Thursday, December 16, 2010

December 16th 2010

Hello world that i havent written to in over a month haha. i have a legitament excuse, i didnt have a computer that worked well enough to write the blog, it freezes up half way through and i have to re write my novel haha, so there you have it. but now i HAVE MY OWN COMPUTER thank you mother and father, so i can write more, not that i will haha, because well its boring, but i do it for you all because i love you all :)

ok, so i will be changing my house on the 23 of december, two days before christmas, yes i know right? haha, because i was originally going to san martin de los andes with my family i am in now, but there is a rotary rule that says i have been in this house for over 3 months so i have to change, or else my time in the other houses will be screwed up haha. so the only reason i still havent changed is because my next host family is in Urugauy and today my mom leaves for san martin, so i am in buenos aires with julia for a week :) she works from 7am til 4pm, so i sleep like all day haha then today we will see what we will do, i think we will just kinda take it easy til the weekend so she isnt exhausted due to her annoying sister haha.

i totally finished school like a champion :) its more so because some of my teachers either get that my grade isnt the same and they gave me higher credit because they are just happy i dont sleep in school, or because the classes are easier haha, i got a ten in phyolosophy, english (haha), labratory, and biology and history, a nine in physics (awesome cuz i know nothing about physics haha), math, an eight in geography, langauge arts, and a seven in chemsitry because she hates me haha. so i would say i did pretty well considering i just need all sevens to get credit :)wooo. and now ( sucks to be all of you in school back home) i am on summer break again :)

so i have been asked how christmas works and if we even celebrate it here, so i will explain it here to the best of my ability. on christmas eve, everyone gets together with their families, and eats a huge dinner, usually its asado but i think in my house they are making a turkey for me :) we all eat together, then at midnight we say cheers give hugs and kisses then we eat like cakes and pastries and things. then everyone goes out to party, i will be returning to my town chivilcoy (because my next house is 20 kms away in the country) with my next host sister who is 21. for christmas and new years the parties are even better, because we stay out longer, usually we return home around 7am, but for christmas and new years we party til 10am, is what i have been told haha i dont know if i will last that long. anyways, so for christmas lots of people just buy santa hats and wear them at the clubs and things. santa exsits but he isnt like our santa backhome, because a.) they dont really have chimneys here they arent that common ha, and b.) its a different culture. here presents arent that popular,like you maybe get one from each person in your fmaily, maybe, so you may recieve like 5 presents if that. because here it is more about celebrating with family and then partying haha. but most of the celebrating actually goes on the day before (christmas eve and new years eve) and then the actual day i dont really know what we do, i think sleep or go to a quinta or something. oh and for your information i dont know if you know what a quinta is, but it is like a summer homem that everyone has, it has a pool, with a huge yard that has lots of grass and thigns, and then the "house" contains like a fridge, a bathroom, a place to cook, and things like that, because if you sleep there you sleep outside or being matresses and sleep on the floor inside, because they are more to spend the day, they are super awesome haha.

needless to say i am getting fat here, because i prefer to eat good food as opposed to sticks and berries like back home haha, and i dont work out because i would rather not be the only girl my age that works out reguraly haha, but my friend i met from canada here my first name (nick) is moving here to chivilcoy in janurary and so we are going to start going to the gym, and since i will be living in the country my plan is to tan a lot and try to start running, my dad gave me some advice on how to train to be able to run, because i definelty wasnt doing that right haha, and my next house has a pool so thats cool. i mean its a bummer cuz its so far away from my friends during summer but its gorgeous and the poeple are super nice, so i jus twont see my friends as much, i will still come back to chivilcoy i jsut wont be 2 blocks from the center of town anymore, but my 3rd host family is very close to the center as well, i will be moving there after the trip to the north in feburary. and then staying there the rest of my time, its like 10 blocks from my school and my next host brother is a friend of mine named pedro haha who happens to be best friends with a lot of my girl friends so it works out. so that is pretty much my life in the last month.

please people
ask me questions
therwise i have no idea what to write because i forget you guys have no idea what it is like here and i am used to it now so normal for me may be adnormal for you all, haha so please ask me questions, here or on email, also there are always new pictures on picasa :)

lvoe you all miss you all
aubrey

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

November 9th, 2010

well........................procrastination in writing my blog....not always the best thing in the world, but what can you do right? haha, i am assuming my dear mommy poo sent you all the questions and answers about my life here, which is good, because everything kinda blurs together and i forget what i have told, what i havent, what you all know, what you dont, etc. anyways, so if you ever have any questions please feel free to email me.

