I arrived in the morning after an all day and all night transit.
The first Chile did was take their $150 from me to enter their country.
After almost an hour of trying to get out of the airport and immigration being mean to me, as usual, I finally made it out. Belen said it was like a blind date. She had no idea who or what to expect. I mean, I had seen pictures of her but I hadn’t seen her in the actual flesh for 8 years. I thought about how we use to stand together in our choir class in the most air conditioned class at Moanalua High School.
I exited out of the opposite side from where she was standing and for about 10 minutes I freaked out thinking what if she wasn’t here and I would just be alone in Chile for the next couple of weeks? Sure enough I saw her familiar face standing on a set of stairs with her eyes peeled, looking for me. We made eye contact and she worked herself through the crowd as I stood there feeling the time pass and return to a meeting point. We shouted in English while having our first embrace in eight years.
After seeing their beautiful home in Hospital and getting settled. Belen took me to Buin’s seasonal feria where her mom had a spot selling things for the holiday. One-I felt like a giant. Standing at 5′6” I towered over the Chileans. Two-there were no Asian people. And mostly, it was in the 80s and awesome.