Dont waste your time abroad. One lesson that I've come to learn relatively quickly. Each day has a cost and if you want to get the most of your experience, your really have to let go of your home and fully immerse yourself in your new life... otherwise... its really not worth it. Why do anything if your only going to do it half-assed. And I must say, Im proud of myself for letting go so easily. Maybe its because I left, tired of Boulder, and ready for a change. I left knowing unknowing what I was walking into. Rotary in the United States makes your exchange sound so planned, so neat, and so gaurded, and really, its anything but. Obviously you have to be careful and maybe even pretend that your going to follow the four D's and one S but really that all goes to shit once you step off the plane. Just keep in mind that your wherever you land to represent your country so make sure you do that well...as well as yourself. Dont hold back, dont ever say no (within reason obviously) and never put your foot down on things you've never tried. Trust me, at the beginning a year sounds like a long time, but really, it flies by. Ive been here two months already and it feels like I just stepped of the plane in Bahia Blanca.
I feel like I have wasted time, but really, there hasn't been a lot of opportunites that I haven't taken. More like I just need to apply myself and not wait for things to come to be, but for me to go to them. Thats another good peice of advice for future exchangers...look for adventure, dont wait for it to find you.
My day:
My day normally starts off the same, with my cell phone alarm going off at 6 am followed by 4 or 5 presses of the snooze button, the first hour of my days in Argentina identical to those in Boulder. At 650 I normally drag myself out of bed and stand up, in the middle of room, disoriented and wondering...so what if I skip school today... 30 % of the time, I decide...to hell with school, I dont learn there anyways, the other 70%- I really want to see my friends so I go. I then move to slowly to get dressed, brush my teeth, and leave, late, at 710 or 715 to get to class at 730, which I never end up doing. I go to class, school finishes at 1. After class I normally go to a friends house to eat or lounge around and tan and swim in their pools, or go home to eat. Mondays and Wednesdays we have gym at 330 and Tuesdays and Thursdays we have Italian, which is probably the most pointless class I have ever been in, seeing as I'm still woring on Spanish, encima they put me with my classmates...in Italian level 2. Luckly I dont actually get graded...
Since school gets out tomorrow (Friday the 5th of December) the water wars have started. My school is a biulding that actually is two different schools. After class the last few days there are huge water fights between the two, water baloons, buckets, hoses, the whole nine yards.
Today my host moms friend, Carlos Tetamanti came from the town he lives in to spend the weekend with us. What a person. I met him today and I must say he is one funny man. As well my host sister from Buenos Aires is here for 10 days or so, so its good to have a full house. I like the peaceful quiet of two women, my host mom and myself, but all together we have a lot of fun.
Tomorrow, as I have said before, school gets out, so it should be a good weekend. Lots of celebration. Im a little worried about summer. And being lonely but Im sure it will all work out just fine. I have a lot of un solid summer plans that I really hope will come true, the majority involving some type of laid back exploration of Argentina, a tent, and a bathing suit.
Chau
jueves, 4 de diciembre de 2008
miércoles, 3 de diciembre de 2008
Vain Fears
I wont write a disclaimer for this fear, because to me it is important.
Typically foreign exchange students gain weight their year abroad, but Zoe and I, and most of the other outbound girls, said that "hell nooooo". But here I am, eight pounds bigger than when I left the states and gaining if I dont suck it up and start watching what Im eating again. Obviously, one of the most important parts of an exchange year is trying everything and anything, and sometimes I think "fuck it, Ill get fat and be proud" but once you realize that your clothes aren't fitting like they used to, you get sad. And I dont like to be sad. It may sound superficial but gaining weight leads to seclosure and isolation because no one wants to be seen as "big", which also is bad during exchange. Your in a foriegn country to bloom as a person and come out of your shell but there is no way you can do that if your insecure about your appearance.
I say Im going to go on a diet, and trust me, I can do it if I want to. Losing weight isn't that hard. Its not a big mystery. Less caloies + more calories burned = weight loss. Really quite simple when you put it like that. And I've done it before. Its just finding that balance when your on exchange, between trying new foods...and eating everything you find mildly appetizing.
Its mostly just force of the mind, which I haven't been using for more than 2 months and I know starting to say "no" to myself once again will be difficult, especially because I dont want to say no to everything since I'm in Argentina and want to try the food.
Oh this is complicated for me. Damn Argentina for having such spectacular food. Once you try dulce de luche...you never go back.
Typically foreign exchange students gain weight their year abroad, but Zoe and I, and most of the other outbound girls, said that "hell nooooo". But here I am, eight pounds bigger than when I left the states and gaining if I dont suck it up and start watching what Im eating again. Obviously, one of the most important parts of an exchange year is trying everything and anything, and sometimes I think "fuck it, Ill get fat and be proud" but once you realize that your clothes aren't fitting like they used to, you get sad. And I dont like to be sad. It may sound superficial but gaining weight leads to seclosure and isolation because no one wants to be seen as "big", which also is bad during exchange. Your in a foriegn country to bloom as a person and come out of your shell but there is no way you can do that if your insecure about your appearance.
