Well, today I do not have much to tell. It was more uneventful than the past few days.
I went to my Politics and Economics class where I understood nothing for the second time. Even when I understood what he was saying, I still did not get the point of it or how it fit into the class. I don’t see any objective of our class or some form of…form. It’s so very frustrating because I know that the professor knows what he’s talking about. And a couple others in the class seem to understand enough, or at least are really good at pretending they understand what’s going on. The profe even picked on me today (well, he did last week too) about how I nod and act like I understand but my eyes give me away. And then later in the class he mentioned how he hoped I wasn’t bored or something like that. Everyone chuckles and he moves on with class, but I would prefer that he not call me out. I get so so discouraged in that class! It is probably the most frustrating thing I’ve ever gone through. I wish I had some form of desire to learn more about politics and economics, but disliking those two things is NOT helping me get by in this class. I was threatening to quit the class today, to see if there is someway I can just not take that one class, and maybe take a different one at the Expanish School. I know I need to stick with it, but I don’t want to get by with a C in a class I can’t stand. Sigh…and it’s not like I haven’t been in it long. 8 hours of this one class is long enough for me to realize I don’t want to do it, let alone want to try to learn from it. Plus, the professor has an even more difficult accent than most Argentines do…yes, I realize, this is a learning experience for me and I need to learn wherever I can. I also realize that I shouldn’t be complaining about it…but I can and I will. =) I don’t know what I am going to do about it at the moment, but I do know that I would prefer no comments about how I need to suck it up or keep trying. That’s not what I need or want right now, so please don’t! =)
Other than that one class, everything else is going well. I went home right after class and talked with my housemate Serri. She’s really nice and lets me use her internet when she’s not home (like right now, so thank you Serri!). I had a wonderful dinner of…you guessed it! steak and mashed potatoes! They were so good! (However, they were not as good as your potatoes Grandma, no worries!). I then watched “50 First Dates” with my host mom. Our regular TV shows were not on, so we watched that instead. She likes that movie as well and talks about how “linda” (nice) it is.
I am now updating…and trying to upload more photos. It’s seriously taking about ten to fifteen minutes to upload five photos! And when I try to upload more than…oh, eight, it tells me it can’t do it. So sorry on the slow photo updating! I have some really great shots of Colonia at night that I want to share too! Oh well, I shall be patient on one thing if any! =)
Since tomorrow morning will be the start of my third week here, I think it is okay for me to admit that I do miss a few things from home:
1. DR. PEPPER!!! Oh my goodness, it’s like I am having withdrawals…at least they have Pepsi.
2. IHOP! I don’t know why, but I am seriously missing that pancake house. They don’t really eat pancakes here…well, they don’t really eat much breakfast. They don’t eat bacon, eggs, biscuits, and all the yummy stuff for breakfast. It makes me sad. Lol
3. Um…so at the moment I kinda miss the English language! Lol. I mean, I hear it here enough, but still, sometimes (especially after classes) I just need a little English to keep me sane.
4. My front and back yards. I realize now how I don’t use them…and I should. I don’t know what I’ll do (no mother, gardening is not an option, ha ha), maybe I’ll tan when I get back! But there are NO yards here! I mean, I am sure there are plenty out in the country where all the ranches are, but not where I am!
Umm… I can’t think of anything else at this moment…OH YEAH…my family and friends…but that’s a given right? Moving along…
So I brought up mate in a note a few days ago and was asked what it was…then I thought to myself, “Have I really not shared what Mate is with yous guys back at home?!” Then I looked back over my past updates and realized, “Oh my…I haven’t.” What a lousy updater I am to not inform you all on one of the TOP things that Argentina is known for! Sigh…maybe it’s because I don’t really like it that I haven’t written about it? Still, that is NO excuse. So yeah, Mate… is a drink. It is pronounced: Mah-tay. The word is actually two things. The container is called a mate. It is usually a gourd shaped cup (but can be many shapes I’m sure). The other is the drink itself. It is a bitter herb drink that people love around here. The mixture is actually called yerba mate and looks kind of like grass. It comes with a bombilla (metal or wooden straw that’s a bit different looking from normal straws) that you put in the mate cup first. Then you put in the yerba mate almost to the top. After that, you fill it up with hot water, then drink! It’s basically like a stronger version of tea and has a very bitter taste, some people put sugar in it, but I don’t think it improves the taste any. It can be a very communal activity here. (I don’t know if that’s the right word…but still.) It is very common for there to be a group of people sharing the mate, and there can be all these rituals to it as well, but I haven’t seen any other than what we did on our second day of orientation. There is a host who prepares the mate, and they pass it to the person on their left who drinks until more water needs to be put in. If that person does not want anymore, they say, “Gracias”, but if they don’t say it, they’ll get it again when it makes its way around the circle. After each person is done, they pass it back to the host who pours more water in it and then they pass it to the next person. But like I said, I haven’t seen this done anywhere yet. It might be common amongst families…but since it’s just my host mom and house mate here, we don’t drink it. When we walked around Uruguay, there were people carrying it around along with their thermoses. Thomas was drinking it at school today and I had a few sips…it’s still gross. However, that will probably not stop me from buying a small package and bringing it back with me to have some of you try. We shall have Argentine and Uruguayan rituals when I return! Yay!
Okay, I suppose that explanation gave me a bit of length to this update, so that’s better than nothing. I have my Spanish class tomorrow, which I like much much more than that other one. =) I had to write a leyenda (legend) for homework. We had the option of making one up or just writing one we new… I made one up about the mistletoe and kissing under it…why it’s a tradition. It’s not really that great, but if anyone wants to know it, let me know, I shall share…maybe. =)
That’s all for now! Goodbye from Buenos Aires!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Dia 13, La Bomba! 29 Junio
Hello all my lovely readers!
Today, like many days, started off normal… nothing exciting to tell you about: breakfast, shower, writing letters, finishing off updates, etc. I went to class at 2:00… and didn’t really enjoy my Spanish class today which was quite frustrating. I normally enjoy that class (well…normally, we’ve only had it twice, but still). Today was more talking about the elections of yesterday than about really learning Spanish, which I guess you could look at it as “Oh look at all the vocabulary you could have learned when talking about it!” But I saw it as, “I have a Politics class…I’ll talk about elections then. I would like to learn more about the Spanish language in general…when are we getting to the subjunctive?!”
We finally did get to a few worksheets where I realized that my knowledge of the imperfect vs. the preterit past verb forms wasn’t as good as I originally thought. We were given stories where both types of verb forms are used, and it got really confusing knowing when to put what… Okay, those of you who don’t know Spanish much…here is a quick “lesson” (well, not really, but still):
In English, past tense, we say: When I was a child, I ate apples every day.
Yesterday, I ate an apple.
See how easy that is? Same verb: ate. Doesn’t matter when it happened, if it is in the past; we use it in the past tense.
Spanish: Cuando era niña, comía mazanas todos los días.
Ayer, comé una manzana.
See why that might get frustrating? There are two different verb forms for it, depending on if it was something that happened once in the past or something that happened often in the past. Now, it doesn’t seem that difficult right there, but there is more to it, I am finding out. When you are telling a story about something that happened and giving a setting to the story: i.e. “It was raining…” even if it only rained that one night of your story, you still use that first form because it is the setting of the story. OR, if you are saying something like, “While they walked here, the crowd laughed.” (Yeah, not the best sentence, moving on.) The first verb would be one way, and the second would be the other, because as one action is happening, the other one happens… or something like that. Sigh.
Sorry for the Spanish lesson (ish). I think I was trying to help myself study, ha ha. But hopefully you can now understand my frustration with that part of the language, and this isn’t even the hard stuff yet! I did get homework. We have one worksheet, one writing over what our bedrooms were like when we were kids (imperfect verb form!) and one leyenda norteamericana (I get to make up or tell a north American folk tale that has some form of truth in it…how fun).
After class I went home and was able to update and put up a few of my Colonia photos. There are more coming…once I can get to a place where the computer decides to be faster than 10 minutes per 8 photos. Time can add up when you’re trying to do it, especially if you are using your housemate’s wi-fi card and she’s home waiting patiently to get it back.
My host mom made gnocchi for dinner. (And no, I didn’t know how to spell that on my own, Microsoft Word helped me a bit). She says it is a tradition to make it on the 29th of every month to celebrate having money. I don’t really know why that is…but I think it’s cute. It was pretty good too. I don’t know if it is my favorite type of pasta, but I’ll eat it again (next month!).
Around 7:00 I left my place and headed for…. La Bomba! It’s a drum show that happens every Monday night and it was so much fun! I knew for sure that at least one person from my program was going to be there, but his phone hasn’t been working so I couldn’t get a hold of him to set a meeting time or anything. I got there and there were so many people outside of this place that I didn’t know if I was supposed to go in, or wait outside, or what the deal was. Luckily, as I was about to head it, I saw two other people from our program walk up and was oh so happy to see them! (Thank you Eric and Meaghan for being there!) They had been there the week before, so they basically knew what to do. You walk into the ticket booth area and pay $15 pesos ($5 US) and they give you a ticket…then you walk about 10 feet to the entrance where they tear your ticket.
Then, you are let loose into this WIDE outside space…well, it’s inside outside if that makes sense, which I am sure it doesn’t. There are four walls… no ceiling. That’s better. And there’s this HUGE staircase that leads…I don’t know where because the show was behind the stair case. There is a large drink area where you can get all sorts of drinks (yes, beer, but there was water and soda, etc.) Then to the left of the drinks is another wide opening (which is behind the staircase) to where the show is. It basically looks like you are in someone’s garage, but it’s the biggest garage I’ve ever seen. So maybe more like an airplane hangar? That could hold maybe two large airplanes, plus all that extra stuff you’d have in there? There are large pillars that have different colors of paint on them, large signs that say: “Prohibir fumar” (no smoking) which people completely ignored. Then, there is a stage, with all sorts of kinds of drums on it.
And then… the music starts at 8:00. There are maybe 10-15 people in this band and they all move around from instrument to instrument throughout the show. They are all so talented! There is a conductor who basically dances as he conducts and the music is just…well, if you DON’T move while listening to it, it probably means you’re dead. There was even a 60 year old man there moving around to the music. It’s… infectious, in the not “disease” way, but the fact that everyone around you starts swaying and you can’t help but join in and at least bob your head to the music. It was so much fun! I had a blast…yes, afterwards everything sounded funny because we just happened to be right next to the speakers and it was LOUD, but other than that, what a wonderful experience. And Grandma, I was home before 11:00, so no worries about me being out too late! =) It’s a two hour show and definitely worth the five bucks. A couple of people who went last week and this week were like, “We’re going three for three next week!” I don’t know if I will go every week, probably depends on my homework load and how busy my weekend was/week will be. But I am definitely going to go again!
Well, tomorrow looks like a pretty uneventful day. Politics class for four hours! EWW. I’ll try to survive! More from the COLD (it got down to the 40s! Ah! Ha ha) Southern hemisphere later! Love you!
