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 because 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.