To the people reading this, hello, a little bit about myself since none of you have actually met me yet J My name is Eddy, I grew up and currently live in New Zealand, (born in South Korea though). I will be volunteering with Voluntario Global from mid November, so if you are coming in November well then I guess I will see you soon! I am a university student. I love food, I love music, and I love to travel. Jesica and Mayra suggested that I write a blog post before I come to Buenos Aires about what my expectations are and what I am doing to prepare etc so here it goes. It’s funny I feel like I have already been to Buenos Aires in some ways from reading so many articles and other information related to Buenos Aires. I have also regularly checked the VG website and facebook page. What can I say I am looking forward to volunteering. I guess every volunteer before they leave thinks about; would I like it? Would I pick up the language quickly? Will I have fun? Will I actually make a difference? Hopefully I will say ‘yes’ to all those questions when I get to Buenos Aires. I expect Buenos Aires to be a place of extremes. At one end you have the fancy neighbourhoods with a plethora of restaurants, cafes and boliches and at the other end you have the remnants of the economic crisis and the devaluation of the Argentine peso. I expect Buenos Aires to be full of culture. You all know the stereotypical ‘Argentine culture’ that travel agencies like to portray; tango, football, La Boca, the obelisk. But hopefully I will be able to discover and experience something more than that – the people, local customs, the language (I will have to get used to the Argentine castellano). I guess I don’t just want to be a ‘half-assed’ volunteer and go to Argentina for one week or something just to put on their CVs that they have ‘volunteered’. I want to get to know the kids, the VG family, other volunteers, share stories, tell them about my life, about New Zealand. Make everyone at Hogar Querubines smile, happy, so when they look back they think that the summer of 2011 was the best summer ever. I feel fortunate that I am getting the opportunity to stay in Buenos Aires and volunteer there. True, it would be even better if I could stay longer than 3 months but I will try my best to make the most out of my stay. To prepare for the trip I am brushing up on my Spanish in my spare time. I have studied Spanish at university for one semester and traveled to Mexico last year. My goal is to reach at least an intermediate level by the end of my volunteer program. I wonder if that is achievable? It sucks I don’t really get to practice Spanish much right now since I have to study for my university exams coming up in October. To be honest going to Argentina hasn’t hit me quite yet because I’m so busy doing my university work. Anyway, to the Voluntario Global family and future/present volunteers who are reading this, see you soon I truly look forward to meeting you all. Email me (Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo.) if you are volunteering around the same time I would love to hear from you about how you are preparing for the experience.