April 2009 Archives

I thought that the beginning would be the hardest, not understanding the language, not knowing anyone, everything being unfamiliar. I thought that I would have a crash upon arrival and have a spell of homesickness. But that didn't happen. Instead the hardest part was about a week or two ago, about two months into my stay here.

In the beginning everything is new, and so, not understanding anything and being the new foreign kid worked to my advantage. Everyone at school wanted to talk to me, all sorts of new amazing foods were coming at me, I was seeing new things all the time every day! Read more.

AFS offers year and semester programs to Brazil.

ICH LIEBE DEUTSCHLAND!!!!

Ok, so first off for those of you who don't speak German my title means "I love Germany", and I truly do, not that i only have 2 and half months left i am having the time of my life and i know i will be really sad to leave.

Secondly, I received an email from my parents asking me to correct something from my last blog. Fuertaventura is a island on the coast of Africa (by Casablanca) and is owned by Spain. Now I know everyone else was really freaking out about this correction like my parents so you can all calm down now.

Thirdly, I have the best host family ever, and the best host sister: Paulita! Read more.

AFS offers year and semester programs to Germany.

Programs still available for programs departing Fall 2009 to Germany. Deadlines are here, so apply now!

I know it is kind of late, but I´m going to write now about my Easter break which I spend in Patreksfjörður and other parts of the West Fjords! I love traveling, which is actually a reason I wanted to live in a new country for a year, and at first I was a little reluctant on picking an island because I knew that I wouldn´t be able to travel internationally this year. But I´m actually really glad with this choice now, because it gives me even more of the opportunity to see everything that Iceland alone has to offer! Read more.

AFS offers year programs to Iceland.

Here are some recent photos!







See more photos from Martha's year exchange to Germany.

AFS offers year and semester programs to Germany.

During my lunch hours, I went to the International Day of one of the technical schools in town with other the other AFS students studying in Tours. We all brought dishes from our home countries (I brought Rice Krispie Treats again, which were a big hit), and we had to go around and speak to the students in our native language in order to simulate the experience for them of adjusting to speaking a language other than your own. It was easiest for me since most of them spoke at least a bit of English-- it was the hardest for the students from Japan and Brazil. Read more.

AFS offers year and semester and summer programs to France.

NOTE: France Summer Language Study Summer Program still has available spots! Deadline, April 30th

Last week I got letters and pictures from the Pitrof kids- my host family thinks they're adorable. So to start off this entry, I'll answer the questions they asked in their letters:

Do you like your new home?
Yes, I do. My house is between the center of town and the countryside, so I'm close to both. There are currently 8 of us living in the house, so it's a pretty big change, but I like it. Mostly, I like our yard though. Growing in the yard we have grapes, avocados, grapefruits, limes, apples, and a few fruits I haven't figured out the names of yet.

How's the food?
The food here is actually pretty good. It's pretty similar to US food, with slightly different ingredients and very different names. In the morning, breakfast is usually chocolate milk or coffee and bread. Lots of times we have snacks at the school's cantina, maybe a half-sandwich, some cookies, or an empanada. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and is a lot like dinner in the US. Usually there's some kind of grain (rice, pasta, mbeyu, borí, sopa paraguaya) with some sort of meat or vegetable and mandioca. We have merienda in the late afternoon. It's usually a lot like breakfast, except maybe with a bananaor yogurt. Dinner is really late, and we almost never eat it during the week. On weekends, I usually go out to eat with friends for dinner. Read more.

AFS offers year, semester, and summer programs to Paraguay.

Spots still available for 2009 Summer and Fall programs to Paraguay, apply now!

Today is Easter Sunday, which for me luckily was a very low-key affair, since I´m not religious and Argentina is a very Catholic country. We had baked fish Saturday night for dinner which was delicious. I didn´t do much this weekend, I thought most things would be closed, but actually a lot of museums at least were open. Today I just got back from the Palais de Glace, I had never been before, and so it was a great place to spend a Sunday afternoon. It is an exhibition space in Retiro/Recoleta, and it is completely free to enter and see the exhibits, which is always exciting and good news for me. Read more.

AFS offers year, semester and summer programs to Argentina.

There's still time to apply for select 2009 Summer programs! Check out what's available.

In Mid-March I was lucky enough to travel to Bangalore to see another AFS exchange student from the U.S. I left from the Ahemedabad Airport and flew to the Bangalore Airport and was greeted by Caitlin, her host brother, Narahari, and their driver. During the ride to Caitlin's house the three of us chatted about random things that were going on in our lives and Caitlin and I caught up a little bit after not seeing each other in 8 months! Read more.

AFS offers year programs to India.

So I'll explain exactly what "Exchange Week" is: All the AFSers here in Italy get the option to spend a week in another part of Italy. It is organized by the local chapters, therefore some people choose where to go and others don't. The people in Lecce didn't get a choice but I got lucky where I was placed in Trento. It's a city in northern Italy. Basically for a week we live with a host family, but during the day we do things with AFS. La mia settimana di scambio è stata bellissima (My exchange week was beautiful!) Read more.

AFS offers year, semester, and summer programs to Italy.

Spots still available for all 2009 Italy programs departing this Summer/Fall! Apply now.

So! What have we been up to as of late. Well we went to New Zealand for a family wedding on March 14th through the 24th. It was so much fun! We went all around the south island. We went to Christchurch, Dunedin, Alexandra, Cromwell, Queenstown, Wanaka, Invercargill, The Catlins, so many places! We did jet boating, bungee jumping, tons of sight seeing including gondolas and the wedding was at Woodstock in the Catlins. It was such a beautiful wedding. I got to meet a lot of my host mum's family, all of they were so sweet. Read more.

AFS offers Fall and Spring Semester programs to Australia.

(AFS Camp Group Photo)

The past few weeks have been really great. Every weekend I have gone out with friends, I'm hardly ever bored anymore. When I'm not doing anything I'm appreciating the break now. Time is really speeding up. The return date is sneaking up on me very quickly. I almost wish I had a few more months. I don't think I'll be ready to leave by July. Read more.

AFS offers year and summer programs to Turkey.

It's pretty similar to the American holiday, except in France, they stick paper fish on their friends' back. Last night, I found some cute fish on the Internet, so I cut those out an brought them to school along with a roll of tape. I was expecting it to be a bigger event than it turned out to be, though. Read more.

AFS offers year and semester and summer programs to France.

NOTE: 2009 France Summer Language Study Summer Program still has available spots! Deadline, April 30th