I gaze out my window at the Andes mountains.  But at some point, life abroad just becomes life.   You start to realize that, no matter how far away or how different a place is, we are all human.  Our day to day might look a little different, but we’re all just doing our best to make the most of life.

And while it’s the weekend adventures and trips to exotic places that make for the best Instagram photos, it’s the in-between moments, the days that often feel routine and boring, that are really shaping our experience here.

It’s the sense of victory when we successfully order take-out over the phone in Spanish and  a the simple conversations with the check-out girl at Starbucks.

It’s grabbing dinner with new expat friends, and swapping stories of our gringo misadventures.

It’s going for a run before work, and being joined by a friendly street dog who makes a pretty good running buddy.

It’s doing yoga in my living room to a recording of my yoga studio in Cincinnati because I still haven’t worked up the courage to take a class in Spanish.

It’s learning to write excel formulas in Spanish and type on a keyboard with an ñ key and symbols that are in different places.

It’s rejoicing when I realize that I can make free calls home using WhatsApp and FaceTime, but still wishing that I could reach through the phone and give my friends and family a big hug sometimes.

There are days when 2 years seems like it will pass too quickly, and days when I wish I could go home tomorrow.   Living abroad means we get to meet new people and experience new things. It also means that we miss important moments back home.  It means that we have to watch from afar as friends get married, buy houses and start families.

Life here isn’t perfect, and there are days when being so far from home can get you down. And yet we are learning so much about the world and about ourselves as we navigate the day to day in a new country.

We are learning to be resilient, and to open ourselves up to new ways of doing things.  We are learning that our default reaction shouldn’t always be “well that’s not how we do it at home”, but rather “help me understand why you do it this way.”  We are learning that, while adventure is what beckoned to make this move, it’s often the small, unexpected interactions that end up meaning the most.

Here’s to the big adventures to come and to all the small moments that connect them.