Sensations

My first few days in chile is difficult to explain in words, but I will say that this is a place of sensations. Touch being the most major one. Every time you see someone, no matter if you have known them your entire life or as a passing acquaintance of your friend’s friends you hug and kiss them on the cheek. A concept at first seems off to a teenage girl that has resided in the open yet simultaneously close minded world of the USA, where touch is a bond formed after an extended period of time. But as the hours and days passed, I began to yearn for this touch. This reestablishment of physical communication. Not a vague hello, or a hand shaken from multiple feet away, but close enough to feel the heat of someone else's body and the exhale of their breaths as the word “Hola” falls from their lips. It sounds romantic and in some ways it is, but as aforementioned, chile is a place of sensations and a place of kindness. 
On the second day I was in school, I found myself at a park slacklining with a new friend, but of course, he spoke no English and my spanish was horrible, so I wandered off to explore the park. It was like being a little kid again, I swung on a swing and climbed a tree, but struck me while I was laying in bed that night was that, I loved the sensations. The wind in my hair as my body surged toward the sky on the swing and the rough bark beneath my fingers while I grappled in the tree. In the states, I take all theses small things for granted, but here I try to treasure every single one of them, because I have a time limit. I have a limit on how many chilean breaths I take, a limit on school days, a limit on how many new friends I can make. And that is what scares me the most. The fact that I must leave because even now I know how hard it will be.