Today, like many days, started off normal… nothing exciting to tell you about: breakfast, shower, writing letters, finishing off updates, etc. I went to class at 2:00… and didn’t really enjoy my Spanish class today which was quite frustrating. I normally enjoy that class (well…normally, we’ve only had it twice, but still). Today was more talking about the elections of yesterday than about really learning Spanish, which I guess you could look at it as “Oh look at all the vocabulary you could have learned when talking about it!” But I saw it as, “I have a Politics class…I’ll talk about elections then. I would like to learn more about the Spanish language in general…when are we getting to the subjunctive?!”
We finally did get to a few worksheets where I realized that my knowledge of the imperfect vs. the preterit past verb forms wasn’t as good as I originally thought. We were given stories where both types of verb forms are used, and it got really confusing knowing when to put what… Okay, those of you who don’t know Spanish much…here is a quick “lesson” (well, not really, but still):
In English, past tense, we say: When I was a child, I ate apples every day.
Yesterday, I ate an apple.
See how easy that is? Same verb: ate. Doesn’t matter when it happened, if it is in the past; we use it in the past tense.
Spanish: Cuando era niña, comía mazanas todos los días.
Ayer, comé una manzana.
See why that might get frustrating? There are two different verb forms for it, depending on if it was something that happened once in the past or something that happened often in the past. Now, it doesn’t seem that difficult right there, but there is more to it, I am finding out. When you are telling a story about something that happened and giving a setting to the story: i.e. “It was raining…” even if it only rained that one night of your story, you still use that first form because it is the setting of the story. OR, if you are saying something like, “While they walked here, the crowd laughed.” (Yeah, not the best sentence, moving on.) The first verb would be one way, and the second would be the other, because as one action is happening, the other one happens… or something like that. Sigh.
Sorry for the Spanish lesson (ish). I think I was trying to help myself study, ha ha. But hopefully you can now understand my frustration with that part of the language, and this isn’t even the hard stuff yet! I did get homework. We have one worksheet, one writing over what our bedrooms were like when we were kids (imperfect verb form!) and one leyenda norteamericana (I get to make up or tell a north American folk tale that has some form of truth in it…how fun).
After class I went home and was able to update and put up a few of my Colonia photos. There are more coming…once I can get to a place where the computer decides to be faster than 10 minutes per 8 photos. Time can add up when you’re trying to do it, especially if you are using your housemate’s wi-fi card and she’s home waiting patiently to get it back.
My host mom made gnocchi for dinner. (And no, I didn’t know how to spell that on my own, Microsoft Word helped me a bit). She says it is a tradition to make it on the 29th of every month to celebrate having money. I don’t really know why that is…but I think it’s cute. It was pretty good too. I don’t know if it is my favorite type of pasta, but I’ll eat it again (next month!).
Around 7:00 I left my place and headed for…. La Bomba! It’s a drum show that happens every Monday night and it was so much fun! I knew for sure that at least one person from my program was going to be there, but his phone hasn’t been working so I couldn’t get a hold of him to set a meeting time or anything. I got there and there were so many people outside of this place that I didn’t know if I was supposed to go in, or wait outside, or what the deal was. Luckily, as I was about to head it, I saw two other people from our program walk up and was oh so happy to see them! (Thank you Eric and Meaghan for being there!) They had been there the week before, so they basically knew what to do. You walk into the ticket booth area and pay $15 pesos ($5 US) and they give you a ticket…then you walk about 10 feet to the entrance where they tear your ticket.
Then, you are let loose into this WIDE outside space…well, it’s inside outside if that makes sense, which I am sure it doesn’t. There are four walls… no ceiling. That’s better. And there’s this HUGE staircase that leads…I don’t know where because the show was behind the stair case. There is a large drink area where you can get all sorts of drinks (yes, beer, but there was water and soda, etc.) Then to the left of the drinks is another wide opening (which is behind the staircase) to where the show is. It basically looks like you are in someone’s garage, but it’s the biggest garage I’ve ever seen. So maybe more like an airplane hangar? That could hold maybe two large airplanes, plus all that extra stuff you’d have in there? There are large pillars that have different colors of paint on them, large signs that say: “Prohibir fumar” (no smoking) which people completely ignored. Then, there is a stage, with all sorts of kinds of drums on it.
And then… the music starts at 8:00. There are maybe 10-15 people in this band and they all move around from instrument to instrument throughout the show. They are all so talented! There is a conductor who basically dances as he conducts and the music is just…well, if you DON’T move while listening to it, it probably means you’re dead. There was even a 60 year old man there moving around to the music. It’s… infectious, in the not “disease” way, but the fact that everyone around you starts swaying and you can’t help but join in and at least bob your head to the music. It was so much fun! I had a blast…yes, afterwards everything sounded funny because we just happened to be right next to the speakers and it was LOUD, but other than that, what a wonderful experience. And Grandma, I was home before 11:00, so no worries about me being out too late! =) It’s a two hour show and definitely worth the five bucks. A couple of people who went last week and this week were like, “We’re going three for three next week!” I don’t know if I will go every week, probably depends on my homework load and how busy my weekend was/week will be. But I am definitely going to go again!
Well, tomorrow looks like a pretty uneventful day. Politics class for four hours! EWW. I’ll try to survive! More from the COLD (it got down to the 40s! Ah! Ha ha) Southern hemisphere later! Love you!
Dia 12, A Day in Colonia, Uruguay, 28 Junio
Oh my goodness…today was probably the longest day I’ve had here in the Southern Hemisphere, other than the first day that is. I woke up at 6:40AM!!! Yeah, that’s 4:40am to those of you in the central time zone! I got ready relatively fast (in about 15 minutes). My host mom woke up and made me coffee and then by 7:15 I was off in a taxi to “Colonia Express”, a ferry that takes you to Colonia, Uruguay just across the Rio de la Plata. (Which I heard was one of the widest rivers in the world…and it is really really wide. You can barely see the sides of it when in the middle).
We arrived in Colonia around 10:00. (Our ferry didn’t leave until 9:00). It was…cold. Well, colder than it has been this entire time, I would say in the upper 40s, maybe a bit lower. I’m no meteorologist, but it was cold enough to make me shiver, even though I had a long sleeve shirt and a hoody on over it. We first took a walking tour of the city. Our tour guide told us a little about the history and kept telling us to come back and stay the night, and tell our friends about it, and to come back and get married in this little town of Colonia. They apparently really want to thrive with tourism, and it really is the perfect little tourist spot. The travel agencies need to pick this place up because it is…Beautiful! I mean it when I say that it is the most beautiful town I have ever seen. Well, at least the Old City is. The newer parts of town just look like a cute little town, but the Old City…that’s where all the magic is. The neighborhood was built by the Portuguese and the Spanish, so the architecture and the cobblestone roads mimic those in old Portugal and Spain, naturally. The buildings are painted beautiful colors and there are all sorts of different types of flowers on the ground, growing on the sides of buildings, planted on roof tops.
There are also quite a lot of dogs just running around the place. Some of them obviously had owners, some probably didn’t, but they were all happy and friendly. And also, you cannot walk down the street without seeing someone carrying a thermos and mate. It is so funny. I saw more mate in Uruguay than I’ve seen my entire time in B.A. They love love love it in Uruguay. I think I noticed that the way to tell a tourist from a local is that tourists aren’t carrying around mate.
After our short city tour, we went to lunch at a random restaurant. I had raviolis which were…eh, okay I suppose. Then we were free to do as we pleased. We followed our Expanish leader for awhile. He took us to a boardwalk where we took pictures of more buildings and of the river. Then he took us to a “beach” area where we were able to take even more pictures. Then we went back to the Old City center where we split up and went our different ways. Oh, before I forget, there were also orange trees, and of course I couldn’t help but think of my mom who definitely would have picked a few oranges. =) Some of my classmates did and they said that they were the most sour oranges they’ve ever tasted. Sorry mom, I didn’t pick any… I wouldn’t be able to bring them home anyway! =)
Then we split up. We went to some little tourist shops and bought tourist-y things. Then we just…walked…and took photos. I took about 200 photos while I was there…(coming to a facebook album near you soon!) Bridget and I finally got tired of just walking, and since we were pretty chilly we decided to find some café con leche and just sit around the town for awhile. In the midst of our search, we found stairs leading to the roof of a building…so we went up there and found a cute little roof with tables and chairs and what not. Well, we sat… and talked. I know I know, you have a day in Uruguay and you just sit on a roof and talk?! Why weren’t you out doing stuff? I know…however, the sun was in the perfect spot (meaning it was a bit warmer than in the shade) and it was over looking the water and various other rooftops that had flowers and other stuff…it was a pretty sight. Plus, we had about 5 hours in this little town to spend… so why not?
After awhile we went down and started walking again. We finally found a cute little café where we got our drinks and a little bit of food. It was a really cute restaurant with heaters (!) and there was a cute little dog in there as well. And then we took off walking again. We tried to go up to a lighthouse, but it was closed by the time we got there…however, I did take quite a few pictures of it. I also took a few pictures of what was almost sunset. I didn’t get any good photos of it because the clouds overtook the sun and so it made it more difficult.
I don’t know how the time went by so fast, but before we knew it, it was dark outside and so we walked around and took photos of Colonia in the evening. We ended up at a park where we sat down and just people watched. And wow…the people here are just so interesting. They are all so different and quite wonderful it seems. The mullet and the rat tail seem to be hair styles that are in here as well, although not as common. Many a people had their mate (even younger kids…maybe 10 or 11 carried them around). While we were there, a dog found us and decided to make us his new friend. It was so sweet and just let us pet him (no worries, we had hand sanitizer!). As we were sitting on this park bench, just hanging out, a couple of guys walked by and one said, “Hola!”… well, we are not rude, we do not just ignore semi attractive Uruguayan boys when they talk to us… so we said, “Hola” back… but they kept walking, so no big deal, right? =) Well, then Bridget just started feeling sorry for the poor dog and got up to go to the kiosko that was right by us to see if they had any kind of food that she could give the dog (yup, she has a soft spot when it comes to homeless dogs)… and she wasn’t even gone but thirty seconds, when those two Uruguayan guys are back in the park and saying hello to me again, and then sitting down on the bench next to me… But strangely enough, they weren’t…creepy. They were nice and said hello. One’s name was Juan (I can’t remember the other). Then of course they start speaking in really fast Spanish with a Uruguayan accent so I was LOST. Bridget came back and tried to translate some for me. However, when they said, “Donde esta sus novios?,” (Where are your boyfriends?) I laughed and Bridget said, “Tengo un novio” (I have a boyfriend). And then she started getting her southern (she’s from Georgia) attitude on and I guess they got the hint because they, somewhat politely, said okay and said goodbye. Ha ha. It was quite fun and no harm was done! So no worries mom and dad!
