A Reflection

It's been two weeks since I arrived back home from Argentina.

These past two weeks have been a blur, but even more than that, Argentina has become somewhat of a blur.  One of the most unfortunate things about study abroad is that once it's over, you don't know when you'll be back next. Argentina is a country in turmoil, and because o that reason it makes me unsure of when I'll return.

When I left on the 12th, I left a piece of my heart in Buenos Aires. Saying goodbye to our host mom was one of the most heart-wrenching experiences I've ever had to go though. She held on to me and my roommate as we bawled our eyes out, and told us not to cry and how the past four months had been an absolute pleasure. She reminded us that we always had a home in the city, and made us promise to return one day. As she put us in the cab, we rolled down the window and she reached in and held our hands. My heart broke.

Jenn and I just cried our way to the school and cried again once we got there because it finally hit us that we had to leave the place we called home for four months.  After traveling and arriving back in the states, it seemed as if my life turned back to normal- and I don't like that.

I love my life, don't get me wrong, but being home has seemed to blur my study abroad experience. I don't know how to explain it, but these past two weeks have gone by so quickly and have seemed like an absolute lifetime. I feel so distanced from my experience and I feel like it happened years ago.  Maybe it's going back to my normal at-home routine, but it saddens me to feel like my experience hadn't actually happened.

But it did happen. And it was wonderful.  Every day I look back at my pictures and remember how awesome of a time I had. I showed my pictures to my family on Thanksgiving and it made me unbelievably happy.  Argentina had it's ups and downs, but it was part of my life I'm never going to get back, unfortunately.

Argentina taught me more than just spanish.  Those four months in Buenos Aires I learned more about myself than I could ever imagine. I was so lucky to have my roommate, Jenn, to push my limits and help me explore and become more open.  I'm more confident and willing to try new things, and I can't thank her enough for that. My host mom is a woman I'll never forget. She was crazy and wonderful and mostly crazy.  I wish I had opened up to her earlier, but I'm so glad I did and I'm eternally grateful that she had the opportunity to meet my dad.

I'm never going to be able to get back those exact experiences in Argentina, but I guess that's ok.  These past four months of my life have been incredible.  I would never want to replace the memories I made, no matter if they're blurred.  What I do know is that I'm happier than I've ever been and more confident in my abilities to do what I want to do in my life.  I grew up.

And I couldn't be more thankful.

Thank you for reading my blog, and thank you for following me on my adventure, it's been quite the ride.  Muchas gracias.

Te amo, Argentina.  Te extraño, Argentina.

Chau, un beso.

- Meagan

HOME!

I'm home I'm home I'm home I'm home!!!!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I landed safe after a day of traveling and I'm thoroughly enjoying my first night at home.

My dad was able to recover my photos from Iguazú off my memory card, so it officially looks like I'll have everything I lost when my laptop was stolen!!

I'll be writing a reflection later in the week on my experience, but for now my contacts are blurring and I think I need to catch up on sleep.

I love home.

- Meagan

Almost Done

Classes are done!!! Today we had our last day of trekking to the school and we got the rest of our grades from our professors. I manage to pull out a 4.0 semester and I couldn't be happier!

Not much has happened over the last week. We've been studying for finals and mostly just winding down our time. Tuesday night we went to a bar which was broadcasting election coverage and it was PACKED. I've actually never been so sweaty just sitting down doing nothing in my life. We stayed for a bit but ended up going home and watching the rest on our own.

The rest of the week has just been getting grades. I finished up some last minute shopping and I'm all done except for snacks. The weather has been absurdly hot but it's going to cool down tomorrow and rain so ill probably start packing- AH.

Today marked our last day at UB, and after Jenn and I came home and played some scrabble and made terere, which is essentially cold mate with juice! It was surprisingly delicious!

I can't believe I leave in just 4 short days and will be home in 5, it's been a whirlwind.

Until very soon,

- Meagan

Finals Week Grind

Hey, so remember that time I come home in 12 days? Yeah my life is insane.

We started finals today... What? Yeah these tests have snuck up on me like nobody's business. School in Argentina is very laid back, and there usually isn't work besides midterms and finals, so we're all feeling a little over loaded.

I had my first exam today which wasn't fun, but then two papers and three exams between now and Tuesday so my life is currently a joke. Also blogging without a laptop sucks. Sorry there are no pictures. There is no good way to add photos with an iPhone on the blogger app.

Last Friday we went to finally pick up our visas, because that makes sense with two weeks left, and then we explored Palermo and got some delicious American style food! After that a group of us went to the US Embassy to VOTE!! It was my first time voting and it was certainly a special way to do it. There was a children's Halloween costume party happening in the embassy and Disney background music. Perfect.

Catedral de San Isidro 

Saturday Jenn and I went and explored San Isidro in the suburbs and then back to Tigre. I'll post photos once I'm home! (UPDATE: I upload pictures to my roommates computer!) We were then super tired and crashed when we got home. Sunday we had a day event in San Telmo to go shopping, and it looks like I have some more last minute gifts to buy this coming weekend.

I can't believe how fast this is going. I can't wait to come home though!! Until next time...

