Mi Vida Extranjero

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

My Final Post

Just an update on my reverse culture shock. After several weeks living at my new house, I am officially settled in and comfortable. Though the change took some time to get accustomed to, being reunited with my family and friends has been great. And even though I am missing my family and friends from Uruguay, I know that they will always be just a skype call away. We stay in touch often and my host sister left for the US yesterday. I hope to see her and the rest of my friends and family soon. Thank you to everyone who kept up with me throughout my journey. I greatly appreciate all of the kind words and encouragement.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Goodbye Uruguay

I'm posting my final blog post in Uruguay a little bit early so that I can enjoy my final week, but don't worry I'll write more when I return to the USA. My flight is in the evening of the 17th of July and I will be in Marietta the evening of the 18th.

In recent news, I spent the past weekend in Punta Del Este (one of the most beautiful beaches in the world) with my boyfriend, Sebastian. We stayed with his aunt and I got the chance to meet most of his family. We made it to most of the touristy areas of Punta del Este and celebrated his 18th birthday by going dancing all night. Overall, a very fun trip!

A week or two before my trip to Punta Del Este, I traveled to an AFS conference in Buenos Aires for about 3 days then spent about 4 days after with a family in Montevideo. I got to know two big capital cities in one trip! In the conference, I made more friends from all over the world. The bond between exchange students is always strong and I can honestly say that I feel like I have a home in just about every country.

My host parents left for Europe the same day that I left for Buenos Aires and will be returning the day before I leave Melo for another AFS conference in Buenos Aires. In the meantime I have been living with my grandma, Marion. I enjoy staying with her but I'm going to gain a lot of weight if I stay here much longer as she is a very good cook.

And now for my sappy "Goodbye Uruguay" paragraph. Recently I was talking to someone about my exchange and I think I summed up how I feel about my experience pretty well, "I'm not going to lie, I cried a lot my first week and I'm sure I'll cry a lot this week as it is my last but I wouldn't trade my experience here for the world." In reality, my experience here gave me the world. Not only did I learn a new language and a new culture, but I also learned a lot about myself. I learned to trust myself and my abilities because I can do anything if I put my mind to it. I learned to keep my head up and enjoy every moment, even the boring ones. The people I met here: my family, friends, classmates, other exchange students, teammates, and volunteers are truly unforgettable and have changed my life for the better. The easy-going carefree way of life here has taught me to slow down a little bit and enjoy doing nothing (those of you who know me realize that this is a lesson I needed to learn!). And most importantly, I learned that it's not the house that makes a home, it's the people. I've stayed with so many great families, each with a distinct lifestyle; but they all had one thing in common, they all made me feel like part of the family. I'm so thankful for everything that everyone has done for me and I hope that I have been able to make a difference in their lives too. I will miss you Uruguay but I know we will see each other again soon!

Punta Del Este!!!

Buenos Aires, representing half of the world

In the cafe/restaurant La Rural, we are frequent flyers here

Representing AFS in Montevideo

American breakfast with the family

This is how Uruguayans watch soccer

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Northern Argentina

As mentioned a few weeks ago, I spent the last week and a half traveling around Northern Argentina! I traveled by bus with about 65 other exchange students and various AFS volunteers. We saw incredible sights, took thousands of pictures, and spoke a lot of Spanish. Here are the highlights.

I left for the bus stop at about 2 am on Friday and caught my bus to Montevideo. In Montevideo, I took a taxi to the airport and took an hour flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. From Argentina, I got a connection to Resistencia, Argentina. Due to some issues with forms and organization, no one was in the airport when I arrived. Without wifi or cellphone service, the only option was to take a taxi to the bus terminal where AFS would meet later that night. Once there, I paid for internet to send a message to the AFS volunteers. 5 hours later, I was rescued. Everything went relatively smoothly after that, I stayed in the house of a volunteer and his family for the night.

The trip was divided into 2 parts, Las Cataratas and Salta-Jujuy. This was mainly for the students who only wanted to participate in part of the trip or had already been to one of the destinations. Between the two trips, we stopped in Resistencia to switch students.

On the trip to Las Cataratas, we went to the 4th largest waterfalls in the world. They span 8,800 feet with a drop of about 269 feet! I was absolutely amazed by the beautiful falls and took way too many pictures. After viewing the falls for about 2 hours, we boarded boats that took us almost under the falls. As you can probably imagine, we were soaked and cold after this experience but it was definitely worth the pain! We also visited the 3 frontiers on another boat trip. The 3 frontiers is where Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay meet. There was a live band and pizza aboard the boat.

In part 2 of the trip, we visited the cities of Salta and Jujuy. Salta is a large city in Northern Argentina, close to the Andes Mountains. We went hiking in the very colorful Andes and once again I took way too many photos. I also ate llama for the first time. On the trip to Jujuy, we stopped in a number of different small villages located in the Andes. I had never seen so much poverty in my life. I was stunned by the children selling necklaces in the streets without shoes or enough clothing, and the houses made out of a few sheets of metal. It was without a doubt an experience that I will never forget. On our last day of the trip, we went white water rafting. It was a real test of my Spanish trying to follow the guide's orders!

