So, in my dream last night, all of my friends from Global College were on spring break (which fell along the same timelines as the Ecuador trip), in Portland. Most of them were staying at my house - which was my mom's house, but what it used to look like when my grandma lived there. It was great, but eventually it was time for them all to go back to Costa Rica.

They were all piling into buses outside while I stood there sulkily watching, hefting their luggage and talking about being back in Heredia and what they'll do when they get there. All the end of term schoolwork to be done. Finally I had enough.

"I'm going with you," I announced. "Wait for me." I ran back inside and threw some clothes and important items into a suitcase and hurried back out. The main bus had already left for the airport, but Ileana was still there.

"Quick! You have to book your flight before we bother going to the airport, silly!" She said, so I called the airport to book it. I realized I didn't have any money, but then also that I didn't care. "I'm gonna use my credit card, mom," I murmured. "I'm gonna max it out for this. I'll deal with the consequences later."

We got to the airport and Ile left me outside when my alarm went off, waking me up. When I drifted back off, I was still at the airport but I had a layover. The lady I had called told me, "I'm sorry, the only flight I have has a forty minute plus two twenty minute segments of layover."

"...what?" I asked, puzzled. "Do you mean I have about an hour and a half, or...?"

"Yes, that," she agreed. I told her it was fine, that I had once had a nineteen hour layover so this was nothing. In the meantime, I wandered toward the main building which was set up like a theater in search of noms. I ended up in a room full of kids just slightly younger than me, and their group leader.

"What are you guys for? A school group?" I asked them.

"We're a group!" A curly-haired girl told me, all smiles.

I stared at her. "Well yeah. But are you in school, or what?"

Their leader, the curly-haired girl's mom, chimed in and told me what they were there for, which I don't remember. Something about cosmetology, I think. The dream got a bit boring, and then my alarm went off again and I woke up.

And now I really. Really. Want to be in Latin America. I miss my arroz y frijoles, I miss Puerto Viejo and cuba libre dos por uno, I miss our antics in the Mas por Menos, Panama City, street dogs of Granada, poor kids of La Carpio, the Busetas Heredianas, Jimmy's bar, La Esperanza, CIPAC, our little San Pedro Japanese restaurant... I miss speaking a foreign language every day and improving on it... I...

Want to go back...

But now it's reality, and time to go to work.