Whirlwind

This past week has been a whirlwind, my roommate and I made the very difficult decision to move to a different home stay. However difficult the decision, we are already seeing that the situation was not healthy and the move was the best thing for everyone involved. When I decided to study abroad, my living situation was the least of my worries, but it became evident to me that the place that you live has a huge influence on all other aspects of your life. Our host mom is an incredible woman, but we found that we had unreconcilable differences that were making it difficult for all us to live happily under the same roof.

We are now living with a new woman and her 11 year old daughter. We live about two minutes away from our university and right across the street from my favorite beach, El Palo. It is a stark contrast from where we lived in the city and has confirmed the fact that I am not a city girl. I feel like we have been given the opportunity for a fresh start and I couldn't be happier. I love everything about my new home stay. Our host mom hosts students from all different programs and all different countries. When we first moved in there was a girl from Germany and a girl from Sweden already here. The girl from Germany left on Saturday, but the girl from Sweden will be living here until June. Today two more girls arrived from Norway and will only be staying for one week. It is hard to get to know someone in such a short period of time, but I have enjoyed learning about their different cultures.

Amidst all of the turmoil of our unknown living situation, I told my parents that I was checking things off of my bucket list left and right. Homeless in a foreign country was a very unexpected one, but one that has been checked off of the list nonetheless. My roommate and I made the decision to stay in a hostel for two nights, while our program directors worked to find us a new family to stay with. I do not handle change or the unknown well and was therefore not thrilled with the fact that not only was I in a foreign country, but that I didn't have a place to live. After this very unexpected semester I swear I will be able to handle whatever comes next.