It's hard to imagine..

...that almost three months ago I was sitting on a deserted beach in northern Chile, next to a stranger who became a friend. It's hard to imagine that in the same way I walk around a southern University town, I was flagging taxi's, subways, and packed buses to go as close or as far as I wanted. It's hard to imagine that an hour and a half drive to go camping seems like a while here when just three months ago, deciding to take a 20+ hour bus ride to an unknown part of an unknown country with an unfamiliar language was commonplace. It's hard for me to imagine that for 4 complete months I lived my life in this manner while everyone lived theirs here, that while they were watching UK basketball I was holding my ears against the roar of South American soccer fans as they advanced in the world cup. That instead of walking across North Campus, I was walking past museums, zoos, and bus stations that could take me wherever I wanted for just a few dollars. That instead of looking out at a student apartment complex, I was standing on a balcony in Palermo within shouting distance of my favorite empenada shop and the laundry ladies. It's hard to imagine that instead of walking past sorority girls and fraternity boys, I was bumping into travelling street magicians, cocky portenos, gauchos, and Armenian women who would think nothing of offering me coffee on a rooftop in the early hours of the morning. That having and drinking a bottle of wine was not proof of fake ID or how messed up you could get, but a conversation starter and a source of pride. It's hard to imagine how much - and how little - has changed, but most of all how I would be different if this unimaginable trip had never happened.