This will be the last blog entry from Austin. In three days I’ll be back in Argentina. The last week was really moved. On the weekend we walked around downtown and watched the graffities, played Top Golf, went shopping, went to the Spider’s House Coffee and went to some bars at night. Today we had our last ESL classes and had to say goodbye to many of our friends. What I most value about the ESL classes we had is not the grammar rules or English theory learned; what I most value is the intercultural exchange with other foreign students.  As the classes were composed only by international students, there was a great cultural diversity. My favorite part was debating about recent or controversial topics and getting to know the different postures depending on where the speaker came from. I could get to know a lot of different life stories, each one with its particularities that made it interesting. I leave this country with the promise of someday visiting these new friends at their home countries, and receiving them in Argentina. To make it short, professors where really cool too, all of them where open minded and made their best efforts to make their classes interesting and appealing.

What have I learned? Everything and nothing at the same time. I learned the proper use of a semicolon and the different cultures points of view towards immigration. I learned how banks hedge their risk and to never ask a Korean if she comes from South or North Korea. I learned the theory about the future tense, but at the same time realized that a place where no one is rushing and everyone respects traffic signals is not a utopia. I learned how to moderate a discussion and at the same time learned to always be polite and try to help tourists which are visiting your hometown. The point is that I learned some specific things in classes, but that knowledge come and goes, and can always be refreshed with a book. But I also learned more important things which aren’t written in books. This is pure and beautiful experience, which most of the times you are not conscious about acquiring, but this knowledge will stay in a little corner of your brain for the rest of your life. And each time you need it, you will look up with your eyes and pull a big smile when remembering how you acquired it: where were you, and who was by your side.

So yeah, it’s time to say goodbye. I will start by thanking Rachelle and Katie; you guided us in every step of this experience. Every detail of this trip was thought about and planed by them, every activity, the housing, the food, the trips, the classes and many other things that don’t come to my mind right now. I know that being our coordinator is your job, but it’s easy to tell when someone puts his full heart and soul on what he does. And you two my friends are that kind of people. You somehow managed to understand and respond to millions of questions from 25 Argentinians with crazy accents and where one of the key factors which made this trip amazing. Finally, I want to thank the other 24 characters that played an important role in this chapter of my life. As I mentioned before, I had zero expectative about the trip, the city, the classes and especially the people. But yes, you killed it. Each one of you has a key feature, as we like to point out, that makes you unique and amazing. So yes, again, you are what making a difference looks like. This blog will end as it started, with me sitting in the sofa and writing while chatting with my roommates; but this time my smile is bigger.