Once In A Lifetime

Hola!

What a whirlwind the past couple of weeks have been. As I mentioned in my last post, my sisters were here visiting for the past couple of weeks and it was such a sweet and special experience that left me with a very full heart. There is so much I could say about the days they spent here, but instead I’m going to summarize it with some of my favorite parts:

1. Horseback riding in the Andes mountains was literally the most stunning and beautiful and insane experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. We grew up riding horses, so being back around horses with my sisters was such a healing moment for me.

2. Learning to make empanadas from a world famous abuelita truly made all of my native Argentinian dreams come true and I can’t wait to make them forever at home and always keep it as a special part of me to remember my life here in Mendoza. 

We had the opportunity to take a cooking class from María del Carmen at Casa del Visitante, who has been awarded for making the best Argentinian empanadas. Needless to say, it was such a cool experience!

3. Flying over the Andes for a quick day trip to Santiago, Chile was honestly a fever dream but so much fun to experience such a unique, beautiful, and historical place for the first time with my family. 

We got to spend the entire day traveling around the city, visiting places like the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, National Museum of Natural History, and the National History Museum. It was so much fun to experience a new place and its culture!

4. Getting an exclusive private tour of a winery that I will forever remember when I drink Monte Quieto wines and how we got to try them straight from the barrel and learn about their entire production process from the winemaker himself.

It truly is so hard to put into words how it felt to have my sisters here, but it truly was healing to my heart. It’s scary to move halfway across the world from your family and people that you love, but I am so thankful for them supporting me and traveling here to step into my world for a few days. I won’t lie, it was hard to watch them leave again, but I know that having them here was exactly what I needed to be able to cherish my last few months here. 

Having them here also made me realize something that I’ve been thinking from the beginning. I can’t even count the amount of time this week that I caught myself saying “this is a once in a lifetime experience”. It made me realize that everything about being here is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is possibly the only year in my life where I will have the opportunity to do the things that I’m doing here. It’s probably the only time I will ever be able to ride horses, take an empanada making class from an award winning chef, take a day trip to Chile, and take part in the entire wine making process at a famous winery. And that doesn’t even skim the surface of all of the incredible “once in a lifetime” opportunities I’ve had up until now. What an incredible experience! 

With love, Sarah