okay so also, i am in teh process of forgetting english, and i dont know how much longer i will be writing detailed blogs in english, so bare with me and my craziness haha.

last week was my brithday (woooooo 17!!!) and it was sooo awesome. at midnight like half of the population here called me and texted me and things, about 300 people wrote on my facebook page, and i was never alone for the entire weekend. at midnight, julia and my mom screamed feliz cumpleaños and showered me with hugs and kisses, then proceeded to give me my "first cake" which was an alfajor with a candle on top haha. then they gave me my present which was a purple mate set (totally wicked awesome), and my other present of course was the party. then my dad and my sister who live in san martin de los andes called, and wished me a happy brithday and what not. then around 1am, my friends marko polo and vidy came over to drink some mate. vidy gave me one of his volleyball jerseys and signed it and wrote a lot of nice things. then they finally left, because i told them i had to go to school for 10 minutes tomorrow haha. i went around 830 to say hi to all my school friends, and mom went with me to talk to the director about me recieving credit, so i went and they all sang happy brithday and i left and went home after about 10 minutes haha. then vidy came over again because he went home from school early, and we went for a walk. we went and bought maria paz (my twin, the girl who shares my birthday)'s present, and things, then we went back to my house and drank mate with julia for about 2 hours. took a nap, ate lunch, and then i went to maria paz's house with the girls to eat cake and play cards, then around 730 we went to the plaza. i met up with the guys for about 30 minutes, then went back home to help finalizing things for the party. around 9 everyone started coming over, family, friends, my next host family, maria luz's counsler, etc. etc. we ate pizza, and really awesome cake made by the cake maker julia haha. around 1230 we went to benedicto, but maria paz and i left around 4am because we were tired haha. it was an amazing day, i spent it all with my friends and family, it was really nice. then saturday was just like any other day, we went to the plaza, then went shoppping and bought some new clothes for going out. i came home, got ready, went to trapani with julia, then went to marilus house. around 2 am we went to benedicto, then around 3, we went to ozono. all in all it was a pretty awesome birthday, there are pictures on picasa, they really show the festivities quite well i would say haha.

everything is going really well here, i think i will skype soon with my family because someone told them i dont miss them and dont want to talk to them haha, that is nuts. anyways, thank you everyone for the birthday emails and what not, i am sure your cards are super cute, i love you all :)

in decemeber i am going to san martin de los andes for christmas and new years to visit my dad and sister and things, i am really excited, the food is supposed to be amazing, and since i have never met them, i am really excited to meet them. summer is almost here which is even more exciting :)

school is okay, my teachers are a little bit crazy in the fact that they want me to be some kind of freaky genius haha, so i had mom talk to the director and now everything should beokay. my spanish is getting a lot better, and my brain is kind of a mix of spanish and english and so i mix the two up when i talk now or i jsut make up words that dont exsit and i just sound crazy haha but it is really cool, i am learnign a lot faster then the other exchange kids in other coutnries beause i dont have the luxery of having a lot of friends who speak english. i have julia and javii and some of the girls. most of the people i talk to, all of their friends or family speak english, so it is nice because i am forced to communicate in spanish. i am really proud :)

coming up on 3 months here soon, woooooo :)

hope everything is well back home, love you all

email me :) aubrey@hethnet.com
un beso enrome
cuidanse
<3

Sunday, October 10, 2010

October 10, 2010

once again, i apologize for the delay, i never have any energy to write in this thing, not gonna lie, it feels like homework haha. so in the last two weeks that i have been here i dont really know what to tell and what not to because all the days are blurring together haha. so i will tell you about this past week, that will sum up my life i guess.

i went to school all week, i am strating to udnerstand more in school, but it is still very hard to keep up. right when i think i am starting to understand something, it changes on me. it is rediculous and i am always tired, but i am getting better. i am able to wake up and talk in spanish now, and i am able to communiacate more. today i am not really talking in spanish because i am exhausted which i will explain why in a moment. anyways nothing really happened during the school week, other then on friday we had a two hour picnic so we only had 3 hours of classes, then we pretty much just hung out listening to music for two hours haha.

