Looking back on this on this past year in my life, I can truly say that I have grown so much as a person. 2016 was one heck of a year for me. From experiencing all the lasts of high school to getting to travel through out Europe to graduating to coming to Argentina… It’s all an exciting blur. I am truly sad to say goodbye to that year. It was a year of adventure and so many great memories. It makes me excited for what 2017 has to bring.
Honestly, I thought Christmas and New Years was going to stink not being home and with my family. While yes I was sad and homesick, looking back on it, it was a time that I would have hated to miss here. Spending the holidays in a foreign country really tells you about it’s culture. We will start with Christmas. I now realize how much we really go all out for Christmas in the States. Here in Argentina, Christmas was much simpler than I thought it would have been. When I got back from my Patagonia trip, the streets and plazas were all decorated with Christmas lights and fun decorations. I could definitely feel the Christmas spirit when I was walking around the center or in the costanera. All that was missing for me was some snow. Here they decorate the inside of their houses more than the outside for Christmas. I didn't see any house lit up with tons of lights like most people do in the US. Some of the stores had advertising for Christmas shopping in them, but it didn't seem as present as it is in the US. In Argentina, they do all the Christmas celebrating on the night of Christmas Eve. My host family had my two aunts, uncle, grandpa, and cousins over. We had other family members and friends stop over to say hi through out the day. My family started with yummy asado dinner. We started to eat dinner around 10:30-11. After dinner we got out the dessert and boy was there a lot of it. There was ice cream, different types of turrons, and lots of pan dulce. It is very typical to eat the dessert “pan dulce” (sweet bread) for the holidays here. It is a sweet tasting bread with dried fruit in it. While I never tried fruitcake in the US, I believe that pan dulce is very similar. Which brings me to the point that I don't get why the US is so anti-fruitcake because here it is delicious. Anyways when the clock stroke 12 we all cheersed (that’s not a word but you get it) and wished each other a “Feliz Navidad.” After we were done with dessert, we had my little cousin go check if Santa had arrived. The sound of her squealing with excitement confirmed that he had. We all went into the living room and started to open up the presents. After all the presents were open, we sat and visited for awhile. At about 2ish I went to hang out with some of my friends. I thought this was really weird, but here it is very normal to passed dinner and midnight with your family and then hangout with friends afterward. Christmas day was very laid back. It was extremely hot and most of the day was spent by the pool. We ate the leftovers from the night before and more pan dulce. I facetimed my family while they were doing our tradition of opening presents on Christmas day. I found it interesting that Christmas day is when we do all of our celebrating in the US, and here it is all the night before. Another thing that is interesting to me is that in the US we do a lot of celebrating not only on Christmas day but throughout the whole season with different parts of our family. For instance, I usually go to my grandma’s house in Minnesota a week or so after Christmas to have a celebration and exchange gifts with my mom’s side of the family and we do Christmas cookie baking and a celebration with my dad’s side of the family a week or so before Christmas. I thought this was completely normal, but when I explained this to people here they were a little confused. Here, it is simply just one celebration on Christmas Eve (at least for my host family, but I am pretty sure it is the same for most people here.) New Years was almost equal to Christmas here, just a little less formal. We had an asado dinner with the family and friends. We ate lots of dessert and then promised that the next day we would all start diets (every much like the US lol). We cheersed at midnight and shared some of our goals for the next year. Everyone says that the holidays are the hardest times during the exchange year. I think that I handled them quite well… thankfully. I just kept reminding myself that I will be right back baking Christmas cookies with the fam next year. Being away made me realize how amazing the traditions of my family are, and that I shouldn't take them for granted. I hope the holiday were great for you all. HAPPY 2017!!
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AuthorHello or should I say Hola! I am Molly McLaughlin. I just graduated from high school in Iowa, and now I am taking a gap year to be a Rotary Youth Exchange student in Argentina! Go to my ABOUT page to learn more. Archives
November 2017
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