Wow! The month of September flew by in a flash! Let’s start from the beginning. The day we were supposed to leave Hurricane Dorian did not want or allow us to leave Charleston for Spain so we had to travel to Atlanta to catch our plane. It was little sad to leave from Atlanta because I had to say goodbye one day earlier to my family than expected. Once we got on the plane everything felt surreal. I could not believe I was leaving the US to go to another country but once we landed and got my passport stamped I started to realize that my dream was coming true. After a eight hour plane ride and a three hour bus ride we finally arrived to Trujillo. Our families were waiting to pick us up and take us to our new homes for the next three months.
Right away I met my host family. My madre is Luisi, a single mom and a cancer survivor. My Madre is just the best! She is so kind and really makes an effort to make me feel at home and at ease. She is so easy to talk to and checks up on me without being overbearing, though this might be because I speak Spanish which might be the reason why it’s so easy. She has two kids a boy and a girl. Manuel is 19 years old and he is in college and Yolanda is 15 years old in high school. They are both welcoming, kind and chill people.
The time change was not as hard as I thought it would be to adjust to but it still took me a two days to get used. The first few days we walked around Trujillo to learn where everything was and to try to learn the fastest and easiest routes to the La Coria (the place where classes would be held). We also went out to eat and hangout at restaurants at the plaza and just enjoyed Trujillos beautiful views and each other companies. We quickly formed a sense of companionship.
Eventually classes began and we were excited to have some kind of school routine going and getting busy because a lot of us were starting to miss home and school was a good distraction. Classes felt like the ones on campus except with a mini-workout before class and a coffee break in between classes.