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My story starts in a little city in Argentina, called San Miguel de Tucumán. I was born there and went to the same private, catholic school all my first 16 years of life. The environment became sickening. I felt locked in a cage, differences weren’t tolerated, I couldn’t express myself in any way. I needed to escape. It was extremely difficult to convince my parents to let me travel for a year, I would be 17 years old at the time. For them, I was too small. But I never stopped trying, and I proved to be mature enough. I found an ong called AFS, they would find me a host family and a school to attend. I left in January, 2018. My first destination was Lesparre-Medoc, a rural little town in the south-west of France. Everything was different there. I was surrounded by vineyards, it was Winter-time. It snowed. It was the first time in my life that I touched snow. At first I was amazed by the differences. In my host family, they were used to cultivate, grow plants and food. At home in Argentina I had never experienced that. Also, school had only a few students, something like 300 in total. Back in mine, we were around 1200. My first months were really hard. I didn’t speak any french, not a Word. I had headaches all the time, and I had to put an increddible effort to understand other people and make Friends. It was only around April when I started to speak the language, and it was also the time when I understood I missed the city. I missed noises, and having places to go at any time. I needed a change. The countryside was nice for a while but then it became boring. So I changed families when June started. I started living in Bordeaux, a beautiful city with the best wines in the world. It felt like living in a dream. My second host family really made me feel like home. They took me in holidays with them, we planned a roadtrip and visited Madrid and the north of Portugal. It was the happiest I’ve been in all my life. At that time, I could speak french a lot more fluently, and my host brothers were so much fun. By then, I was used to the traditions and the culture. French food was amazing. I started eating cheese at any time, like them. I listened to french music and went to the cinema to watch french movies. I could understand french humor! If it weren’t for my accent, I bet you couldn’t tell I wasn’t french. I felt like I fit in and it was that feeling that I was searching my whole life. Still, I missed Argentina. I needed my Friends more than anything (and let’s not forget the food). In France people are hard to approach. They’re all really polite and they love you a lot once you get to know them, but it’s hard to earn their trust. I missed the latin spirit, and I missed partying like only we know how. Definitely, Exchange was the best years of my life. It taught me how to deal with all different types of people, it taught me patience and tolerance. I became more humble but also more independant and confident in myself. I had to overcome so many challenges. The hardest one was always communication. But I also got lost many times in places I didn’t know at all, I felt lonely, nostalgic, sad, angry, sometimes I didn’t know what I felt but I just wanted to cry. I made a lot of Friends from all over the world, and I had to say goodbye to lots of them, lots of times, without knowing if we are ever going to see each other again. From all this I learned. I’m a much better person now, and I think I will never feel ok in just one place, because my heart belongs to a lot of places now.