Read about our student Elaena’s highlights and learnings 6 weeks into her AFS experience in Crespo, Argentina!
Hola! So far my exchange experience has been amazing with the people, places and friends I have gotten to know. I think my highlight of everything right now would have been the trip to Misiones that I did with my class. We went to the community of the Guyanese people, saw the famous Iguazú falls, went to the crystal caves, the Yerba maté factory and the temple ruins all in 5 days! I had never really experienced any of those things before.
Seeing that community of people was one of the biggest eye opening experiences I have done. To know that some people are living in poor conditions without really any access to electronics but they make the most of it still having fun playing games like football and volleyball and are probably closer to one another than what we could ever be.
I think school is one of my biggest challenges because I can’t understand nor speak Spanish too well yet, and the teachers speak in Spanish so I don’t understand many things, but I try to do as much work as I can understand or translate. My favorite classes are English, physical education and art because the language isn’t an important aspect in these subjects. So in these times I put in the most effort to be a part of the class.
I find it tough with my friends because they are always talking in Spanish and even though I try to pick up what they are saying I miss out information, but they do speak English to me as some of them are learning. I would rather them always start with Spanish and if I don’t understand them they could say it again in English but they get impatient. I don’t mind too much but it’s a little frustrating at times.
My Spanish has improved more since I got here though. When I got here I knew little to none and even though I was learning Spain Spanish I managed to switch some of my Spanish to Argentinian Spanish. I’m quite proud of how much I have learnt but I’m still not too good so I’m taking Spanish classes and learning as much as I can in class time.
I’m so grateful that I got placed where I am as my family are the kindest people, my friends are super inclusive and the whole community of Crespo are just really sweet and nice!
