017 Almost two weeks!

Hi everyone!

So I've been here in Argentina for over 10 days now and I got to say that I have loved it so far. Even though the nights are cold even for a Finn like me (mind you, I am half Colombian!), the temperature has rose to almost 20 degrees on the day time on somedays - and it's currently winter in here. Today has been by far the coldest day, temperature having been -3 degrees Celsius in the morning. Oddly enough, every time I'm cold, no one else seems to be but when they say it's cold, I'm like: "Nah, it isn't that bad."
But let's talk about something more interesting and relevant than the weather, shall we?
Like I said, I've been here for 10 days and during that time I have mostly used English and Spanish. Finnish I've only talked with my friends and family in Finland when texting or skyping and even then it feels really weird. It's like I don't recognize the language but still understand and talk it? Today I even sent a whole message in English to my best friend and didn't even realize I was using the wrong language until after I had already sent it. I'm starting to think in Spanglish, too... But I still get those Freudian slips in Finnish!
Regarding the languages, I do have that famous language barrier problem going on, but it's not as bad as I thought it would have been, This far I have understood everything that I've needed and supposed to understand, even if understanding the message has taken more than it should have. The thing is, I understand Spanish pretty well, but here in Argentina they pronounce differently and speak fast, so I have troubles understanding even a simple conversation when to Argentinians are talking to each other. When people speak to me, they seem to automatically slow down their pace and speak more clearly. It either makes me feel like I'm an old person who doesn't hear that well or like I'm a really young child who needs extremely simple and clear explanations to everything. But I don't mind, because at least I get the message.
I still have a lot to learn and I know I've already gotten too comfortable using English, but I need to study Spanish more, as I seem to have forgotten everything during the summer... In the school I notice the language barrier the most, since I don't understand anything the teachers are explaining. On the other hand, I wouldn't understand the lessons even if I was in Finland, because my current class is focused on business-related subjects. The only subject I'm good at is English and even in that I "suck" because I'm quiet all the time. Not because I don't know the answers or have the guts to say them out loud, but because here you don't raise your hand to talk - here you just shout the answers straight to the teacher. Survival of the loudest, you could say, and for the last 11 years I've been taught not to speak without asking for the permission to talk. I'm trying to learn how the school works here but it will take a while until I'm accustomed to the school... I already feel really sorry for my classmates and teachers in Finland. I will probably be a horrible student when I come back.
I never thought I would say this out loud but I actually miss studying and doing homework. I miss having exercises to do during the lessons or even having to listen the teachers, because I don't have those things in Argentina. All day long the teachers come and go and some teach us something, others nothing. Sometimes the teacher doesn't even come to school. And there has only been one lesson when the whole class was close to being as quiet as in Finland, and that was only because the teacher is so terrible and strict (according to my class mates - I won't say anything about that).
But the school is much more fun in here. More talking. More joking. More laughing. People like to ask me questions and they really want to know things. Today was a bit different in a way: I literally felt like an alien for the first time. First I spend a few hours writing words down from the dictionary, and the people kept asking me if everything was okay. Yes, I was fine, but I was just too bored to try and understand other people's conversations and not having anything to do that I decided to do something productive for once. Then some younger students met me and they just looked at me like I'm from another planet. They got so excited when I waved at them from a bit further away. It was weird that I kind of froze and suddenly didn't understand anything they were saying, because on my second day at school I spent a whole hour in front of my class, talking, and I was super comfortable doing so.
Apart from these things I mentioned the school is going well, I have a lot of friends there from different classes. Right now we have exam weeks so I think that is also one reason why things are a bit chaotic/unclear at the moment. I might be changing the class to another one where they have music and stuff like that and I'll have the right books, but that is not certain yet because that class has another exchange student already. But we'll see a bit later.

Phew, I sure talked a lot about school this time... Well, I've had one other problem too, and for me this has been the most difficult and toughest one. For the whole first week in here I had a lot of nauseousness and by that I mean constantly feeling more or less that you are about to throw up. It got a bit easier with time, but it was always worst when eating. Still, I always ate everything on my plate no matter how difficult it was, because I knew I had to eat. I felt bad for feeling unwell and having to force feed myself even though there was nothing wrong with the food. I think the main reason for my nauseousness was the subconscious stress before my school started and of course the different bacterial strain in here. Today I don't get it anymore - in fact I've been eating like a horse the last two days, constantly being hungry. So far I've loved every single food I've eaten and I'm starting to have a lot more appreciation towards meat. I've already eaten meat in more various ways than I've probably eaten during my whole life in Finland! Argentina truly is the right place for a meat lover.

Family-wise things are going pretty amazing. I love both of my (host) families and spend a lot of time with them, especially with my (host) sister. Shout-out to them for being awesome, loving, caring and generally really happy and fun people! And I need to give a special mention to my sister: here's to a person who takes me to the gym and football practice (that's right: I started to play football again AND I LOVE IT), a person who is like a big sister I never had, a person who is everything I admire in a person, a person with who I learned a special handshake yesterday and who came home today with a wide smile, did the handshake with me for the second time this day and then put some music onm brought disco lights in the living room and had a small fiesta with me! I can already tell she is going to play a significant role in my exchange year, as well as my Argentinian father and mother.

I feel so blessed to be in this family ♥ I couldn't have asked for more!!