Well, after awhile longer, Bridget and I decided to start heading back to the port, mainly because we weren’t certain where the port was from where we were, so we had to back track back through the Old City to try and find it. On our way there, we started hearing music…drumming in particular. So we followed it (I mean, we had an hour before we had to be back). And after a block or two (more normal sized blocks in Uruguay), we found the source. There was a band in the middle of the street playing the drums. There were a few girls dancing and then we found Alex and Leo. Alex has taken a few milonga and tango dancing lessons, so she was out there dancing with them too. We just listened and somewhat moved to the music (no, I did not let my crazy dance moves out…people just have to be patient for that!). After about two or three minutes or so of following this moving drum band down the street, I turned and noticed two very familiar looking figures on the other side of the road. Sure enough, it was Juan and his friend. Sigh. I had followers! (And no, I can’t say whether or not I was excited by that fact. Ha ha). While we followed this band down the street, (for about twenty minutes), Juan and friend followed us…but then, they finally left. I don’t know if they were waiting on me to acknowledge them (which I never did), or if they were waiting on us to turn back and be alone, or what the deal was. But Leo was with us, so I had some form of a guy around in case things got crazy…but NO worries! Nothing happened. They left and we four went back to the ferry unharmed and un-followed (as far as I know I suppose…ha).
Well, then we took the ferry home and that’s the end of my fun day in Uruguay. (Pronounced: oo-roo-why for those of you who want to know the correct pronunciation). =)
More class tomorrow! And hopefully a drum show tomorrow night. One of my classmates said he had the most fun he’s ever had there when he went last Monday, so we shall see.
Miss you all and love you!
We arrived in Colonia around 10:00. (Our ferry didn’t leave until 9:00). It was…cold. Well, colder than it has been this entire time, I would say in the upper 40s, maybe a bit lower. I’m no meteorologist, but it was cold enough to make me shiver, even though I had a long sleeve shirt and a hoody on over it. We first took a walking tour of the city. Our tour guide told us a little about the history and kept telling us to come back and stay the night, and tell our friends about it, and to come back and get married in this little town of Colonia. They apparently really want to thrive with tourism, and it really is the perfect little tourist spot. The travel agencies need to pick this place up because it is…Beautiful! I mean it when I say that it is the most beautiful town I have ever seen. Well, at least the Old City is. The newer parts of town just look like a cute little town, but the Old City…that’s where all the magic is. The neighborhood was built by the Portuguese and the Spanish, so the architecture and the cobblestone roads mimic those in old Portugal and Spain, naturally. The buildings are painted beautiful colors and there are all sorts of different types of flowers on the ground, growing on the sides of buildings, planted on roof tops.
There are also quite a lot of dogs just running around the place. Some of them obviously had owners, some probably didn’t, but they were all happy and friendly. And also, you cannot walk down the street without seeing someone carrying a thermos and mate. It is so funny. I saw more mate in Uruguay than I’ve seen my entire time in B.A. They love love love it in Uruguay. I think I noticed that the way to tell a tourist from a local is that tourists aren’t carrying around mate.
After our short city tour, we went to lunch at a random restaurant. I had raviolis which were…eh, okay I suppose. Then we were free to do as we pleased. We followed our Expanish leader for awhile. He took us to a boardwalk where we took pictures of more buildings and of the river. Then he took us to a “beach” area where we were able to take even more pictures. Then we went back to the Old City center where we split up and went our different ways. Oh, before I forget, there were also orange trees, and of course I couldn’t help but think of my mom who definitely would have picked a few oranges. =) Some of my classmates did and they said that they were the most sour oranges they’ve ever tasted. Sorry mom, I didn’t pick any… I wouldn’t be able to bring them home anyway! =)
Then we split up. We went to some little tourist shops and bought tourist-y things. Then we just…walked…and took photos. I took about 200 photos while I was there…(coming to a facebook album near you soon!) Bridget and I finally got tired of just walking, and since we were pretty chilly we decided to find some café con leche and just sit around the town for awhile. In the midst of our search, we found stairs leading to the roof of a building…so we went up there and found a cute little roof with tables and chairs and what not. Well, we sat… and talked. I know I know, you have a day in Uruguay and you just sit on a roof and talk?! Why weren’t you out doing stuff? I know…however, the sun was in the perfect spot (meaning it was a bit warmer than in the shade) and it was over looking the water and various other rooftops that had flowers and other stuff…it was a pretty sight. Plus, we had about 5 hours in this little town to spend… so why not?
After awhile we went down and started walking again. We finally found a cute little café where we got our drinks and a little bit of food. It was a really cute restaurant with heaters (!) and there was a cute little dog in there as well. And then we took off walking again. We tried to go up to a lighthouse, but it was closed by the time we got there…however, I did take quite a few pictures of it. I also took a few pictures of what was almost sunset. I didn’t get any good photos of it because the clouds overtook the sun and so it made it more difficult.
I don’t know how the time went by so fast, but before we knew it, it was dark outside and so we walked around and took photos of Colonia in the evening. We ended up at a park where we sat down and just people watched. And wow…the people here are just so interesting. They are all so different and quite wonderful it seems. The mullet and the rat tail seem to be hair styles that are in here as well, although not as common. Many a people had their mate (even younger kids…maybe 10 or 11 carried them around). While we were there, a dog found us and decided to make us his new friend. It was so sweet and just let us pet him (no worries, we had hand sanitizer!). As we were sitting on this park bench, just hanging out, a couple of guys walked by and one said, “Hola!”… well, we are not rude, we do not just ignore semi attractive Uruguayan boys when they talk to us… so we said, “Hola” back… but they kept walking, so no big deal, right? =) Well, then Bridget just started feeling sorry for the poor dog and got up to go to the kiosko that was right by us to see if they had any kind of food that she could give the dog (yup, she has a soft spot when it comes to homeless dogs)… and she wasn’t even gone but thirty seconds, when those two Uruguayan guys are back in the park and saying hello to me again, and then sitting down on the bench next to me… But strangely enough, they weren’t…creepy. They were nice and said hello. One’s name was Juan (I can’t remember the other). Then of course they start speaking in really fast Spanish with a Uruguayan accent so I was LOST. Bridget came back and tried to translate some for me. However, when they said, “Donde esta sus novios?,” (Where are your boyfriends?) I laughed and Bridget said, “Tengo un novio” (I have a boyfriend). And then she started getting her southern (she’s from Georgia) attitude on and I guess they got the hint because they, somewhat politely, said okay and said goodbye. Ha ha. It was quite fun and no harm was done! So no worries mom and dad!
Well, after awhile longer, Bridget and I decided to start heading back to the port, mainly because we weren’t certain where the port was from where we were, so we had to back track back through the Old City to try and find it. On our way there, we started hearing music…drumming in particular. So we followed it (I mean, we had an hour before we had to be back). And after a block or two (more normal sized blocks in Uruguay), we found the source. There was a band in the middle of the street playing the drums. There were a few girls dancing and then we found Alex and Leo. Alex has taken a few milonga and tango dancing lessons, so she was out there dancing with them too. We just listened and somewhat moved to the music (no, I did not let my crazy dance moves out…people just have to be patient for that!). After about two or three minutes or so of following this moving drum band down the street, I turned and noticed two very familiar looking figures on the other side of the road. Sure enough, it was Juan and his friend. Sigh. I had followers! (And no, I can’t say whether or not I was excited by that fact. Ha ha). While we followed this band down the street, (for about twenty minutes), Juan and friend followed us…but then, they finally left. I don’t know if they were waiting on me to acknowledge them (which I never did), or if they were waiting on us to turn back and be alone, or what the deal was. But Leo was with us, so I had some form of a guy around in case things got crazy…but NO worries! Nothing happened. They left and we four went back to the ferry unharmed and un-followed (as far as I know I suppose…ha).
Well, then we took the ferry home and that’s the end of my fun day in Uruguay. (Pronounced: oo-roo-why for those of you who want to know the correct pronunciation). =)
More class tomorrow! And hopefully a drum show tomorrow night. One of my classmates said he had the most fun he’s ever had there when he went last Monday, so we shall see.
Miss you all and love you!
Dia 11, A Much Needed Lazy Saturday, 27 Junio
After a late-ish night on the town, I slept in on Saturday. I won’t tell you what time I woke up. You would sigh and think, “Oh the youth of our generation.” However, once I did get up and around I ate my breakfast (lunch) and started writing out letters to the family and what not. I then proceeded to try to finish my homework for Monday’s Spanish class. (Only one more page to read! Woo!)
After awhile of writing and reading, I decided to go for a walk. I found a local park about two to three blocks away from my apartment and it was such a cute little park. There were tons of little kids there with their moms and dads. They were riding little tricycles and chasing pigeons and swinging. It was such a cute place; I will probably go back (if the weather doesn’t get colder). While I was there I read a little from the newspaper about politics. Not only did I barely understand it, but most of it was continuation of things that have been happening in B.A. recently… I haven’t been in B.A. recently so I was completely lost. Sigh…maybe one day.
Speaking of politics, their local and regional elections are tomorrow. Something you might not know about Argentine voting rights… it’s not only a right, it’s an obligation. That’s right. They have to vote here. It’s not if they want to…they just have to. I asked my host mom what happened if they didn’t vote and she said, “Well, you have to talk to the government, then go through a lot of paperwork, then go to meetings, then get fined, then…well, it’s just better to vote.” It’s so interesting to me that we see it as a “privilege” in the US, and here it doesn’t matter how they look at it, they still have to vote. I can see that as a good and bad thing, however a lot of Argentines (like a lot of people from the U.S.) are very cynical about their government. They don’t think that the candidates are much different or will be much different from what they are now…but they still have to choose someone to vote for, they don’t get the choice to not vote. It’s crazy to me…but something else that’s crazy is that they did not get the right to vote until 198…3… I think. 1983. So it’s only been a little over 20 years for them. So yeah…just thought I’d share that with you. =)
Moving on with my lazy Saturday…after the park I went to the grocery store and bought more apple juice. I don’t know what it is, but there is something just so wonderful about the apple juice here! It’s like coke…but I don’t know if it’s the sugar or not…hmm. Anyways, I bought more juice, then went to a kiosco and bought a phone card to call home again.
Then I went back to the apartment, wrote a couple more letters, read some… I didn’t really do anything exciting. I was able to get on the internet for a little while and I got connected with Adam and we decided to meet at McDonalds to use their wi-fi (because my house mate needed her internet back, plus we just wanted to get out of the apartments, lol). So we hung out at McD’s for awhile, then I headed back home where I had dinner and watched TV…
Wow, I just realized how lazy and lame my Saturday was… but it was a good break from traveling so much lately! I am sure I’ll have better stories tomorrow, because I’m going to Uruguay! Yay, another country to visit!
More from the Southern Hemisphere later! Love you!
After awhile of writing and reading, I decided to go for a walk. I found a local park about two to three blocks away from my apartment and it was such a cute little park. There were tons of little kids there with their moms and dads. They were riding little tricycles and chasing pigeons and swinging. It was such a cute place; I will probably go back (if the weather doesn’t get colder). While I was there I read a little from the newspaper about politics. Not only did I barely understand it, but most of it was continuation of things that have been happening in B.A. recently… I haven’t been in B.A. recently so I was completely lost. Sigh…maybe one day.