Friday Night: Vicky's Quince, now of course there are fotos on picasa, but it was gorgeous. i mean i really felt like i was on the show My Super Sweet Sixteen, without the car. It started at 10pm and I got home at 7am Saturday morning. I think the pictures really show how amazing it was, Vicky preformed a dance for all of us, then we learned it, the food was amazing, we danced, sang, watched videos made by family members, it really was quite the birthday party. I dont really know how to describe it other than that.

Saturday: I woke up at 5pm (hahahaha) and went the plaza around 6 for maybe half an hour with everyone. i came home, showered, and then Vidy brought me my entrance pass for ozono. at 11 Nati came and picked me up and we went to Marilu´s house, we hung out there with all the girls until about 2am, then we crammed all of us into 3 taxis and went to ozono. there was a big party there and so everyone was there, it was really cool. It was Mati's birthday so of course all the boys came drunk haha, but we were there once again until 7am. I danced so much my legs literally gave out from under me and i fell to the ground and couldnt get back up. it looked like i was drunk it was so funny. I won a tank top too because i danced to a song that was in english and knew the words and stuff and so i won :) it was so cool. There are some pictures of last night too but not as many becasue i was too busy having fun to take pictures. I love it becasue they always play old like disco music like funkytown haha, oh and YMCA, how funny is that? they dance different here so i am learning how to dance like them which is a challenge but i enjoy it.

needless to say after two days of coming home at 7am, i am exhuasted, the only time i left my bed today was to eat lunch at 3ppm. hahaha, this week we dont have school monday becasue it is a holiday and i am not going to school the rest of the week because julia and i are going to buenos aires finally :)

it worked out nicely becasue i got to buy a dress and go dancing the day before homecoming back home, and i went out homecoming night too, so i didnt really bum out about missing it. it helps that i love it here so much, i am not homesick at all, i feel completely at home here, everyone treats me like i have lived here my whole life :)

anyways, i am sorry for not writing in this more, i just dont have time, or energy to write in it, i am sure i have left things out, so please comment or email me if you are curious about anything :)

les quiero :)
un beso enorme
rosita :)

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

September 22, 2010

i am sorry it has taken me so long to write something, i have been putting it off because i tell this story in pieces to like 10 people haha. anyways i dont know where i left off, so i will just update you on what i can think of.

this past weekend i had my rotary orientation, and it was a blast. we got lost on the way there, but lucky for me we didnt get as lost as the other people from my town haha. we got there and introduced ourselves and then we all went outside and did team building activites it was a blast. they are making a cd of pictures for us and they will give them to us soon and when they do i will post them. after that we ate, then sat in groups and talked about what was and wasnt an exchange student and things (in castellano) then had to share our opinions with the group...yeah that is super hard to do when you have no idea what is going on haha. anyways, then we just all hung out for a while, doing things and talking with people from all over. there are about 5 other girls from the usa, 3 people from germany (alemania) and one girl from france. one of the boys from germany (jakob) lives in chivilcoy too so now we are best friends. anyways that night we had a camp fire where we had to say 3 words that described exchange for us and then say what we were afraid of (connecting to exchange so not like i am afraid of snakes or something). then after that we went inside and sang kareoke :) it was so much fun jakob and i won prizes! haha yeah i am learning how to sing here so be ready for me to be the next american idol ;) we went to bed around 3am, and woke up around 830 for breakfast and things. that day we went over the 5 Ds and rules and stuff. then in our groups we had to make a play talking about something in rotary (a rule) so my group held like an AA meeting for all the kids who got sent home and we had to talk about why we got sent home (in spanish) and i was a drug addict. it was hilarious haha. the whole thing was so much fun. then i got home and showered and went to the plaza with the boys for a while which was fun.

monday i went to school, came home slept, then went shopping with cori for a dress for the quince which i am super excited about. i dont know if i wrote this in my last blog but i get to go to a quince which is like my super sweet 16 here but better. the quince is for vicky, a girl i play volleyball with who just happens to be the cousin of one of my friends here, small town i guess haha. anyways then after that i came home and got ready. javii came and picked me up around 1130 i think and we went to davids house for a while. then we went to benedicto where i saw jakob, and carla and carmela. i havent seen the girls since they have been back from bariloche other then cori so that was really nice, then we went to ozono a night club i have never been to, and danced and hung out til about 7am. i saw a bunch of people there because pretty much the entire youth population was in there for dia de primavera (we didnt haev school tuesday because it was the first day of spring) and all teh other night clubs were closed, so needless to say it was packed. i put pictures up on picasa so you all can see. then i went home and woke up around 1030am (about 3and a half hours of sleep) and went to la pampa (like a ymca but cooler) to hang out all day. i was there til about 7pm. so needless to say i am exhausted.

