Well… hello loyal friends and family members (who unfortunately have to be)! I know, it has been far, far too long since I’ve told you what has happened to me. I left you with the introduction to a thrilling new story about trying to find chocolate chips in Chile – and you might have thought I was still searching (it was quite an obscure find).

But to alleviate you all, I am safe and sweating back in Knoxville already! I arrived home just about a week ago and still am living partly out of my suitcase! It’s been a strange transition – I’ve unconsciously jumped back into lots of routines and habits from my “former” life because they are strangely familiar and come so easily – like speaking English, driving a car, or being the good, little, wasteful, American consumer I was socialized to be. I’ve starting feeling like maybe I didn’t even go away at all…

However, now in my second week home I’m trying to stop this cycle of just picking up my life where I left it back in February. “No,” I say to myself, “I lived another life for 5 months and I did change and mature and learn things that I wanted to bring back with me…”

But something that many of you don’t know is that in my last two weeks in South America I learned more than perhaps I did in my entire trip. I set off on just a short trip before I headed home and found myself at the mercy of God, man, and nature. These are the stories I want to tell all of you so that you can understand why I can’t just slip back into my old skin. No lessons should ever be lost and stories should always be shared! So browse through the last few postings where I will attempt to tell you my tales!