Here I am, in the end of stay camp, ending my long adventure in the much loved Argentina. This is probably the worst camp I have ever been on in the history of camps. Everyones just waiting for their flights home, I don't really know anyone and I would do anything to be back in La Plata right now. ANYTHING. I've already said goodbye to so many people and every time I did it, I wished that I'd just turn back around and say "KIDDING!, I'm here forever!" but no, i couldn't. :(
On the other hand, I finally got to catch up with my friends from Norway and Annie and Maria from New Zealand again... That's about all that's good right now. Well apart from being on my way home I had a bunch of despididas (farewells), like I had in New Zealand which I'll write about.
First off, we had a party two weeks ago. There was a lot of alcohol, I didn't drink but for the sake of the dignity of my friends I'll say no more and that it was a whole lot of fun and I enjoyed it thoroughly! You guys are the best!
And then we all went to a Pizzeria on Friday night, we all waited outside in the freezing cold until we had enough people to go in and claim two tables, we still had more than enough people haha. The pizza was delicious and the company was even better, my friends gifted me a sweatshirt from my school which I've been wanting during my whole exchange but didn't know who to ask. You probably now see me wearing this same sweatshirt in all my photos, just cause It's like a representation of all my friends here in Argentina who I love so much. So much infact that after the Pizzeria, we all went outside for Icecream, chatted for a while and then went to say our goodbyes. Pretty much everyone cried. That was when I really felt like I had my own special place in Argentina, I can't wait to return. Sometimes I really wonder if I belong here more that I belong in New Zealand.
The Saturday following was probably one of the best ever outings, if not the best, that I have ever had in the duration of my life. Martin, Joaco, Ghersi, Uriel, Mora and I all went to the Children's Republic and spent the day doing what 6 teenagers do best. Nothing. We rode a few of the rides and played around on Mora's skateboard and made a video of probably the best ever court scene known to man! I honestly can't stop smiling when I watch it hahaha. This day was honestly so well spent and I still can't believe how I'm not going to see them all for so long, I don't think anyone can! Everyone I met here is so great!
The Sunday, I thought I was just going to stay home packing my bag sadly and moping around all day, when I actually ending up in the middle of town with more friends doing whatsoever just to spend time with me, we ended up going to the usual hangout table in Mcds and then making our way to more nothingness and finally ending up in a pancake restaurant. It's moments of spontaneousness that I'm really going to miss about these people, every day here was done spontaneously. Like if a teacher didn't show up, we'd go play soccer, or walk around town. Now that I think about it, Joaco promised to take me to the zoo on my first day of school...we never did. ohwell, All the more reason to return I say!
Monday morning. Bags Packed. The Realization of going home still hadn't set in, and I was on my way to the terminal ready to say bye to everyone, I honestly felt like the deceased at a funeral! I got there and Sophie was already bawling her eyes out, I saw my friends first, they were fine, but after I saw Sophie, I just couldn't take it anymore and some tears just started flowing as we hugged eachother, neither of us could believe it! I still can't. I turned around and saw Joaco, Juli and Martin waiting for me. More tears for the people I cared about so much, and then furthermore behind them was my family silently waiting, How much could I cry! Never have I felt so sad in my life, I swear I'll come back though! So I ended up getting on the bus and off I went to return back from my dream world and back into reality.
Pity that right now, I'm in this silly camp. It's honestly the biggest drag in between a dream and home, might aswell as spend it dancing horrible maori dances with the other new zealanders. Be home soon everyone, hasta luego Argentina!
Monday, 16 July 2012
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Two weeks left.
Two weeks left. Two weeks left. Two weeks left... every second, every minute, every hour of everyday I am living this horrid feeling that I'm having to leave this amazing place in only two weeks. It hangs in the back of my mind when I sit in class, at the dinner table, just in general really. I've been trying to spend my last few weeks by not being bored at home, and because of this, I'm lucky to have the time to write this post in between school and my Chinese class.