Speaking of politics, their local and regional elections are tomorrow. Something you might not know about Argentine voting rights… it’s not only a right, it’s an obligation. That’s right. They have to vote here. It’s not if they want to…they just have to. I asked my host mom what happened if they didn’t vote and she said, “Well, you have to talk to the government, then go through a lot of paperwork, then go to meetings, then get fined, then…well, it’s just better to vote.” It’s so interesting to me that we see it as a “privilege” in the US, and here it doesn’t matter how they look at it, they still have to vote. I can see that as a good and bad thing, however a lot of Argentines (like a lot of people from the U.S.) are very cynical about their government. They don’t think that the candidates are much different or will be much different from what they are now…but they still have to choose someone to vote for, they don’t get the choice to not vote. It’s crazy to me…but something else that’s crazy is that they did not get the right to vote until 198…3… I think. 1983. So it’s only been a little over 20 years for them. So yeah…just thought I’d share that with you. =)
Moving on with my lazy Saturday…after the park I went to the grocery store and bought more apple juice. I don’t know what it is, but there is something just so wonderful about the apple juice here! It’s like coke…but I don’t know if it’s the sugar or not…hmm. Anyways, I bought more juice, then went to a kiosco and bought a phone card to call home again.
Then I went back to the apartment, wrote a couple more letters, read some… I didn’t really do anything exciting. I was able to get on the internet for a little while and I got connected with Adam and we decided to meet at McDonalds to use their wi-fi (because my house mate needed her internet back, plus we just wanted to get out of the apartments, lol). So we hung out at McD’s for awhile, then I headed back home where I had dinner and watched TV…
Wow, I just realized how lazy and lame my Saturday was… but it was a good break from traveling so much lately! I am sure I’ll have better stories tomorrow, because I’m going to Uruguay! Yay, another country to visit!
More from the Southern Hemisphere later! Love you!
Dia 10, Life Without High Fructose Corn Syrup? I'll Take It. 26 Junio
Buenos Aires, Día 10! Eco Reserves and Transformers!
Well hello all! I know, I’m a couple days late getting these updates up, but sometimes, getting to the internet is more difficult than expected, especially when you’re actually busy all day!
Well, Day nine was definitely an interesting day. I met up with Thomas and Bridget at Plaza de Mayo. It’s where the Pink House is…where their president used to live. How funny, we have the White House, they have the Casa Rosada. But now it just houses government offices, not their president…who is a woman for those of you who don’t know world happenings. =) I arrived there first, and just sat on a bench and took pictures of my surroundings. It was a lovely day, not too cold and definitely not too hot. Now, as you will see by some of my pictures, there are quite a bit of pigeons in B.A…basically everywhere you go, you are bound to see a pigeon or two. Well, today was no different. However, I’m sitting in this park, next to a fountain, minding my own business, when this older lady comes and sits down a few feet away from me…and she starts throwing bread crumbs on the ground. Before I knew it, swarms of pigeons were flying overhead attacking the ground for the bread! And when I say swarms, oh yes, I mean swarms! Hundreds of these pigeons are flying right over my head, it was windy there were so many flying around me! I was a bit scared at first, mainly because I did not feel like getting pooped on. And luckily enough, I didn’t! Thomas had gotten there by then, so he took a picture of me by all these pigeons. It was pretty cool.
Well, Bridget met up with us and we went walking down Calle Florida again. Thomas wanted to show us this mall he found in the midst of it. Sure enough, he had discovered a huge mall, definitely bigger than our mall in Shawnee, and it was completely hidden amongst all the buildings of the street! I was amazing. There’s just a normal double door opening and you walk in and it’s like…well, a mall should be, and it’s really pretty (I took a picture, no worries, ha ha). We grabbed our lunch, Thomas had this icky mashed pumpkin (he liked it though) and I was lame and got a burger (I know! Lame!)
Afterwards, we headed to the destination of the day: The National Ecological Reserve! I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what we got. =) It was basically a wilderness, where there were supposedly thousands of types of birds; we saw maybe 5, ha ha. I did enjoy it, mainly because it was a break away from the city. We were really in the midst of this man-made nature. There were large paths to walk down, and along the sides the grass was tall, along with various types of trees. It’d be a great place to go running/biking/ picnicking etc. It was really nice, although by the time we were at the back of it, it was pretty chilly. But the walking was keeping us warm. We did get to see the ocean! Well, the Rio de la Plata, but it connects to the ocean which is enough, right? The “beach” was quite interesting. It is definitely not a place for swimming, even in the warm months. There was plenty of sand, and rocks, but there was also…tile? And other types of man made stones. It was kind of odd, as if people threw out their old kitchen counters and they somehow ended up on the beach! But it was fun, and of course, I took photos. =)
After the few hours we spent walking around in there (you can’t get anywhere without walking LONG distances unless you just go back the way you came…so we walked in this HUGE triangle and I’m pretty sure it was at least a couple of miles, if not more), we started the walk back into the city. We decided to get a group together to go see Transformers!!! So we found out movie times and so on while reading the periódico (newspaper) in this little café place. Then we each went our separate ways to our homes to await the 10:30 movie!
I went home and had dinner (steak and potatoes, surprised? Lol) and watch some tv with Elsa, like we do. Then Serri (the other girl living in my house) and I went out to go see the movie. We met with a few other people outside the theater. I was pretty excited about seeing not only the movie, but the theater and how it ran, and what not. So here is my “analysis” of the Monumental Cine in B.A.: It only cost $20 pesos to get in (Yes, less than $7 US). And it wasn’t too interesting. There was a little restaurant in there and then a small concession stand with one worker. For those of you who go to the movies often in the US, prices (as always) at the concession stand were higher than getting a drink somewhere else, but cheaper than the US. What would be considered a Medium Drink and Popcorn (I say “considered” because it was pretty big, but so are the drinks/popcorn in the US) was a little less than $6 US. The candy was anywhere from 50 cents (US) to a few dollars, depending on what you got. It was pretty neat.
The theater itself was like any movie theater, a big screen and seats, lol. Sorry, no exciting stories about that. The movie was really fun! It was in English (we made sure of it!) with Spanish subtitles. I was surprised at how LONG it was (like 3 hours!)!
Afterwards, Thomas and I joined Sophie and Eric at this little bar. No worries padres, I didn’t drink anything, lol. We hung out for awhile and then went on home. It wasn’t too late for Buenos Aires, only about 2:30!!! He he he. And the walk home wasn’t too scary or anything. There were still a few people out that late, but they were all doing their own thing and didn’t even pay attention to us, so no worries.
That’s pretty much all for the day, I mean, not much else can happen after 2:30 in the morning unless you go out! Lol.
My B.A. notice of the day is over:
- Coke! (Well, Soda, Pop, Soda Pop, whatever you like to call it). It’s so much better here! I couldn’t put my finger on why it was so much better until Thomas pointed out that there is no high fructose corn syrup in any of them. And it’s true. They use real sugar here in their Coke, Sprite, (I had the BEST orange soda and the movie!) and whatever other drinks they have. So yeah, I vote that’s what the US starts doing! =)
Well, that’s all I got for the day! More to come soon! Love you all!
Well hello all! I know, I’m a couple days late getting these updates up, but sometimes, getting to the internet is more difficult than expected, especially when you’re actually busy all day!
Well, Day nine was definitely an interesting day. I met up with Thomas and Bridget at Plaza de Mayo. It’s where the Pink House is…where their president used to live. How funny, we have the White House, they have the Casa Rosada. But now it just houses government offices, not their president…who is a woman for those of you who don’t know world happenings. =) I arrived there first, and just sat on a bench and took pictures of my surroundings. It was a lovely day, not too cold and definitely not too hot. Now, as you will see by some of my pictures, there are quite a bit of pigeons in B.A…basically everywhere you go, you are bound to see a pigeon or two. Well, today was no different. However, I’m sitting in this park, next to a fountain, minding my own business, when this older lady comes and sits down a few feet away from me…and she starts throwing bread crumbs on the ground. Before I knew it, swarms of pigeons were flying overhead attacking the ground for the bread! And when I say swarms, oh yes, I mean swarms! Hundreds of these pigeons are flying right over my head, it was windy there were so many flying around me! I was a bit scared at first, mainly because I did not feel like getting pooped on. And luckily enough, I didn’t! Thomas had gotten there by then, so he took a picture of me by all these pigeons. It was pretty cool.
Well, Bridget met up with us and we went walking down Calle Florida again. Thomas wanted to show us this mall he found in the midst of it. Sure enough, he had discovered a huge mall, definitely bigger than our mall in Shawnee, and it was completely hidden amongst all the buildings of the street! I was amazing. There’s just a normal double door opening and you walk in and it’s like…well, a mall should be, and it’s really pretty (I took a picture, no worries, ha ha). We grabbed our lunch, Thomas had this icky mashed pumpkin (he liked it though) and I was lame and got a burger (I know! Lame!)
Afterwards, we headed to the destination of the day: The National Ecological Reserve! I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what we got. =) It was basically a wilderness, where there were supposedly thousands of types of birds; we saw maybe 5, ha ha. I did enjoy it, mainly because it was a break away from the city. We were really in the midst of this man-made nature. There were large paths to walk down, and along the sides the grass was tall, along with various types of trees. It’d be a great place to go running/biking/ picnicking etc. It was really nice, although by the time we were at the back of it, it was pretty chilly. But the walking was keeping us warm. We did get to see the ocean! Well, the Rio de la Plata, but it connects to the ocean which is enough, right? The “beach” was quite interesting. It is definitely not a place for swimming, even in the warm months. There was plenty of sand, and rocks, but there was also…tile? And other types of man made stones. It was kind of odd, as if people threw out their old kitchen counters and they somehow ended up on the beach! But it was fun, and of course, I took photos. =)
After the few hours we spent walking around in there (you can’t get anywhere without walking LONG distances unless you just go back the way you came…so we walked in this HUGE triangle and I’m pretty sure it was at least a couple of miles, if not more), we started the walk back into the city. We decided to get a group together to go see Transformers!!! So we found out movie times and so on while reading the periódico (newspaper) in this little café place. Then we each went our separate ways to our homes to await the 10:30 movie!
I went home and had dinner (steak and potatoes, surprised? Lol) and watch some tv with Elsa, like we do. Then Serri (the other girl living in my house) and I went out to go see the movie. We met with a few other people outside the theater. I was pretty excited about seeing not only the movie, but the theater and how it ran, and what not. So here is my “analysis” of the Monumental Cine in B.A.: It only cost $20 pesos to get in (Yes, less than $7 US). And it wasn’t too interesting. There was a little restaurant in there and then a small concession stand with one worker. For those of you who go to the movies often in the US, prices (as always) at the concession stand were higher than getting a drink somewhere else, but cheaper than the US. What would be considered a Medium Drink and Popcorn (I say “considered” because it was pretty big, but so are the drinks/popcorn in the US) was a little less than $6 US. The candy was anywhere from 50 cents (US) to a few dollars, depending on what you got. It was pretty neat.
The theater itself was like any movie theater, a big screen and seats, lol. Sorry, no exciting stories about that. The movie was really fun! It was in English (we made sure of it!) with Spanish subtitles. I was surprised at how LONG it was (like 3 hours!)!
