It’s just a piece of rectangular paper, admittedly colourful. I’ve had it in my possession for more than seven years now.
In February of 2005 my now-husband-then-boyfriend went to study abroad in Argentina for over five months. He left after my birthday but before Valentine’s Day. A week later, our country was buried in more snow than the Netherlands had seen in quite some time.
In July I got on a plane alone for the first time to meet him in Buenos Aires. First I had to travel to Madrid and then transfer to a flight to Buenos Aires. I wasn’t really looking forward to flying since I’m not a big fan of confined spaces, but I had a terrific flight.
We stayed in Buenos Aires with his host family for about five days before taking off on our road trip across South America. In a Unicenter in Buenos Aires, I bought Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that had just come out on the 16th of July. I received a bookmark with the book that is also a sopa de letras (a word search puzzle).
I have kept the bookmark, laminated it, punched a hole through a corner and hung a lucky charm from that hole. I’m hoping to keep this bookmark forever, because it always reminds me of the amazing two-month adventure we had in Argentina, Chile and Peru.
;
;
;