So after all my exchange there have been so many amazing changes and some things that have just stuck on. For instance, my entire exchange I've been so health conscious that I was starting to freak myself out. I have been running around 3-4 times per week and trying to eat as healthy as possible without starving myself, all just to find out that keeping out off in my exchange life is really impossible. I can now jiggle my belly :( . This probably isn't the most exciting story that you've ever read in your life but ya know, it's still important to me to be fit and healthy. That's why I'm quite proud of my parents in NZ for joining the gym and getting really into health! Can't wait to go back and join them! Other than that, after all my running and exercise, I've still managed to keep myself fit enough to go for long distance runs. SO I competed in a 10.3km race with Sophie in Berisso in the North of La Plata, and came like 65th or something out of everyone and Sophie came 1st out of the woman's section and got her trophy, which I took photos with just to make myself feel a little prouder. Although, I'm rather surprised I ran the whole way and still made it under and hour! It was a fun experience and probably my favourite memory with Sophie, I'm really going to miss her when we go back to our own countries!
Two weeks left.
I think the biggest change the I have made from my whole exchange was the major build of self confidence. Over all my time here I've really come to realise that if you need something, don't expect luck to get you anywhere, You have to work for it yourself and not let anything get in your way. I've really learnt what things are important in life and what things I should worry about or not. A really big eye opener really. I've realised that the thoughts and actions of other people shouldn't really affect your life or stop you in anyway in doing what you want, and I've really realised that life is so short and we can't really can't waste it on waiting for things to pass, so my advice to everyone who has nothing to right now, if to go see a friend and do something more constructive than the virtual lives on facebook, twitter and whatever else there is...ps3?
Monday after next.
The main reason I actually came on this exchange was to learn the Spanish language, and well, it's always been my dream to travel and I'm so grateful for the experience! But i'm sadly regretting to know that the 4 and a half months I've spent here aren't going to be enough to perfect my Castellano. I know I can have conversations, tell stories kind of and make my way round a spanish speaking country without problem, but I still make a lot of little errors, and I really wasn't expecting to do that once I had reached this time in my exchange. I would've had loved an extra few months to become so much better at speaking but ohwell, all the more reason to have to return after university to perfect it. Then make it to Europe afterwards because I've made too many promises with meeting exchange students that I really need to fufill.
Not gonna see anyone for a long long time.
The thing i'm going to miss most on my exchange is definately my classmates, they're honestly some of the coolest kids I've ever met and It just makes me a lot sadder to know that I have to say goodbye so soon. I feel like only now I've just started becoming really good friends with a few and I'm hoping our friendship will last for the rest of our lives, I'm going to miss them so much and surely think about them all the time in New Zealand. You guys better keep me caught up with the class gossip ok? Good. And I'll skype you all while you're in school.
I can't really think of much more to write about in this blog post, so I'm going to end it here because I really need to go to my second to last Chinese class and say goodbye to my friend who's going to China for two weeks! SO i'll just say, although a lot has changed in my own life and that I'm going to be really sad when I leave Argentina, I'm also quite happy to see all my old friends, my family and all the little things I miss, like carpet under my feet, New Zealand milk and most of all the fresh air of the place I call home!
So after all my exchange there have been so many amazing changes and some things that have just stuck on. For instance, my entire exchange I've been so health conscious that I was starting to freak myself out. I have been running around 3-4 times per week and trying to eat as healthy as possible without starving myself, all just to find out that keeping out off in my exchange life is really impossible. I can now jiggle my belly :( . This probably isn't the most exciting story that you've ever read in your life but ya know, it's still important to me to be fit and healthy. That's why I'm quite proud of my parents in NZ for joining the gym and getting really into health! Can't wait to go back and join them! Other than that, after all my running and exercise, I've still managed to keep myself fit enough to go for long distance runs. SO I competed in a 10.3km race with Sophie in Berisso in the North of La Plata, and came like 65th or something out of everyone and Sophie came 1st out of the woman's section and got her trophy, which I took photos with just to make myself feel a little prouder. Although, I'm rather surprised I ran the whole way and still made it under and hour! It was a fun experience and probably my favourite memory with Sophie, I'm really going to miss her when we go back to our own countries!
