July 2010 Archives

With less than one week remaining in Italy, I've begun to pack and organize my suitcase. On the 29th, I leave the Arena family and will spend the last three days in the OP Hotel with the rest of the AFS students. Yesterday we celebrated Federica's 13th birthday, last Sunday we celebrated their cousin Filipo's 11th birthday; and today we are celebrating the Auguri of Santa Anna because the mother's name is 'Anna Maria.' It's a special day because the mother of Fedele is also named after this saint.

The past couple of weeks have been busy. We've visited the ocean several times, we've seen San Pietro and we climbed to the very top - which was several hundred steps. We've also grown closer and gotten to know each other a little better. Read more.

AFS offers a semester program departing this Spring to Italy.

1. You consider rice and beans a food group.
2. You consistently crave coffee at three in the afternoon.
3. You can sleep through the sound of radios blasting, dogs barking, the lorakeets next store chirping, and your sister singing in the shower at six in the morning.
4. You too develop a habit of singing Shakira very loudly in the shower.
5. Watching TV becomes an active dialog( A character in your favorite telenovela is contemplating breaking up with their girlfriend. You tell him not to[it was all a misunderstand!],forgetting that they can't hear you. He doesn't listen. ¡Hombres!)
6. You actively look for excuses to say "Pura Vida."
7. Anything that costs over two thousand colones(the equivalent of four US dollars) seems expensive.
8. You instinctively reach for your raincoat when going out after 2;00PM.
9. You begin replacing the "S" at the end of some words with an "R"
10. Your answer to "¨¿Que hora es?" is "Hora Tica." In other words, it doesn't matter. Sit back and relax, you're in Costa Rica.

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AFS offers Year and Semester Programs to Costa Rica.


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A Typical Day in Argentina: On the weekends I wake up anywhere from 10:30 to 12. I´ll usually get a little something to eat and then take a shower. Lunch is around 12-1 so by the time I finish showering it is time for lunch. Here, lunch is like dinner in the US. Everyone leaves work and the stores close for a couple hours so everyone can go home and eat lunch together. Read more.

AFS offers year and semester programs departing this Spring to Argentina.


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June here was World Cup madness. Let me start by saying that Paraguay is serious about soccer. For those of you that don't know, this year Paraguay made it to the third round of the World Cup! All of the Paraguayan games were shown in school so that people didn't skip the whole day to stay home and watch. I thought the first two games were a big deal, but after we won the third game, against Japan, the country just exploded. Read more.

AFS offers year and semester programs departing this Spring to Paraguay.

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See more photos from Anastasia's summer in Japan.

AFS offers a Spring year program to Japan departing March 2011.

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In the picture s one of the shots I took of the view from my house. It's amazing! It's one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. Every day I sit outside for a bit and just enjoy it. It's the perfect place to just relax and read my book in silence but also along with the many different sounds of the bugs and animals that live here. Just a couple nights ago, two of Pao´s, my sister, friends came over to swim in the pool and there was a cute little green frog right next to the pool! Read more.

AFS offers year and semester programs departing Spring 2011 to Costa Rica.

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¡Hola! These are pictures from yesterday at the school we are working at. In one of the clases, they taught us the folk dance called ¨el gato¨and we also tangoed a bit. They dressed us in the traditional clothing as you can see in the pictures and enjoyed watching the Americans try to dance! Read more.

AFS offers year and semester programs this Spring to Argentina.

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