- Meagan

An Iguazú Weekend

Before I start on how amazing my weekend was, I need to get this whole robbery story out of the way.  Yesterday I was sitting in a Starbucks with my roommate, and I left to go to the bathroom so I left my laptop with her. In the two minutes I was gone, a group of people distracted my roommate, and used that distraction to swipe my laptop off the table without her noticing. I had a major mental breakdown in the middle of the restaurant and I probably can't show my face there ever again but I did all I could. I filed a police report, and remotely wiped my computer using find my iphone, and that function went through today, so take that thieves.  Losing your laptop absolutely sucks, but i'll be home three weeks from today, and I know I can survive until then without any issues.

Back to happy talk.  

This weekend I went to Iguazú Falls with the group and it was quite possibly one of the best weekends ever! Unfortunately I lost the good files of all my photos from the weekend in the robbery, so the facebook versions will have to do.  

On Friday morning we left for Iguazú and of course, it was raining like it always is in Buenos Aires. We boarded our morning flight and made it to Iguazú before noon, and eventually headed to our hostel. Originally we were told we would be staying in a four star hotel, so we were all kind of upset to find out it was a hostel, but it turned out to be a really nice place besides the rooms we stayed in. The hostel had a huge pool and a restaurant and bar as well! On the bus on the way to the hostel a representative from an excursion company gave us brochures and we decided to do one of the packages that afternoon! It was pretty inexpensive, and we would be zip-lining, hiking, and wet-rapelling a waterfall! After we got to the hostel, we got ourselves situated and then headed out on our adventure. 

We started by getting into an open air vehicle, and our guide Andres showed us some of the more rural parts of the town on our way into the park. We were in a group with people from all over South America, which was pretty awesome.  Andres told us about Puerto Iguazú, and also informed us that zip-lining (or canoping, as they call it) would be our first activity of the day! We arrived at the location for zip-lining and I was beyond excited. Zip-lining has been on my bucket list, and what better place to do it for the first time than in the jungles of Argentina! The entire length of the line was 800m split up over three sections, one longer, and two faster. I wasn't nervous at all, and it was an absolute blast! 

When I ended up in the falls...

After zip-lining they told us to keep our harnesses on for our little hike, which turned out to be a leisurely walk to the wet-rapelling location. I was really excited for wet-rapelling, but as it turns out I was absolutely terrible at it.  The waterfall itself was 14m high, and it looked like it wouldn't be that hard. Unfortunately when it came to be my turn, I slipped before I could even take a real step and managed to body slam the waterfall rocks.  Once I finally got a footing I slipped again and ended up right in the waterfall instead of on the side. My knees took a beating from body slamming the rocks, but eventually I made it to the bottom to the laughter and applause of everyone watching... 

Wet-rapelling concluded our adventure for the day, and we climbed the stairs back up to our ride which took us home. After that we all got in the pool and swam until it started thundering, so we headed to our rooms and siesta-d for a bit. We were told that dinner would be provided for us, so we headed to the common area of the hostel where we got some drinks and passed the time before dinner! Overall the milanesa dinner was really good, and we had a great night. We met some obnoxious guys from Australia that tried to get us to hang out with them and kept telling us stories about the "Drop Bear." Google it.  

Saturday was the day I had been looking forward to on this entire trip, and unfortunately it was a little chilly an rainy. I'm not going to lie, I was an absolute debbie downer all morning because of not having a jacket or anything, and I was dreading every time it would rain. So for the morning I put on a brave face and went with it.  We took a bus into the park where we met our tour guide, Carlos. Carlos took the entire group to the train that would take us to the largest waterfall in their system: La Garganta del Diablo (The Devil's Throat). Once we got off the train we walked along a bridge which crossed over a river and eventually we made it. I have no true words to describe just how incredibly massive this waterfall was, but let me just say that niagra looks like a faucet.  We spent about a half our or so just appreciating the falls and the view that we have, and despite it being overcast and raining, the view was spectacular.  

We re-boarded the train and it began to rain again, and then we did some more walking through areas of the park. We took a break for lunch and to dry off and then finally the rain let up! We continued to walk and see some of the other amazing waterfalls along the paths, and the sheer magnitude of how many falls there were is just incredible.  Every stop seemed picture perfect, and my day really started to pick up then.  We eventually got to the bottom of one of the falls, and we saw all the people in ponchos because of the spray at the bottom of the platform. Naturally, we didn't have ponchos, so we all went to the edge and just played in the water and took silly pictures and laughed and it was wonderful. By that point, I didn't care about being cold or wet anymore, and it only made me more excited for what we'd do next...

The boat ride. We had an excursion paid for that would take us under the falls in a speed boat, and we were all extremely excited.  We made our way down the path to the boat, where they gave us rubber bags to store anything we needed to keep dry, and we were given life-vests and got on the boat! I don't think any of us realized how soaked we were going to get, but it was beyond anything we thought. First the boat took us to the bottom of a smaller set of falls, where we were able to take pictures until they told us to put our cameras away (I had a waterproof case). They got really close to the bottom and the water poured in the boat and we all just screamed and laughed. They then sped out of that area and started towards a HUGE set of falls, where they did the same thing until we were so close to the fast moving water that the boat was spinning and rocking like crazy! We were literally soaking wet with water, hair dripping not caring whatsoever about it.  

