~ ♥ ~ . . . . . . . . . ~ ♥ ~ . . . . . . . . . ~ ♥ ~

This is the last post from Austin. More or less six weeks ago, I arrived to this city. I HAVE NEVER THOUGHT THAT THIS EXPERIENCE COULD BE SO AMAZING.

My days in Austin couldn’t be better, because they were like a dream! From different points of view, this was an excellent opportunity to improve some skills.

©       I have never shared an apartment or a room with people who are not part of my family. A lot of friends who share their apartments told me that sometimes it’s not pleasant to live with people you don’t know before.  However, my experience is incredible! I share my apartment with Rochi, Carli and Sofi, three kind and cool girls. Although we didn’t know each other, we got along very quickly. Thanks girls for the wonderful moments we enjoyed together!!!!! (I know that if they read this, they are going to remember some situations we lived)

.

©       I have never stayed in a hostel before I travelled to New York! I can’t deny that my first impression wasn’t as good as I would have liked. I opened my eyes very big when I knew we had to share the bathroom with people we didn’t know. Fortunately, I forgot that detail very quickly and now I laughed about that J .

©       Although actually I am not living with my parents, I have never stayed so far from them before. I didn’t miss my family, because the time here wasn’t too long. However, sometimes when they sent me photos having lunch all together, I realized how much I love sharing moments with my dear family.

©       I have never flown in a plane before I came to the US. The experience of flying is incredible! I really enjoy when the plane leaves! I feel some tickles in that moment J the views from the plane are astonishing: the clouds, the lights of the different cities you are flying over, the rivers, and the diverse kinds of landscapes!

©       Another activity I experienced in Austin was share a night with Texans. Joanna and Chris, the couple who invited me to their house was so kind. First of all, it was an excellent opportunity to practice my English! Secondly, I could tell them something about the culture of my country. They were very excited to know more about South America. When I gave them a mate, they were extremely curious to taste it. I can’t explain how pleasant I felt when they said to me that it was delicious. Then I gifted them other Argentinian things and Joanna immediately put them in the living room to decorate the place! We will keep in touch and maybe they are going to visit Argentina!

We shared delicious burgers with Caro and her hostfamily.

Summarize a trip like the one I had in Austin is not an easy work. Sometimes, is difficult to find the words to explain what I am feeling.

Lastly, I really want to thank to all the people who made my trip the best I have never lived! Rachelle, Katie and the 24 friends from Argentina, you will always be in my heart ♥.

~ Moments and feelings!

Last weekend I travelled to New York with some friends. We enjoyed amazing days there, because we discovered the city and visited places where we always wanted to stay.

All the experiences contain different moments and situations that make us sense a huge kind of feelings. In the last days, I have experienced mood swings all the times! Although I am not a psychologist and I have never studied about people and their feelings, in this post I want to write a little about this topic.

Anxiety

One of the first feelings that appeared some days before the trip was the anxiety.

I was extremely eagerly for the trip, I was thinking about it all the time! One situation I experienced was that when I was sleeping I had some dreams related with the trip. For example, one night, I woke up desperately because in dreams I had forgot my passport in the towers and I wasn’t able to travel. It took me some minutes to realize that it was just a nightmare.

Nervousness

Another feeling you may experience is nervousness: when you worry about things that sometimes never happen and your heart starts to race faster. For instance, the Friday afternoon when we were going to the airport to take our plane, it was a jam traffic in the way. The uber was very slow. In that moment my mind started to think that maybe we would be late for our flight! Fortunately, we arrived on time and we could take the plane undisturbed.

Despair

Sometimes, people listen or see something and worry about what can happen. When we arrived in New York and went to the house we have rented, I felt that.

It was a dirty building with keyless locking! You can’t imagine my face in that moment! The man who drove the uber didn’t want to leave us there, so he phoned the person who rented us the apartment. Some minutes later, a man went out from the horrible building. Luckily, he said us that it wasn’t the apartment where we were going to stay! I felt better when we arrived to our small but nice apartment in Chinatown J

Happiness

I think that happiness and pleasure are the best feelings a person can sense. Sometimes is difficult to explain how it feels. You think that you are living the best moment in your life, you laugh very loud, jump for joy, show of emotion and hug the person who is next to you. As you can imagine, most of the time I spent in New York I felt extremely pleasant!

