RYE in Argentina 25-26

       On my first night in Argentina, when I arrived at my host family's house, my host sister made herself  drink, took a sip, and passed me the cup. And that, sharing a cup with a stranger, was very weird for me. The next day I asked if I could go to the store to buy shampoo, and my host mom asked, why? Do you not like the shampoo in the bathroom? Which surprised me, because to me, that was their shampoo, but she said it was mine too. But this is not just my family. The first time I went to a party, I didn't have any party clothes, but like four girls from my class brought bags of their party clothes for me to borrow. And this was before they knew me very well.   And at that same party I experienced the shared cup phenomenon again. Where there's ten girls, but only five drink cups, so everyone is passing the cup around and sharing. I think a part of this is that people do not really care about spreading germs, but regardless I think it's a really ...

  Lucky you get two posts in one day! In this one I really want to highlight the extreme differences in school, between Argentina and Alaska (and the rest of the US I think). For starters every school here is K-12, all mixed up into one school, and there are only one or two classes of about 25 students per grade. But I'm not entirely sure how the grade levels work, because the final grade here is 6, which is the equivalent of grade 12. So it is very common to go to the same school your whole life I think, and always go to the same school as your siblings. I don't think this is the best system personally because I would be really scared if I was 6 years old and there was a tatted up 19 year old in my school, but maybe that's just me. I can see how it's easier for parents to just shove all their kids in one school.  Something else that I think has disadvantages is that there are so many schools here, like I can think of over seven off the top of my head. So that means tha...

       Comparison is the thief of joy. That is a very well known concept, that I've heard a million times, and yet I have always compared myself to others. But even though I do compare myself, I've never really felt profound jealousy for other people. I've always thought that I was quite cool,and  I think I have interesting hobbies and good friends. So before I became an exchange student, comparison did not thief my joy.  Because truly every other exchange student I've met is the most intelligent, well rounded, kindest person I've ever met. And not only that but everyone is also suspiciously gorgeous, in a way that's a little unnerving. And it gets worse because the vast majority of the students in my district are from Europe so they all have the thing I desire most, an EU passport. So imagine you're an average girl from the middle of nowhere and everyone else around you is insanely beautiful, speaks like five languages, and has a sexy little EU passport....