ADIOS ARGENTINA! :)

I dont even want to think about having to say goodbye all over agian! The thing is when I said goodbye to my family and friends back at home I knew I was coming home soon. I knew that I would see them again. But these goodbyes are 100 times harder because i dont have a garinty that i will see them again in a year or in 5 years from now. And that thought scares me more then ever.

I have learned more in 6 months here then I could have ever learned back home in bend. I realized the meaning of family which now to me is so important. I was shown everyday by my family here how important spending daily time together is. I have made life long friendships here and to me that is more important then anything. I now can say I have a family half way around the world and bestfriends that will always be in my life.

These 6 months have been some of the hardest and best days of my life. I went from so desperatley wanting to be back at home speaking english and having my family and friends.To not wanting to go home at all. I guess because I have watched myself grow and have seen that I am maturing. I just dont want to go home and have to start all over again. I dont want to go back to my old life that was so average and only fullfilling one thing myself.

Argentina is a place i could never forget with people i WILL never forget. This experience may be forgotten by others but it will stay in my heart forever.

Friday I have a goodbye party at the boliche(club) with my goodfriend from Iceland. I am going to spend as much time as i can with friends and family. And of course drinking mate and eating all my favorite food here. I am going to miss the food here soo much :( haha

I leave on the 15th to reconquista which is a city about an hour away from mine and then from there we take a bus all the way to Buenos Aries which is about a 10 hr bus ride. Then I have 3 days in Buenos Aries and then I leave to the USA!!!!!!!!! I will be back in America on the 19th of july. :)

THANK YOU ARGENTINA FOR MAKING THIS AN AMAZING AND UNFORGETABLE EXPERIENCE!!! TE VOY A EXTRANAR :)

sorry for my spelling and english it is not very good right now.

TIME FLEW BY! :(

I cant believe that I have to go home in 3 weeks :(

It makes me so sad to even think about having to say goodbye all over again! But i know its not a goodbye forever just for now. I can now say that this experience has changed my life! The time since i have been gone has shown me how much strength i really do have! I now am going to come home a more mature independent girl. 

This last month I have been really busy and it has been filled with activites. I went to my first 15 which is a really big deal here! They have a huge party with all of their friends and family. I also went to my grandpas farm and got to go horse back ridding which was really cool! I go to the boliche (club) every weekend! I am going to miss them they are soo fun :( the other day i got to be on the radio and had to talk in spanish haha!

I have talked alot about the US here. I have done many presentations infront of a lot of people. I did one infront of almost my whole city and then i did another one in the english school! I go to the english school quite often to talk with the kids. Tomorrow I am going to the hospital with my mom to see what her job is like. 

I have made dulce de leche which is handy because it is now one of my favorite foods in the world!

I will write again soon this was just a quick update since i have not written in awhile!

see you all soon :)

Random

Well I thought I was in need of an update. So here it goes! Its June 1 and this means I have exactly a month and 18 days until I will be in the footsteeps of bend! I dont exactly want to talk about going home just yet so we will just save that for another blog update. I have school in about an hour or so and I love Fridays at school! I guess its cuz i like the classes and how excited everyone is to leave! I have language( whear i learn how to correct my grammer in spanish) Economy and math! Now if you asked anyone at home they would say I hate those subjects but I love them here maybe because i actually understand more then 5 words the teacher is saying! School here is pretty short compared to school back at home its about 5 hours and i go in the afternoon after lunch. It will be hard getting up early next year when i get up late here everyday but i always seem to still be tired even if i get up at 10.
The other night I made mac and cheese for my family here and they loved it. In there words "Que rico" its pretty easy to make when its just a box of noodles and cheese. This weekend im going to make brownies and french toast! I want to share as much American culture with them as possible before I leave.
I have amazing friends here that make me never want to go home! They are people I will never forget and even if I will be a million miles away nothing could break our friendship! These people will always be some of my bestfriends! They have made a huge impact on my life and will always be apart of my life.
Tonight we have a pena which is when our whole class gets together to eat and dance!
I am learning how to play the guitar from this lady who is trying to put together this english song for her new album. She actually has an amazing voice in English!
I Love drinking mate with my friends and people who invite me to comeover because they are intrested in who i am i guess! I am known as the yankee here! The other day i was walking down the street and this lady with her kids said oh look its the girl from the United States and soon enough the little boy came up to me talking in english! Everyone here knows who I am and sometimes its hard because i cant even go running without people trying to stop me to talk to me in english or ask me questions. I walk in the supermarket and the next day at school everyone knows i went to the supermarket. Thats what its like here!
The one thing i miss so much back at home is my activites dance, soccer, my job! I always had something to do and here its different! but it has been a good thing since i have time for myself to look and reflect on life.
 I have learned alot about house chores (mom you should be excited) I do more here then i do back at home! It made me realize how much more i need to help out around the house!
My daily goal : To not worry about tomorrow or yesterday but enjoy what the day has instore for me! I am putting on my big girl pants and trying to be stong!