i dont really know what else to update you all on at this point, if you have any questions or you know i forgot something, please feel free to comment and i will write more :) your wish is my command...kinda. haha

i miss you all and love you all

un beso
aubrey (rose, rosita, rosey, rosa, breyy, auu)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

September 7, 2010

i am sorry it has taken me so long to update this, i have kind of been putting it off because i put a lot of time into it and it kinda is a burden ha. because i tell people stories all week so this feels like i am telling it AGAIN. ha anyways okay,

Monday/Tuesday: we took mery to the airport that was all that happened, i was supposed to start school tuesday but since we got home so late on monday night my mom said i didnt have to go. so then tuesday i slept pretty much all day and then started volleyball. julia went with me to practice, and i will just sum up tuesdays, thursdays, and todays practice now: didnt warm up at all, hit and set for an hour, then played 2 on 2 or 3 on 3 for an hour because like no one showed up, it is super boring. the coach doesnt do anything she stands there i dont think i have heard her say anything about volleyball. the girls i play with are not very nice they all give me dirty looks and things and they are a lot like my class mates which i will describe in a second. anyways i had my 3rd practice tonight and more people were supposed to be there but they were not, and i hurt my back and i tried to sit out and stretch and i got yelled at but then she let 3 other girls sit out. so julia and i decided i am going to quit that club and pick up running until i can either find another club or another sport.

Wednesday(School Summary): i woke up and went to school with my mom, she took a cab with me because it was raining, and after talking to with the like head master guy, i was taken to a class room. which ended up being the wrong one...haha. so then after starting to make friends and things, i got moved it was super. did i mention the uniform is hideous?? haha anyways so my classes are: biology, chem. physics, physcology, math, literature, english, labratory, and geography. and my only teacher that actually understands some english other than my english teacher is my math teacher which is somewhat unnecessary because her class is easy and it definelty my favorite other then english ha. anyways, i dont think they have other had an exchange student because they want me to take notes on a lecture in spanish and read a book in spanish that is similar to hamlet or romeo and juliet, so i am using google a lot haha. julia is going to come to school with me sometime soon and talk to my teachers about my requirements to pass, so i am just doing the best i can right now. on friday, i only went to school for one hour because all of our other teachers just didnt show up to school haha how awesome is that?? and then today to labratory room was being cleaned so for the two hours we were supposed to haev class, we watched a movie instead. and i onyl have 5 hours of school a day...awesome :) also on wednesday fede uno came over for my first guitar lesson. two hours later my fingers hurt and i had learned 7 cords :) hehe

Friday Night: was pizza night at javiis house, i went over around 930 and javii and rodii made pizza for me, them, juany, iggy, franky, tony, and bruu. it was soooo good. then after we ate for like 2 hours, we went to markos house to wish him a happy birthday :) he is wearing a neck brace because he fell two meters face first, poor thing. after that we went and picked up javiis mom and took her to work at sum the new night club here so i got to go in and take pictures and things wihtout it being packed with people which was nice. then we went back to javiis house and hung out. i left around 2am, which is super early to be going home but i was tired and things. i have pictures on my picasa account if you would like to see the happenings of that night.

Saturday: fede uno came over for 2 hours to teach me more guitar, and i am getting better at switching between cords but i need A LOT more practice ha. then after he left i got ready and at 11pm carla cori carmela and carolina picked me up and we went to fede unos quinta for a party. a quinta is like a summer home at the edge of town with a pool and things (the pool wasnt like functioning because it is winter here) and you go there in the summer for the weekend or the day or whatever. anyways the party was for bariloche which is where they all are now. it is about 20 hours south and is similar to our senior trips back home but they go for every year of secondary school. so the party was like woooo tomorrow we leave. anyways so we went and partied and i left around 4am because i was super tired. juany and iggy were my babysitters and so they took me home and things, the nice thing about having lots of guy friends is they all look after me as if i am going to break at anytime, so i feel safe. once again pictures on picasa, check em out.

