Hola a todos,
It is Saturday, August 12th, and we have been home for a little under 24 hours. In reflecting on the last few days of our trip, I am amazed at this beautiful experience!
Monday night, the American chaperones were invited to an asado – or barbecue! There, we at costillas, morcillo, salad, potatoes, and flan. We enjoyed this meal so much!
After the cabalgata/horseback riding excursion on Monday, we attended classes on Tuesday and Wednesday. In fact, on Tuesday, 5 of our American students participated in an English debate against the Argentinians. We learned a new style of debating, all the while working together to come up with questions about the motion: “the role of schools in addressing cyberbullying.”
After the debate, we were interviewed by the San Rafael Newspaper. We were asked questions about our experience, whether we liked our visit to Argentina, etc. ¡Qué famosos somos!
The newspaper article should be published in the next few days. We will let you know when we receive word!
On Wednesday, we had such a wonderfully busy last day! We started off in class and then, at lunchtime, we began the packing process before a fun night of festivities. Packing was interesting seeing that we had purchased a bunch of items to bring home to the States.
Sitting on our suitcases in order to close them and arranging everything with care, we packed everything as much as we could prior to the dance!
Later that evening, we were all invited to a special event, the end of the exchange dance! For this event, the restaurant bar Fonix was rented out. We got ready for a fun night of dancing and hanging with our Colegio del Carmen amigos! We were able to order drinks – soda or fruit smoothies – and either sit at the tables or dance on the dance floor. Either way, we had fun learning salsa and cumbia dance moves and took lots of pictures with our friends!
So much fun! Baila baila baila! This last night was such a blast!
The hard part came the next day – Thursday morning – when we had to say “goodbye.” This was an emotional adiós with some tears and lots of “thank yous” and hugs.
Everyone was sad at the end of the exchange. It took almost one hour to say our “goodbyes” before we embarked on the first portion of our trip back home to the United States. Our bus ride from San Rafael to Mendoza took about 3 hours. Then, our first flight was to Santiago de Chile. For this first leg of the trip, we flew over the Andes Mountains. Such beautiful snow-topped mountains that we saw from the plane!
Then, after our short flight, we had a 4-hour layover in the Santiago de Chile Airport. The long flight departed at 9:45 p.m. and landed in John F. Kennedy New York at 8:10 a.m. the next day!
After a wonderful couple of weeks in Argentina, we were happy to finally be home. What an incredible experience – We could not thank our Argentinian host families enough! Also, muchas gracias to the Argentinian teachers who organized the visit for us. An unforgettable experience, muchísimas gracias por todo!
Thank you, WPS students, for being a joy to travel with!
Until next time,
Miss Fallahi, Ms. Rose, Ms. Churma, and Mr. Fleischmann
The Adventures of Christina Brozyna in Argentina 