Afterwards, Thomas and I joined Sophie and Eric at this little bar. No worries padres, I didn’t drink anything, lol. We hung out for awhile and then went on home. It wasn’t too late for Buenos Aires, only about 2:30!!! He he he. And the walk home wasn’t too scary or anything. There were still a few people out that late, but they were all doing their own thing and didn’t even pay attention to us, so no worries.
That’s pretty much all for the day, I mean, not much else can happen after 2:30 in the morning unless you go out! Lol.
My B.A. notice of the day is over:
- Coke! (Well, Soda, Pop, Soda Pop, whatever you like to call it). It’s so much better here! I couldn’t put my finger on why it was so much better until Thomas pointed out that there is no high fructose corn syrup in any of them. And it’s true. They use real sugar here in their Coke, Sprite, (I had the BEST orange soda and the movie!) and whatever other drinks they have. So yeah, I vote that’s what the US starts doing! =)
Well, that’s all I got for the day! More to come soon! Love you all!
Dia 9, The End of First Classes in BA, 25 Junio
Yay, another day of the first day of classes…I’m glad that there are no more first days of classes here; I don’t think I could take it! But before I tell you about class, let me inform you of my interesting bus ride to the school. It was started off like any other bus ride…it was semi-busy and there was no place to sit. An old man got on the bus after me and a younger man (twenties, maybe?) got up and offered his seat to him. It was the nicest thing I’d seen in a long time. But then, the old man shook his hand and offered the seat to me! I was like, “Aw…” and so the younger man asked if I would like to sit, but I was standing next to a lady older than me, so I offered it to her. I am pretty sure it was the most polite moment happening on this side of the hemisphere at that particular moment. I felt good…and not because I offered a seat, but because so many of us did, it was one of those rare moments that make you feel like all is right with the world! I liked that.
However, life continues and you realize that there are a few crazies out there. Towards the middle of the bus ride, a guy got on the bus and started speaking loudly in Spanish. This is not entirely uncommon, but most of the time when people speak up like that, they are wanting you to buy something from them or just give them money. Well, this guy didn’t have anything to sell and I don’t think he was asking for money (I couldn’t really understand him)… but he went and sat down and all was quiet until a couple minutes later… “BOOM, Paraguay! BOOM, Paraguay!” he started yelling. He did it a few times and I won’t lie, I jumped a little in my seat. The guy across from me looked at me, and we must have both had this, “Um…what?” look on our faces, because we couldn’t help but chuckle. Luckily, that was all the excitement on the bus for me. I got off before anything else strange happened with that guy.
Now, moving on to school… it was another 4 hour class day. I was not necessarily looking forward to it, but it was a new class, so of course there was some excitement involved. Our professor seems nice, he’s quite a character and he writes a lot on the board which makes me happy! He speaks very slowly for us as well, so I was able to keep up with a lot of what he was saying. I took about 4 pages of notes, all in Spanish, yay for my being studious! We learned about the declaration of independence for Argentina from Spain, and about San Martin the great liberator (he liberated Peru, Chile, and Ecuador as well…pretty cool guy that one). Class was way long. I guess it doesn’t matter how much you enjoy a subject a four hour class (with a fifteen minute break) is just tiring! My brain hurt afterward and speaking in Spanish or listening to it was basically the last thing I wanted to do!
The bus ride home after school took WAY too long, almost two hours which is crazy because in the early afternoon it only takes about 45 minutes, if that long. Bridget and I went over some homework together though, so that was good. When I got home I heated up my dinner, which looked pretty good. It was pasta with some type of meat on the top. I like meat… I like pasta, but whatever this was, I did not like it. I ate most of it though, I mean, it wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t what my taste buds liked. It almost had a barbecue-esque flavor and when I asked what it was, Elsa just said, “carne” which means meat… so apparently it wasn’t anything special…tonight we watched another episode of “That 70s show” and also an episode of “Ugly Betty”. It is fun watching it with her because she really enjoys the shows and she talks to me during the commercials about the story lines and what she wants to happen.
Well…after dinner I called my lovely parents and talked to them (separately because mom was at VBS when I called the first time)…nothing else too exciting happened this evening…
Wow, it’s already been nine days! Some times, it feels like I have been here for the longest time and yet at other times it feels like I just got here. Today it hit me that I am in South America… I mean, I’ve always known that I was here, since I got here, and yet today I was like…wow, South America. Another continent, another lifestyle, it’s different than London or New York, but B.A. really isn’t that different, which is maybe why it hadn’t really hit me. B.A. is a lot like any large city is like. There are a lot of people; a lot of buildings; a LOT of traffic… the main difference is of course, the language. I guess I like it. =) I’m getting a bit more used to it day by day, it’s still unfamiliar and can get a bit unnerving every now and then, but it makes me happy that when I get off my bus stop, I know where to walk to without having to look at my guide book! And the other day (I forgot to put this in my update, so sorry!) someone walked past me on the street and asked me for directions! Sadly, I didn’t know where on earth she was talking about, but the point is that I looked as if I knew where I was and the surrounding areas! What joy!
Other tidbits of the land:
- I have only seen ONE toilet that has a normal handle flusher like we have at home. And I have not seen any that are automatic. They either have push buttons on the side of the toilet (where our handles would be) or they have push buttons in the wall above the toilet… and sadly enough, the water does not go the opposite way just because I’m in the southern hemisphere.
- Smoking is apparently one of the most normal things to do here. You can’t walk down the street without passing 10 or more people who are smoking (this of course depends on how busy a street and how long you walk down it, but the concept is the same). And apparently, it’s not something looked down upon either. People don’t stare or “tsk” at those with cigarettes… I guess it’s just a normal part of their culture? I dunno…
- Argentines are very much open about…well, apparently everything. A group of girls happened to be in our classroom before our class started and within a three minute time frame asked us: our names, where we’re from, how old we are, what we’re doing in B.A., do we go to university at home?, what we’re studying, if we like it here, when we’re going back home, and how long we’ve been here… Well, they’re not shy! They appear to be closed off, but that’s because they don’t just start talking to you. If you make the first move, you basically see them open up and then it’s like you can’t get them to stop talking to you. It’s a wonderful thing!
More later! Chao mis amigos!
However, life continues and you realize that there are a few crazies out there. Towards the middle of the bus ride, a guy got on the bus and started speaking loudly in Spanish. This is not entirely uncommon, but most of the time when people speak up like that, they are wanting you to buy something from them or just give them money. Well, this guy didn’t have anything to sell and I don’t think he was asking for money (I couldn’t really understand him)… but he went and sat down and all was quiet until a couple minutes later… “BOOM, Paraguay! BOOM, Paraguay!” he started yelling. He did it a few times and I won’t lie, I jumped a little in my seat. The guy across from me looked at me, and we must have both had this, “Um…what?” look on our faces, because we couldn’t help but chuckle. Luckily, that was all the excitement on the bus for me. I got off before anything else strange happened with that guy.
Now, moving on to school… it was another 4 hour class day. I was not necessarily looking forward to it, but it was a new class, so of course there was some excitement involved. Our professor seems nice, he’s quite a character and he writes a lot on the board which makes me happy! He speaks very slowly for us as well, so I was able to keep up with a lot of what he was saying. I took about 4 pages of notes, all in Spanish, yay for my being studious! We learned about the declaration of independence for Argentina from Spain, and about San Martin the great liberator (he liberated Peru, Chile, and Ecuador as well…pretty cool guy that one). Class was way long. I guess it doesn’t matter how much you enjoy a subject a four hour class (with a fifteen minute break) is just tiring! My brain hurt afterward and speaking in Spanish or listening to it was basically the last thing I wanted to do!
The bus ride home after school took WAY too long, almost two hours which is crazy because in the early afternoon it only takes about 45 minutes, if that long. Bridget and I went over some homework together though, so that was good. When I got home I heated up my dinner, which looked pretty good. It was pasta with some type of meat on the top. I like meat… I like pasta, but whatever this was, I did not like it. I ate most of it though, I mean, it wasn’t terrible, it just wasn’t what my taste buds liked. It almost had a barbecue-esque flavor and when I asked what it was, Elsa just said, “carne” which means meat… so apparently it wasn’t anything special…tonight we watched another episode of “That 70s show” and also an episode of “Ugly Betty”. It is fun watching it with her because she really enjoys the shows and she talks to me during the commercials about the story lines and what she wants to happen.
Well…after dinner I called my lovely parents and talked to them (separately because mom was at VBS when I called the first time)…nothing else too exciting happened this evening…
Wow, it’s already been nine days! Some times, it feels like I have been here for the longest time and yet at other times it feels like I just got here. Today it hit me that I am in South America… I mean, I’ve always known that I was here, since I got here, and yet today I was like…wow, South America. Another continent, another lifestyle, it’s different than London or New York, but B.A. really isn’t that different, which is maybe why it hadn’t really hit me. B.A. is a lot like any large city is like. There are a lot of people; a lot of buildings; a LOT of traffic… the main difference is of course, the language. I guess I like it. =) I’m getting a bit more used to it day by day, it’s still unfamiliar and can get a bit unnerving every now and then, but it makes me happy that when I get off my bus stop, I know where to walk to without having to look at my guide book! And the other day (I forgot to put this in my update, so sorry!) someone walked past me on the street and asked me for directions! Sadly, I didn’t know where on earth she was talking about, but the point is that I looked as if I knew where I was and the surrounding areas! What joy!
Other tidbits of the land:
- I have only seen ONE toilet that has a normal handle flusher like we have at home. And I have not seen any that are automatic. They either have push buttons on the side of the toilet (where our handles would be) or they have push buttons in the wall above the toilet… and sadly enough, the water does not go the opposite way just because I’m in the southern hemisphere.
- Smoking is apparently one of the most normal things to do here. You can’t walk down the street without passing 10 or more people who are smoking (this of course depends on how busy a street and how long you walk down it, but the concept is the same). And apparently, it’s not something looked down upon either. People don’t stare or “tsk” at those with cigarettes… I guess it’s just a normal part of their culture? I dunno…
- Argentines are very much open about…well, apparently everything. A group of girls happened to be in our classroom before our class started and within a three minute time frame asked us: our names, where we’re from, how old we are, what we’re doing in B.A., do we go to university at home?, what we’re studying, if we like it here, when we’re going back home, and how long we’ve been here… Well, they’re not shy! They appear to be closed off, but that’s because they don’t just start talking to you. If you make the first move, you basically see them open up and then it’s like you can’t get them to stop talking to you. It’s a wonderful thing!
More later! Chao mis amigos!
Dia 8, How Accomplished I Feel! 24 Junio
Yay for today! I feel so accomplished today, and I shall tell you why:
Well, I woke up around 10:30 (so wonderful) after having a fun evening eating pork chops and mashed potatoes with my house mom while watching “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (with subtitles, not dubbed).
Well, after I had my usual breakfast I went to the bank and got monedas (change in coins… I need it for the bus). Then I got another calling card so I can talk to my mommy and daddy more =). Then, I decided it was time to go grocery shopping! My program only provides two meals a day, and therefore it’s easier to go grocery shopping then eat out every day. So I went and bought (get this) a loaf of bread, apple juice, crackers, a package of cookies, and an energy bar for only 15 pesos! That’s only $5 US! I felt so proud of myself, lol.