I say Im going to go on a diet, and trust me, I can do it if I want to. Losing weight isn't that hard. Its not a big mystery. Less caloies + more calories burned = weight loss. Really quite simple when you put it like that. And I've done it before. Its just finding that balance when your on exchange, between trying new foods...and eating everything you find mildly appetizing.
Its mostly just force of the mind, which I haven't been using for more than 2 months and I know starting to say "no" to myself once again will be difficult, especially because I dont want to say no to everything since I'm in Argentina and want to try the food.
Oh this is complicated for me. Damn Argentina for having such spectacular food. Once you try dulce de luche...you never go back.
lunes, 1 de diciembre de 2008
Campo
This past weekend we went to my host moms farm, San Pedro, which is about 1 1/2 hours away from Bahia Blanca. We left Saturday morning with Graciela, Carli, Juanma (Carli's friend), and me. We arrived at San Pedro, and honestly its beautiful! When we got there we ate some lunch, and I took a little stroll around to check things out. The people that work on the farm are super nice too. Gustavo does everything, his dad Roberto helps out to, and Gustavo has a wife and three kids, Enzo, Thomas, and Clarita. That evening we cooked an asado, and played soccer with the kids for a little while, and I hunted for the first time in my life. I thought I would hate hunting but actually it was really fun. Carli taught me how to use the gun and pointed out a bird I was supposed to shoot that was sitting on a telephone line. I aimed and shot, and guess what, I hit the bird in the head, exactly where your supposed to. No one coulf believe it. It was a proud moment. At around 12 we went fishing with Roberto which was really relaxing and me and him caught a fish together. We got back to the farm around 2 but instead of going to bed we decided to hunt. We drove around the farm for hours chasing random animals and shooting, it sounds pretty premitive, but who cares, it was so fun. At around 5 we went back to the farm house and ate some food, had a tea drinking session, and the boys went back to where we went fishing to pick up the traps they had set hours before for foxes. I took a shower, ate some breakfast, they boys got back and at around 7 we went to the coral for a big job that needed to be done that day. The job was to cut out the balls of all the baby boy cows, which, as you can assume, is kind of difficult. I mean think about getting your balls chopped off. We did that all morning with Graciela, Hugo, Gustavo, and Roberto. At two we ate lunch after a days work and took a well earned nap. When we woke up we went outside to play some soccer and hang around. At around 930 Sunday night we left. Another good weekend at a beatuiful farm.
I love Argentina more and more everyday.
Villa Ventana
Two weekends ago me and my friend Juli went to spend the weekend at her grandparents house in a small town about an hour and half away from Bahia, called Villa Ventana. We were supposed to go with our other girl friends, Clara, Maria, and Ana Belen but they ended up not being able to come, for some reason or another.
Thursday night was la fiesta de los terceros which was kind of like prom Argentina style. Its hosted by the 2nd year kids for the 3rd year to celebrate their finishing of secondary school. The fiesta went from 12-5 or 6 in the morning and after that everyone walks to school on Friday morning, or skip school. I went to school, and spend most of the day sleeping during our off periods and breaks, but afterwards, me and Juli took a combi (small bus thing) to Villa. On the Combi there was another american (what are the odds) and we arrived in Villa around 4 in the afternoon. We made ourself confertable in her grandparents house. The house is called Casita del Bosque because the whole patio is roofed with vines and in the backyard there is treehouse de la puta madre. Anyways, we spent the afternoon hanging out, talking, walking around Villa (its absolutyly beautiful, all there is NATURE...something I missed sooo much). We went into the tiny town to buy some empanadas for dinner and a couple of beers are well. We ended up falling asleep around 10 that night due to the lack of sleep of the night before. The next morning we woke up at around 10 and hung around, ate lunch at 11 or 12 and then went on our way to go for a hike. I guess in Argentina trails dont really exist because me and Juli picked a mountian area that we wanted to climb and headed on our way. This area of Argentina is in a droubt so there isn't a lot of water but heading towards the mountians, Juli and I stumbled upon this pond that we had to cross to get to the mountains. We ended up swimming around for a good 30 mintues before putting our clothes back on and continuing on with our hike. We spent the afternoon scrambling around the mountians, laughing and singing, with our bottle of water and the camera. Around 3 or 4 we decided to turn back and head down, but we ended making a right mess of getting home. We had to wade through huge amounts of grass, jump fences, get yelled at by a gaucho (farmer) and finally hop onto the highway to tell where we were. We went to buy some ice cream after the hike, and some beer, and what not. We went back home, made outselves a pizza, ate, talked, laughed, made ourselves another pizza, and ended up going to bed around 1. On sunday Juli woke up at 10 telling me that her friend had hitchhiked from Sierra (another town about 20 mintues away) and that she was going to go meet them so they could eat with us. I stayed asleep until about 12. When I woke up we all cooked lunch together, I cant remember the two boys names. But they were really cool and a lot of fun and spent the afternoon with us, playing the guitar and talking. At 6 we had to go back to Bahia and honestly no one wanted to go home. But overall I very good mini-holiday. Te quiero juli.
