Whenever you spend your whole first year of college with the same three or four people all year around you start to fear everything that there is on the outside of your circle, on the outside of your bubble. So now take that fear and multiply it times 1000, that exact fear is just a small piece of the fear I had stepping out of my bubble, stepping out of my group of friends, and stepping out of my everyday life to go explore and experience a new country. As the time comes and your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity grows near, your fear starts to take control, and soon the one thing you always wanted feels like the one thing you fear the most. Traveling to a different country is something I’ve always known I would accomplish. As I learned to overcome my fear of stepping out of my comfort zone, I have been reminded that God is with you every step of the way.
In South America, we went to Argentina, Peru, the Border of Brazil, and of course Uruguay. We went to many historical landmarks like Macchu Pichu and Iguazu Falls, walked along the streets of the many different countries, got to experience their day-to-day life, and created a bond with a group of people that will always be connected in one way or another. We went to outdoor markets that helped us get connected to the community. We attended classes at the Catholic University and were taught by true Uruguayans and Argentinians. I learned that Rio de la Plata Spanish is extremely different than Mexican Spanish. I realized that some words that I had been saying my entire life were grammatically incorrect. For example, throwing up in Spanish is vomitar but I always said “gomitar.” When I discovered this, I was in complete shock because all my life, I have been saying it wrong. The eight people that went on this Study Abroad trip became a family, together we cooked nightly meals and tried many new things together. Some things that we tried were mate (the national drink of Uruguay), guinea pig, and our favorite of them all, Tortas Fritas with Dulce de leche and Chocolate.
Going to South America has affected me in a way that I could not have expected, I have become more independent than I already was. I have realized through baking and cooking with foreign ingredients that just because you do not have what you think you need doesn’t mean the outcome is impossible, it just may take some extra time getting there. This also applies to the many different ways God has shown me that he is present and continuously working in my life because just when I am about to question what is going on, he reminds me that he has it under control. Although we all had a different experiences, we were able to learn from the other and help each other out. Out of each activity that we did we were able to learn a lesson, but these are the ones that stuck out to me. I learned flexibility from paddle boating during one of our classes. Flexibility as in working out but also as in you have to be flexible with your life or you will tire yourself out. In Macchu Pichu, the hike was extremely hard, but I learned perseverance by making it to the top and back down again. By cooking together in the kitchen, just gathering around in there, and making tortas fritas all together; I learned the importance of community and how much fun you can have when you give yourself some downtime. By watching my favorite movie series, I learned patience because in each movie we watched there were about three people continuously commenting out loud or asking questions. I learned embarrassment is a fun thing to experience, when I spoke to a woman to buy churros and I said “extra” with a Spanish accent and made up a word and she looked confused and asked me what that meant and I was embarrassed because I couldn’t think of another word for extra in Spanish and resulted to Spanglish. By seeking a young adult church group, I learned sometimes it is good to get out of your comfort zone. By surfing I learned to risk rejection is okay as long as you have fun and believe you did your best.
This new learning experience affected how I see the United States in relation to other countries. Since it was my first time out of the country, everything was different, and it was something I needed to adapt to. I learned that everything that I have always seen or thought of is never from a different cultural perspective but rather one of an American. Now that I have traveled to different countries, I now understand different cultures and I too have become a part of a different culture because I am no longer in the United States bubble but rather realize that there is more to the world than us.