Afterwards I went back to my apt and got my clothes together and took them to the lavadorio (laundry shop!). They took my clothes and they should be ready by 7:30 tonight! I hope it all worked out well! Lol
Moving along, I got to school a little bit early to check my email and what not, and then it was time for my Spanish class. And I actually liked class today! She talked in Spanish a lot, but was much easier to understand than my profe yesterday. And she gave us worksheets which I actually liked working on and could understand better what she wanted us to do. It was a review of stuff we’ve learned before, but it was still really good to have. We even have homework! Lol
After class, Bridget, Adam and I went to Calle Florida. This is the street that cars aren’t allowed to go down; it’s just for walking/bike riding. There are a lot of stores and it’s a pretty good tourist trap. No worries, I didn’t buy anything other than some post cards, lol.
Now we are at Expanish where I get free Wi-Fi! Woo! We’re waiting until 7:30 where this really good empanada shop opens. Bridget has had a craving all day, so why not?
Anyways…oh, I have a funny story from this morning… as I walk through the kitchen, I noticed that my house mom was cleaning something in the sink… it had tentacles. Now, remember that she cooks me my dinner in the morning and puts it in the fridge for me, so I started thinking…”oh no, I’m going to have to eat something with tentacles… I mean, she said it’s okay if I don’t like the food, but she’s going to all this trouble, maybe I should say something…” and as I was staring at it with what was probably the least grossed out face I could muster (which probably still looked grossed out) Elsa turned to me and smiled and said, “You know what this is? Es Calamari.” And I’m like, “great…squid…great…I have to eat this.” And she chuckled and said, “Es for mi ex-husband! No es for you!” WHEW. I had chorizo (sausage) which was amazing…and potatoes! Lol. That seems to be my diet, meat and potatoes. But they are always cooked differently. They were like, fried thin slices tonight and were oh so good! So were the sausages. Yay for yummy food for this picky eater! (And yay for no calamari!)
Later in the day…
Another interesting fact I learned was that my host mom is a teacher of languages. She speaks French and Italian as well as her native Spanish and a little bit of English. I was like, wow…that’s pretty neat! Plus, we have a maid in our house. She comes twice a week to clean, how wonderful. =) AND… I did pick up my laundry (This update has been written in increments) and it only cost $13 pesos (less than $4 US) and it smells SO good! (MOM! OH no, I’m getting spoiled!!!!!!! He he he).
Okay, I suppose that is all for the day. I am so tired every night, which is strange since I sleep about 8-9 hours every night! It’s all this walking! Lol. More tomorrow I’m sure!
And I've put up more photos in my B.A. album, and a new album of where I live!
Well, I woke up around 10:30 (so wonderful) after having a fun evening eating pork chops and mashed potatoes with my house mom while watching “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (with subtitles, not dubbed).
Well, after I had my usual breakfast I went to the bank and got monedas (change in coins… I need it for the bus). Then I got another calling card so I can talk to my mommy and daddy more =). Then, I decided it was time to go grocery shopping! My program only provides two meals a day, and therefore it’s easier to go grocery shopping then eat out every day. So I went and bought (get this) a loaf of bread, apple juice, crackers, a package of cookies, and an energy bar for only 15 pesos! That’s only $5 US! I felt so proud of myself, lol.
Afterwards I went back to my apt and got my clothes together and took them to the lavadorio (laundry shop!). They took my clothes and they should be ready by 7:30 tonight! I hope it all worked out well! Lol
Moving along, I got to school a little bit early to check my email and what not, and then it was time for my Spanish class. And I actually liked class today! She talked in Spanish a lot, but was much easier to understand than my profe yesterday. And she gave us worksheets which I actually liked working on and could understand better what she wanted us to do. It was a review of stuff we’ve learned before, but it was still really good to have. We even have homework! Lol
After class, Bridget, Adam and I went to Calle Florida. This is the street that cars aren’t allowed to go down; it’s just for walking/bike riding. There are a lot of stores and it’s a pretty good tourist trap. No worries, I didn’t buy anything other than some post cards, lol.
Now we are at Expanish where I get free Wi-Fi! Woo! We’re waiting until 7:30 where this really good empanada shop opens. Bridget has had a craving all day, so why not?
Anyways…oh, I have a funny story from this morning… as I walk through the kitchen, I noticed that my house mom was cleaning something in the sink… it had tentacles. Now, remember that she cooks me my dinner in the morning and puts it in the fridge for me, so I started thinking…”oh no, I’m going to have to eat something with tentacles… I mean, she said it’s okay if I don’t like the food, but she’s going to all this trouble, maybe I should say something…” and as I was staring at it with what was probably the least grossed out face I could muster (which probably still looked grossed out) Elsa turned to me and smiled and said, “You know what this is? Es Calamari.” And I’m like, “great…squid…great…I have to eat this.” And she chuckled and said, “Es for mi ex-husband! No es for you!” WHEW. I had chorizo (sausage) which was amazing…and potatoes! Lol. That seems to be my diet, meat and potatoes. But they are always cooked differently. They were like, fried thin slices tonight and were oh so good! So were the sausages. Yay for yummy food for this picky eater! (And yay for no calamari!)
Later in the day…
Another interesting fact I learned was that my host mom is a teacher of languages. She speaks French and Italian as well as her native Spanish and a little bit of English. I was like, wow…that’s pretty neat! Plus, we have a maid in our house. She comes twice a week to clean, how wonderful. =) AND… I did pick up my laundry (This update has been written in increments) and it only cost $13 pesos (less than $4 US) and it smells SO good! (MOM! OH no, I’m getting spoiled!!!!!!! He he he).
Okay, I suppose that is all for the day. I am so tired every night, which is strange since I sleep about 8-9 hours every night! It’s all this walking! Lol. More tomorrow I’m sure!
And I've put up more photos in my B.A. album, and a new album of where I live!
Dia 7, A Reminder for My Dislike of Politics and Economics, 23 Junio
Buenos Aires, Día 7: A Reminder of my Dislike for Politics and Economics…
Good evening my lovely readers. This has been a good evening to an otherwise icky-ish day!
Well, okay, the day really hasn’t been that bad. I woke up around 10:30 and got ready for the day as usual. Then got ready for school, checked my email, finished my update from yesterday, and left the apartment around 1:00.
I got to the school a little early and talked with Adam and Alex for awhile. Class started at 2:00 and I was confused from the start. Our professor is so nice, but it’s a Politics and Economics class… I was SO lost. And apparently, I wasn’t the only one. After class, Adam and Thomas were both like, “Umm…” But luckily, our only homework is to find a newspaper and read it, so that won’t be too bad. And our next class isn’t until next Tuesday, yay. When I think about it, I’m glad that I’ll really only have 7 days of that class (6?). Even if it is four hours each day, sigh. He talked about the founding of a nation, like what it takes to become a nation, but I was still pretty lost. I took a lot of notes that do NOT make sense to me, lol. But oh well, we’ll see how it all works out. The only thing keeping me from wanting to quit the class already is that I have to have it to graduate on time, sigh. Part of me thinks I’d be okay taking another semester… that sounds good, right mom? =) Just kidding!
Anyways, after class a group of us took the bus to Adam’s so he could get his computer and then we went to my place to get my computer to come here, where I am now, at a local McDonald’s uploading photos and updating! But backtracking a bit… the bus ride to my school is maybe a thirty minute ride, but on the way back, when traffic is apparently much worse, it took almost an hour. Sigh, it was pretty long. Then we had to walk quite a bit to get to our places. And now they have all left because they have family dinners to get to. I am somewhat sad that I don’t have family dinners with my host mom, but she doesn’t have a set dinner time and I don’t actually know if she’s had dinner at our apartment since I’ve been there. But without fail, dinner is always in the refrigerator waiting for me whenever I want it. Tonight is pork chops and mashed potatoes. Yum yum! Lol
I guess that’s really all there is to talk about today. I know, sad isn’t it? I have a feeling it might be this way for awhile because I don’t know of anything different happening other than school for the next few days. Our next event is Sunday. We are going to Colonia, Uruguay for a day! I am pretty excited about that! Other than that… I don’t know. School tomorrow and Thursday and I don’t know what I’ll do on Friday! Watch TV? Ha ha…
Anyways, I suppose that’s all I’ll write! Please let me know if you have any questions for me! I’d be happy to answer them! Love you all!
Good evening my lovely readers. This has been a good evening to an otherwise icky-ish day!
Well, okay, the day really hasn’t been that bad. I woke up around 10:30 and got ready for the day as usual. Then got ready for school, checked my email, finished my update from yesterday, and left the apartment around 1:00.
I got to the school a little early and talked with Adam and Alex for awhile. Class started at 2:00 and I was confused from the start. Our professor is so nice, but it’s a Politics and Economics class… I was SO lost. And apparently, I wasn’t the only one. After class, Adam and Thomas were both like, “Umm…” But luckily, our only homework is to find a newspaper and read it, so that won’t be too bad. And our next class isn’t until next Tuesday, yay. When I think about it, I’m glad that I’ll really only have 7 days of that class (6?). Even if it is four hours each day, sigh. He talked about the founding of a nation, like what it takes to become a nation, but I was still pretty lost. I took a lot of notes that do NOT make sense to me, lol. But oh well, we’ll see how it all works out. The only thing keeping me from wanting to quit the class already is that I have to have it to graduate on time, sigh. Part of me thinks I’d be okay taking another semester… that sounds good, right mom? =) Just kidding!
Anyways, after class a group of us took the bus to Adam’s so he could get his computer and then we went to my place to get my computer to come here, where I am now, at a local McDonald’s uploading photos and updating! But backtracking a bit… the bus ride to my school is maybe a thirty minute ride, but on the way back, when traffic is apparently much worse, it took almost an hour. Sigh, it was pretty long. Then we had to walk quite a bit to get to our places. And now they have all left because they have family dinners to get to. I am somewhat sad that I don’t have family dinners with my host mom, but she doesn’t have a set dinner time and I don’t actually know if she’s had dinner at our apartment since I’ve been there. But without fail, dinner is always in the refrigerator waiting for me whenever I want it. Tonight is pork chops and mashed potatoes. Yum yum! Lol
I guess that’s really all there is to talk about today. I know, sad isn’t it? I have a feeling it might be this way for awhile because I don’t know of anything different happening other than school for the next few days. Our next event is Sunday. We are going to Colonia, Uruguay for a day! I am pretty excited about that! Other than that… I don’t know. School tomorrow and Thursday and I don’t know what I’ll do on Friday! Watch TV? Ha ha…
Anyways, I suppose that’s all I’ll write! Please let me know if you have any questions for me! I’d be happy to answer them! Love you all!
Dia 6, A Lesson in Patience, 22 Junio
Buenos Aires, Día 6: The “First” Day of School
Again, for at least the third time on this trip, I am so so tired and it’s early, especially early for Buenos Aires. I am writing this at 9:49pm. I lost track of time earlier and almost went to bed, and although I could have gone to bed, it wouldn’t have been the best idea because I don’t need to get into that habit. One night I will have to stay out late (I mean, at least ONE time, its part of the B.A. life!) and when that day comes I would like to be somewhat better prepared.
