016 Aquí estoy!

Hello all!

First things first: I'm alive (obviously), I'm in one piece and doing very well! I've been on Argentine soil for about one and a half day now and I gotta say I couldn't feel better. Everything went better than well from the point when I left my home to when I got to Neuquén. I had the time of my life with the five other exchange students from Finland while flying towards my new home and new life. No delays, no problems with the security or getting the visa, no nothing. I was already prepared for the worst.

Well, at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport the travel clerk asked me if I had a visa. I had to tell her I didn't have it, since the embassy of Argentina had not gotten the "permiso de ingreso" from Argentina's migration office. As my return flight was booked to the next year, the clerk told me it was not possible to fly to Argentina because I didn't have the return flight booked to the next 90 days (that's how much tourist visa is). But that problem was solved after the clerk called to her manager, who had the complete access to my travel data.
I said goodbye to my family, cried a little, and then left to the journey of my life. First we flew to Amsterdam, which was all fun and games. But let me tell you: sitting in a flight over the Atlantic ocean for over 13 hours isn't that much fun. I mean, I had the best company and excellent service on the flight, but oh my god was my butt numb after the first hour! I couldn't even sleep because of it. I just kept on turning and accidentally knocking the people next to me until I had to take a short walk in the plane. Luckily I did get a few hours of sleep when I finally put my pillow on my friend's lap and slept there on my other side (the key to success was to get the weight off my numb butt!), but those two hours meant nothing when traveling for that long time and distance.

The view was absolutely gorgeus!!

It looked like a giant soft mattress!

When we got to Buenos Aires, we found out that one of the exchange students had a driver waiting for her, even though she had not been aware of it. All of us four, who were to change airports, had already bought our bus tickets, but then in the end I went with my friend took the "taxi" and the two other exchange students who were going to the same flight, went by the bus.
The driver was really nice man, he wanted to help with everything and he escorted us all the way through the luggage drop-off and check in to the point where he was not allowed to go further. Fun fact: he has been driving Rotary exchange students from Buenos Aires' international airport to Jorge Newbery's airpark for the last 15 years. He even had some business cards he had gotten from the previous exchange students! Such a
pleasure to know him.
We met with the other two exchange students at the other airport and ate together before we went to wait for my flight's boarding. After that I was on my own, but that was not a problem. When a man came to sit next to me in the airplane I challenged myself to speak Spanish as long as I could - you know, to see how long it would take until the man would realize I wasn't from Argentina. But I had forgotten I was still wearing my Rotary blazer which had the huge text "FINLAND" printed on it. So of course he started to speak English to me, asked me a little about my exchange year and explained that he had come to travel Neuquén for a while even though he lives in Ecuador, before he passed out for the rest of the flight.

Argentinas know how to pose!

I got to Neuquén airport, which was a lot smaller than I had anticipated. When I came inside, I immediately saw people waving to me. Some of my sister's (who is currently on exchange in Finland, but she's still my sister) friends were there with my host sis, dad, Rotary counselor and his wife. They all welcomed me with kisses on the cheek, which I am kind of used to already but it was still a bit overwhelming after almost 24 hours of traveling and definitely not sleeping. I was really excited and talked with everyone. The friends came to our home for a while. That was when I noticed the first difference between Finnish and Argentine customs:
No one took their shoes off. In fact, there was no hallway like almost every house and apartment in Finland has; when you step inside, you are already in someone's kitchen, living room or both of them. I tried to keep my shoes on, but it felt so wrong: I was so conscious about making the floor dirty. And when I took my shoes off, my host father immediately offered me slippers.
After noticing this small thing all the sleepless flights and situations I had been prepares got to me. I felt anxious and somewhat lonely because I couldn't talk with the people I know. I ate with my family but then I got so tired that I told my sister I would take a nap before we could go outside and look around for a while.

I ended up sleeping for the next 15 hours.

I'm still suffering from jet lag, but I have also been awake a pretty long time, used four different languages and done things with my host families: today I met my second host family and ate at their place. I gave them also some souvenirs, and actually got a gift from them too: a cute coffee set for me! Me and my sister went to the nearby river to walk the dogs and dip our feet to the super cold water. Unfortunately we can't swim there because the current is really powerful. Later we went to an artificial lake where there was a lot of people enjoyig the war weather on the beach, but no one was swimming. It looked so weird, and I kind of understood it when I went to walk in the water. It was cold, but hey: inFinland we first go to sauna where it's 80 degrees and then we jump in the frozen ocean when it's 20 degrees below zero! Finnish people were declared crazy after I told that to my host family.
We came home after randomly stopping at an acquaintance's house for mate. I burned my tongue for the second time that day but I got to admit, mate is pretty good - with or without sugar. When my mum introduced me to the other people she called me her daughter, which I found so sweet! Everyone really are so warm and welcoming here, making it as easy as possible to settle in..

Ruby and Apolo ♥ (I think their names are written like this but I'm not sure.)

Language-wise I'm doing surprisingly well. I have a lot to thank to everything I've learned from my father and the Spanish language courses I've taken. I understand almost everything when people talk slowly, but when two Argentinos speak with each other I'm screwed. Thankfully my sister can speak English, so she can explain everything to me when I don't understand or when I need to explain something beyond my own language skills. But all in all I'm doing well with Spanish and with my life in here. I've talked with my friends and family, told them I'm fine, but I can already see it's going to be hard to keep up with all the thing happening in Finland. I've also already noticed I'm starting to forget Finnish. My sister asked how do I say "good night" in Finnish and I seriously had to think for a while before it came to my mind. How fast can you forget a language? I'm seriously starting to believe more and more that I will forget everything else except Spanish and English during my year.
But now I'm off to eat, sleep and repeat (just kidding, though I don't have the slightest idea what I'm going to do tomorrow). Good night everyone, besos y un gran abrazo!