Wonder

Your eyes can’t believe what they are looking at. Monuments, natural beauties, buildings, landscapes, museums, streets, are extraordinary things and absolutely breathtaking. You turn your eyes around the place where you are and everything make you feel wonderful. For example, I always dream of knowing the Statue of Liberty and I can’t describe what I felt when it was in front of my eyes!

Irritation

New York is an amazing city and you never want to leave that place, but we had to return to Austin. We were in the airport, laughing and remembering the days we have experienced when we saw in the screen that our flight wasn’t at the time it had to be. We sat down and wait quietly. As soon as we sat, the time in the screen changed again. We had to wait more. This situation repeated several times. Four hours later while we were waiting, an employer said us that our flight was cancelled. 

Relief

Relief for me is when you feel security and peace to stay warmly in house. That was that my heart felt when we arrived to Austin later more than 30 hours in airports and planes.

HAPPINESS HAPPINESS HAPPINESS HAPPINESS HAPPINESS :)

Let's travel! 
In a few days I am travelling to New York City with some friends. We are arranging this trip since, more or less, two months ago.

Planning a trip is not an easy work because a lot of questions have to be answered: Where do you begin? What do you have to do firstly? Are you doing everything?

Then, I am writing about some of the questions and giving some advice and personal opinion. I am not an expert traveler, maybe, my post will be useful for you.

1.      Where do you want to go?

This is the first step to star to organize your trip! Maybe, you want to travel, but you can’t decide where you are going. It is very common, because most of people want to visit a lot of cities in the world but they can’t afford all the trips.

¢         In my opinion, is an excellent idea if you make a list of the cities you really want to go while you are alive.

2.      Have you got the money to afford the trip?

Unfortunately, travelling is usually an expensive activity. You need money to pay the transportation, the lodging, the food, the insurances and some other supplies which are needed to travel.

You should surf in the net to estimate how much money you need for your trip. For example: how much is food in the place you want to go? How much is common to pay for a comfortable accommodation there?

¢         It is a good idea if each month of the year you save a small amount of your salary. Think about this: you make an effort during the whole year, but at the moment you want to travel, you have some money to do that.

¢         Advice: sometimes, your trip is too expensive so you have to save a huge sum. In this case, you can make an effort and try to not to buy things that you are not sure that you need. (It is a good way to stop wasting money in stupid things and use that to fulfill your dreams).

3.      How are you travelling to the place you want to go?

This is a very important point! Many ways are possible to travel, the one you decide to choose depends on some details. For example: The place you want to go is far or close where you stay? Can you spend some time travelling or you need to stay there quickly? What kind of transportation are available where you stay?

¢         If you haven’t got a lot of time to travel or the place you want to go is so far from where you stay, take a plane is the best option you have. However, sometimes is the most expensive one.

¢         If the city you wish visited is close and the train is available, you can start an amazing adventure travelling by train. In some countries there are train systems which operate in excellent conditions.

¢         If you like driving and the place is not too far, the car is a good option.

P.S: There are some apps where you can connect people who is travelling to same place than you and travel together to save some money.

4.      What is the length of your adventure?

This is one of the most important decisions you have to make. If you decide to make a long trip, you will need more money than if you decide to make a shorter one.

¢         You must think about how many days you have holidays in your job.

¢         You should be sincerely with yourself: Can you afford a long trip?

5.      Where are you living there?

Accommodation is another important point. Fortunately, nowadays there is a huge quantity of options where people can stay in their trips. It depends on how much money have you got.

¢         Hotel: is the most expensive choice but is the comfortable one. Usually, hotels are located in strategic sites near to important buildings and historic places.

¢         Hostels: is the best option if you like meeting new people and you don’t have any problem to share the dorm and the bathroom. Typically, young people choose hostels for the reason that is one of the cheapest decision.