Once again we all returned to Resistencia, where I stayed with the same family for 2 more days before returning to Uruguay. The trip back went a lot more smoothly!

Sorry for how late and poorly written this post is! I wrote 3 different posts and lost 2. Due to this, I will only be posting a few of my favorite photos. The rest are in my album on Facebook.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Just an Update

After taking the easy way out and posting pictures as my last blog post, I am finally getting around to writing something decently substantial. This may be mostly due to the fact that I'm supposed to be packing. Which reminds me of my latest exciting news, I'm going to Argentina!!!!!

Starting tomorrow at 2 am, I will be traveling around Argentina with a group of other AFS students. The trip includes: a tour of Iguazu falls, a traditional folklore show in Salto and white water rafting. Stay tuned for more information and pictures upon my return.

So time to update everyone on my life a little bit. I recently joined an all girls football team located on the outskirts of Melo. Unfortunately, I am not authorized to play in games; however, I do enjoy practicing with the girls every Thursday night. Another recent addition to my activities list is Interact Club. It's a branch of the well-know International Rotary Club. We meet every Monday in a local school of English to discuss the week's activities. I then pick and choose which to attend as there tend to be lots of activities. As I discussed in an earlier blog, I was studying engineering in school here. The interesting thing about the education system in Uruguay is that everything you do and every class you take will have something to do with your future career. To me, it's an interesting idea; however, it eliminates the ability to seek knowledge purely for love of learning. When I began taking the necessary classes to become an engineer, I discovered that it was not for me. After 2 months of hardcore engineering, I switched to Medicine. I'll keep everyone posted but so far I love it!

To go back and correct a past question that I answered about the climate here. THE WINTER IS COLD. The winter is very cold. The only difference from Ohio is that it's a humid and wet cold. It rains just about everyday and in other news I recently bought a really cute purple umbrella.

I've had several questions about the politics here in Uruguay so I will share what I know. This year is a presidential election year so things tend to be a little crazy. There are always banners and rallies in the streets and political commercials are abundant. There are 3 political parties: the Colorado party, the National party and the Independent party. Of course there are other minor parties to but they generally don't have much success. Before anyone asks, no I do not know which one I am rooting for.

Another popular question is over my views of responsible drinking. I can't really decide whether I like the United States' view of responsible drinking or the view's of Uruguay better. In my opinion they both have their ups and downs. I don't really notice more or less problems here than in the USA, it's probably about the same. Much of the reason for the low rate of issues here is that it's common to drink with the parents at dinner and teenagers often run into their parents in the clubs. I know this doesn't give much of my opinion but my parents are going to read this so I'm going to leave it at that!

The next question on the list is, "Do you have a curfew?". No. I do not have a curfew but I do have to advise my host family when I will be home. To give you an idea, I usually leave around 2 or 3 am and return at 7 or 8 in the morning.

The next few questions I'm going to answer together as they are similar in content. The first is, "What is the best alcoholic drink in Uruguay?". I don't really know as all they seem to drink is beer. Next question, "What is the worst alcoholic drink in Uruguay?". For me, some beer is better than others but for real that's about it as far as alcoholic drinks go. And the last alcohol question is, "In your opinion, how many drinks does it take to surpass the level of responsible drinking?". I'm going to go with a serious answer and say that it's really different for everyone. Everyone here seems to have really high tolerance for alcohol as they start drinking at a young age.

As far as the Spanish language goes, I'm now decently proficient. I can understand just about everything and I can speak enough to survive. Language immersion has really changed my point of view on what it means to be fluent. For me, I will not be fluent after this trip. I will be fluent when I can speak Spanish almost equally as well as my native language. Now a few tips for anyone planning on participating in a language immersion program.

Learn the basic grammar rules. There are some things that cannot be understood without an explanation in your native language.
Vocabulary. You need it. More specifically focus on adjectives and everyday nouns and verbs. Already knowing the basics will allow you to pick up the more difficult and obscure words faster.
Have no fear. Absolutely 0. You will mess up and people will laugh but it's all okay because you speak 2 languages and they don't.
Talk as much as you possible can. Of course taking this tip to the level of annoying everyone is something I would personally avoid.
Listen to music in your host language. Even if you don't understand a single word, it really is helping you get a feel for the flow of your host language.

That's about it for my tips. Of course these can be applied to anyone trying to learn a language in general, not just immersion program students.

Yesterday marked my third month here in Uruguay! I'm so thankful for the opportunity I have to learn a new way of life. Thank you to all for reading these blogs and keeping up with my experiences. :)

Volunteering at the children's home with Interact was an eye-opening experience.