Luna de Miel

(Honeymoon)

Tuesday, August 5

I woke up. I ate (two slices of bread and some Nesquick- breakfasts are really light) Pretty soon I'm going to take my lunch, charge my Red Bus card, and go to UBP...

Going to UBP was fine, even though I got off too soon and had to walk a block or so to get there. Once I did get there, I went to same place as yesterday and waited for my interview.  These interviews with the professors would place us in our respective Spanish classes based on our skill.

Then we had another talk with the professors. This one was about cultural guidelines and the professors' expectations. The Canadian group was here, as well as some students from the US. One of the interesting things we talked about was the chart of our emotional well being on this study abroad experience.  The professor noted that this chart was supported by many psychologists and that, in general, most every student abroad goes through this.

Llegada=Arrival

Regreso=Return

1- Anxiety/Excitement before arriving

2- Luna de Miel/Honeymoon phase- everything is fantastic, amazing, incredible

3- Culture Shock- struggling with the culture, low moments, frustration, homesickness,

4- Adaptation- You learn how to live life.  

5- Anxiety/Excitement before leaving

6- “Honeymoon”/ Euphoria to be back home

7- You’re going to miss Córdoba

8- Readapt.

If this is the case, I'm still in the honeymoon stage. Everything is amazing and new for me. And I'm loving it. When the talk was over, there was a half hour pause for lunch and then we met again to talk about the trips the university is offering. UBP offers 2 trips- one to Buenos Aires for a weekend and one to the North of Argentina for a weekend. Both sound so nice! But they're so expensive. We'll see what happens. My french friends (we're friends now) and I started talking about organizing our own trip to Bariloche in the south or to the waterfalls of Iguazu at the Argentina-Brazil border. Once again, we'll see what happens.

That night, I had dinner with Sophia, Jero, Juan and Patricia (host father and mother). It was nice to eat all together, it reminded me of home. Afterwards, I came to my room and started typing up a guide for the next Samford student going on this trip. That's all for today