Matthew Sanders, from the North Shore in Auckland, is current on an LIA to Argentina and living with a host family. Here’s an email he sent the AFS National recently…
Hey guys how you all doing?
Yeah I’m still having a great time although, the language is pretty hard! OK so it was one in the morning right, and me and my mates were walking round town in jandals, shorts and a shirt, and it was still hot!! It’s crazy man and again at it’s hot at three in the morning, and during the day, well it’s just pure roasting, it’s pretty cool. It’s kinda confusing in town and stuff though, because all of the cars drive on the right not the left so I go to cross the road and realise that actually I’m about to get hit but nah, I’m always with my host brothers so I’m pretty sweet. The food here is soo cool, it’s nice as, and definitely worth waiting till 11pm for although it’s not so bad, because here in Argentina you have a massive lunch, which is the main meal, and then you eat a pretty filling dinner, plus if you need to, you can eat in between that. Yeah they eat a lot in Argentina!! So yeah it’s pretty cool here. And the look on peoples face when they have Marmite is classic!! I kinda forgot to tell my host brother that you only eat a little bit, and he took a teaspoon full and put it in his mouth – priceless! Aside from the Marmite they love peanut butter, and can’t get enough of the stuff. They also really like the look of New Zealand, and every time they see a picture in my scrap book they say “que lindo” or “Hermosa” (which means beautiful) with a long awe-inspired sigh. Oh yeah and here I’m pretty much famous!! I’ve had newspaper and radio interviews, and have met the mayor of my town!!! And every one knows who I am. I guess in a small town like mine, foreigners are a big deal. Anyway, gotta go now. :)
Ciao
Matt
