Travels and Transitions

I'm getting on a bus tonight. I arrive in Buenos Aires tomorrow morning. I get on a plane tomorrow night. I land in Dallas on Saturday morning. I board another plane four short hours later and will land in Fort Wayne, Indiana where my family will (hopefully) be to greet me. ;) I've written all of the above and know that, God-willing, all my travels will go as planned, and yet, everything I've written feels about as real to me right now as going to Argentina felt about nine months ago when I wrote my first blog entry from the states. I knew that I was commencing some grand, hopefully positive, surely unknown adventure on the the other half of the planet. Nonetheless, there is no way that I could have imagined all the amazing experiences that I have had since arriving here. I'm looking forward too to the end of January when I will be returning to Resistencia. Until that time comes though, I am anxious to spend time at home with friends and family, to eat lots of spicy food, to see snow and have to bundle up in truly cold weather (and have the pleasure of coming home to central heating), to sing Christmas carols and ring in 2012 and certainly to share much of what I have learned here with anyone who crosses my path and is interested.

As the age-old saying goes, "All good things must come to an end." However, with those good things that come to an end also often come celebrations in commemoration of those things. Likewise, while my Fulbright scholarship came to its conclusion almost four weeks ago, I have had the pleasure of celebrating, at multiple times, with multiple groups, the work I accomplished this year and the relationships that we have collectively built. These gatherings included a small surprise party at San Fernando on my last day teaching, a planned "going away" party with a larger group of professors and students from San Fernando and a surprise party thrown by a group of friends from church. While I would love to expound on the details of each of these, my bus leaves in approximately an hour....I may or may not write while I'm stateside. To be honest, I haven't really decided yet. I'm sure though that there will be stories to be told about my culture shock and funny anecdotes about moments where I accidentally say something to someone in Spanish. Thank you all for your continuous support, whether it be simply reading my blog, sending e-mails of support or chasing me down to have a skype date. Much love to all.

(Extended) Recap!

My sincerest apologies to anyone who has been diligently following my blog. If you aren't living with me here in Resistencia (i.e. seeing me on a fairly regular basis), you might have come to one of the following conclusions in the last month: a) I was abducted by aliens, b) I decided to enroll at clown school and joined the circus, c) I have spent substantial amounts of time with a particular young man of interest as a significant other, or d) I was arrested for trying to initiate Denison's naked week ultimate frisbee game in the central plaza. One of these statements is true; I'll leave it up to you to discern what's true and what's not. One other thing is for certain though: I am a failed blogger in the last month. Today I'm going to briefly recap late-October/November/early-December and tomorrow or Wednesday follow up with a final entry to bring "Argentina Round One" to a close.

(Not) Getting a Visa. This is a rather long story and one that I'd rather not dwell on anyhow so I'll keep it as short and politically correct as possible. The need arose for me to renew my visa to stay for the couple of extra weeks that I'll be here before coming home for Christmas. This involved me going to Corrientes as Resistencia doesn't have its own Migrations/Foreign Affairs office. Honestly, not such a huge deal as I was able to stay the night before with Corrientes ETA, Hannah, and walk to this office in the morning, rather than being in transit super early from Resistencia. Late October I went to this office (for the first time) with what I thought was the necessary paperwork in hand, but instead was handed a form and given directions to return with a couple of additional items in order to finalize the visa renewal. At this point I was relatively excited because the woman at the office told me that my visa would be renewed not just until my desired departure date, but for a whole calendar year (i.e. til November 13, 2012).
Of course, this was too good to be true...I returned to the office mid-November with the collection of documents in hand, first, to wait four hours because their computer system wasn't running. Then, all my prior hopes were dashed when a second woman at the Migrations office delivered the following blows: first, that my visa be renewed only until the date listed on my Fulbright letter, and second that I would have to go to a bank in Chaco to deposit the necessary 300 peso fine and then return again to Corrientes to finish up the paperwork. My other option at this point: simply go to the airport with 300 pesos in hand in December and pay the fine there for overstaying my visa. Decision: made. To the airport I'll go. 

Photo of Viviana Cimbaro Canella (with Máximo in front) and part of the extended family in this photo from baby Máximo's baptism in Puerto Tirol, November 27th.

My Students (and being a student). My classes at San Fernando officially ended two and a half weeks ago sadly marking the end of my year as a Fulbright ETA. While the year had its share of moments that I would consider highs, lows and everywhere in between, I have undoubtedly gained a plethora of teaching skills and have started to grasp, I think, many of the irregularities and general unpredictability of Argentina's education system. I have taught about the culture of the United States, occasionally tried to imitate a British accent, done plenty of review on the nuts and bolts of my own language, learned a great deal about phrasal verbs, and had students at all levels, from high school and the introductory language level at San Fernando to well-seasoned fourth year students who will soon graduate. As I look forward to next year in Resistencia, I hope these experiences will work to my benefit in a couple of ways. First, I expect to continue teaching English in a couple of private institutions as well as in the context of private tutoring. Second, I have plans to enroll as a student at San Fernando Rey in the coming year. Yes folks, you read that correct: Teresa is going to be a university student again and is pretty excited about it (plus, it's easier to get a visa when I'm a student. see story one from this blog entry).

Basketball. Those who have known me for a long period of time know that in high school I had a patellar subluxation for the first time. Basically, my knee cap slid to the outside of my knee and popped back into place, fortunately without tearing any of the tendons or ligaments within my knee. Unfortunately, this happened again while I was at basketball practice at the end of October. I am exponentially thankful that, again, nothing was torn but I did take a hiatus from physical activity for a couple weeks. Since then, especially with the arrival of spring's beautiful weather, I've been running outside and focusing on strength-related rehabilitation exercises. While the coming year won't include me playing basketball with the club team, for a variety of reasons, I am grateful for all that I have been able to share culturally with my teammates. It has been a noteworthy experience relearning a sport, Argentine style, that has been part of my life for many, many years.

December 3rd: Apple pie baking with my students Jesus and Susana and Susana's son Juan Cruz!

Thanksgiving. I'm not going to lie, it was rough to be away from home for a major holiday for the first time- from turkey and stuffing, family gatherings, American football, the Macy's parade, laughing at the ridiculous Black Friday shoppers, catching relatives trying to cheat in board games, and pumpkin pie, of course. On the flip side, it was a sunny 85 degrees here and I spent the afternoon poolside at my supervisor's house with Hannah (Corrientes ETA). I was thankful that I had a family who was more than happy to Skype with me on that day and am thankful to be going home this Friday to spend some quality time, including Christmas and the New Year, with those I love. I also had my fair share of opportunities here to share with others about my Thanksgiving traditions and how I give special thanks to God on this annual celebration for each of my many blessings.