Before I begin - Happy Mother's Day to all Mother's out there, and all Father's who are single Father's, or Grandmother's who are raising their grandchildren. In other words, to anyone who is raising a child and shaping who they are to become, I applaud your devotion and wish you nothing but happiness this Mother's Day!
Now to our previously scheduled post :
I had been in Chile for only about 10 days or so when my mom and I took the kids to the grocery store to stock the freezer and fridge. Any time you move more than a couple of hundred miles, you end up having to start basically from scratch with things that need to be refrigerated or frozen. When you move 6000 miles, you have to even begin again with pantry items. Needless to say, the first shopping trip is usually a two cart ordeal and can be quite time consuming, not to mention expensive. So, it was not a trip I was particularly looking forward too. But it turned out to be an opportune trip, since I ran into what could potentially be a new friend.
As my mom and I were standing in the refrigerated section trying to find all beef hot dogs (still haven't found them), we hear a voice behind us say "Boy is it nice to hear English being spoken". I turned around and saw a woman of about my age, with a boy about MadHatter's age, and decided instantly that she was right - it was nice to hear English spoken. We talked for a bit and after bumping into each other a couple more times on our expedition around the store, decided to exchange numbers. I didn't think much else about it for a week or two, as we were so busy with family being here and settling in to the house. Then last Monday, while I was shopping, my phone rang. It was K. and I didn't realize how glad I was that she had not forgotten me until I heard her voice. After a few missed play dates we finally got together yesterday for a bar-b-que at their house. And I am so glad we did. Our kids played together fabulously, and so did our husbands. I see more playdates in our future and for once I am thankful that my English is better than my Spanish. Because I was just hitting the point of getting lonely.
Being lonely is always one of the harder parts of moving. It usually sets in about 4-6 weeks after you settle in. The newness of your new home, the excitement about being somewhere new has faded and the boxes are all mostly unpacked. You still have a few errands to run but you are dragging them out because you know that when you are done with them, there is nothing else to keep you occupied, and few excuses to force yourself to go out of the house. It is easier with kids as they force you to do things but it is still not easy. You now have time to realize that you don't have any friends, that your kids don't have any playmates and if your husband travels like mine, you don't even have anyone to talk to. When you are in a country where 99% of the population doesn't speak a word of English (and I mean not even hello), it multiplies that loneliness by 10. When I moved before I at least could go shopping and talk to the checkout cashier and count that as a conversation I had that day...Here, I can't even talk to my own Nani enough in a day to count it as a conversation. For those that know me, you know I must be ready to explode...So when you hear English being spoken, and someone friendly enough to have a conversation with you, you speak back and you make play dates and hope that you have enough in common other than both speaking English to keep a friendship going. Otherwise, that lonliness can overwhelm you. I am happy to say, I have averted lonely for the little while I have been here and a large part of that is I have a great network of people to count on. I have playdates scheduled and nights out planned and I think I may just try to skip lonely while we are here in Chile!
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