Two weeks left.
I think the biggest change the I have made from my whole exchange was the major build of self confidence. Over all my time here I've really come to realise that if you need something, don't expect luck to get you anywhere, You have to work for it yourself and not let anything get in your way. I've really learnt what things are important in life and what things I should worry about or not. A really big eye opener really. I've realised that the thoughts and actions of other people shouldn't really affect your life or stop you in anyway in doing what you want, and I've really realised that life is so short and we can't really can't waste it on waiting for things to pass, so my advice to everyone who has nothing to right now, if to go see a friend and do something more constructive than the virtual lives on facebook, twitter and whatever else there is...ps3?
Monday after next.
The main reason I actually came on this exchange was to learn the Spanish language, and well, it's always been my dream to travel and I'm so grateful for the experience! But i'm sadly regretting to know that the 4 and a half months I've spent here aren't going to be enough to perfect my Castellano. I know I can have conversations, tell stories kind of and make my way round a spanish speaking country without problem, but I still make a lot of little errors, and I really wasn't expecting to do that once I had reached this time in my exchange. I would've had loved an extra few months to become so much better at speaking but ohwell, all the more reason to have to return after university to perfect it. Then make it to Europe afterwards because I've made too many promises with meeting exchange students that I really need to fufill.
Not gonna see anyone for a long long time.
The thing i'm going to miss most on my exchange is definately my classmates, they're honestly some of the coolest kids I've ever met and It just makes me a lot sadder to know that I have to say goodbye so soon. I feel like only now I've just started becoming really good friends with a few and I'm hoping our friendship will last for the rest of our lives, I'm going to miss them so much and surely think about them all the time in New Zealand. You guys better keep me caught up with the class gossip ok? Good. And I'll skype you all while you're in school.
I can't really think of much more to write about in this blog post, so I'm going to end it here because I really need to go to my second to last Chinese class and say goodbye to my friend who's going to China for two weeks! SO i'll just say, although a lot has changed in my own life and that I'm going to be really sad when I leave Argentina, I'm also quite happy to see all my old friends, my family and all the little things I miss, like carpet under my feet, New Zealand milk and most of all the fresh air of the place I call home!
When good goes to bad.
So as some of you might know, I planned a trip for myself to go down to the southish middle of Argentina to a city called Neuquen, to go catch up with my friends from Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Turkey, Italy, Denmark and Sophia from New Zealand. It was planned to be a great trip including going to neighbouring towns and visiting cool sites like the museums in Chacon and so on and so forth. But little did I know what was going to happen wasn't actually going to be too much fun.
So I started off by organizing really well with my coordinators what I needed to do to be ready for my trip in Neuquen, I emailed AFS NZ asking for permission, got all the details from my consejero (coordinator), told my school that I wasn't going to be there for 3 days or so, and did everything that I was supposed to do and badabing badaboom, ya esta, I was off and buying tickets for my 5 days trip to the south to stay with Sophia! The day finally came, my bag was packed and there I was waiting for the bus from La Plata to Confluencia (Didn't have a clue where that was, so I presumed it was the name of the station). After about 16 hours on the bus, we had arrived in General Roca, which is one hour from Neuquen...but I still had about 6 hours left of my trip. This is when I decided that I should try figure out where the hell Confluencia is...I asked some other passengers and they had no idea but they we're still nice enough to help me, in the end they actually couldn't figure it out and I asked the driver myself haha, he told me that it's actually on the outskirts of Bariloche... nowhere near Neuquen.
