Accent

So, I'm starting to notice that I have developed an Argentine accent. Like how I say some letters differently from how I was taught. For example "my name is/I'm called" is "mi llamo" and I was taught that the double L's are said like a Y's. But now I say the double L's like SH, and saying it the other way just sounds wrong to me now. Also "may" is "mayo" and I was taught to say it like "my-yo" but I say it like "my-sho" and saying it the other way feels wrong too.

Wine

Last night I went out with some classmates and we went to a park and drank wine with fanta and coke with fernet the entire night. I must say this weekend hasn't been the best and by the time I went out with them I had so much on my mind and felt so alone that all I wanted to do was stop thinking and do something stupid, I didn't of course, but I was really tempted to just down the wine. The first thing was that I don't actually have that many friends here, and the friends that I do have, we don't hang out together. So I don't really do anything except tag along with my host sister. The second thing is that I can't understand anything, and even though my language skills have massively improved, I'm still having so much trouble understand almost everyone. The third thing is I'm trying to decide if I should do my senior year over again so that I can have more time to look at colleges and take the SATs again and just have my entire senior year. You know, if this continues throughout the next few months, I will have to go home early. I just really hope that it gets better, and I don't do something so stupid that I get kicked out. Wish me luck.

Worse? Can't Happen

Ok, I don't know how this day could possibly get any worse. First I leave the water on the table after lunch (which is what I always do) and while I'm about to wash the dishes, my host sister tells me that I need to put it in the refrigerator after eating ALWAYS, then she says that my host dad has told me to do that from the beginning (I had absolutely no idea that he had told me to do that, I think they overestimate my Spanish understanding abilities). Then while I'm washing the dishes my host sister comes into the kitchen and says "Stephanie! What happened?", I look down to see that the entire kitchen is flooded (It was a surprise to me too). So then I look under the sink where there is a bucket (where the drained water goes), yeah, it overflowed. So then she goes to get the dad and he comes in and starts talking really fast and really loud (he's mad) and tells my host sister to take care of it and goes back to his room (I'm apparently her responsibility). So I've managed to make my host family mad at me for the first, excuse me while I go cry and wish to go home for like the twentieth time since I've been here. And you know what? this week had actually turned out really good, until this point. Now I'm right back to being really homesick. I know I got lucky with this family, but I don't have a good feeling about them. I don't know why.

Trouble in Paradise

Exchange students change families all the time here, it seems like AFS Argentina can never find the right families. I got very lucky with my family, because they are the perfect match for me. I have to say though, I do kind of want to change families just to see how different other families are and experience a life in another family's home. Maybe I should've come here with the program where you change families 3 times within the year to experience new things instead of with AFS. That was the only reason why I might have wanted to change families. A couple days ago, my host sister and I are walking to the bus stop to go to P.E. (Volleyball) and she starts talking to me about how her and her mom are having trouble working with the dad. She told me why they were mad at him and that the parents may get divorced, and that they may start fighting and that she hopes that I don't get scared because of that and want to change families. I told her that even though I don't want them to fight they need to work out their problems, and that I don't want to change families. But now my host sister is completely icing him out and the mom is a little cold towards him too. I just feel really bad for him because it's like they are ganging up on him. So I just want to say that the family almost ALWAYS eats together. So now every meal we have is so awkward because they're mad at him and he is frustrated towards them and I'm just sitting there quietly eating my food. At that point I still was like "ok they will work it out soon". But then tonight we were having hot dogs for dinner and I got out the bread and passed one to my host sister than I asked the host dad if he wanted one and he said sure. Then my host sister said to me in English (since he can't understand English) "next time be quiet". That was unexpected, she can ice him out all she wants but as soon as she wants me to ice him out too, that is when I start having problems. Especially since he didn't actually do anything to make me mad at him. I do understand why she is mad at him, but it isn't my place to interfere and take sides. I'm Switzerland.

Mail

My family has never really been that progressive with sending mail when someone is gone, but this trip they said that they would. I went to the post office to send my sister a birthday present (she's turning 21 in the beginning of may) and also to ask about receiving mail (because my mom had tried to send a package and a letter and my grandparents tried to send a letter) and they said that nobody can receive mail from the US in this city. Well that makes me feel amazing! I was kind of hoping for some care packages. So my mom told me that she would just give one BIG box full of care packages when I get back, that sounds pretty good but in between now and then is my 17th birthday and Christmas. Oh well I can't change how the mail system works, I just can't stop thinking that there has to be some way that people can receive mail from the US, because there have been many students hosted in this city from the US.

