My First Two Days

I have only lived here for two days and yet I feel like I´ve been here for a long time. Each day there is something knew, and I expect it will be that way until I leave. Every night (atleast the last to) we eat dinner around 11:00 or 11:30 and then go straight to bed around 12:00. It´s very different, but I like the relaxed style. I usually wake up around 9:30 or 10:00 and Ago is already at school. Then it´s just me and Mani and sometimes my host mom. My host family is super nice. My mom is always making sure that I am good and my host sisters explain a lot. I think that my Spanish is improving already but who knows. It´s mostly hard to understand people because in Argentina, the people pronounce their y´s and double l´s like they are j´s. Also, they slurr over their s´s and talk super fast! But I read some English from Ago´s school book and she said it was just as fast. I usually can communicate what I want to say but I know my grammar is wrong.

I´m writing down everything...new words, customs, etc.
Here are some differences:
-There are stray dogs everywhere who don´t have homes.
-They have four meals! Merienda is between lunch and dinner and you eat dairy or maté to ensure that you are saved.
-There are concrete ¨ditches¨beside the street for water to run through. The water is for the trees and so is not there this time of year.
-The yards are very small and all of the houses in the city have gates around them for protection.
-When you ring the doorbell to be let through the gate, a live video of you appears inside on the doorbell telephone.
-There is a lot more English on the TV, signs, labels than I thought. It´s just English, no Spanish in some places. (But the TV channels in English have subtitles in Spanish.)

Yesterday I went with Ago to her English institute and listened in on the English class. It was interesting, much harder than my spanish class. Now, I am going to go to school with Ago to meet her friends. They also talk really fast but we´ll see. I miss home but not terribly. So far so good!

Okay, I´m here! The trip was long but I made it. I will make this short so I can be with my new family, but I wanted to let everyone know that I am in San Juan and feeling pretty good. There is a lot different and I need to improve my Spanish but my family is very nice. I´ll write later.

To start off...

In two days I will be headed off to San Juan, Argentina to live with a family and do community service. I am going with American Field Studies on a short summer program for five weeks and will be working at the orphanage called El Hogar de Ninos "Paula A. De Sarmiento." I'm excited to work with the children and stay in that orphanage for a good chunk of time. 

From this experience in Argentina I hope to gain a larger world perspective and knowledge of a different culture, people, and lifestyle. This is just one step towards becoming the person that I want to be. It will be one of many trips in my future. I hope to come back to the states with a new evaluation of my opinion on living in another country or doing community service...and I hope to make friends.

Although I am anxious now, I know that this exchange will be a life-changing experience no matter how it turns out. Now, back to packing!