Category: 2017

Thank you everyone for a wonderful trip!  Have a relaxing and fabulous summer!

Today began like most other school days here in Argentina. My hermanas from Cary Academy and I put on the uniforms from North Hills. Although we all loved sporting the plaid skirts, polo shirts, and North Hills hoodie, I think it is fair to say we are all thankful for Cary Academy’s dress code. When we arrived at school, we spent time with the students who we hosted. We learned various proverbs and their Spanish translations. We made delicious alfajores, chocotortas, and bizcochuelos while listening to sad music. Despite our imminent departure, we happily hung out with our friends.

Our fiesta travelled outside to take numerous photos with old and new friends. The Cary Academy girls recreated a picture taken 3 years ago at North Hills. The boys gathered in the branches of a tree to take one final picture with their Argentinian amigos. The bell rang and our friends returned to their classes while we solemnly walked back to the beautiful library where we spent a lot of time. There, we listened to more sad music and practiced our presentations about Cary. We delivered presentations about Cary (in Spanish) to the students that hosted us. Besides some minor mistakes, it was evident that we all improved our Spanish skills.

Afterwards, we went to lunch with our Argentinian friends to enjoy one last ice cream cone filled with dulce de leche. After lunch, we spent time with both the students that hosted us and those that we hosted. Until 2 pm, we laughed, hugged, and cried. Before we knew it, our friends were summoned to their classrooms and us to the bus. I now understand why parting is such a sweet sorrow. Through the four weeks we spent with our exchange students, we found friends, brothers, and sisters that will always be in our hearts. Also, we have found families that love us unconditionally.

The Pilar exchange is unique because we don’t stay with the students that we hosted. Welcomed into two homes, our group has found that having two buddies equals more fun and love. We are currently on the bus to the airport in Buenos Aires. Contently exhausted, everyone is sleeping in their seat to relaxing music. As the trip comes to a close, I realize how much i’ll miss. I’ll miss the cuddle puddles in the grass at school, dancing to the music played over ryan’s speaker, and pigging out at break time in school. It will be odd to not kiss people on the cheek when I return to the United States. I’m thankful to have had a wonderful host family that welcomed my Spanish. The exchange has been one of the best experiences of my life, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of friends and teachers to travel with. Hasta luego, Argentina!

-Elizabeth

Well, today is finally the last day and I believe that it is fair to say that it was the toughest one yet. We started off the day by arriving at school to have our first class. This was an activity with our previous exchange students that we hosted. Our activity was to match proverbs and answer questions so that we as a group could learn more about ourselves.

After our activity we hung out by playing games, laughing and eating plenty of food. At around 10:00, we had our break so we went outside and continued to hang out for about twenty minutes. During this time, we took pictures with our exchange students for memories in the future. 

After our break, we went back inside to have an activity with our current exchange students. In this activity, we were divided into small teams and tried to solve riddles. After our activity we had lunch and hung out for the final time with our exchange students. This was by far the toughest and most emotional part of the trip. All of us were very sad because it was the last time that we would see the previous exchange group and it will be a year until we see the current group of students. After lunch and goodbyes, we departed for the airport to start our journey home. 

As I wrap up this entry, I do want to mention one last thing. Instead of dwelling that it will be a while until we see our Argentinian friends again, we should be happy of all the experiences that we had with them and be thankful that we had the chance to meet them. Thank you students and teachers for making this one of the most memorable trips of my life!

Adios,

Will

Hola chicos,

Today was a very exciting day for everyone in the exchange program. Today we started off by going to a meeting to between members of congress and certain students, and the students give presentations on how they wanted to help their communities. Next we went to a museum in the city of Pilar and looked at lots of cool artifacts from the city itself. After some more touring we got on a bus and headed back to school. At school we were given the opportunity to take part in Sports Day. For sports day all of us played both fútbol (soccer) and baskétbol (basketball). After school, almost everyone and their hosts went and walked around Las Palmas de Pilar which is a an amazing mall. Overall, it was an awesome day.

Chao,

Danny

Hola amigos, today is our 11th day in Argentina! I knew this day was going to be great because my amazing friend Danny had been ill, but was now able to return back for my daily dose of Danny. Parents will be happy to hear that all 19 students were in attendance today and illnesses have passed.

We started the day with an unexpected turn in a government building in downtown Pilar, Argentina. Soon after, we found ourselves waiting in a courtroom with few seats and a stray dog. Though unorganized, it was apparent that the students took this event quite seriously. The students came with materials prepared in order to voice their opinions. Los chicos americanos ventured off to the Expo Education Municipalidad del Pilar. This was a museum where we learned about the history of Pilar. We then ventured on to another government building where we ate lots empanadas. An important government official came and spoke to us for a couple of minutes about the culture in Argentina.

After this excursion we continued our walk back to the bus and waited for our students to meet us on the buses. A fabulous pair of silver creeper sneakers were spotted in the window of a shoe store, but because my suitcase was 56 pounds coming here I had to refrain myself from purchasing these beauties. We came back with full stomachs from the empanadas but still managed to eat some dessert and bread from the cafeteria. In the afternoon we played very productive games of both basketball and soccer. Maia didn’t break anyone’s finger this time, so I would say it was a pretty great day. Most of us then drove from school to Starbucks and hung out at Las Palmas. Though the trip is nearing the end, the bond continues to grow between students and our love for Argentina stays the same.

