I stayed with Meli, the student I hosted in April after tango and throughout the morning. We ate breakfast, had complete conversations in Spanish, and they gave me a box of Yerba mate and other nice gifts. Around noon, I went back to my host family. My exchange student, Delfi and I rested for a few hours and I began to pack for the trip back home to the USA. A few hours later, we had asado for lunch, which was delicious. We used the barbecue sauce I brought the family with the asado. They also gave my family and I very nice gifts while we ate, and I thanked them for allowing me to stay in their home and making this trip so memorable and amazing.
Around 4pm, we left the house to go to the house of one of Delfi’s friends, Male. There, Delfi, Male, I and a bunch of other girls hung out in her backyard and ate a ton of amazing snacks like medialunas, alfajores, and cakes. Our group then went to Male’s neighborhood soccer field and played soccer for a while, North Hills girls against Cary Academy girls. It was pretty relaxed and extremely fun. We stayed there for about an hour. Afterwards, we went back to Male’s house and relaxed until everyone else got picked up. After a while, everyone was gone except for Talia, Kathryn, their host students, Delfi, and I. We decided that we were going to continue shopping because we still had a lot of pesos left over. Kathryn, Maxima (her host), Delfi, and I rode together to the shopping center, Palmas while Talia and Male, met us there. We kept shopping for a few hours, got dinner at a restaurant named Patagonia, and left at 10pm to drop of Kathryn and Maxima. When I got back to Delfi’s house, I finished packing, and we talked about how sad we were because I would be leaving the following day.
–Jordan
Unlike most Sunday’s, I began this one with a groggy bus ride back from a surprising enjoyable Tango night. Everyone was so tired in the bus, that we were all a little bit off when we got off the bus. Landon, Vicky, Quinn, Talia, Samantha and I were laughing at the most random things because we were too exhausted to act normal. It was around 12:30 AM when we arrived back to the school. From here you would think, it’s really early so we should be heading home for bed right? Wrong. I, along with some of the friend I mentioned before, were headed to a party at Ryan Schaffroth’s host’s house (her name is Pilar). At around 1:00 AM, Augusto and I arrived at the house. Just like any party, at the very beginning, it was a slow because everybody was a little uptight. But with some time, Landon and I got everyone to dance. So for 2 ish hours, everyone danced and had a great time, playing music and dancing. Then, around 3 everything started to calm down because people either were leaving or were too tired to dance. At this point, it was only a matter of time before I got bored too, luckily around 4, Augusto’s mom came and we headed home; for real this time. Upon reaching the house neither Augusto, nor me hesitated, as we headed straight for our beds. Within 15 minutes of arriving home we were both in bed passed out.
Fast forward to about 10:15, Augusto came into my room to wake me up. Since today was our last day together we decided to go shopping. I’m going to be honest, I fell asleep after he woke me up for 10 minutes. Around 10:30 I dragged myself out of bed and threw on some jeans to go to the shopping center. His mom drove us over, and once we got there, his parents and Augusto and I split up. Augusto and I went around looking for clothes and other teenage items, all of which were more expensive than I had originally assumed. That being said, I was still able to buy a few things for myself and some for my family as well before lunch.
In the food court at the shopping center, there was a Chinese restaurant; and for some reason, I was craving Chinese food, so together we all went to the restaurant. There, I had friend rice with shrimp, which really reminded me of home. After a good long meal, we headed home.
We didn’t really have much else planned for the rest of the day until 7:30, so for about 4 ish hours, Augusto and I just talked and played on our phones. We also watched his brother play a round of League of Legends.
Once 7:00 came around, we started getting ready to leave, which consisted of putting on a jacket and shoes. The party was at Maxi’s house but we just call him Tincho. At the party, we played ping pong, mingled w friends and ate empanadas. It was a normal party, nothing out of the ordinary. Because time flies when you having fun, it seemed like the party had just started, when Augusto told me it was time to go.
We arrived home at 11:45 ish, which was not as bad as yesterday. I was tired but I still had to pack so I took everything out and counted it all, then I put it back in my suitcases. It was tough to repack my stuff, because I felt like I was putting away all the memories I had made here, and not giving me anymore space to make new ones. But it is was it is. Around 12:30, I finished packing and hopped in bed, happy about the time I spent on Argentina and all the new people I met. I’m glad I put the time and effort to become close with others, and I feel like I will be coming back to America a new person.
–Brandon
To start off the nice morning I woke up around ten, after a long night at the tango dance. The morning was very relaxing. The family first prepared toast with dulce de leche and other types of creams and it was delicious. The meal was very long but it was a good time to sit down and connect with the family. During the meal we discussed mainly sports regarding many countries. It was interesting learning about how important soccer and rugby is to them. Each family mainly supports a team and follows how they do throughout the season. After this Fermin (my exchange student) and I went to my room and watched a movie in English with Spanish subtitles called The Purge. Although we ended up talking through most of the movie it was still enjoyable.
After the movie had finished I went and took a shower to prepare for the rest of the day. To start I drove with the family to a nice restaurant for lunch. At first it was not very crowded but then later on many people showed up and it was fun to see all of the families connect. To start the meal off there was bread and a starter drink, it was some fruit drink I had never tried before however it was very tasty. They then brought out the food, everyone in the family ate burgers and they were also good. I noticed that they were different than most American burgers. The bread was much more thick but had less flavor and inside there was egg and bacon which I did not expect. After the meal we left and went to a near by mall called Paloma. It was more of an outdoor mall that reminded me of California however much less crowded. I went and bought gifts for everyone in my family and it was another good time to practice my Spanish. I talked with the salesmen at the different shops to figure out the best jewelry and clothing that my family would like. We spent about two hours looking around and shopping. After this we left and went to a friends house named Pancho where we had tea and played soccer. It was with about ten kids for three hours and we all had a good time.
I then headed to Thiago’s house who I hosted in the United States. I had not seen him all week so it was a good time to catch up and talk with him and meet his family. We first played ping pong and pool which was fun, and then we had an asado. An asado is like a feast with many different kinds of meats. It was a very good dinner and we had good conversations about Argentina and America. That ended the night and we all went to our rooms. It was a fun and exciting day.
–Jackson