PS: some hostels offer breakfast service!

¢         Apartment: you can rent an apartment to save some money. It is an excellent possibility if you like cooking your own meals!

PS: here you have some web pages you can visit to find accommodation!

www.hostelworld.com

www.airbnb.com

www.trivago.com

GOOD LUCK IN YOUR NEXT TRIP!

.~. Living abroad .~.

Wowwww!!! It is very difficult for me to describe how happy I am for being in Austin.

Today is better than yesterday and I know that tomorrow will be better than today. Every place I visit I discover something new. Every day when I go to ESL or to the UT, I meet new people. All the activities we make are amazing. All the moments I am sharing with my Friends of Fulbright will be forever in my heart. Everything here is awesome!

It is very common to meet student who attend schools or universities outside their home countries because there are a lot of reasons to choose study abroad.

Firstly, if you want to learn how to speak another language or maybe you only want to improve your current level of it, studying abroad is a perfect option. On my last post I have spoken about my problems with the language… today I am extremely happy to can tell you that I am finding the ways to understand what people want to say to me and also improving my pronunciation (mmm, it is not easy to listen to me because sometimes my words sound horrible, but thank you for being so sympathetic with me).

Secondly, if your wish is live as people from another countries you should apply in a university outside your native country. Living abroad you are going to have the schedules that people from the new country have, for example it is extremely rare for me to have dinner at 7 p.m because in my country I usually have dinner at 9.30 p.m. Living abroad you will taste food you had never tasted before… sometimes they would be delicious and another days you will wish not to taste them. Living abroad you will make activities you don’t use to make in your country, and everything you make it would be awesome for you. Living abroad you will know animals you can’t see in your country. Living abroad you will find every day something new that will surprised you. Living abroad you will wear some clothes that are unusual in your town. Living abroad you will meet natives who are extremely kind with you, for example Austinities are one of the most friendly women and men I had never met.

Thirstily, and in my opinion the most important reason because you should choose to attend to a college outside your home country is that you can meet people who have different cultures and habits. Some universities are multicultural so there are women and men from all over the world. In my personal case in Austin, I am living a cultural experience I had never thought I could live. It is extremely interesting talk with people who have different ways of living their lives as me.  I always have a new topic to speak with them! I learn a lot of things that books don’t allow me to learn.

            If you love life, you should apply for an exchange program!

Sometimes we can’t believe what we are living… I can say how it feels.

Three months ago I applied for an exchange program to improve my English in USA… and now, I am in Austin for six week to study in the University of Texas at Austin!

A new experience has started!

Live in another country is an excellent way to meet people, taste food you had never eaten before, know new cultures and different ways to make things… and if people speak in a language which is not your native one… your trip can be a challenge!!!

I really love meeting people from different parts of the world and to be able to communicate with them, I must speak in English. 

I had studied English a lot of years, but when arrived to the United States I felt I couldn’t say any word in English!!! My mind seemed to be blank and my tongue to be sleeping. In Houston’s Airport I was so nervous as the secretary who checked my passport had to said to me that I must not be worried about the new country, that everything will be ok and I will have a really nice time at Austin… She was right!

I have to accept that the first couple of days I stayed here it was not easy to understand what people wanted to say to me. I felt lost. I wanted to listen people speaking in Spanish. The first time I entered to the UT’s classroom and the professor started to speak… I looked at the faces of my Argentinian classmates and I realized that maybe they were feeling the same as me. We had to pay double attention to the instructor: understand what he was saying in English and understand the topic and graphics he was explaining.

Luckily, people in Austin is very kind!!! So they don’t have any problem if I ask them to speak slower and clearer. Also, in the city live people from all over the world so a lot of student are trying to improve their English too.

One of the best things that really helps me in this trip is that I am not alone...  I have an excellent group of Argentinian partners! It's very important for me being part of "Friends of Fulbright", an excellent group with people who always help me if I need, make me laugh and share good moments.

Fortunately, day by day, my listening is better, my mind is remembering some things I had learnt in Argentina and my tongue wants to pronounce in a better way.