The Long Road to Paraná, Entre Rios

Boy, these past few days have been a journey.

I started in Chicago on Wednesday (August 22nd), saying goodbye to my parents. Then, I took a two and a half hour flight to Miami, where I met my roommate Aidan and the other US exchange students. We had a loooong orientation where we learned about what it means to be an exchange student, reviewed the chain of communication, and played games to get to get to know each other. From my experience so far, I feel confident saying that exchange students are pretty much the best people on earth. (Side note: AFS volunteers said we couldn’t go in the pool because they don’t trust us to not drown, but I went in anyway😉)

On Thursday, we did some more activities together, celebrated ourselves with sparkling grape/apple-cranberry juice (I grabbed an extra bottle on the way out), and headed off to the airport with all our luggage. (Well, almost all...I left my charger and charging block in the hotel room🤦‍♂️). Once we checked our suitcases, the volunteers gave us a few pointers and some very important documents, and sent our group of 13 through security on our own. We got to the gate without much trouble, and some of us went off to find a currency exchange (they never found it, and two of them accidentally went over the red line and had to go through the checkpoint again). I bought a new charger with my parent’s money, and we all boarded the plane to begin our 9 hour flight to Buenos Aires.

So...I didn’t sleep at all on that flight. I probably should have. We arrived in Buenos Aires, got through Customs with no trouble, and grabbed our bags from the baggage claim. In a hot, uncomfortable airport waiting room is where we met the students from other countries. Italy had the largest group, with around 50 or more (and they were definitely the loudest 😉 in a good way). There were also students from Turkey, Germany, France, Canada, Thailand, China, Belgium, Switzerland, Iceland, and Austria. I ended up having to wait 7 hours in this hot, airport room while the volunteers got us vetted and the buses organized. And I was one of the lucky ones.

Once my group got our documents checked, we took a double-decker bus to the bus terminal. I have no idea how long the trip was because I passed out as soon as I sat down (I also almost lost my phone there because it slipped out of my pocket). Once there, we waited again for the bus that would take all the AFS Paraná students to Paraná. That bus ride was 5 hours long, and I slept for a while on that one. But I was still very tired when we finally arrived, and my wonderful host family greeted me with hugs and kisses. We took a few photos, and then we drove back to their house, where I finally put down my bags and laid down on my bed.

Even though at this point, I had only slept 3-4 hours in two days, it took me a long time to fall asleep. I was finally able to stop and think about what had just happened. I’m in a foreign country, in a spare room in the house of a family I’ve never met before who don’t speak English. I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous in my life. 

But despite all of this, I’m truly happy to be here.