Sunday: i ws woken up at 1030am by crazy bariloche goers outside of my house because they wanted me to say goodbye, so i got up and went out to see everyone, and then walked with them to their bus, and waved as they left me here alone for 10 days, i hate you all. haha then when i came home tia, tio, y mis primos were here for lunch. so we ate lunch, then dessert then the cousins and i went to aunt and uncles work shop to feed the chickens and drink mate. then they brought us home. those were the highlights of sunday because then i jsut did some homework and watched tv adn things.

My week consists of school and sleeping and eating pretty much right now, next week i am going to buenos aires with julia for a few days and missing school which is awesome. then that weekend i have my rotary orientation for the weekend so i get to meet all the students which will be nice. btu it is a bummer because that weekend is when everyone is back from barlioche so i will miss all the fun welcome back stuff. so that is what is on the agenda for now. oh adn this weekend i might hang out with franky so he can teach me some soccer stuff :) since fede is out of town and cant teach me guitar i gotta learn something else. :)

that is all for now, email me if you want details, have questions or whatever. feel free to comment on the pictures or on the blog. les extraño mucho, y les amo. un beso grand, chau
:)

Saturday, August 28, 2010

August 28th, 2010

my mom told me i needed to update my blog, so this is me with my updated life haha.

we are having issues pulling out money for the rotary, but i think its because we are trying to pull out 300 dollars in pesos which is about 1200 pesos, so i think the machines brain hurts when i try to do that, so tomorrow we are going to try for the 3rd time ha.

a girl from wyoming lives about 40 minutes away in another town called bragado, and i think she is going to come over sunday so she can see chivilcoy and we can trade stories of our headaches trying to learn spanish. no matter what we are doing we go to bed no earlier then 3am, we eat dinner at 10 or later every night its pretty great.

i went into town with a guy a met from canada my first night here a few days ago, we drank some mate then walked around and window shopped because neither of us wanted to spend money, then we went and ate some torta (cake) and it was so good. not as good as my sister julias cake but it was pretty awesome. then we rode around on his mo ped thing and he showed me the town and it was all really cool and pretty. i met his parents, they both grew up here but his mom has an american accent. they told me if i ever needed help or anything they would be there because not many people speak english here so that was nice.

i had my first rotary meeting that night, and thank god mery went with me or i would have been soooo lost ha. they all dont speak any english, but all we did was eat and listen to them talk about raising money for a baby boy wiht a heart condition. i donated 5 pesos and they all thought i was an angel or something it was nice. i got my first monthly allowance which is 150 pesos that night too. the food was amazing, we had meat empanadas, salad, and asado beef and chicken. then vanilla gelato wiht dulce de leche in the middle and chocolate on the outside. :) i have two counslers named juan, i say juan numero uno and juan numero dos because i dont know their last names (apellidos).

friday morning we had to get up and go meet my teachers at my school, they wrote some sort of document stating that i will get credit or something i dont know there were 5 people speaking spanish at once so i didnt really follow the whole conversation. then we went to a volleyball school and signed me up for the team. i have practice on tuesdays and thursdays from 7 to 8 but from what i understood i can stay til 9 if i want? i dont know. and we dont have to pay for a while to make sure i like it and want to play for them or wahtever which was pretty cool, i will let you know how practice goes. i start volleyball the same day i start school...tuesday, so i will be soo tired on tuesday. so i will let you know after tuesday ha.

then i came home and ate some lunch that julia made that was awesome then napped for a while, then mery and i went to her school to see our friends and i was like a celebrity. the teacher pretty much quit teaching and spent 2 hours talking to me in spanish and allowing the class to talk to me too. they all had so many quesitons and they said i was speaking spanish very well whcih was cool, and when i didnt know how to say something i had mery there to help. :) then when school got out, mery, carla, carmela, corii and i went back to merys house for mate and churros where they made fun of my accent and we talked about school and things. then we left and went shopping for some little accesories and we decided we were gonna go out to dinner and have a friends night.