Fiestas
Going out here is different too. Better, in my opinion. Drinking isn't badly viewed, just like Europe. Its nice to not have to sneak around with anything. My host mom doesn't have any problems if I go out, she mostly tells me to always have my phone, my key, not to drink too much, and to always be carefel. Which is advice I take to heart. When you go to Boliches you normally get together with your friends to eat and drink before and leave your house around 2 or 3 in the morning, dance the early morning away and leave around 7. I wont lie, I like to spend time alone, but I also like to go out. So me and Argentina are a good match!
Here are some random pictures from some nights out!
Juli y yo
Juli, So, Ana Belen, yo
Peke, Maria, Ana Belen
Here are some random pictures from some nights out!
Juli y yo
Juli, So, Ana Belen, yo
Peke, Maria, Ana Belen
Things
Honestly I love Argentina. So much. There arn't enough words to describe how grateful I am do be here right now. I really needed to get out of Boulder. Not to say that I dont love my home and that I dont miss my family and friends, but to be honest, I haven't been this happy in a while. Being an exchange student is so easy and so difficult at the same time. For one, school is a breeze and making friends wasn't that hard either, and neither was intergrating into a new family. Obviously those subjects have their difficulites at times but the hardest things aren't the most obvious. Spanish for one is confusing. I did speak conversational Spanish before I got here but I spoke a lot worse than I thought I did. But in the past two months my spanish has gotten so much better. Its frustrating though, not being able to express yourself in the way you want to, and not being able to partcipate in conversations or arguements because you know you wont be able to prove your point in a way that people will understand. And people thinking that your not doing anything with your time because you dont do the same school work as they do. I get bored of not studing, everyone does, so I study on my own time things that interest me, like history, politics, and world affairs. Coming here and getting questions about the economic crisis and the election and realizing how little I knew about the conditions in my own country, made me feel very ignorant, a feeling I dont like at all, and made me want to research things on my own. Reading the news, a simple thing, can make you feel so smart. Who knew?
The mentality here is different too. And in my opinion, a lot better. I dont consider myself that materalistic of a person, my happiness doesn't depend on things. I like certain luxeries, like everyone, but I dont care what kind of car someone has vs. someone else. And for my friends here, thats not how americans "are". There are a lot of sterotypes that you have to break, a lot of them are true, and it confuses people sometimes how I am. Why I think so freely, because thats not what people have heard about the United States. I am the way I am because of the way my family has raised me, to not base happiness on items, and Im so thankful for that. People in Boulder are really in a bubble and for the average teenager, dont care whats going on in the rest of the world, or dont have enough patience to go do some research. Thats one lesson I've learned here, and not one that I can put into words so well. That you really dont need things to be happy. Not one bit.
And my friends- I feel like I have friends now. And I never thought it would feel so good, or so rewarding. And to me its amaizng. How they welcomed me, from the common sterotype of the US, which isn't so good. They took a risk with me and Im so thankful. Its feels likebeing an exchange student is finally kicking in and I'm learning so much about myself. Patience too. With myself. Staying calm in situations and not getting frustrated and hitting a wall when I get angry. And the patience people have with me is unbeilviable. Being an exange student isn't all fun and games. It gets hard. Another thing that is extrmely difficult, is showing people you. Without words you feel like your drowning sometimes.
The mentality here is different too. And in my opinion, a lot better. I dont consider myself that materalistic of a person, my happiness doesn't depend on things. I like certain luxeries, like everyone, but I dont care what kind of car someone has vs. someone else. And for my friends here, thats not how americans "are". There are a lot of sterotypes that you have to break, a lot of them are true, and it confuses people sometimes how I am. Why I think so freely, because thats not what people have heard about the United States. I am the way I am because of the way my family has raised me, to not base happiness on items, and Im so thankful for that. People in Boulder are really in a bubble and for the average teenager, dont care whats going on in the rest of the world, or dont have enough patience to go do some research. Thats one lesson I've learned here, and not one that I can put into words so well. That you really dont need things to be happy. Not one bit.
