Phoneix: Family up in flames and up from the Ashes.

Dear Readers,
I write to you today from a different household of residents. I have officially joined the ranks of the 10 percent who switch families every year. This time however, it was not me who facilitated the change, but a strange phone call from my host mother to AFS saying that "they could only keep me to the end of June" because of plans that they had in place before I arrived to invite guests to stay with them. In light of this call Monday (five days before I wrote my last blog) AFS started searching for a new host family. They found a possiblity June 5th and invited me for coffee with Paul, the Professor from New Zealand, and then informed me that another guest was coming. The guest arrived and seemed unusually interested in the fact that I was Travis Knoll, but quickly6 explained it away by saying that he "had once heard about me in discussions about Foreign Exchange students." He asked me about my experiences and then I told him that Argentina was good now that I had overcome problems with my family. Manuella, her mother, and I then left for Mozarts requiem, which was wonderful. We then came back, after a failed attempt to find a cumpleaños, to the house. Manuella then repeated that I had one and a half months more of my experience and then asked if I would want to spend it with another family. I then asked how that was relevant and that all of our problems were normal now, and nothing out of the ordinary, but she said that my host mom had already made the call to say that I had until the end of June to move. AFS had decided to insist that I move faster than that I move faster to have time to develop a type of relationship with my new family. This guy turned out to be my host father...who is ALSO hosting the AFS goodbye party, his name is Marcello.
On Saturday I had my farewell dinner at Post Azul, Hugo and Alejandras favorite resturaunt, we had a good time.
Thus Tuesday, I would move to my new house, with which I am very happy. There was a Birthday party on Sunday, and my new brother Fermin actually greeted me when I first met him, which could be considered an upgrade of relations with an important part of any family. Anyway, THIS family is typically Latino, with all of the cousins, aunts,cousins, grandparents, all around asado (Argentine BBQ).
Monday was bittersweet because I had to say goodbye to the two most important relationships (and thus the most difficult to leave) in the family, Alejandro the little brother, and Hugo the father. Hugo and I walked to pick Alejandro up from his school (which made me remember the first weeks of the trip) and played with him at the Plaza Moreno on the playground, before going to get hot chocolate at a local cafe. We then had to tell Alejandro that I was leaving on Tuesday to go to another family, to which he replied that "Travis was supposed to be here until July". We told him that it was a "special program to know another family" and then he just sat there after making me promise to come and visit sometimes. This part seems the most tragic, that without warning people and people Alejandro has come to grown attatched to can leave so suddenly. It is a lesson I learned all too well in my relationship with my own sister (not a perfect comparision), especially the feeling of counting the days, counting the clock, and then someone just coming and telling you that you do not have as much time as you thought. That was the hardest part of this departure I think, realizing that forces outside of your control cannot just hurt you, but hurt the ones around you that are in the same truck with you on this road called life. Monday I then left to attend a lecture by a political candidate named Sabatillo of New Encounter. I then moved on Tuesday in between TWO AFS presentations (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) I got my bags (which were packed the night before) and moved in five minutes, forgetting a few clothes on the line, and a mate holder, which Hugo graciously later put in a plastic bag for me to give me at the party that AFS sponsors for all of the kids saying goodbye.

The new familly is fabulous, with caring brothers, and a more extended family. The family does not have room to host me in their house to sleep, but I sleep at the grandmothers house three houses down. They have homecooked meals everyday, with desserts afterward. They encourage me (maybe they will succeed in putting on pounds where the other family failed), and invite me to do various family activities. The brothers do not lecture me as my older one used to do and instead they ASK me questions and give their OPINIONS instead of their ten commandments. In a radical change from the past, my new brother is ACTUALLY going to take me to show me more clubs and things, frankly something that AFS tells us that older brothers usually do. I could not feel more comfortable in this house, and I do not believe that this is the illusion of AFS phase 1. After encountering a very difficult ride with the other family, maybe just encountering a normal accepting attitude with ALL of the family (I say that because Hugo, Álejandro, and sometimes Alejandra all had fairly open attitudes and the problem in that house was the lack of it with the brothers) actually seems UNUSUALLY nice. All of my family speak only Spanish, so it is sink or swim from here on out.

Other notes: I met on Saturday a member of a local Adventist church who was very nice and invited me to her house for a very organic meal.

A girl from school leaves one block from my house, so I have another friend I can visit regularlly and have A RIDE TO SCHOOL WHICH REALLY HELPS IN WINTER.

Got my form signed for Iguazu and sent to Argentina (thank you John, Keith, and of course dad).
Getting more times set for Basketball.
Change is always good and for the better.

Writing from my new home with hopes to a good finish,
Sincerely,
Fellow Citizen of the World,
Travis Knoll

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Part of trip: AFS Foreign Exchange

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