It felt very strange on Saturday night after a bunch of my friends had left for the airport to go home and I was moved out of my host family. It was just strange still being in Buenos Aires but without the people I'm used to and my "home." I still had some friends in BA that are staying after to travel so we went to dinner together and drowned our sadness in meat (at La Cabrera, the amazing parilla I went to and blogged about in one of my first posts. This may or may not was my fourth time there...) It really felt like the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one. Cheesy, but true.
I honestly feel like I didn't fully adjust to living here until the last six weeks. A lot of people say this is why it's better to go abroad for a full year instead of a semester. I'm still happy with my decision to go for a semester, as I feel very ready to go home and get back to normal life. Nonetheless, I will miss my life in BA a lot. It's pretty incredible that my typical weeks here consisted of going out to fun restaurants, concerts, fairs, traveling on weekends, hanging out and talking with friends in cafes on lazy weekend afternoons and going out till 6am (only on occasion, of course.) Not a bad life at all.
Also, I realized that by the time I come home, I will have taken 11 trips. Here's a recap, in chronological order:
1. Gualeguaychu (for Carnaval)
2. Patagonia (amazing glaciers, the most gorgeous scenery I've ever seen)
3. Iguazu Falls (WATERFALLS. trip with the parents :)
4. Colonia, Uruguay (cute old town, World Heritage site, IFSA trip)
5. Mendoza (wine-tasting and paragliding)
6. Salta/Jujuy (salt flats, adorable little towns with llamas and alpaca products)
7. Rosario (cute city, other IFSA trip)
8. Cordoba (second largest city in Argentina, last hurrah trip with friends)
9. San Antonio de Areco (cute gaucho town near BA, went with my friend India overnight a few days after the program ended)
10. Montevideo, Uruguay (where I am now! With Molly, a friend from home AND Tufts)
11. Cusco, Peru (Machu Picchu)
On a more serious, introspective note, the end of the semester has made me reflect on myself and how I've changed in the past few months. I feel like I gained a lot from the experience that I didn't expect. What I expected and hoped to gain was an improvement in my Spanish. I feel like I have accomplished this, but just as if not more importantly, I feel like I've grown a lot as a person. Sounds stupid, but I feel like I am significantly more independent than I was when I left. Makes sense that living in a foreign country and having to figure things out for yourself will do that to you. I also feel like I've learned to take advantage of opportunities and not let fun things pass by and to live in the moment. If someone asked me to check out a cool fair or go to a concert, I almost always went because I thought "Why not? I'm only in BA once. 'Hay que aprovechar.'" (You have to take advantage.)
It's been an incredible semester, especially the past two months after really settling in, but I'm also very much looking forward to coming home. With my friends being home, it feels like our time in Buenos Aires is done and I should be home too.
But first things first: Uruguay and Peru.
Home July 25 :)
Me, India, Charlotte in Cordoba
Erika, me, India in Rosario
