Winter Break

As it is often easy for you guys to forget, it is winter down here. Just think of it all as being exactly the oposite of what you are feeling because really, that is what it is. Even though I am always naturally going to think of July as the one of the hotest months of the year, I would deffinetelly say that it is not hot down here! Right now I am on Winter Break which is really weird in and of itself. First off, where in the world is Christmas? Um, hello? Isn´t this naturally the time of year for Christmas lights and caroling? Well, as only the seasons change and the days of the holidays don´t, I still have to wait five more months for Christmas like the rest of you. :( Thankfully I have found other ways to occupy my time. I got let out of school Thursday the 7th and I go back to school on Wednesday the 23rd so that gives me about two weeks of vacation! My first week was super packed with activities. All of the exchange students except me and a girl from Thailand all left last Sunday so it was their last week here in San Juan. We were all arranging lunches and get-togethers for some last memories with eachother. Saturday night I went over to Maria´s house to spend the night. She is this girl from Austria that only came for a semester but has become one of my good friends here. I hope to visit her one day when I go to visit Jessie in Austria as well. :) We made crapes for dinner which was new for me. Maria says that in Austria it is not at all uncommon to eat crapes for lunch or dinner where as I have only ever eaten them for breakfast. And to had an extra surprise, she has bought Nutella! For anyone out there who has never tried Nutella before, you have got to go out and by some right now. I first tried it when I went to Mexico and I have been in love with it ever since. It is a chocolate and walnut (?) spread that is basically all sugar and one of the best things ever made. :) I didn´t even know it existed in San Juan but Maria found it at our local grocery store! So at eleven o´clock at night we ate crapes covered in Nutella and watched the movie 2012 (which actually wasn´t as scary as I thought it would be). It was super fun to be able to spend some quality time with her before she left.

Tuesday the girl from Tailand, Fran, came over to my house early in the morning. Her parents were going to Mendoza (a gigantic city just south of us) for the day but she wanted to stay home. She skyped with her family in Tailand for a while and it was really awesome to hear her speak in Tailandes! That is one of the coolest things about being en exchange student: not only do you get to live in a different country but you learn little things about other countries as well. I don´t think I ever mentioned this but when I was at my arrival Orientation in Buenos Aires I spent a whole bunch of time hanging out with these guys from Australia and New Zeland. If their accent wasn´t enough to make me love them, they taught me all these card games from their country and we spent hours comparing different words and pronunciations between our countries. It was absolutelly a blast!

So later that day Fran and I met up with the other students in the center park and went out for lunch. We chatted and laughed but the topic of their departure just kept coming up. As much as we all wanted to ignore it, they were leaving in just five days. I don´t think anyone of us could believe it. But even with that greyish cloud hanging over us, we enjoyed every minute. We spent the whole day together and walked over to a little mall near by. There we got icecream and I met up with my friends from school, Vero and Maria del Mar. One of the greatest changes that has begun to happen over the last month is that my ability to participate in conversation has hugely increased. It has given me so much more freedom to talk about whatever subject is on our minds. And that day it was boys... :) It was so good to be able to just chat with girlfriends again about all the crazy things guys do. I had been really missing that since I left Washington. Not only did I arrive here without any best friends but I also had this giant sign taped to my head that said "I am from the U.S. I don´t speak Spanish" so it made it a little hard to just talk about normal stuff. :) But time and hard work has paid off and that is changing! I didn´t get home till about ten that night and I was exhausted from being with people all day. I crashed in my bed and slept until one the next day. That is one of the greatest things about Argentina - sleeping in isn´t looked apon as a waist of the day. But don´t worry, most days I have my alarm set for nine or ten so I can get up and do something with my life. :)

Thursday, Harry Potter 7 part 2 came out in theaters in San Juan and after reading every single book twice and now reading them again in Spanish, I wasn´t going to miss the first showing. :) I went with Gime and Ivan and a couple exchange student guys and it was great! Thankfully we chose to watch it in 3D in English with Spanish subtitles. There was also a version in Spanish but I am not quite ready for that. I like my British accents thank-you-very-much. :) I also discovered a fasinating fact. The pop corn here is always sold sweatened.  Some people have tried pop corn with just salt but to most of my friends, the thought of pop corn with salt AND butter is pretty much foreign! Well I am determined to change that because you just can´t go through life missing out on something as awesome as this. I am going to have a movie night at my house pretty soon.

And then Sunday came around. The day that we were all going to go to the bus station to wish the students well on their way back home. The truth was, as much as I got to know these guys, I didn´t expect to be super upset when they lefted. What I mean is that I wasn´t at all prepared for the crying and bawling that I encountered on the platform. As soon as they showed up the tears just started rolling. And I don´t mean a few sniffles and a tissue. These people were truly torn apart at having to leave, and they just let their feelins come poring out. And it got to me too. When I had to say goodbye to Laura, we both just started crying our eyes out. And I just couldn´t stop. I think the thing that made me so touched by everything was that I knew I would have to do this same thing in just six short months. I would be in the same place that they are now and have to say goodbye to my family and friends and the city that I have grown to love. Even now I am tearing up just writing this. So in order not to short out my keyboard from falling tears, I should probably move on. But first I just want to say that although I know it will be so hard to leave everything here, that isn´t stopping me from loving it even more. :)

So far my vacation has been busy and full of emotions. My whole time here has taught me so much about my self and about other cultures. I love learning things from my friends here and getting little facts about the countries they came from. I hope everyone in the world can have the chance to experience what I am feeling . Because really, there is no better way to learn about yourself and what really matters in life than what these students and I are going through now. :) Have a wonderful summer! Send us some warm weather!