Adventures :)

So the last time I posted I was getting ready to go on my trip to the north part of Argentina. To see Salta, Jujuy and these Absolutley breath taking waterfalls. I was gone for a week and during that week I did and tried things I would have never done unless I was in Argentina. I went rafting in Salta which was awesome because how many people can say they went rafting in Argentina. Then I went to go see these mountains in Jujuy that are called the mountains with 7 colors and they actually had colors such as red, pink, green, blueish and white.Next we went to Iguazu, where i went zip linning and repelling down a waterfall. Yea no big deal right. But the best thing of the trip was when I got to see the 7 wonders of the world the waterfalls! They were seriously amazing! They were massive waterfalls that made you think how beautiful this world is and how lucky you are to get to live in it! We even got to ride in this boat to get to see the waterfalls closer! We all got soaking wet but it was so worth it! The trip was so fun and I already miss all of my new friends and the crazy adventures. It was sad to say goodbye but hopefully I will see them all again in Buenos Arríes. I prolly forgot a couple details because it was filled with activities but these were my favorite activites.

Now I have been in Argentina for about 3 and half months now and my spanish is so much better! I understand almost everything everyone says and can keep a conversation but its just the verbs that are hard. But im starting to talk in spanish without having to think about it! I absolutley love my life here in Calchaqui. I have great friends and a great family. Im Sad that in about 2 and half months im going to have to leave all of what i started behind. That is going to be a really hard day. I just want to keep learning about my self and growing up. Its Crazy how fast you mature when you are an exchange student but i guess its like forced maturity.

Here are some pictures of my trip! Enjoy!

She is the other exchange student in my city!



The Mountain with 7 colors


Zip linning!!!!!!!!


The waterfalls




Beautiful!


Friends I will never forget!

TWO MONTHS!

It has been some time since I last posted! I have ups and downs but in the end I am having the time of my life! So 2 weeks ago I went to a different city that is about 2 hours away from where i live! I went for an afs event and it was tons of fun! I went to a boliche there and it is way better because it is bigger and more people! I also played soccer with these random guys I did not know but it was really fun! Because here girls dont play soccer and it is rare when a girl does! so they were suprised i knew how to play! I absolutley love the ice cream here and i used to eat it almost everyday and since i went to the ice cream shop so much the owner gave me a tour of how they make the ice cream. Also everyday I have to go to the supermarket and the owner of the store always helps me with my list of food,  everyone here is so sweet!! The other day I had to take a math test and of course it is in spanish! but i did really good on it better then kids in my class. but because my friends tutored me and helped explain it to me better.  I never thought i would ever actually like math. The bad news is that i got a bad cold (lost my voice) and havent been feeling the greatest but good thing my mom is a doctor here and knew exactly what to do!! I am finally starting to have my own routine and starting to feel more at home! My family is great we have some good times blasting the music singing and dancing! and of course the late night snacks with my brother :) I am going on a trip to salta jujuy and cartartas which are these really pretty citys and has one of the biggest waterfalls in the world. I am going for a week it is about 20 hrs away from whear i live and im going on a bus.... but I am going with a bunch of other kids so it should be fun! I am learning so much about my self and others! but I LOVE hearing from people so facebook, email or write me :) Hope you like the pictures! :)

My friends before the boliche! :)



My favorite ice cream parlor



Calchaqui my city! :)

The Truth :)

Being an Exchange student is one of the best choices I have ever made.But little did I know how hard it would be. Everyone thinks being an exchange student is all fun and games but to tell you the truth that is so far from right. There are the days when I wake up and forget how far away I am, how I dont have my phone to call my mom and ask her to come get me when things get tough. Or when I just want to be laying in my bed watching hitch. But this is what seperates us from everyone else. Us exchange students are so far from different. We are the Kids who are going to change the way people view the world. We are the people who arent afraid when we fall because we know that in time we will get right back up! We have the strength and power to make change and see change! We are the kids who get to live in a history book and understand the meaning of the word citizen.
Then their are the days that blow my mind away, like how lucky am I to be in this beautiful place learning a new language and making friends, I would have never known before. And these days always out weigh the bad ones. These are the days that make me never want to go home. I never knew how much strength I had until my first step off the plane. Being here has made me change my mind about many things. I want to so badly make this world a better place and this right now is my first step in doing it.

I will write again soon about my update in activites! I am having a wonderful time abroad! :)

One month :)

Today makes one month of being with my family in Argentina :) I love it here soo much! Everyday I learn something new and try something new!!! But it is going by so fast :/ school is still hard for me since I am still learning Spanish! But my Spanish is much better then it was my first day or even week here!! I went to the English school with the little kids and they are so darn cute but one day I will go back to talk to the older kids. Me and my sister watch many tv shows but they are all in Spanish but I really like them becuase they are interesting haha. Santa fe was very fun. We went shopping and I got some new stuff. I love the shoes here and the scandals so I bought some new ones :) I am starting to have my own friends which is cool! Everyone here is very nice!! I don't have really an update but how I'm loving it here!! I miss everyone :)