6/19/2012
One week until I leave for Argentina! That’s crazy, this is something for which I have worked and waited for soooo long. Since a year and a half ago from when I talked to Karie about the program, until now, It is truly been my own trip. And what a trip! I’m going to be on another continent where I don’t know anyone! I’m very nervous, but I want to speak completely in Spanish the whole time.

I have been spending all this time getting ready, packing, reading, and getting everything together, but really I don’t think anything can prepare me. It’s going to be different than I imagine, but I have great feelings about it, because I have waited for this for so long. From deciding to learn Spanish in high school, and writing scholarship essays about wanting to study abroad, I have always had a heart to travel. New things, new people, new language, I am totally drawn to it; Drawn to the challenge, the appeal in learning how other people do things, how other people express themselves, how they eat their meals, how they build their cities.

I do feel as though I already have a foreign oriented mindset, most of my friends are from different ethnic groups than I. I already dove into the culture of MEChA (El Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlan), dove into middle eastern culture by dating a boy from Saudi Arabia. I already love culture, I know that. And I can’t wait to have a true experience of another people group’s culture. Who are Argentines? How do they live? What do they like? What makes the country tick, and how can I learn and grow from their perspectives and experiences?

Because that’s the real question. What can I lear about myself by learning about others? That’s the only way to truly know who we are. Exposing ourselves; Experimenting ourselves; Letting experience shed light on what is inside of us and what is outside of us. Everyone and everything can be a learning experience if we want to to be. 

This is a picture of my roommates and I on my last night in the states. We went to Applebee’s to celebrate!  Emily