So, today…my first day of school in Buenos Aires. The day was not too exciting, however it was quite a long day. I woke up “early” (8:15am) and did the usual: breakfast/shower/etc. then headed off to the subte (subway if I haven’t already covered this) to meet Adam. Never again will I take the subway to school. I wish there was someway to describe it other than “walking a lot a lot a lot a lot!” However, those are the only words that I think are sufficient enough for the morning. =) Adam lives closer to the subte than I do. However, I thought, “a few more blocks won’t hurt.” Well, the walking to the subte wasn’t that big of a deal. It was waiting on Adam (not knowing that there were THREE subtes to get on at around that corner), then finding Adam, then Adam not seeing me and taking off down the other subte across the street, then me having to chase him (walking briskly, not running mind you, ha ha), then following him down the stairs, through the ticket booth, and down to the trains. Sigh. He walks a lot faster than I had ever noticed before. We finally meet up and get on the subte, it’s packed. I didn’t even have to hold on to a bar because there was no where to fall when the train jerked around. And, not to mention, it was hot. I don’t remember how much I’ve talked about weather here, but it hasn’t gotten lower than 50 degrees during the day time (at night it gets much cooler, but not cold cold like in Oklahoma). However, people around here think its freezing. So not only is everyone dressed in heavy winter coats and scarves and gloves, but they keep the heater on everywhere! And down in the subte (even though there is no heat or air there) it felt like 80 to 90 degrees with people surrounding you. It wasn’t the best feeling in the morning (especially after a shower where you felt all clean and un-sweaty, lol).
Well, we finally got off the subte (after having to make a stop to get on another train) and then walk the 12-20 blocks to get to school. I am sure I’ve mentioned this before, but a block here, is not like a block in Oklahoma. It’s maybe about the equivalent of three or four blocks?... I think. It feels like it anyways. Whatever the case, the walk was long, and although I’m not one to constantly complain about long walks, I prefer being better prepared for them (maybe wearing some running pants/shorts, and a t-shirt, not a nice blouse). But alas, that was how my morning started…not too fun. From now on, I am taking the bus to get to school (three blocks to the stop, one block to the school walking-wise). Much better than what I did today!
Moving right along (onto happier things because I don’t need to be complaining for this entire update). School… was not too scary for it being the first day. It wasn’t really like school anyways because we didn’t have a normal class. Today they wanted to know a little bit about where we stood on the Spanish side of things, how much we knew… that sort of thing. We met our Spanish teacher (whose name I can’t remember at the moment) and she gave us a written test. It wasn’t too complicated; however, there were a few things I didn’t quite understand. I hope I did them right anyways! Then, we talked with her for about 20-30 minutes. We were all together, but then she would ask us individual questions, probably to get a feel how our oral Spanish was. It wasn’t even too scary for me, which is great progress because I normally freeze in a classroom setting where I have to speak Spanish in front of everyone. So yay for that!
And that was all for school today! I know, isn’t that great? Tomorrow starts “real school” I guess. I guess I can tell you my schedule of classes… Mondays and Wednesdays I have Spanish Conversation from 2:00-3:50. Tuesdays I have Latin American Politics and Economics from 2:00-3:50, a twenty minute break, and from 4:10-6:00. Thursdays I have Latin American Culture at the same times as my Tuesday classes. No class on Fridays! Woo! Some say, “not fair”, but almost four hours of the same class in one day might be pretty tough! We’ll see. We shouldn’t have too much homework, just a midterm exam, a final exam, and maybe a presentation in a class, I’m not sure yet. We’ll see. I’m actually looking forward to classes. It’s not like I’m running out of things to do here, but to do many things, one has to spend money, and I feel like maybe I shouldn’t be spending money every single day if I can help it; so having classes, and things to study and work on might keep my mind busy. Plus, it will be an extra place to hear even more Spanish, so that’s even better!
Moving along with my day, after class I went back to my apartment, had some lunch (pasta, yum) and finished my update from yesterday. Then I took off for Expanish to give them my phone and see if they could fix it…well, they couldn’t. Sigh. So they are taking it to the store tomorrow and either getting it working or getting me a new phone. It’s really not that big of a deal, but it’d be a lot easier to get a hold of people to hang out with. I’m glad I see at least five of the people in my program almost every day, so I can catch up with them then.
After I dropped off my phone, I called Bridget (my friend Eric just happened to be at Expanish as well, so he let me use his) and met up with her in her neighborhood of Belgrano. Now, everywhere in B.A. is a great place for shopping, but for some great, hours long shopping, there are only two places that I’ve heard of to go to, and that’s Belgrano and Palermo. Bridget lives right on Cabildo St. which is the longest strip of shops and restaurants I have ever seen. While there, I finally got a couple of undershirts (the saleslady even took off four dollars…I don’t even know why!) and a new purse! (Well, actually two new purses, but MOM, don’t worry! It was buy one get one free! He he he) then, we stopped and grabbed a light dinner: Super Panchos! Um, hotdogs, lol. However, at this place they have over 50 different types of…toppings to put on your hotdog. Bridget got something creamy and cheese-like with mayonnaise (mayo is BIG here in B.A… everyone eats it and it’s on the table instead of ketchup in the restaurants…yuck)! However, I played it safe and got ketchup. Who’s surprised? Anyone? Anyone? I didn’t think so! But, something that is a bit different than normal is that they often put mini-papas (little French fries) on top of their hotdogs… and I did it too! And it was pretty good! I took pictures, so you’ll get to see it sometime.
After our mini dinner, we went our separate ways. I came back home and cleaned up my room a bit (no worries, mom, it wasn’t too messy or anything!) and had my real dinner, watched some television (American shows with Spanish subtitles, American shows are big over here) and now am updating for you wonderful people! Yay!
More things I’ve noticed and haven’t mentioned yet:
- The Smell of B.A…. let me tell you, there is no one smell to this city, basically like any city. But in no other city (New York and London included) have I ever noticed so many smells in one place. Walking down the street, in a ten minute time frame, there are countless smells that hit one’s nariz (nose). Meat, oil, incense (yuck), cheese, McDonalds (for real, one on every corner it seems like!), dog mess (oh yes, people let their dogs go to the bathroom on the middle of the sidewalk and DON’T clean it up! And it’s normal! Is there no shame!?!?!?) and many other smells that can be just as horrible or very good. It all depends on where you walk, quite literally.
- Dog walkers/parks: There are so many people who just make a job of dog walking, I am sure this is common in many places, but I’m from Shawnee, America…it’s not seen very often there. But there are guys walking around with ten-fifteen dogs! And, what is quite unlike many American dogs, these dogs are so so well behaved! A lot of dogs (when with their owners) aren’t even on a leash, but they don’t run away, they don’t chase after pigeons, they stay with their owners. It’s so sweet. And there are parks that have hundreds and hundreds of dogs being watched over. Like a doggy day care, quite interesting.
- Patience is definitely in this large city! While Bridget and I were standing in line at the store where I got my purses (and this is quite a large store, like a bit smaller than a J.C. Penney or something like that, and with two stories) we were waiting in line forever. It seemed like it took each purchase at least 5-10 minutes. Which, yes, doesn’t sound like that long, but you go to Dillards or Walmart and stand in line behind ONE person for ten minutes and notice how you start to wonder what’s taking so long… So, as Bridget starts getting agitated, I look around and notice that none of the other people in line look frustrated. In the states, this would just be unacceptable and people would be looking at their watches/phones and sighing and tapping their feet. Not here, people were nice and smiling and looking as if this was the most normal thing. It was so interesting to me because when you come from a place where time is money, it seems so slow! But I decided to be okay with it. I mean, we had no where to be, nothing to rush off to, why get bothered by it? It was definitely another lesson in the differences of cultures. I liked it!
Okay, that’s enough for today. See, with all this time on my hands I tend to write more and more…hopefully no one is too bored. More to come tomorrow!
Love you all and miss you!
Again, for at least the third time on this trip, I am so so tired and it’s early, especially early for Buenos Aires. I am writing this at 9:49pm. I lost track of time earlier and almost went to bed, and although I could have gone to bed, it wouldn’t have been the best idea because I don’t need to get into that habit. One night I will have to stay out late (I mean, at least ONE time, its part of the B.A. life!) and when that day comes I would like to be somewhat better prepared.
So, today…my first day of school in Buenos Aires. The day was not too exciting, however it was quite a long day. I woke up “early” (8:15am) and did the usual: breakfast/shower/etc. then headed off to the subte (subway if I haven’t already covered this) to meet Adam. Never again will I take the subway to school. I wish there was someway to describe it other than “walking a lot a lot a lot a lot!” However, those are the only words that I think are sufficient enough for the morning. =) Adam lives closer to the subte than I do. However, I thought, “a few more blocks won’t hurt.” Well, the walking to the subte wasn’t that big of a deal. It was waiting on Adam (not knowing that there were THREE subtes to get on at around that corner), then finding Adam, then Adam not seeing me and taking off down the other subte across the street, then me having to chase him (walking briskly, not running mind you, ha ha), then following him down the stairs, through the ticket booth, and down to the trains. Sigh. He walks a lot faster than I had ever noticed before. We finally meet up and get on the subte, it’s packed. I didn’t even have to hold on to a bar because there was no where to fall when the train jerked around. And, not to mention, it was hot. I don’t remember how much I’ve talked about weather here, but it hasn’t gotten lower than 50 degrees during the day time (at night it gets much cooler, but not cold cold like in Oklahoma). However, people around here think its freezing. So not only is everyone dressed in heavy winter coats and scarves and gloves, but they keep the heater on everywhere! And down in the subte (even though there is no heat or air there) it felt like 80 to 90 degrees with people surrounding you. It wasn’t the best feeling in the morning (especially after a shower where you felt all clean and un-sweaty, lol).
Well, we finally got off the subte (after having to make a stop to get on another train) and then walk the 12-20 blocks to get to school. I am sure I’ve mentioned this before, but a block here, is not like a block in Oklahoma. It’s maybe about the equivalent of three or four blocks?... I think. It feels like it anyways. Whatever the case, the walk was long, and although I’m not one to constantly complain about long walks, I prefer being better prepared for them (maybe wearing some running pants/shorts, and a t-shirt, not a nice blouse). But alas, that was how my morning started…not too fun. From now on, I am taking the bus to get to school (three blocks to the stop, one block to the school walking-wise). Much better than what I did today!
Moving right along (onto happier things because I don’t need to be complaining for this entire update). School… was not too scary for it being the first day. It wasn’t really like school anyways because we didn’t have a normal class. Today they wanted to know a little bit about where we stood on the Spanish side of things, how much we knew… that sort of thing. We met our Spanish teacher (whose name I can’t remember at the moment) and she gave us a written test. It wasn’t too complicated; however, there were a few things I didn’t quite understand. I hope I did them right anyways! Then, we talked with her for about 20-30 minutes. We were all together, but then she would ask us individual questions, probably to get a feel how our oral Spanish was. It wasn’t even too scary for me, which is great progress because I normally freeze in a classroom setting where I have to speak Spanish in front of everyone. So yay for that!
