Time to meet my host family

    We haven't gotten much sleep this trip, and we honestly haven't been speaking much Spanish yet, since there are 40 of us and trying to get to know each other in Spanish is difficult. This made me nervous to meet my host family because I was going to have to switch to Spanish with barely any practice in the last few months since school ended. We had a two hour flight to Mendoza from Buenos Aires. There are two airports in Buenos Aires, one for domestic flights and one for international flights. It's a good idea because there is less traffic in both airports and things get done more efficiently. Also, the security was completely different. We didn't have to take our shoes off, or our belts, or take out liquids or laptops. The only thing that had to be removed was metal, and they barely looked at my boarding pass when I entered security. This made things much easier. However, on the plane, they don't let you have anything under the seat in front of you. Everything has to go in the overhead bins, including jackets and small purses, so we were all struggling to fit everything in the plane.
     Up until this point, I'd been very calm about my whole experience abroad. I don't think it had hit me that I'm moving to another country. But when we had to line up for Jose to call our name and meet our host family, I wanted to cry with excitement and anticipation and nervousness. Maria Victoria, my host sister, waved my name on a card and came to greet me. I could barely speak anything because I momentarily forgot how to speak Spanish. I was happy to learn that Victoria's sister, Marcela, who lives nearby, was also hosting another girl from the program, who actually goes to DU too, so they picked us up together which was comforting. It was a struggle to get all of our stuff in their one car, however. It took a few times of rearranging to figure it out. Luckily we were some of the girls who brought the least amount of luggage. Otherwise we would have been sitting with luggage in our laps. Marcela has a 6 year old daughter, Mia, and I've learned that it's different to talk with kids. I have a harder time understanding her because she seems shy and speaks really quietly. But it definitely makes me want to get better at Spanish because I get jealous seeing that children can speak better than me. It makes me feel 2 years old.
     Victoria, Carlina, and Agustin have welcomed me into their home and at first it's a little strange living in someone else's home but also feeling like a guest. I have my own room and bathroom. There is a pool out back which I'm excited to use in the summer. My family here doesn't eat dinner quite as late as I was told to expect, which I like, because eating at 10 or 11 is really late for me. We had a dinner together of pizza and dulce de leche before heading to bed because everyone was tired. I liked being able to unpack instead of living out of a suitcase. I have a small dresser and closet, and was able to fit everything in easily, so I feel like I packed pretty successfully. My room is freezing, however. I have a bunch of blankets to keep me warm, but I realized in the morning, when my room was still freezing, that it was actually really nice outside, and no matter how warm it is outside, my room will still be freezing. This is going to be my home for the next 5 months.