abroad.: september and half october

Hello everybody !

its so good to have few moments for myself and write something here. I love being at home, my lovely room, my parents, EXTREMLY good food and my friends. Unfortunately I have to write 4 huge essays, which take a lot of time, thats why the only one entertainment for now its updating my blog :)

So as I promised you, I will keep writing about my first days/months/feelings in Colombia. I arleady described you August. My arriving to Colombia, My new family, new school, new friends etc. It was extremly hard for me. Now I realized that I left home at the age of 16. Regret? maybe leaving home, but Colombia and memories will stay in my minds forever. believe me that was extremely hard leaving my family and friends in Poland, because if you are going on your exchange, you cannot live on facebook with all news and gossips. You can not be in touch with your friends and family everyday on skype. that is waste of time being there. what is the best, leave your life in your home city, start new life abroad. if you have boyfriend/girlfriend- sorry, but the best decision is to split up before your exchange. What people really dont understant is that being one year abroad it is a HUGE chance and possibility. this year can open doors for EVERYTHING you want, or it can close if you will loose the time. maybe its cruel but to sum up, if you will make this decision to grow up, make new friendships, know new culture you should leave your present life in your home city, go on your exchange and then spend the best year in your life with totally new people and on totally new rules with different conditions. it wont be always colorful, but you cant give up, never.

I cannot say when was the hardest part of my exchange. it was almost everyday hard. little problems were changing to bigger one, homesick, strange situations in school or home, i couldnt speak in my mother tongue language cause.. who speaks polish in Colombia? exactly, nobody. But you know what? I always tried to have fun from every situation. Of course there were millions that i couldnt do anything and the perspectives that i was there alone, without anybody who i can 100% trust ... yeah.. i dont have to finish this sentence. just imagine if you were me.
Maybe the hardest was like in april ? when i had to make the most serious decision, TO STAY OR TO GO. yeah.. i had this possibility to stay in Colombia forever. I could finish there my school with IB Program, then go to university but the only thing which kept me away from this decision was my family. if i stayed there, i dont know which relationship i would have with them after more years. ( i will tell you the story someday)

lets come back to SEPTEMBER.

when i found out that my host mom(grandma) is ill and we have to go to Bogota i got extremely happy because i could visit new place in Colombia ( but understanding that i am going to bogota took my mom like 20 min to explain me in spanish. it was really funny.. she was pretending plane, she showed me photos YOU-BOGOTA-MANANA, it really was funny) and we got there. we stayed there almost MONTH. it was enough long time to know the capital. we stayed at my host mom's daughter, whose daughter went to Warsaw ( it was exchange with me, i should stayed in Bogota, but my district to who i belong in Colombia didnt agree and they sent me to Cucuta ) we spent all together beautiful weeks. they showed me all monumets, shopping centers, cool restaurants... but despite of theirs trying to make me feel home i needed something else. it was a friend. or friends. i needed people in my age to talk, to spend time, to do stuff which i couldnt do with my hosts. So i met Sergio ( Hi, if you are reading this) we hanged out, it was awesome. He was one from not many friends who speaks english. And actually we stayed friends untill now.
during this trip to Bogota i fall in love with my hosts. really, i felt like i am living with grandmother and grandfather but my second family is in Bogota( theirs daughter with her family) so from the beginning i knew thats gonna be perfect exchange. and it was.
Unfortunately one day i woke up and during the breakfast i found out that i have to switch my host family because my host mom is ill and she needs to stay longer in Bogota. Well, I cried and everybody did. during 2 months we sticked to each other so much. I didnt know what i should expect from my second family, who it will be, where i will live...i exactly remember this situation when my grandfather was calling to my another host dad to ask him if he can take me earlier ( the plan was to stay with second family from december) so they made a deal. during the same week i've met my sister, Silvia. she was 25, married, in pregnant. the hottest sis ever i could had :))) we have met, she speaks english cause she was an exchange student(twice) in england and usa. she was sooo relaxed, she was telling me about my future host family, about mom and dad and i couldnt believe when she said" my parents are soooo relaxed, you can going out, partying etc" I HAD STARS IN MY EYES. and it actually was as she said.
after 4 days i came back to Cucuta. to my new exchange students friends, to my school, to my rotary club and to my NEW FAMILY. I fall in love in house immediataly. my second family owns restaurants, beauty saloons so in 3 words i can say " heaven for me.
We were soooo good to each other. my host dad was laughing at me everytime, because of my punctuality. everytime when he was saying the hour i was ready, but in Colombia it doesnt happen at all.
for instance, if somebody invites you to the party at 8pm you should come like 9.30pm or even later.
Once when my friend told me to pick me up at 7.. of course i was ready at this time and he arrived at almost 10 !!!!!! what i was doing? sitting on stairs with phone in my hand.
hahaha but after short time i became really colombian and i knew how to act in different situations :)

my second and actually last family was really crazy. specially my THE BEST brother ever- Chiqui. oh my god, i love him so much. i really had the best siblings from the second family : Sergio, Chiqui, Silvia. I miss you guys.
just after 2 weeks i went to RETIROS. its like school trip, which takes 3 days. but it wasnt just school trip but trip with values. We talked about family and love. it moved me, i cried everyday, everybody cried.
The trip was in other, bigger city- Bucaramanga. it is well known, big city in Colombia. the first what we were doing was accomodation, food etc. after we really started our trip with emotional exercises. we had to lay down on a floor with closed eyes. teacher was reading some part of the life: mom giving birth, first birthday, christmas and generally happy moments... then he came to the bad ones like somebody's death, accidents etc. it was hard.
also during this trip we talked much about our feelings. everybody wrote list to somebody who hurted during life. people wrote about parents/boyfriends/friends. i wrote it too, but in polish to keep it only for myself. I remember when during our last night everybody got letters from theirs parents. everybody cried and i was looking at them and i realized how family and love is important in our lifes, no matter what. then my teacher came to me and gave me the letter, from MY parents, from Poland. it was amazing... i opened the envelope and i saw photos.. my parents keeping my little sister, my brother, my house, my room.. i couldnt stop crying. i missed them so much. that was probably the best experience and the biggest value. this trip showed me WHO ARE COLOMBIANS??? they are lovely people who love and respect each other. who always are ready to help. COLOMBIANS taught me loving and respecting my family, they showed me the importance of friends. I can say that this trip was one from few factors, which changed my life.

in this post i described you even half of october. another part will be about my crazy ALONE trip to bogota. actually.. when Chiqui ( my host bro) left me there and during "amazing" weekend i got robbed from my mobile phone and money. and i survived without speaking spanish. understanting YES, but no speaking :)

See you later, a l i g a t o r : )

typical, Colombian(fatty)meal