Hi, hello and hola!

Hello everyone, my name is Clea, I'm 17 years old from Germany and I'm currently doing a year abroad in the small South American country of Uruguay.

First of all, some facts about Uruguay: Uruguay is located on the South American continent and borders Argentina and Brazil. The capital is Montevideo, the official language is Spanish, and the currency of the country is the Uruguayan Peso (1 UYU = ~ 0.025 Euro). With approximately 3.457 million inhabitants and an area of 176,215 square kilometers, Uruguay is the smallest country in South America, but it is also the least religious country in South America and the second country in South America to legalize same-sex marriage (long before Germany). Uruguay was the first country in the world to win the World Cup and to legalize the use of cannabis (not that it is relevant to me..).

And now a little bit about myself, so you know what I'm like: as I said, I'm 17 and I come from northern Germany. I love drawing and enjoy learning languages (with the exception of Latin. Latin is pure horror.). I am also interested in rescuing stray animals, especially dogs, and would like to work in this field in the future.

I am traveling with the non-profit organization YFU - Youth For Understanding - which has been sending more than 60,000 exchange students around the world since 1957.

I chose YFU because I had already had many positive experiences with the organization. My family had previously hosted four exchange students from YFU, and we currently have the fifth one staying with us. My older sister also went on an exchange program with YFU and had only positive things to say about it. So the choice was easy.

But why did I decide to do a year abroad? And why Uruguay in particular?

Well, it's kind of a long story that's not necessarily very exciting. In short, a wonderful staff member at YFU personally recommended a year abroad in South America, to which I thought, 'Hey, why not?'. After a lot of contemplation and research, I ultimately chose Uruguay simply because the country was praised as friendly, safe, and liberal, all things that I highly value. And because the only foreign language I could imagine learning, besides English, was Spanish. Haha.

Well, now I'm here, living this adventure.

And if you're interested, you can follow along here :)