The Beginning

Hola gente!

Where to start.. on Wednesday I left Martha's Vineyard on a 6am boat, we drove to Logan Airport in Boston where I said goodbye to my family and boarded the plane to Miami. On the ride to Miami I sat next to a boy from Colombia and practiced speaking spanish with him! When I arrived in Miami I had to claim my luggage and find a shuttle to the hotel where the AFS orientation was, this was a big reality check for me, suddenly I had to do everything by myself. When I got to the hotel the orientation began I met so many amazing new people all going to Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Brazil. We all bonded really quickly because we all had so much in common, being exchange students! We spent the whole day doing activities preparing us for our time abroad, we learned about Argentine culture and more about AFS as a program. The next day we left the Hotel at 3 and went to the airport, we all hung around in the airport, said goodbye to the kids going to Chile, Brazil and Paraguay and the boarded our plane at around 7pm. As soon as we boarded the plane we were surrounded by spanish, it was definitely a reality check when I accidentally bumped into someone getting on the plane and heard "ay perdona." The plane ride all in all wasn't bad at all, it was about 9 hours but went by really fast, a group of us sat next to a girl from Buenos Aires and we tried our best to speak spanish with her. When we were landing in Buenos Aires there was the prettiest sunrise and when we actually landed everyone on the plane clapped, all of the Americans thought it was the cutest thing ever. After going through customs we met up with the kids from Germany, Japan, Thailand and other parts of the world all studying abroad in Argentina with AFS, they were all so nice and very funny. Finally at around 3 I took an hour bus ride to La Plata where I met my family. They were waiting there with a sign that said "Bienvenida Lucy." I love my family! They are all so nice and offer to help you out in any way possible. We arrived at the house and had merienda (snack) which is typically eaten in Argentina at around 6, for dinner around 10 we ate empanadas, The food here is muy rico (very very good.)

Today I went with Milagros and Josefina (two of my host sisters) to the center of the city, it was amazing! We went to the top of the cathedral and could see the entire city which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. We looked around at some shops, learned about the history of La Plata and went to la plaza which is a park in the very center of the city. So far I love my host family, I love La Plata and I love everything about Argentina! Tonight we are going to una fiesta! I will upload photos in my next post! Chau!

The countdown to Argentina!

Hola!

  I'm Lucy Norris, a 16 year-old girl from the small island of Martha's Vineyard, Masachussetts. For the spring semester of my junior year I will be studying abroad in La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina with AFS Intercultural Programs.
 In exactly eight days I will leave MV and begin my journey! One of the reasons I wanted to study abroad in Argentina is because Spanish has always been my favorite subject. From this experience I hope to improve it greatly, learn a new culture, and meet many new people! I have created a blog to help future exchange students (knowing that other blogs were very helpful to me), and to keep everyone that wishes to read updated along the way!

                                      A picture of my host family!!!

                                          The city of La Plata

                                   A famous cathedral in the city