January Was A Blur

January came and went slowly and quietly, almost without being noticed. How can a month in another country go by without something to say? I guess this is when you know your host country is now your home. You have gotten used to everything and may have found yourself in a rut. You understand the language so when people talk it's not as tiring to listen or difficult to respond. You start to use less of your home language and might actually make a comment to your mom in skype in Spanish and she may start laughing at you. The somewhat bumpy roads and crazy driving don't face you anymore, and you begin to think how foreign everything back home will feel when you go back.


January has touched far into my intellectual side. I seem to always be in some deep thought. This is the affect of having 2 weeks alone. My first week in January I did not have school and I was packing to switch families. At this time in my exchange I was having trouble coping that switching families meant I was halfway through this book of my exchange and I still didn't feel like I had control. I made a promise to myself; I would stop surfing between friends groups in school and stick more with one group to have the best friends effect I wanted, I cut myself off from English use unless I was skyping, I was going to see the best of every situation. The second week of January I had school and then all of the other exchange students left on a trip but I did not go so I stayed home, meanwhile school was on break so I really had nothing to do. This nothing to do was in a way quite relaxing but my host parents found it quite stressful. About 5 days into the break I got sick (dizziness, nausea, fever, etc.) and that lasted until yesterday. While I was sick I basically was on bed rest and it was just me. This was  the longest week and a half of my exchange. I was always thinking, "what college will I go to", "will I study abroad in college", "how will I graduate on time", "when am I going to book my ticket to come home from exchange", "I should work out for softball", "maybe I should cut my hair", "maybe I should google my symptoms", "oh no that says I could have malaria", "I should go to the doctor", "oh good it's not malaria", "ugh strep throat is the worst", "if I go home in June I can't do the graduation here or have my actual birthday here", the thoughts went on and on. After getting sick my host dad insisted we get out of the house so we went to his Mom's house. Today we will go to a super bowl party.


I am very happy to have said goodbye to January. I am hoping that February proves itself to be more eventful, and maybe I will decide if I am coming home in June or July.