Improving

So today I was in class talking to some classmates and I realized that instead of thinking about how to say something when I want to say something, I just say it. I don't have to think about if it will make sense, it's just instinct. Which means...my language skills are improving!!! That makes me feel really happy. I mean there are still so many things that I can't say, and there are still so many things that I do have to think about before I say them. But now, there are so many things that I can say and there are so many things that I DON'T have to think about before speaking.

Volleyball

Ok, I want to talk about P.E. at my host school. You can choose between three different sports, Volleyball, Handball, and Gymnastics. Now I'm not a huge fan of sports, the only sport I like is Dance. However, I had to choose, so I chose Volleyball. Now, I should not be playing volleyball because it is probably very dangerous for the other players to be around me when I'm playing volleyball. Today was our first time playing, and I sat down half way through to find little purple marks all up and down my arms (mostly my left since I'm left handed and served with that hand), and I don't think they're bruises because bruises aren't that small. No, they're more like little blood spots just under how ever many layers of skin someone has. And the worst part is my thumb muscle hurts so it hurts whenever I use my thumb on my left hand, which is a problem because I'm left handed. But, other than that I think my first practice was a success. I managed to get the ball all the way to the other players while serving, and I was pretty good at passing the ball too. I just hope my arms are better by next practice...

School (Differences and Similarities)

I wanted to post more about my host school, but this time I want to talk about the differences and similarities between my host school and my US school. First of all I have to wear a uniform, and I actually like that because I can sleep longer (I sleep so much here, I'm ALWAYS tired), but the uniforms aren't exactly attractive, I mean I guess they could be worse, they aren't plaid! But the shirt could be so much better as well. Secondly, I only go to school 4 hours a day (here, you either go to school in the morning or in the afternoon. I go to school in the morning), which I really like, but then I then I have a lot of time on my hands because even though I've been here for two months I haven't made that many friends thanks to my lack of language skills so I basically just tag along with my host sister. I also find it easier to do the work and keep up with everyone else in the class because they don't go to school that much they don't learn as quickly and go slowly because of the short periods. Thirdly, here you don't get to pick the classes that you take because you don't change classrooms, the teachers do, so you have the same classmates for the entire school day and the subjects that you get are the subjects that you get. I have mixed feelings about this, if it was like that for my school in the US I would absolutely love it because you become amazing friends with everyone in your class. But since I'm in a new country and trying to get involved and meet new people, I don't really know how I feel about it because it makes it harder to meet more people and branch out and make more friends, because everyone in the class just kind of hangs out with each other during the break and your classmates are your clique.

Activities

Two months in to this experience and I still don't have any extra curricular activities. It's a lot harder to get involved when there aren't any extra curricular activities at your school. I wish that I could find clubs to join and classes to take. I talked to people and they told me about a choir I could join but that is all I can find! I'm not going to give up though, because I want to meet more people and get really involved and have lots of activities. I didn't come here to just sit at home sleeping, I came here to have a whole new experience and just going to school won't cut it for me. I want to do more, and if I don't do more I will most likely end up going home early because of all the free time I have, I will probably be on the computer or something missing my family and friends. It is important that I get involved if I want to finish this experience and not go home early.

Two Month Point

The rest of the time after that has gone by pretty quickly, it didn't feel like it was at the time, but looking back on those first two months it seems like they went by so quickly. I'm starting to feel better now, but during those two months I was very emotional. I was very depressed and I wanted to go home I didn't want to be here anymore. All I wanted to do was go home and continue living my life and not continue on with this experience. I was always wanting to talk to my mom and dad, because whenever I talk to them (while being here) they always help. I was actually REALLY considering going home but I talked to my mom and dad about it and they made me want to stay until the end. I'm starting to feel better, I'm more busy now that I was before and I can go places by myself so that means that I'm able to do more. I'm not nearly as emotional as I was before and I'm starting to make all of these plans with dance lessons and clubs and hanging out with friends so I think that it will get a lot more fun!

School

My first day of school was kind of overwhelming but also really fun. One thing you should know is that if your ever thinking about being an exchange student and you don't really want to be outgoing, choose Argentina. Everyone is super outgoing and when your an exchange student from a different country everyone in your host school in Argentina wants to know you and be your friend. Another thing is that the schools here are very different from the US. There aren't any extra curricular activities in the school, no clubs, sports, fundraisers, nothing. It is all core classes and you don't change classrooms, the teachers do so you don't get to pick which classes you take. You get what you get. 