Once we arrived in Neuquen, I decided that I should get off and change my tickets because something seriously went wrong...luckily I didnt sleep for another million hours and wind up in the wrong city, it's like travelling from Wellington to Hamilton, then accidentally ending up in Russell... Well it was about 7am at this point and Sophia wasn't expecting me until 12, so I called her anyway and made her come and get me. Within the first 10 minutes we were cracking up and almost crying with laughter at our own awkward stories, especially with the kissing people on the cheeks, we've decided that New Zealanders probably come off as the most awkwardest people in the world! I spent the rest of the day catching up with Sophia in Senillosa and drinking mate down by the river, probably one of my favourite afternoons in Argentina.
The next day was spent just hanging around with Nicko(Nikcko, Nico, Niko) I'm actually not sure how to spell it as I've seen it in so many forms..- and some other friends aswell. In the afternoon, we travelled to Plottier and caught up with Manolya from Turkey and had some coffee to end the day, then we returned home. Yes, I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but it was actually really nice to catch up with friends and hang out for a bit, Besides, The Saturday night, Sunday and Monday We had planned to go out and do everything, but that was before all the problems started to roll in on the friday...
Friday morning, we got up and I realised that I couldn't find the 1000 pesos that I had travelled with... this actually counts up to around $300 NZD...today I still can't find it, so I decided that I must've been pickpocketed, not very good for a start to the day, next thign we did, was we went to Sophias school and asked if I could come along with her, the teachers said yes and I went along to a computers class with her, we did nothing but go on Facebook for an hour or two.. after that, they had a big flag assembly, and then point at me and Sophia and told us we had to leave the school, so they put us in a little room during the ceremony and then kicked us outta the school... we thought it was quite rude after they had just said we could come in...same teachers too.. so we decided that we'd have a day trip to Neuquen...that's when the next bad thing happened, we got a message from Sophia's consejera saying "Zac has to return to La Plata", we were confused why and asked why, she said "They're asking for him in the capital". not the most nicest messages to hear when you don't have a clue whats going on.. so after an hour of panicking, we arrived en Neuquen and met up with Nick from Germany and I went off to the side for a while to get explanations from the volunteers from La Plata. They told me that I didn't have permission to go to Neuquen, that I didn't have anymore days to skip school on my exchange and that my family wanted me back for fathers day on Sunday. However, I hadn't missed a single day of school for my entire exchange, I know my family well enough to know that they didn't mind, and it turns out AFS Argentina had a miscommunication with AFS NZ which meant I didn't have permission. So, in the end I went along with what AFS was saying and returned early from my trip to my home in La Plata where my family was just as angry as I was.
So, why did AFS make so many excuses to me and send me home? Because it turns out that one woman, a mother of one of the students (that all the students hate because she doesn't let them do anything - They call her the b**** mum of Neuquen), was afraid of about 15 exchange students getting together for a party in General Roca. So this initiated what I like to call, "lets give Zac and the other exchange students as many excuses as we can to send them home plan". A few of us were then spending that night in the Free Peanuts Bar, trying to figure out what was going on and it all turned out to be the woman. I now really think the worst decision I've made on this exchange was to follow AFS and go back to my city early, because now I missed out on my chance to meet my friends from Norway and Iceland and I might not ever see them for the rest of my life, they were one of my main reasons for going to Neuquen in the first place! And now my family here is still angry, I'm still pretty annoyed and we're still waiting for some sort of apology from AFS, because in the end none of this was my fault and I lost a lot. uh, ohwell, life goes on I suppose.
So I started off by organizing really well with my coordinators what I needed to do to be ready for my trip in Neuquen, I emailed AFS NZ asking for permission, got all the details from my consejero (coordinator), told my school that I wasn't going to be there for 3 days or so, and did everything that I was supposed to do and badabing badaboom, ya esta, I was off and buying tickets for my 5 days trip to the south to stay with Sophia! The day finally came, my bag was packed and there I was waiting for the bus from La Plata to Confluencia (Didn't have a clue where that was, so I presumed it was the name of the station). After about 16 hours on the bus, we had arrived in General Roca, which is one hour from Neuquen...but I still had about 6 hours left of my trip. This is when I decided that I should try figure out where the hell Confluencia is...I asked some other passengers and they had no idea but they we're still nice enough to help me, in the end they actually couldn't figure it out and I asked the driver myself haha, he told me that it's actually on the outskirts of Bariloche... nowhere near Neuquen.