so mery and i went home and got ready and we left for dinner around ten. it was me, javier, mery, carla, and corii. we ate at this place i dont remember the name, i have pictures i will post on picasa and facebook, but the pizza was AWESOME! mmmm then we got the bill and we were all going to split it but they made me not pay because i am foreign haha. then we went and got dessert at the same place i got the cake with nick the canadian ha, and we were there for maybe an hour. then javii left and we walked around for a while until carlas boyfriend picked her up, then javii came and got mery corii and i and we went back to his house and drank mate with his friends rodii and brunoo :) we drank mate and listened to music and talked until 330am. they asked me how to say things in english and i spent about 7 hours of that day speaking spanish so i was on a roll ha. i found out rodiis birthday is the 10th of november and he is 16 too, so mine is the 5th, his is the 10th, and katies is the 15th. party month!! :) then coriis parents came and picked us up and we finally came home and crashed.

and today i woke up with no voice. i sound like a man. i thinik it is from being so tired, and julia thinks it is also because i am stressing my voice to speak spanish so it is exhausted. i was going to go to a birthday party tonight with everyone but now i am jut going to hang out with julia and watch a movie or something. :) i need a few days of r and r but i doubt i will get it here, these people are loco!! haha

mery leaves monday for wyoming, and that is the latest update from the life of aubrey. i will domy best to write one at least once a week, so please be patient with me, i am very busy haha.

i miss you all and love you all lots
un beso grande :)
chau

aubrey

Monday, August 23, 2010

first few days

wow where to begin...
my first night  here i was thrown a party which i had mixed feelings about. i was emotional and exhausted and i didnt understand anyone but it was nice to meet people and kinda make friends. then i really made friends because we went out dancing til 5am. okay thats when you know these people are crazy haha. mery's friends are helping me learn a lot of spanish and they are very patient with me. they speak slow and repeat themselves and even when i dont use the right verb the correct me sometimes but most of the time they get what im saying so they dont really mess with it ha.

i slept til 3pm woke up and was homesick again. i put my clothes in the closet and that made me really sad, it kinda made this my official home if you will and i dont know if i am ready to quite dive into that fully yet. then we walked around the entire town and i saw many sights and things and took lots of pictures. i will put the captions on the pictures later i was too tired to do it last night. this place is gorgeous all the people are crazy drivers but are very nice. mery taught me how to make mate last night which is pretty much all i drink right nwo because i love mate and so does my family. i learned how to make it at 4am haha. then we went to bed at 5 becasue mery and i just talked down stairs for forever, then we had to wake up at 10 to go to the correo (post office) so i could send my first two letters to my family and my boyfriend. with buying stamps and sending two letters it cost a total of 80 pesos! you all are so expensive haha.

then i was very tired but i wasnt allowed to sleep because i had to go with my mama carmen to my school with my rotary counsler juan to talk to the head of the school about me going. i start in a week and my mama wants me to study and get good grades but for the next two months i doubt that will happen haha. my brain hurts with all my spanish being crammed into it.

i like that they are keeping me busy even though they think we arent doing anything but at the same time i feel like i need a few days jsut to kinda watch and learn and sit and read and write and hang out and just kinda observe the life. i jumped into it so fast my brain is having a nervous break down every few hours.

i told my host mom not to be offended when i cry, because apparently a lot of people think when you are crying on exchange its because you dont like them or their house or whatever so i told her that wasnt the case but i dont know how to say i am home sick or i miss my mom and dad or my boyfriend or my sisters or my friends or whatever. so i just kinda nod and smile and cry whenever i feel like it because my sisters said that is the best way.

i have talked to a lot of the other exchange kids that are in other countries that i know from back home and its nice to hear that they are feeling the same or if they have advice or whatever. its nice to have friends from all over the sectrum i suppose. so i guess to sum it all up the words would be chaos, overwhelming, awesome, stressful, depressing, fabulous, and new. and it feels likei have been here for weeks not 3 days by the way, thats how tired my brain is ha.

i miss you all and love you lots! feel free to email me or add me on face book
aubrey@hethnet.com
or Aubrey Rose Heth on facebook
if you comment my posts i read them but i am not going to write back ha sorry but i like reading all of them so please dont stop!!

besitos
aubrey rose

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Finally here...