And my friends- I feel like I have friends now. And I never thought it would feel so good, or so rewarding. And to me its amaizng. How they welcomed me, from the common sterotype of the US, which isn't so good. They took a risk with me and Im so thankful. Its feels likebeing an exchange student is finally kicking in and I'm learning so much about myself. Patience too. With myself. Staying calm in situations and not getting frustrated and hitting a wall when I get angry. And the patience people have with me is unbeilviable. Being an exange student isn't all fun and games. It gets hard. Another thing that is extrmely difficult, is showing people you. Without words you feel like your drowning sometimes.
Leaving the States
As most of you know who are actually reading this...it took me longer than expected to leave the states. I was supposed to leave August 15, 2008 but left on September 21,2008, due to some on-going visa trouble. I arrived in Bahia Blanca, Argentina September 22,2008 and jumped right into my new life.
Family: Here I live full time with my host mom, Graciela, in a really nice neighborhood, Palihue. Her ex-husband, Carlos, also lives in Bahia and we spend time together too because even though they are seperated they continue to get along really well. They have 3 kids, Carlos (aka Carli), Margarita (aka Magui), and Ignacio (aka Nacho). Nacho is on exchange this year in the States so I haven't met him. I think that he comes back before I leave so if were lucky we'll cross paths for a couple weeks or so. Magui lives in Buenos Aires and studies medicine but since I've been in Bahia shes visited twice. Shes really great. Carli lives with his dad but spends a lot of time over at my house so hes a real host brother. We get along really well, thank god.
School: I started school basically as soon as I got here. And its completly different. My school is called Escuela Normal and its an entity of the university in Bahia Blanca- Universidad Nacional del Sur- I think its called, where Carlos studies. Anyway, in Argentina secondary school, the equivilent of high school, has 3 years instead of 4 and right now Im in 2, but since summer holidays start on Friday and ends in march, I'll be in 3 next year. School here is really different the way its set up. Credits dont exist for one. We haev courses. My school offers 2 different courses, Humanities and Art, which are pretty similar. I take art and spend the entire day with the same people, the teachers move, not you. I really like it, becuase honestly I dont have to do anything other than show up...once in a while. My host mom is fine with me skipping school becuase I dont really learn anything other than Spanish, which is hard enough.
Random things about school:
- Earlier this year there were a lot of teacher sktrikes... sometimes the students have weeks off at a time.
- Substitues done exist. You can go home if a teacher decides to take a day off.
- Summer Vacation starts December 5 and ends sometime in March. woohoo.
Friends:
Most of my friends are in my course but of course I've met a lot of people that are their friends that dont go to school with me. I also started dancing Murga with my friends from school which is a dance from Argentina and some other latin american countries. Its was a really good idea becaus
e its a really good group of people and are all really execpting. People in general here are really great. Really welcoming.
This is just some backround inforamation. So much has happened and Im going to go through my journal to remember my favorite things so I can post about then.
Family: Here I live full time with my host mom, Graciela, in a really nice neighborhood, Palihue. Her ex-husband, Carlos, also lives in Bahia and we spend time together too because even though they are seperated they continue to get along really well. They have 3 kids, Carlos (aka Carli), Margarita (aka Magui), and Ignacio (aka Nacho). Nacho is on exchange this year in the States so I haven't met him. I think that he comes back before I leave so if were lucky we'll cross paths for a couple weeks or so. Magui lives in Buenos Aires and studies medicine but since I've been in Bahia shes visited twice. Shes really great. Carli lives with his dad but spends a lot of time over at my house so hes a real host brother. We get along really well, thank god.
School: I started school basically as soon as I got here. And its completly different. My school is called Escuela Normal and its an entity of the university in Bahia Blanca- Universidad Nacional del Sur- I think its called, where Carlos studies. Anyway, in Argentina secondary school, the equivilent of high school, has 3 years instead of 4 and right now Im in 2, but since summer holidays start on Friday and ends in march, I'll be in 3 next year. School here is really different the way its set up. Credits dont exist for one. We haev courses. My school offers 2 different courses, Humanities and Art, which are pretty similar. I take art and spend the entire day with the same people, the teachers move, not you. I really like it, becuase honestly I dont have to do anything other than show up...once in a while. My host mom is fine with me skipping school becuase I dont really learn anything other than Spanish, which is hard enough.
Random things about school:
- Earlier this year there were a lot of teacher sktrikes... sometimes the students have weeks off at a time.
- Substitues done exist. You can go home if a teacher decides to take a day off.
- Summer Vacation starts December 5 and ends sometime in March. woohoo.
Friends:
Most of my friends are in my course but of course I've met a lot of people that are their friends that dont go to school with me. I also started dancing Murga with my friends from school which is a dance from Argentina and some other latin american countries. Its was a really good idea becaus
e its a really good group of people and are all really execpting. People in general here are really great. Really welcoming.
This is just some backround inforamation. So much has happened and Im going to go through my journal to remember my favorite things so I can post about then.
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