Once we arrived in Neuquen, I decided that I should get off and change my tickets because something seriously went wrong...luckily I didnt sleep for another million hours and wind up in the wrong city, it's like travelling from Wellington to Hamilton, then accidentally ending up in Russell... Well it was about 7am at this point and Sophia wasn't expecting me until 12, so I called her anyway and made her come and get me. Within the first 10 minutes we were cracking up and almost crying with laughter at our own awkward stories, especially with the kissing people on the cheeks, we've decided that New Zealanders probably come off as the most awkwardest people in the world! I spent the rest of the day catching up with Sophia in Senillosa and drinking mate down by the river, probably one of my favourite afternoons in Argentina.
The next day was spent just hanging around with Nicko(Nikcko, Nico, Niko) I'm actually not sure how to spell it as I've seen it in so many forms..- and some other friends aswell. In the afternoon, we travelled to Plottier and caught up with Manolya from Turkey and had some coffee to end the day, then we returned home. Yes, I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but it was actually really nice to catch up with friends and hang out for a bit, Besides, The Saturday night, Sunday and Monday We had planned to go out and do everything, but that was before all the problems started to roll in on the friday...
Friday morning, we got up and I realised that I couldn't find the 1000 pesos that I had travelled with... this actually counts up to around $300 NZD...today I still can't find it, so I decided that I must've been pickpocketed, not very good for a start to the day, next thign we did, was we went to Sophias school and asked if I could come along with her, the teachers said yes and I went along to a computers class with her, we did nothing but go on Facebook for an hour or two.. after that, they had a big flag assembly, and then point at me and Sophia and told us we had to leave the school, so they put us in a little room during the ceremony and then kicked us outta the school... we thought it was quite rude after they had just said we could come in...same teachers too.. so we decided that we'd have a day trip to Neuquen...that's when the next bad thing happened, we got a message from Sophia's consejera saying "Zac has to return to La Plata", we were confused why and asked why, she said "They're asking for him in the capital". not the most nicest messages to hear when you don't have a clue whats going on.. so after an hour of panicking, we arrived en Neuquen and met up with Nick from Germany and I went off to the side for a while to get explanations from the volunteers from La Plata. They told me that I didn't have permission to go to Neuquen, that I didn't have anymore days to skip school on my exchange and that my family wanted me back for fathers day on Sunday. However, I hadn't missed a single day of school for my entire exchange, I know my family well enough to know that they didn't mind, and it turns out AFS Argentina had a miscommunication with AFS NZ which meant I didn't have permission. So, in the end I went along with what AFS was saying and returned early from my trip to my home in La Plata where my family was just as angry as I was.
So, why did AFS make so many excuses to me and send me home? Because it turns out that one woman, a mother of one of the students (that all the students hate because she doesn't let them do anything - They call her the b**** mum of Neuquen), was afraid of about 15 exchange students getting together for a party in General Roca. So this initiated what I like to call, "lets give Zac and the other exchange students as many excuses as we can to send them home plan". A few of us were then spending that night in the Free Peanuts Bar, trying to figure out what was going on and it all turned out to be the woman. I now really think the worst decision I've made on this exchange was to follow AFS and go back to my city early, because now I missed out on my chance to meet my friends from Norway and Iceland and I might not ever see them for the rest of my life, they were one of my main reasons for going to Neuquen in the first place! And now my family here is still angry, I'm still pretty annoyed and we're still waiting for some sort of apology from AFS, because in the end none of this was my fault and I lost a lot. uh, ohwell, life goes on I suppose.
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