The view

The boat then continued back to the original waterfall for some more fun, and then down the river to our drop-off point. We were able to see Brazil, and then we got off the boat for our "jungle tour" which was basically just a time to get us back to our tour guides. We were all wringing out our clothing and we stopped at a little market before we re-boarde the bus.  After this adventure we headed back to the hostel where there was an asado! 

Attractive

For dinner there was different kinds of meats, along with some free drinks and salads, so we had a great night! We spent the night playing games and talking, and eventually we all made it to bed.  Sunday we didn't have much planned so we headed to a precious stones store in the town, but then just hung around the hostel for the rest of the day.  Our flight was in the evening so we got back to Buenos Aires around 8 ish, and I was back in my apartment by 9. Overall, it has to be one of my favorite weekends of the trip. If you ever have the opportunity to go, I absolutely recommend it! It's one of the NEW 7 Wonders of the World! 

So yeah, I'm not going to let the absolute let down of being robbed of something as valuable as my laptop get me down. I've accepted the fact that it's gone and I've done everything in my power to keep myself secure, like changing passwords and wiping the computer itself with find my iphone.  Things like this happen, and I literally have less than three weeks here. A little lack of computer never hurt anyone.... 

As always, I can't wait to see everyone! Until next time... 

- Meagan 

A Quick Update...

I had the adventure of my life this weekend and I'd love to tell you about it, but I was robbed of my laptop today and will update when my life calms down a little bit. Argentina- 10,000,000,000,000,000, Meagan-0.

Besos.

- Meagan

Argentina- 1000, Meagan- 0

I got my behind handed to me by Argentina over the past week or so. It's been a rough past few days for me, in that I got my first migraine as well as what appears to be a stomach-flu type bug. It's cool, Argentina, thanks for waiting until the week before a HUGE adventure weekend to practically kill me. I can only hope that I'm better by this Friday for IGUAZU FALLS!

But anyway...

Thursday I got the absolute worst headache of my life, which turned out to be a migraine, and I was basically bed-ridden the entire night after school.  It was not a fun experience and I don't recommend it to anyone.

Friday my migraine had gone away so a few of us decided to get together to make guacamole! I had never actually had it before (believe it or not), so I was super excited to try some homemade guac! We took a trip into Chinatown to find tortilla chips, because yes, that's the only place you can buy them in this entire city.  After Chinatown we headed to a fresh produce stand and got our avocados, onions and tomatoes and headed back to one girl's apartment to start preparing. We had an awesome afternoon and the guac was absolutely delicious until...

I got absolutely sick to my stomach later that night. I literally couldn't even function as a normal human being I was in so much pain. I figured it would go away over night and I'd return to normal, but I was definitely wrong. Saturday I was feeling a teeny bit better so Jenn and I headed back to Recoleta so she could see la Flor and we could do some shopping for people at home. I felt kind of weird all day so I was excited to get back in bed when we got home. I, once again, started feeling very sick as soon as we got home and I couldn't get out of bed. I started getting some more flu-like symptoms like heat flashes and freezing, but I powered through thinking I'd be good by yesterday morning.

Wrong.

Yesterday our group took a day trip to Tigre, which is about 45 minutes away by train and is located in the Buenos Aires province. It's this beautiful little delta town with boats and beautiful scenery. On the train ride there I was fine until about 3 stops away when I started feeling absolutely terrible and had to physically sit down on the floor of the train so I wouldn't get sick. Attractive, I know.  Once we got off the train and into some fresh air I was better, but by the time we waited in line for our lunch at the buffet in the casino filled with stale casino air, I was absolutely feeling sick again and wasn't able to stomach or each much of anything during lunch. The buffet looked delicious and I really wish I could have eaten there.

After lunch we had a boat ride scheduled and I had a feeling it wasn't going to end well for me, but I felt surprisingly normal on the boat and had a beautiful time as we cruised around the various delta branches.  The views were spectacular and it was a great way to bring my spirits back up.

On the Delta!

They really like wicker

We got off the boat and Jenn and I went to explore the markets, but eventually decided we had enough and hopped on a train back home where I was luckily able to sit for the entire ride.  We got off at our stop and worked our way home, and my stomach was bothering me again, but I wasn't sure if it was me being sick or being starving from not eating lunch. I couldn't finish my dinner when it was served to me, and I ended up sick to my stomach again last night. I really just need to be better by the end of this week so I can have a normal weekend trip with my friends.

Today I'm actually feeling a lot better (knock on wood) and I'm hoping I'll be able to make it to class assuming I feel fine in about two hours or so, only time will tell.

In other unrelated news, I'm officially under the one month mark until I'm home, which is extremely bitter sweet. I also have over 1000 views on this blog, so that's kind of awesome too. Thanks for reading! :)

I hope I start to feel normal again and can start enjoying my last few weeks in the city, I miss everyone very much!

- Meagan