Monday 12 December 2016

26 days left

Hey everyone, so I know I have been super super super slack with my blog. So much has happened since I last wrote.. I went to Peru with my family, we won UBES in the dance section (which I performed in) and we also won in the girls soccer section too (which I competed in), we had the day of the student, I went to Cordoba, Alta Gracia and Carlos Paz for a week and turned 18, I met all the new exchange students, I went on the South Trip and then I went on a trip to Iguazu falls with Luisa. All of these big things that have happened are among the everyday normality of living in Argentina.

I was going to try and write a piece for each of these things that had happened but too much time has passed now. Basically I love all the new exchange students so so so much and have connected with them ridiculously well and will miss them so much and also I have had some of the most incredible experiences here but also some of the hardest.

This piece that I am writing now is more about exchange, about how I am feeling now with 26 days left.

I don't know if you guys have seen Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix but I feel exactly like Hermione says Cho feels when she goes on about the mixture of different feelings she must be having (after she kisses Harry) and then Ron makes some comment like wow , she can't possibly be feeling all that but I swear, I am relating to Cho Chang right now. I have so many mixed emotions bubbling around in my body that I don't even know where to begin to explain it all.

I'm so excited to go home, I see photos of home life and it makes me want to be there so badly and yet I know I am going to go home and just miss exchange so so so much, the exchange students, my school friends, Argentinian culture and food, my families.. It's a lose lose situation. I am not someone who generally gets homesick and yet more recently I have found that I have been relying on my exchange friends a lot as I have had moments of really wanting to go home and I think it is because the end is so so close and I am on summer holidays and so am not doing so much.

Something incredible, has been that I am now very very competent with my Spanish. This for me is very very cool.  I would say I understand practically everything now, if not absolutely everything and have not used a translator in SO long. This was a goal that I had since the very beginning of exchange and so for me this is definitely super incredible.

Another thing I have found, at least here in Argentina, is that they like to party a lot and especially in this last year of school it is very much the culture. They also all grow up looking forward to their last year of school and so sometimes it is difficult for them to understand that maybe I don't want to go out that night or that partying isn't the sole reason that I came to Argentina.

Something else that nearly all the exchange students and I have discussed and agreed upon is that it is very common to become what I would call the "trophy friend". This is where people like to show you off (often without meaning to) and so they will always introduce you as from NZ or the girl from another country. While this doesn't mean they don't love you and appreciate you, it just means the relationship you have with them is different. I love my school friends very very much, however I am looking forward to going home and not being different.

I have changed so much this year and I can feel it. I can feel it in the way I deal with things, in my ability to talk to anyone, in my appreciation I now have for New Zealand and in my maturity level. I think this may make it harder than I think to come home. Although I know I will be starting a new life with university and all that so hopefully it won't be so difficult. I have hope.

I can't believe I only have 26 days left. That's just under 4 weeks. I swear yesterday I had 100.