One Woman's Kindness Quells My Fears

Hours after discovering who I would be staying with next semester, we became friends on Facebook. Soon after, a received a notification, she had written on my wall. "Hola Grace!!! BIENVENIDA a la familia!" (Hi Grace, WELCOME to the family!)

It was a simple gesture but it was one that made me instantly less nervous about going abroad.

After further communication I learned that I will be staying with 4 other Americans in her house. Her husband is a lawyer AND a professor, and she used to be a professor. They have a beach house by Punte del Este and the most exciting news for me, they have a dog!

It has been two days since I found out who I would be staying with and I have received countless heart warming messages from my host mom. She told me all about the things she hopes to show me and the good times we will have. She said, "We will go through pictures, see the beach, show you the city, show you are way of life. It may seem crazy but you will get used to it. We will have a lot of fun, many laughs, and all in Spanish of course."

She ends her messages with hugs and kisses.

Suddenly, all of my anxiety is out the window. I am more excited than ever to head to Uruguay and spend six months living with this marvelous family.

Living Arrangements

I checked my email this morning and saw one that I had been waiting for for weeks. The subject line read Intercambio and inside it contained my host family's information for next semester! I found out that I will be living about a 20 minute walk from campus, which is not too bad compared to past participants I have talked to. 

"A" Marks my new home for the upcoming 6 months

After I read the email, I quickly jumped on Facebook to see where my fellow Eau Claire travelers had been placed. Much to my surprise, while reading through everyone's address, I saw one that was the same as mine. Turns out Jeremy and I have the same host family and will be staying together. 

At first, I was a little disappointed to see this. I am really hoping to become fluent while I am abroad. I want to immerse myself in the culture and the language. I wanted to eliminate any chance of people able to speak English, so I would be forced to use my Spanish and improve. My concern was that living with another American would be too tempting of a situation. It will be so easy to just communicate in English, a daily temptation I was hoping to avoid.

However, the longer I thought about, the happier I am that we are living together. Jeremy is a really nice guy, he is super laid back and up for anything. The both of us want to make the most of our experience and are ready to take on any and all adventures. Having another American in the house will most likely help with any homesickness, will be useful when I cannot think of a Spanish word I am trying to use and will be nice to have a friend to do things with. As for the language aspect, since we both want to become fluent, I hope that we will agree to only use English is need be. This will be best for us and best for our host family. It seems rude to communicate in English in front of them because we are shutting them out of the conversation completely. 

Anyway, this whole journey is becoming more real. I can't believe I will be leaving in a month in a half. This name on a page and place on a map will soon become reality. 

You must be so excited to leave this place!

What I will tell you? Yes.

Truthfully? No.

There are a lot of things I am looking forward to in the upcoming semester abroad but sometimes it is hard to see the positives.

For a lot of reasons, I am just plain scared to go abroad.

I am traveling from Colombia to Uruguay, in a month, with no idea how I am getting from place to place. This makes me extremely anxious. Anything could happen. I am bringing everything I need for six months with me, and just hoping it doesn't get stolen. We will be traveling through some dangerous/sketchy parts of South America, where the only language they will be speaking is Spanish. They will know we are tourists, making us targets.

I'll be taking countless long bus rides through bumpy terrain on an old bus. I get carsick riding with friends to the mall. I will be going in high altitude areas, eating food I am unaccustomed to, unsure of water quality and exposed to bacteria we do not have at home.

Once we make it to Uruguay, I will be living with an unfamiliar family, in an unfamiliar place, attending an unfamiliar school, speaking an unfamiliar language.

I will be leaving all of my friends and family behind. I will be giving up all the comforts I enjoy, to embark on the craziest journey of my life.

In a lot of ways and for a lot of reasons, I am so unbelievably excited but most days, anxiety and fear are the overpowering emotions.