–Kate

¡Hola mis amigos! ¿Como te va? Day 10 here in Pilar was action packed, with activity after activity all day. The majority of our morning consisted of learning about Gauchos and Paisinas, which are the people who live in the more rural parts of Argentina. First we did an art activity with the students from the second grade of secondary school. The art teacher taught us about Gauchos and their way of life. They are the Argentinian equivalent of what we would think of as a ranch hand or a cowboy. Once we learned about the Gauchos lives we learned that they are generally portrayed in art in cartoon form, usually riding horses or relaxing and drinking mate (a traditional Argentinian tea). With these examples in mind we then worked together with the kids to draw cartoon versions of the Gauchos and Paisinas.

After a short break we had a literature class with some of our hosts. In this class we read part of a book written in the 1800’s that is well known in Argentina. The book had a poem-esque set up and was a traditional story about the life of Gauchos. While reading the book we searched for stanzas that explained the life of Gauchos and the struggles that they sometimes had to partake in. We then wrote these stanzas on paper and placed them with a picture, choosing front the ones we drew earlier in the morning, that we felt was representative of the stanza.

After some of the kids who visited us in America taught us how to do the traditional dance of the Gauchos, called the Chacarera. I think it’s safe to say that this dance proved to be much easier than the traditional Argentinian tango we learned yesterday. Once we became experts on Gauchos, and after a carb filled lunch, the time came to prepare short presentations about North Carolina. Although we won’t know when we will give these presentations, we do know that they will give the audience a nice overview of our lives at home and how our daily lives differ from theirs.

–Layne

After all these fun filled activities came time to talk to and eat, yet again, with the second graders from the primary school. Which, personally, was my favorite part of the day because I LOVE little kids. They sang us their favorite song in English about toys and played one of their favorite games that they enjoy to use in order to expand their English vocabulary. I can’t think of a better way to practice Spanish than being around a ton of excited little 7 year old cuties telling you about them and their lives. After our fun times with the little ones ended along with the school day, my host Cami and I stayed at school until 7 for drama club. This year the school production is High School Musical, so I got a little sneak peak of the show and the choreography of all the songs. Finally we came home to a fun night with the family and relaxing before a delicious home cooked meal. With the amount of activities going on the past week, it was nice to be able to relax at home with my host family for one night before we are back at it again for the weekend. ¡¡¡Adios y nos vemos martes Los Estados Unidos!!!

-Layne

Blog post from Eddy coming soon!

Today was sports day! We were all very much looking forward to it because on Friday it was a lot of fun. We are at a weird point where we miss exercise and have energy to run but are also super tired at the same time. This morning we played soccer for 2 hours. It was very cold and a lot of us kind of just stood around, but fun nonetheless. Eventhough Ivan was sick he came to school and played soccer. He was killing it in goal and got a lot of saves. He was the MVP for sure. We then had a little break before playing basketball. It was a lot warmer when we played basketball thankfully. Personally I liked basketball a lot better because it is a much more exciting game and easier for everyone to play. We played basketball for another 2 hours before lunch.  For lunch we had mashed potatoes, fish, pasta and ice cream. We were all pretty tired after lunch so we all just chilled in the sun for the break.

After break we went to hang out with the kindergarteners. They were so cute!!! We helped them make Argentinian flags out of different materials. After hanging out with the kindergarteners, we had a math class with some of our exchange students. It was called a math class but really we just did a bunch of different logic problems. We were all so tired though half of us fell asleep and the other half barely participated. The logic problems were actually pretty cool. We had to figure out ways to get people across a river or bridge given certain requirements about the people. The last hour of the school day we all just hung out outside again and listened to music. It was very relaxing. Overall another great day in Argentina!

–Maia

Today we started the day off with learning how to cook two common foods from Argentina. The first food was this type of cookie that would have something in the middle of it. In our case we used Dulce de Leche, a very popular dessert for people in Argentina. The other food we learned how to make was an empanada. This food is a really common dinner food in Argentina and is a really popular food to eat for dinner. Next they showed us the oven where they cook most of the food for the school and it was really interesting, and very different than in the United States. It was a huge cement oven with wood burning, creating a fast and efficient way to cook while still having a very good taste to the food. For the rest of the day we snacked on the empanadas. This was another thing that we noticed is very different from the United States, because the people here eat almost all the time.

After that we met with the senior class and had some good conversations. We played blind Pictionary with them, and although it was very hard it was funny to see the type of drawings that we came up with while blindfolded. After that one of my favorite parts of the trip happened. We got to go meet with a bunch of the ten year olds at the school. All of them were very energetic and very cute. They wanted to play every sport with us and were constantly running around and yelling and we both had a really fun time.

–Justin

After I went home though I got to experience some very real Argentinan culture through soccer. My exchange student took me to see his favorite soccer team, Racing club, play a match. The fans here are so much different than in the United States in the sense that they are much more passionate. For the entirety of the game they were on their feet, singing their clubs traditional songs, yelling, and playing the drums for the whole stadium to hear nonstop. It was an hour and a half drive both ways but overall very worth it, and if anything just proves how passionate people in Argentina can be about soccer and their favorite teams.

–Justin