It's on the eve of a day like this where I am reminded I'm nowhere near home, nor will be for a long time, that I miss the people I love and that I don't really fit in here.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and while the majority of you guys are going to be sitting around a table with your friends and loved ones, I'm here in Argentina, where they don't give you a 5 day weekend for this holiday. Sure, they acknowledge that tomorrow is Thanksgiving, but that's it. I still have class, in fact I have two finals tomorrow. We are putting on a flag football game (Indians vs Pilgrims) to commemorate a Thanksgiving Day football game.
I'm missing my family a lot. Most of them are together in Chicago, which is rare, but this month was my father's 50th birthday so my mom surprised him with flying family out to celebrate. No matter what I feel left out. As much as I would hate being home and would mostly be texting my friends complaining about how we dislike being home, I miss it now. I know that I need to be here in Argentina and am learning Spanish and a lot about myself, but there is nothing I yearn for, but to spend a holiday back home. Yeah, my parents are coming for Christmas break, but that doesn't count 'cause I won't be in MY house, sleeping in MY bed and spending time in MY home. Who knew I would miss it so much? I never really thought about the things that I'm really thankful for until I came here. I know for a fact that I've taken just spending time with my family for granted. Thank God for Skype and Facebook, but sometimes those just don't cut it.
It's almost been a month since I've updated this. I apologize for not updating you guys on my life. I have to say that not a whole lot has happened. We had this night, like BCU, LAC or Asian Night, called Festival of Nations. We made a booth like a 50s diner and had a bunch of American stuff to represent our country. It was interesting hearing the local students asking us what the things we had were significant to our culture. Honestly, it was hard explaining that it was just an era that we decided on. Mexico had a huge presentation, Argentina's booth was like one of the government buildings. To them, these things are WHO they are, but for us Americans, a 50s diner doesn't really fully express who we are. We all dressed up from different decades and took a ton of pictures.
Some of the girls and I entered in a soccer tournament. We thought it would be fun to play the local sport and see how far we could get. We knew we wouldn't get far since none of us had played together and we're from the US, where football and basketball are the forte of sports--not soccer. There were 8 teams and somehow the team I was on, made it to the final games and won 4th place. It was fun to play indoor soccer, not as much running, and to see the local students surprised that we had gotten that far. After some mishaps, we lost our last game and received the 4th place trophy. It was a bit disappointing because we could've beat the final team we played, but I was just proud we had gotten as far as we did.
I made another trip to Rosario for the weekend, this time with a less trouble. It, of course, didn't go all according to planned, but it was a fun weekend to get away and see a different part of the town.
Life here in the Villa has been quite...bland. Everything's the same. The students are taking their finals and getting ready to go on summer break. It's al ittle bittersweet because I feel like we just got here and now we're having to say goodbye to them and wait 3 months to see them.
Gordon Bietz, the president of Southern Adventist University (my school!), came down here and visited us. It was cool having him here checking up on us and getting feedback about the ACA program. We gave him some ideas he's gonna take back to the board. He's one of the people that are on the ACA board of all the schools in the world. Pretty sweet guy I MUST say...AND I got a picture with him. So that will be my profile picture until I see my family.
The first tri-mester is almost over. Friday concludes it. I have my schedule for the next one. Cramming 19 hours of class in. It's gonna be a long summer, but I'm determined to get these classes out of the way and do well in them. Peru is the next trip that we're taking. We'll be there from Dec. 5-10. It should be fun. We're going to Machu Pichu and some other cool places.
We have a student association here at the UAP for the ACA kids and I got the job of Public Relations Director. So I've been a little busy the past couple days, helping get things ready for tomorrow and the future.
Christmas break is just around the corner. I'm excited about where I'm traveling and seeing my family. Should be an interesting trip. Long bus rides (first one is 25 hours) and sleeping in many hostels.
Well I should get back to my studying. I have two finals tomorrow. Thank you for the continuous prayers! I appreciate them all!
Love,
Lauren
No comments:
Post a Comment