It's been a little while since I've written anything, and I know that I need to continue honing my writing skills while I'm away, or else they'll go to hell like the rest of the things I have learned throughout my 12 years of public education.
Reading the blogs of exchange students past, it seems as though all have a similar trait in common: a summation of sorts of the bigger lessons gleaned from their year abroad. These revelations seem to be the biggest takeaways from an exchange year, and I think I just learned my first one:
Humans have a beautiful and innate ability to make a home wherever they may go.
You don't have to travel far to test this theory. Hell, you could camp out in your own backyard and eventually it would feel like "home", despite the absence of normal amenities and creature comforts. I feel that this theory is being realized here in Corrientes. Upon my arrival, my host family went above and beyond to make me feel at home. Even now they still remind me to rummage in the fridge whenever I please. Despite having everything I could possibly think of accommodated for me, this house didn't feel like a home until about three days ago. I don't know, it just kind of clicked that this was my bed now, my cereal, my dog, my yard, my sister, my mom, and my dad. This is my life now, for a whole year. I never felt uncomfortable here, by any means, but I still felt like a guest in someone else's home. I was honestly concerned that it would never feel like my own. Perhaps the moment clicked when I went upstairs to take my siesta a few days ago and found my dog waiting to cuddle up with me. Maybe it was when I made breakfast for my sister and I realized, "Oh, I know how she likes her oatmeal and tea, I don't have to keep asking". It could have been when I took a cab by myself, and the cab driver thought I was a native Argentinian because my Spanish was "rrre-buenooo" (very good). Maybe it is the summation of all these seemingly ordinary moments, that when viewed as a whole, start to form a picture that I am, indeed, becoming an Argentinian. Spelling it phonetically, "Sho soy unaaaarshentina!" In other words, "Yo soy una Argentina!" Making this realization that I actually have the balls to leave it all behind and start anew somewhere else, no matter where, makes me really proud of myself. It's only week two, and I can't wait for what else I'm going to face, the good, the bad and the ugly. Lucky for me, however, I have an amazing network of friends in the States, in school, with the other exchange students, and in both my families. I wake up each morning (slightly sleep-deprived but) more eager than I've ever been to test my limits, day in and day out, and to continue making a home for myself here in Corrientes.
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