When my host sister and I walked into our classroom, people just kind of looked at me, and when we went outside of our classroom for a five minute prayer (my host school is a Catholic private school, and we pray for 5 minutes everyday before class and have to take a religion class), it felt like the entire school was looking at me. In History (my first class on mondays) I didn't understand a word of what the teacher was saying and had to focus on not crying. But then in English class (second class on mondays) the English teacher told me that my classmates wanted to ask me questions, and he told me to reply in English. After that point people started talking to me and I started making friends. Like I said before you don't have to be outgoing here because everyone else is. More and more people came up to me all asking questions about the US and about myself. I really liked this because it was really easy to make friends. 

My Host Family

Now I want to talk a bit about my host family because my host family is a very important part of this entire experience because without them I wouldn't have been able to come to Argentina. I have to parents and one sister. The mom is so nice and doesn't speak a single word of English which I really like because I feel like I'm learning when I'm talking with her. The next member of the family is the dad, he speaks a little bit of English but when he speaks English it's really funny because he says everything in a really funny way. After that first week I haven't really gotten along with him that well, it's not like he's mean or anything I just don't really particularly get along with him. The next and last person is my host sister, we have done everything together. She has shared all of her friends with me and we are inseparable (partly because we like hanging out with each other and partly because my host parents JUST started letting me go places by myself). She speaks a lot of English she takes English class, and it's surprising how much English she knows, one time when I was feeling really homesick she came and talked to me and I didn't have to slow down or anything she could understand what I was saying and reply back. It was really surprising. Even though I don't really get along with the host dad, this family is the right host family for me.

My First Week

My first week here was actually pretty nice, the first day I wanted to go home, but after that I was kind of fine. I didn't start school until the week after that one, so I got to sleep in really late and stay up late. We went downtown and I met some of my host sister's friends, they were all so nice but I couldn't understand anything that they were saying apart from "hello" and "what's your name?". After that I didn't really do much, I just spent time with my host family and got to know them a little bit better. Then on the next weekend I had my "Survival Orientation" with AFS and the other AFSer's. It doesn't sound like I did very much, but I had a lot of fun that first week. I don't know how but at the end of that first week I felt like I understood so much more of what people were talking about. It's amazing how much that first week counts or at least felt like it counted.

Traveling and 1st day

Even though I'm already two months into this trip, I want to start at the very beginning and tell you everything about what has happened within those two months. Let's start with when I first came here...

I flew on a plane from Miami to Buenos Aires with all of the other exchange students from the US (we had had a little orientation before leaving so we all got to know each other a little bit). It was about a nine hour flight and we got in at like seven in the morning. Everything didn't feel real at all, yes everything was in Spanish now, but it felt like a dream that I would wake up from any minute. When we got in we went through customs and then out to find AFS volunteers with signs leading us to a big open space. There we found out that we would be there until seven at night (12 hours, an entire day in the airport of Buenos Aires), we weren't very happy about that but we were able to get to know all of the other exchange students from different countries. After that we went to the bus station where we would all go to our separate towns and cities. There were three other students going to my city with me, one boy from Thailand, a girl from Australia, and another girl from the US. After a 14 hour bus ride we finally got to our city where all of our host families were waiting for us.

After I met my host family, we went to my new house and dropped off my luggage and to show me where I would be living for the next year of my life. I share a room with my host sister, and it's very different from my room back home, but it's absolutely perfect. Then we went to downtown to do a little shopping, buying school uniforms and such. I had one week before starting school, so I had a little bit of time to relax and learn a little bit of the language before diving head first into probably the hardest part of this entire experience as far as language wise, school. Anyways, after shopping we went back home for Siesta (a period during the hottest part of the day were people just sleep or do low key activities in the house) then at about 10pm we had a bunch of people over for barbecue. Then at about 2am everyone left and we all went to bed, I was exhausted!

Getting Started

Hello, my name is Stephanie and I am currently in Argentina as an exchange student with AFS. I got here in February so I'm starting this blog a little late, but hey, later is better than never! Anyways I'm going to try to blog as much as I can, but just be aware I can't keep a blog to save my life! But I'm going to try :)