Going back home

So, you might ask your self (or you might not because you are probably my mum reading this), is she already going home?
Good question! The thing is I used to be on exchange in Argentina when I was 17 years old. I spent a, sometimes super exciting, sometimes super boring, but without doubt a different and life changing year (2005-2006) in a small town called Maipú. See picture 1 & 2 (told you I was an engineer).

Maipú is a small town of approx. 10.000 inhabitants and located 3 hours drive (5 by bus) from Buenos Aires. The total area of the municipality is 2600 km2 (same size as the country of Luxembourg (0.5 mio) or 4 times the size of Singapore (5 mio)) but the actual town is comprised of approx. 30×30 squares of 100 m. Hence 9 km2.. So there is a lot of space around the town. Like, a lot!

I went with an organisation called Rotary, who is a global organisation wanting to change the world. Check them out here: https://www.rotary.org where you can find the mission statement - it might be a bit more specific than my take on it. At first glance it might seem like a bunch of high class men, with a strong desire to play golf, drink too much, too expensive red wine and talk hours about all that is wrong in "this god forsaken country" (and hereby I mean all countries since Rotary is world wide). And I asure you that they exist, but don't they do that everywhere? However there are also lots of down to earth, Un posh, non - expensive - wine - drinking people with a desire to make a difference and doing so by collaborating with people all over the world. So check it out! They also have a youth organisation (rotaract).

Back to the story. I was on exchange, in Maipu, 2005-2006, lived with 2 families while attending high school, learned Spanish and got to meet lots people from all around the world. Equals win, win, win, win etc.
And I have been back a couple of times - and now it was time to go back and visit.

I arrived on the 24th of December 2014 - in the airport of Ezeiza - and after about 20 hours of travel it was nice to stand up - it was even nicer to see the sun!! (Winter in Denmark = darkness most of the time). I took the bus to Maipú. Almost all transportation in South America is done by bus rather than train like in Europe. I arrived to Maipú and got picked up by my host dad. It was wwonderful seeing him again! After being home, yes it feels like home - go on exchange and you will understand what I mean - I went directly to my friend Florencias place. It was great seeing her and the other friends from high school again! Luckily the group I hung out with in high school still meet when they are all home. I spent the next few days earlier enjoying Christmas (for funny facts about Christmas, see next blog post - up and down. 

After a few days I headed to Pinamar to meet my other host family who have a summer house in the beach town of Pinamar. From there I joined my host sister Sofia, her boyfriend, their 5 months old daughter Valentina and my host brother in a car to Buenos Aires. I stayed with them for a few days, walking around buenos aires (37°C - so not that much really) and hanging out with them. It was wonderful! 

On the 31st Ville,  my friend from Finland, arrived and we headed back for Maipú.