I am using my host sister Julias computer so my punctuation and capitals are going to be somewhat non existant in this....ha
the airport was super emotional...we all cried, we all held back tears because we didnt want to be completely sobing in this middle of a bunch of strangers...i went through security alone, found my plane alone, rode it to dallas alone, transferred alone, and rode a ten hour flight to argentina where the only person who speaks english in my family is leaving in a few days for exchange. alone. my moods are as inconsistant as ocean waves, coming in heaps of excitement, sadness, nervousness, and scarednesss . i was able to sleep a little on the plane thanks to lack of sleep for the past two weeks and thanks to tylonal pm. when my plane touched down i got so excited looking at this beautiful place and then it hit me again...im here to see this with only my two eyes and no one elses. 
the rotary prepares you for lots of things, but no one can prepare you for this. everyone here is so excited you finally are here they forget you just left a whole life behind. everyone here is so nice and wonderful and i feel awful because all i want to do is sleep and watch tv and talk to my friends and have friends here, but for the next month or so thats not how its going to be. i am going to have to push myself to all areas of my soul to learn a new language, make friends, go to school, learn a new life style, re learn my entire life. its so scary but at the same time knowing that i can do it. will do it. makes it all worth it. i am already speaking more learning more and i have only been here a few hours. i know i can do this, and i am hoping it gets easier.
i talked to my parents on the phone when i got here and it was so hard. i didnt even see their faces and just hearing my mom say hello? made me cry. i miss everyone back home terribley, but not in the way i thought. i dont want to go home, i want them to come here. i have only been here a day and i already love it. i love how new everything seems, how different, how exciting.
my advice to any parent who may consider sending their child, do it. even though at the beginning it just hurts all over, it makes you such a strong independent person. my other advice is dont just take rotarys word for everything...because they don't know. i am so thankful i had laura to talk to because otherwise i would have been way more overwhelmed. for example, no one cares if you are wearing your rotary jacket or not, they wont give you the time of day because your a teen in their country not knowing their language, so being prepared to have to deal with people who dont want to deal with you is helpful. also, learn hand signals. rotary doesnt tell you how hard it is to communicate with people. i am lucky because my sister mery speaks english but she is leaving soon...which i dont even want to think about because without her i am screwed for a while...ha.
oh and apparently jonas brothers are a big deal here haha fyi.
i will try to write again when i am not exhausted and emotional. i miss you all i love you all, keep in touch.
besitos

Friday, August 20, 2010

Last Day in America

Wow thank you so much to everyone who came to see me and say a final good-bye. Your words of encouragment really mean the world to me and I will forever remember you all. For those of you who couldn't make it, you are all still in my hearts and I cannot wait to share my journey with you.

I am so overwhelmed with everything that has happened this past week. Running around Denver finding everything to help little miss me survive down in Argentina, pack two suitcases full of things and wondering if I am exceeding the weight limit because I have so much...ha. The most emotional part of this whole thing for me I think was tonight, the 19th. All of my close friends came by for one last good-bye and it is so hard to say "see you in ten months" as opposed to "see you tomorrow." But knowing I have all of their full support really gives me the strength to know I can do this. I am on an emotional rollercoaster, changing from sad to excited to anxious to nervous back to excited etc. But in the end I know I will have such an amazing time and learn so much how can I not be super excited?

I think tomorrow will be the strangest emotional feeling of my life. On one hand I turn away from the family whose always been right by my side to leave them for almost a year...but on the other hand it's finally happening, I am finally going to Argentina. I know there will be more tears more hugs and kisses, and even harder good-byes, but I know I will always have their full support in this and that is what makes me so excited. For those of you that are parents, I would strongly encourage your kids doing this in high school or college, because in the end, this kind of thing makes you a better person. I am so excited to start my life changing adventure, I just hope I feel that way when the first football game rolls around...

Monday, August 9, 2010

Departure Date!

So I finally have my departure date, its the 20th of August 2010 and my flight leaves at 2:00pm. I will arrive in Dallas at 5:00pm then have a two and a half hour lay over to go through customs and find my flight at all that jazz, then I will arrive in Buenos Aires Staurday morning! It is finally all coming together, I am nervous, excited, anxious, sad, I don't know how to handle it all right now, so I will keep you all posted. My going away party will be the 14th of August, we don't know the time yet but I will let you know! :) besitos

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Getting ready to leave!

Phew this has been a crazy few months, driving to Houston to get my visa, dealing with insurance trouble, always waiting for news from someone, etc. But I know it will all be worth it in the end. I am so excited, nervous, sad, scared, everything. I am making a blog which makes me feel kinda nerdy, but I figure this is the new age way to keep up with the happenings. I will do my best to post once a week, but I can't promise anything. Everyone's on edge at this point and I am just becoming more anxious by the day! I can't wait to tell you all about my new home :) well that's about all for now, ciao!