Its not "good-bye", its "see you later"

Its official. Tiana, my partner in crime (literally, one time...) is heading home to Canada.

She has pretty much been sick since we stepped off the plane at the end of August. First she had a gastrin intestinal infection, then she had parasites, then she had a lung infection. She would have good days and she would have bad days, but her doctor told her that because her immune system has become considerably weak over the past 2 months of being sick, if she goes back to work, where babies are always coughing etc, she will catch the first thing that crosses her path. And also, from what I see, she´s been homesick since we got here as well, and so both physically and psychologically, she´s gotten to the point where its just not worth it for her to stay and try to tough it out.

So this Thursday, she´s flying back up to the northern hemisphere. But the good news is that our internship coordinater in Halifax has worked it out so that it can be a "temporary leave of absence". Meaning, that if and when she gets better, she will be able to return to Cochabamba, although this depends on what Tiana´s doctor says when she gets home - whether it´ll be just be a few weeks, or if it´ll be longer than that before she will be physically ready to come back.

For me, its hard to see her go. Not just because we´ve spent the last 2 months glued at the hip, but we´ve also become really close friends. We aren´t friends because we need to be, or are forced to be.... we´d probably be great friends even if we had met under different circumstances. And what´s really cool is that sharing this amazing experience together has brought us closer than what would´ve probably been possible under more "normal" conditions.

I know i will miss her greatly after she leaves, and i can only hope that she will return! We´ve had some really good times together, and it would be such a pity if it ended here. Last night, we just sat around and played cards for 2 hours, laughing as if we were drunk. Its not everyday you find a friend you can do that with!

Oh, and what i mean by my "partner in crime", the other day, we went to eat dinner at this Japanese/Korean restraunt here in the city. For the last few weeks, I had been complaining about how much i missed using chopsticks, and that when we go to this restaurant, I´ll take some home (thinking that they would be wooden disposable ones). When we got there, it was a really fancy restaraunt, with marroon coloured wooden chopsticks. When i wasn´t looking, Tiana took her pair (because she wasn´t going to use it) and put it in my bag. A little later, fully knowing that it was in there, i walked out of the restaurant. Not sure if I was HER accomplice, or if she was MY accomplice, but yes.....we shoplifted. (I think it would fall under that category right?)

Man, i sure hope the restaurnt owner doesn´t see this and come hunt me down!!! If they do, i´ll just say Tiana did it!

Anyhow, so that´s what´s been going on here lately. Me, I´m still in great condition, although my nicely toned muscles (lol) have been disintegrating into nothing more than robust flesh.