HOLAAAA. I know it’s been quite a long time since I last wrote, and I am sorry for that. Things have just been moving super fast and I have been really busy. The weird thing this time is that I have been busy doing normal life things like hanging out with friends, going to school, working out etc. Life has gotten pretty normal here… Never thought I would have said that. Of course there are still crazy things that happen to me that wouldn't back in the US, but now I’m just simply living a normal Argentinian life. To be honest, this is the part of my exchange that I have kind of been looking forward to. Just having a normal life here. In my opinion, my exchange has been anything but normal.
I started my exchange off by going to a school called Bachillerato Humanista in the afternoon. My class was just 9 people. To be honest, at first I didn't enjoy it. I thought I could have been meeting a lot more people if I had gone to the morning classes. Let me just tell you, the first two to three months of exchange are extremely emotional (actually all of exchange in emotional you just get better at handling it or just hide it better). So I literally thought that going to classes in the afternoon with fewer people was going to ruin my exchange. The world works in weird ways. What I thought was going to make my exchange bad, actually ended up being one of the best things of my exchange. After a month being in the class, I started to open up and be as much of myself as I could with the language barrier. The girls in the class helped me out so much and I am forever grateful for them. I felt like I really became part of the class by the end. Even though the class was little, the people were amazing. Right as life started to get a little normal, school ended. Before I knew it, I was three months into my exchange and summer vacation had arrived. I was in “senior year” here so I got to do some of the fun lasts with them, and I think that’s what made it even more special. They weren't only a part of my big year, but I was a part of theirs. Right when school got out, I headed to my Patagonia trip. I had to miss the reception which is basically like graduation. I was very sad about that, but the Patagonia trip is a high contender for the best two weeks of my entire life. It was simply amazing to be with all the exchange students, and seeing all those beautiful areas of Argentina. I wrote about that trip, so if you want to here about it more, it is in one of my past posts. After that I was in Posadas for just a short month. That month passed by incredibly fast because all the holidays. After the holidays, I was off to Brazil, which was another incredible 3 and a half weeks of traveling and being with exchange students. Another contender for the best weeks of my life was made, but I also made a past post about that. The week that I got return from my Brazil trip I was suppose to change host families, but then my host family at that time planned a last minute trip to Brazil and wanted me to join them. I was extremely happy and excited. I got to spend just about a week in Posadas, and then headed back to Brazil with them. This time it was just all day everyday enjoying the beach. It was nice and relaxing. After about a week there, I came back to Posadas. By that time it was February 20th. We decided that I wouldn't change houses until after my birthday on the 24th, but then my host family had to travel so I ended up changing host families on my birthday. It was just a little dysfunctional birthday, but on exchange you kind of stop having expectations for the big days (birthdays, holidays, etc.) because they are always completely different than you are use to obviously. I did get to enjoy night before my birthday with a lot of my friends. I had them over, cooked pizza, ate cake, etc. I became 19 years old as the clock struck 12… Still can’t believe I’m so old. The night was simple, but nice. The next day got up packed all my things up (in two and half very heavy bags) and changed families that night. I am going to make another post about changing host families and my new host family. With a new family, everything changed again. I kind of had a little freak out there for a couple weeks. I freaked out because of a lot of reasons. I don't think I was really prepared for the change that came. I had a new family, a new school, all my friends from my first school started studying for the university, etc. It was like I was started my exchange all over again. It was weird because I knew that change was coming for a while, but I didn't really prepare myself mentally. I thought I was going to be just fine because I had already gone through it once before. Also the fact that I had just came back from a month traveling in Brazil didn't help either. That’s also when I realized that I had become used to Posadas… And that’s one of the things I didn't think was going to happen. Everyone knows those post vacation blues. I had them coming back to Posadas after Brazil. For me that seems normal, but at the same time so weird. I came back to Misiones, Argentina… That should never seem normal in my head, but it does. I think another reason why I freaked out is because I am now in the end of my exchange. I thought of all the people that I had already met and am going to have to say goodbye to. Then the part that freaked me out even more was thinking about all the new people that I was going to meet, make connections with, and not have enough time to really get to know them before I had to say goodbye. I didn't think I had time for all this change, and maybe I didn’t, but I’m making it work. So that is basically my entire exchange in one page. I just wanted to make this post to look back and see how far I have come. Like I said, it’s officially the end part of my exchange. I have 77 days left. To be honest I’m excited to come home, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I want to. I’m excited to see everyone, and start college, but I still don’t want to leave here. It’s hard to explain. I hope time goes by slowly, but also I’m looking forward to time spent with my friends and family back home. Chau for now:*
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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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