News from Grace Bryant

Outbound Student to South America

 
It's been a crazy past couple of months I'm so so sorry I completely spaced my march report!

At the end of February, school started again. This year, I'm everyone's go-to for math help in my class as we're studying second year algebra topics I mastered 4 years ago haha. I've also been doing quite a lot of English teaching. The English teachers at my school frequently pull me out of class to help teach their classes and I continue to lead the Conversation Club at the English school on Saturdays.

In March, my parents came to visit for 5 days and we had quite an adventure. They had a chance to meet my host families, friends, and Rotarians as well as see where I've been living this year of course! We visited Iguazú falls in Argentina for 2 days, which was absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, no one warned my brother not to drink the tap water and we had to spend 2 nights in the hospital as he fell very ill. He recovered, thankfully,  and we had the chance to tour around the nation's capital, Asunción, for their last afternoon and evening here. I'll send you the link to the blog post my dad wrote about our trip. it is quite entertaining!

Later in march, we had our final inbound camp in Argentina. It was great seeing all my friends I made back in November on the Patagonia trip again and seeing how much everyone's Spanish had improved!

2 weeks ago, I switched to my third host family and so far it's been wonderful. They have 3 children. One is currently on exchange in Minnesota and the other two are Rotex. The 19 year old, Camila, went on exchange 2 years ago to Illinois and Alan, 23, went to Germany 6 years ago. My host father is a doctor and he's also a chef. Every meal I eat in this house is delicious and I get along very well with everyone here.

I'm now down to my last 2 months of exchange and there are so many mixed feelings. I've decided to attend the University of Iowa when I return and I'm beyond excited to be a Hawkeye, but I'm also dreading the heartbreaking goodbyes that are so quickly approaching. Elizabeth always said exchange is a roller coaster of emotions and she was absolutely right.

I hope all is well in Cedar Rapids and I promise to be timely with my May and June reports!



Grace Bryant