Learning, Growing, and Maturing

Now that it's the end of December, I am officially 4 months into my experience abroad. I could say the usual 'wow! Time is going by so fast!', but I would be lying. Not that it's a bad thing, but time has actually gone by quite slowly. It feels like a lot more than 4 months that I've lived here, and after a lot of thinking, I came up with why it may seem that way. It makes plenty of sense in my head, but it may sound a bit confusing in writing.
We are always learning, and growing, and maturing. Some days we may learn more than others, but when you look at the big picture, each year we probably learn, grow, and mature about the same amount. For the sake of explaining, we'll call it 100 pages. Each year, we fill up 100 pages of new information and new experiences. We tend to look back, hundreds of pages ago, and laugh at how we used to act and think. We shake our heads and say 'I remember back then, when there was so much I didn't understand, when I was so immature'.
This is what happens to most of us, as we go through life learning in school, learning in our careers, or learning from others around us. But, I believe that when you study abroad, you get to add 200 pages to your collection. You learn, grow, and mature at least twice the amount you would living your regular life. It is such a full experience. It teaches you so much more than you expect, and puts you in situations you would never have to deal with in the comfort of your own country. And because I am having to learn, grow, and mature twice as much, everything seems to slow down. It feels as if I have been here for at least 8 months, because I have had 8 months worth of learning, growing, and maturing. 8 months worth of making new friends, becoming familiar with a new neighborhood, and a new city.
But really, only 4 months have passed. Now I have 7 months left to be here, but 14 months worth of new experiences.

My new experiences for the next months start out with the holidays! Thanksgiving was surprisingly not too bad for me, it just passed as a normal day. I talked to my family, but it was a tear-free day. My goal is a tear-free holiday season, which for now, doesn't seem too dificult. Christmas will be different in so many ways, but the best thing to do is be excited about doing things differently, and not be bummed about missing Christmas at home.
The way Christmas is celebrated here is much different. For one, it is summer, so a 'white Christmas' is out of the question. It'll be all about flip flops and air conditioning. Also, pine trees don't grow here like they grow in Oregon, so everyone has a little plastic tree. And, I really mean little. The majority are about 2 to 3 feet tall.





This is our tree. Emilio and I decorated it, it took about 5 minutes :)







In America, we go to bed at a normal time, if anything earlier than usual, on the night of the 24th. If not, Santa doesn't come, right? Well, they think we are weird for doing that. Here, and in many other countries I found out, it is all about the night of the 24th, because at midnight it is officially christmas. So, the families get together and have a big dinner on Christmas eve, and at midnight they open presents and all that jazz. That will be different for me, especially because my birthday is the 24th, so we will celebrate both at the same time. At home, they are somewhat celebrated as one holiday, but it is still separated into two days. One big celebration will be fun, and it may cut down the homesickness a little.

 But, changing the subject...

I had a ballet performance on Saturday! I was on stage for about three minutes, but that's better than nothing, and my teacher told me that she is going to put me up front and on stage a lot more for the next show! I'm also thinking about doing more contemporary classes, because I will be here when all the classes begin, and I wont have to hop in in the middle of the term like I did before.
But, on Saturday, for the show, we were all snakes! It looked really cool, and I probably had more stage makeup on than I have ever had in my life. It took a while to get it off, but it was SO worth it!

The morning of the recital there was a race in the park where I run. It was only 3km, so I just decided to do it because it wouldn't take very long, and I wanted to see how fast I had gotten. The man that organizes all of the races is always in the park riding his bike, and he sees me run, and he told me that I should definitely race more because I'm a good runner. So, I woke up Saturday morning and went by myself to the race, warmed up a little, and...I WON! I was the first girl to finish, and I ran it in 10:33! I am actually a lot faster than I thought I was. All my running has realy paid off, I got a trophy, and the man was so impressed that he gave me a free sweatshirt (in the picture I'm wearing the t-shirt that everyone got) :) I also ended up in the newspaper!

Yesterday I went into Buenos Aires by myself to see my friend Jack! He came here on vacation, and we met up and walked around the city all day. It was so fun, and the feeling of seeing someone from home, especially from school, was so nice. It felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I have no idea why, but I just feel more relaxed, and a little bit happier. He told all about what is going on at home, and how my other friends are doing. Maybe knowing all that made me feel better, or maybe it was getting to speak English. Whatever it is, I'm so glad I got to see him!