So Since we got back from the south trip it´s been kind of difficult. Right after I got home and the re-culture shock began I became the most homesick I´ve ever been in Argentina and rereading everyone´s notes and letters didn´t exactly help. But nevertheless that is what happened. Everything has been so irregular since returning. School was fine but we were all looking forward to summer really intently. Classes ended on the 25 of November and right now I´m technically on summer break save the traditions of being a Senior. I feel very welcomed by my class and we actually did do a lot of fun things in retrospect. I was blessed with a class that had a bunch of field trips. I think I went on a total of about six. We went to a book fair, had a play day, a day to learn about indigenous cultures and traditions, a walk to the park, and the last day of school we went to a campground in the mountains where we had a barbeque and swam in the river all day. Now that it´s the end my class is seizing the day. On the last day actually at the school the whole grade was in tears, everyone was so sad to end this chapter of their life. They were all saying well since I´m going to university in this city all of you better visit me, or I´ll miss you. This was the exact oppositte of my last day of high school in the US. My last day I was jumping for joy, I went around waving the Argentine flag and I was told I was "the happiest graduate". I was. So to come to a world where everyone is so sad to leave eachother to start life in the real world is a little strange. But I do love my class´spirit, we always had fun and they really loved seizing everything especially when it was a competition with the school. We also had a sort of showcase for the school the second to last week of school where it was a parents night and every department showed off students projects. The school was transformed into the theme Technoscience with cds everywhere and even a robot near the courtyard stage. My class did an amazing dance where all memebers did something, but I was not in it because I haven´t really been there enough regularly to plan it out with them. However my input for the showcase was doing a presentation for the English Department. I did it with a rotex who just came back from Holland and a freshman at my school who actually lived in Berlin for three years. It went really well and I really enjoyed seeing and sharing all of our experiences. it was really interesting to hear about their experiences and great to share them because here everyone is so focused on Argentina. Now we´re preparing for graduation, and the traditional senior dinner which is a formal event. I will recieve an honorary diploma, and then I´ll be done until February when classes start up again but I will go to a school closer to my third family.
We were supposed to change families the first week of December but since my second family is going to Disney world in Florida and Cancun Mexico for ten days, (im missing yet another oppurtunity to go to disney world!) I will stay in my current family until they return. Last week I was worried about the subject because as far as I knew I was changing families December first or second and arriving to an empty home. So I went to talk to my counselor about it. I hadn't really been to his house before but I had met his wife and oldest daughter. He's really a cool guy and I had a nice time just hanging out in his house with his family. His youngest daughter is adorable. And he has a radio station so we talked about all kinds of music and movies. So now I think I'm going to do more things with my counselor. Especially this summer when I'll probably have some very bored moments. I'm really glad that I chose to come here. Especially here because in other places like western Europe I don't think I would've seen the same things. Especially the problems. Because here all of the hypothetical problems we talk about in he classroom are a reality. Like littering, water shortages, and gasoline rationing. Which were all issues in environmental science class last year and when I was kind of bored with those topics I got kind of impatient, natural to my senioritus and wanting to leave so badly. But now I see that we really have issues to think about like those, especially since in the us the products just keep coming and hey Try to make them cheap for us so we can maintain our lifestyle. School is really different here, university is too. Whenever I explain the concept of liberal arts colleges, everyone is fascinated. Here public school is free so most people end up going to la Rioja, staying in catamarca, or going to Cordoba which is the best and largest it makes OSU look puny. But they don't have the oppurtunity to do undecided or have the community that liberal arts provides. So I feel so lucky that I secured that scholarship at Denison. I feel ever more confident in my decision after coming here. It really makes you appreciate what you took for granted in the US. The attitude here is so different about organization, even with Rotary. Usually it takes a month for an idea to become a reality. So Among the exchange students we do spontaneous activites with the help of Facebook. Someone posts and we say "meet us in the center for ice cream at 7 at miles' family's shop" and people come. One of the great things is that by being around all the other the exchange students I'm picking up some words and phrases in their languages. I would say I'm the best at Dutch as there are three Dutch students here and I see them a lot plus with their language being a mix of English and German and with the little German I know I can understand them fairly well sometimes. It's pretty hot here already but everyone keeps saying "wait until summer" I'm getting kind of scared haha, but with a lot of host families that have pools we're gonna have some great pool parties. Sometimes it's the simple things that I miss like sleeping on the pink couch and watching Netflix. Here they only sleep on beds, and Netflix is coming here I've seen many adds for it but somehow my iPod knows I'm in a country that doesn't have it all the way yet so it won't let me watch anything. There is no ethnic food because there are no minorities or ethnicities, although they do refer to certain people as "blacks" even though they're not actually black. I've only seen one african American person here and that was in cordoba a really big city. This really confused me when I first got here, but what they really mean is the shady type of people who steal things.
THE BUS
Well I´ve never been claustrophobic or anything like that but when I´m taking the bus I may as well be. I´ve never been in a place with that little personal space in my life. The bus is actually safe in Argentina. And everyone says that Catamarca is very tranquil so I´m comfortable taking it quite often to get to the center for my culture classes duuring the day. Anytime after about 11:30 at night though I refuse to take the bus. This is because I went with my host sister once to eat with a friend and we took the bus back at around 1 or 2 am. The bus fare is usually 2.50 pesos, and the bus driver charged us 8 pesos. I asked my sister about it and she said that the drivers only hike up the prices at night because inspectors come during the day to check it out, but at night since no one is checking them and they have command of the bus they can do whateer they want. It´s for this and the other reason is that I don´t really know when exactly the last bus leaves to go to where I live, but even if I did who knows at what time the bus would actually arrive so I conclude taking a pricey taxi and being safe about it is far better than being stuck alone in a shady bus stop. This is really my main issue right now because I really like my family and all it´s just that all of my rotary activities and hanging out occurs in the center and getting back to where I live can be a real hassle sometimes and there were times when I actually had to stay over at people´s houses. Like once I went to a friends to watch a movie and the brother left and set the security alarm. He said that if we tried to leave or open a window or do anything the police would come, so we had to stay.
This summer I am trying to fill it with activities but it will be quite difficult and I´ve heard from other people that summer here can be kind of boring. Here the culture is to go out every day in summer, including Christmas which is like a dinner with family and then a huge party. It´s also a time for lots of pool time. I am perfectly fine with pool time and my second host famiy has a pool. I´ve only gone swimming for three days and already I´m tanner than I was all summer in Ohio. The pool is something to look forward to but right now in my family we dont really go out much, my family works and then we eat together, have siesta, they work some more, then we have dinner and wrap up the day. So lately I´ve been playing with my little brother but I´m yearning for an activity for me to do. So I´ve decided to get my butt up a little earlier each day and then I can learn to cook from the maid and help her with lunch. This and then I want to cook more for my family. And then in the center when I switch families I will take up swimming with another exchange student who has a different activity planned for every day of the week practically. I didnt really realize the wide variety of activities we had at GHS. I even told people that we had a cake club and bearded man club. my goals this summer are to cook more, learn more spanish, travel to some other cities, and swim a LOT. I´m looking forward to actually learning how to cook the argentine style because then I can bring it back with me and use it for years to come.
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