And that was all for school today! I know, isn’t that great? Tomorrow starts “real school” I guess. I guess I can tell you my schedule of classes… Mondays and Wednesdays I have Spanish Conversation from 2:00-3:50. Tuesdays I have Latin American Politics and Economics from 2:00-3:50, a twenty minute break, and from 4:10-6:00. Thursdays I have Latin American Culture at the same times as my Tuesday classes. No class on Fridays! Woo! Some say, “not fair”, but almost four hours of the same class in one day might be pretty tough! We’ll see. We shouldn’t have too much homework, just a midterm exam, a final exam, and maybe a presentation in a class, I’m not sure yet. We’ll see. I’m actually looking forward to classes. It’s not like I’m running out of things to do here, but to do many things, one has to spend money, and I feel like maybe I shouldn’t be spending money every single day if I can help it; so having classes, and things to study and work on might keep my mind busy. Plus, it will be an extra place to hear even more Spanish, so that’s even better!
Moving along with my day, after class I went back to my apartment, had some lunch (pasta, yum) and finished my update from yesterday. Then I took off for Expanish to give them my phone and see if they could fix it…well, they couldn’t. Sigh. So they are taking it to the store tomorrow and either getting it working or getting me a new phone. It’s really not that big of a deal, but it’d be a lot easier to get a hold of people to hang out with. I’m glad I see at least five of the people in my program almost every day, so I can catch up with them then.
After I dropped off my phone, I called Bridget (my friend Eric just happened to be at Expanish as well, so he let me use his) and met up with her in her neighborhood of Belgrano. Now, everywhere in B.A. is a great place for shopping, but for some great, hours long shopping, there are only two places that I’ve heard of to go to, and that’s Belgrano and Palermo. Bridget lives right on Cabildo St. which is the longest strip of shops and restaurants I have ever seen. While there, I finally got a couple of undershirts (the saleslady even took off four dollars…I don’t even know why!) and a new purse! (Well, actually two new purses, but MOM, don’t worry! It was buy one get one free! He he he) then, we stopped and grabbed a light dinner: Super Panchos! Um, hotdogs, lol. However, at this place they have over 50 different types of…toppings to put on your hotdog. Bridget got something creamy and cheese-like with mayonnaise (mayo is BIG here in B.A… everyone eats it and it’s on the table instead of ketchup in the restaurants…yuck)! However, I played it safe and got ketchup. Who’s surprised? Anyone? Anyone? I didn’t think so! But, something that is a bit different than normal is that they often put mini-papas (little French fries) on top of their hotdogs… and I did it too! And it was pretty good! I took pictures, so you’ll get to see it sometime.
After our mini dinner, we went our separate ways. I came back home and cleaned up my room a bit (no worries, mom, it wasn’t too messy or anything!) and had my real dinner, watched some television (American shows with Spanish subtitles, American shows are big over here) and now am updating for you wonderful people! Yay!
More things I’ve noticed and haven’t mentioned yet:
- The Smell of B.A…. let me tell you, there is no one smell to this city, basically like any city. But in no other city (New York and London included) have I ever noticed so many smells in one place. Walking down the street, in a ten minute time frame, there are countless smells that hit one’s nariz (nose). Meat, oil, incense (yuck), cheese, McDonalds (for real, one on every corner it seems like!), dog mess (oh yes, people let their dogs go to the bathroom on the middle of the sidewalk and DON’T clean it up! And it’s normal! Is there no shame!?!?!?) and many other smells that can be just as horrible or very good. It all depends on where you walk, quite literally.
- Dog walkers/parks: There are so many people who just make a job of dog walking, I am sure this is common in many places, but I’m from Shawnee, America…it’s not seen very often there. But there are guys walking around with ten-fifteen dogs! And, what is quite unlike many American dogs, these dogs are so so well behaved! A lot of dogs (when with their owners) aren’t even on a leash, but they don’t run away, they don’t chase after pigeons, they stay with their owners. It’s so sweet. And there are parks that have hundreds and hundreds of dogs being watched over. Like a doggy day care, quite interesting.
- Patience is definitely in this large city! While Bridget and I were standing in line at the store where I got my purses (and this is quite a large store, like a bit smaller than a J.C. Penney or something like that, and with two stories) we were waiting in line forever. It seemed like it took each purchase at least 5-10 minutes. Which, yes, doesn’t sound like that long, but you go to Dillards or Walmart and stand in line behind ONE person for ten minutes and notice how you start to wonder what’s taking so long… So, as Bridget starts getting agitated, I look around and notice that none of the other people in line look frustrated. In the states, this would just be unacceptable and people would be looking at their watches/phones and sighing and tapping their feet. Not here, people were nice and smiling and looking as if this was the most normal thing. It was so interesting to me because when you come from a place where time is money, it seems so slow! But I decided to be okay with it. I mean, we had no where to be, nothing to rush off to, why get bothered by it? It was definitely another lesson in the differences of cultures. I liked it!
Okay, that’s enough for today. See, with all this time on my hands I tend to write more and more…hopefully no one is too bored. More to come tomorrow!
Love you all and miss you!
Dia 5, You Haven't Seen Soccer, Til You've Seen Futbol in BA, 21 Junio
Oh what a beautiful Sunday! I woke up around 10:30, took my shower, had my lovely breakfast of coffee, a banana, and little pieces of toast, then my house mother came back from church! I didn’t even know she went to church, but now that I know, I am going to ask to go with her next week. It was a pretty lazy morning. The email was not working and I almost had a freak-out moment when I realized that I didn’t know what time the futbol game was or where we were supposed to meet…I frantically sent out a facebook message to Thomas and he, luckily, read it and called me (on our house phone. Cell is still not working, but its Sunday so I couldn’t go and check on it as most businesses are closed.)
Well, later in the day (around three and after figuring out where my bus was going) I met Thomas in San Telmo, a pretty little neighborhood as long as you’re not there after dark. =) Our group didn’t have to meet until 4:30, we just decided to meet early so we’d have something to do and not just sit around our houses all day. In San Telmo (and apparently in every neighborhood) there was an artisan fair going on. It was a lot like the one Bridget and I saw in Recoleta yesterday. There were vendors selling everything you would imagine at a fair like this. There were all kinds of street performers as well: singers, dancers, puppeteers, bands, and even a man dancing (tangoing?) with a big doll that looked like a real woman when her back was to you, it was pretty funny. While we walked around, we stopped and got some Orange Juice…the reason why I mention this is because it was REAL orange juice. And when I say real, I mean this lady had a pile of oranges and she squeezed the juice out in front of us! That’s as real as you can get. It was so delicious too!
Moving along, we met up with our group, which I then found out wasn’t the Expanish group, but a group that Expanish works with for futbol games. They are called Juancho Futbol, and they take you to a restaurant (bar? pub? type place…) and feed you pizza and cervesa before the game. (Yes, I tried the cervesa…and it was nasty!) They try and teach you a Boca fight song (the team we went and saw, which is now the team I call my own, ha ha, was Boca Juniors) and you just eat and hang out and have a good time. Then they drop you off at the game, but there are group leaders who stay with you, so you know where you are going at all times and you’re not just running around lost.
Okay…here we get to the FUN part of the day. Oh yes, I don’t know what any of you have heard about Argentine Soccer… its CRAZY! There are so many fans and they are just the craziest people you will ever meet. At La Boca, there is a large group of fans who are called “Jugador 12” (Player 12). In soccer, there are eleven players on each team, in Boca, they consider their fans player #12 because they are there at every game (home or away) cheering the team on. And they do way more than just cheer. Right before the game starts, as the players run onto the field, the fans start throwing confetti and paper (it looked like toilet paper from where we were sitting) and who knows what all else, onto the field. My first thought was, “this would never happen in the US!” Little did I know, that was not the first time I would think that. Once the game started, the fans started singing and some were playing instruments. From what it sounded like, there are at least three or four fight songs that the fans sing/chant during the game…and what’s crazy is that they don’t stop. For the entire 45+ minutes of each half, the fans are singing and chanting. It never ever dies down. I was amazed at how they just kept it up for so so long.
OH! And before I forget… the highest seats are reserved for the visiting team’s fans. And the fans do NOT get along. I learned this when, as the other fans threw down a flag over the edge of where they were sitting (they held on to one end and let the other just lay over the edge) one of Boca’s fans somehow threw a lighter (or something with fire) up at the flag and it caught on fire! Then, when their team scored a goal, their fans started throwing stuff down at our fans (I wasn’t sitting close enough to get anything thrown on me, no worries!) Some people were even throwing cups full of coke! I heard someone say, “Be careful you don’t get peed on.” =O I don’t know if anyone would have done it, or if it was a normal happening at these games, but at this point, it wouldn’t surprise me.
So, in the middle of the second half, when I thought I had seen all there was to see at a Boca futbol game, Player 12 started shooting off Roman Candles… It started with maybe ten-ish, but just continued to where there were hundreds of Roman Candles being shot off into the sky. What’s even crazier (and this was crazy because no one was allowed to bring lighters into the stadium, so I don’t know how all those people brought in fireworks!) was that people on our side had them too, and started shooting them up at the other team’s fans! It was pretty funny, but could be really scary I would think, having fireworks shot at me…no thank you.
Well, I know you are all curious, but no…Boca did not win. I was so sad for them! They lost by one point (and I don’t know soccer very well, but someone said Boca wasn’t playing very good…). However, it was still a great experience! (Even if a bit scary, what with their fans banging on the walls and the entire stadium shaking…this is not an exaggeration… it shakes!)
After the game, we got back on the bus and the group started dropping us off in our neighborhoods; however, in the process, the bus got pulled over. No one really knows why. I mean, all the drivers here drive like crazy people, so I don’t really know why this particular officer decided to pull our bus over. Then, a police man gets on the bus and starts telling us we need to have our documents out to show that we are allowed to be in Buenos Aires. I’m not going to lie; I was pretty scared for a minute. But then, after he only looked at one passport, he got off the bus. After about a ten minute wait, we were able to continue on our way. I still don’t know why our bus got pulled over, but one of the group leaders said that the police were just doing “their job” because they had nothing else to do… so hmm…I guess it will continue to be a mystery!
Well, that’s really all for the exciting times of B.A. today! School starts tomorrow bright and early (at 10:30 ha ha)! Thanks for reading, more stories to come I’m sure!!!!
Well, later in the day (around three and after figuring out where my bus was going) I met Thomas in San Telmo, a pretty little neighborhood as long as you’re not there after dark. =) Our group didn’t have to meet until 4:30, we just decided to meet early so we’d have something to do and not just sit around our houses all day. In San Telmo (and apparently in every neighborhood) there was an artisan fair going on. It was a lot like the one Bridget and I saw in Recoleta yesterday. There were vendors selling everything you would imagine at a fair like this. There were all kinds of street performers as well: singers, dancers, puppeteers, bands, and even a man dancing (tangoing?) with a big doll that looked like a real woman when her back was to you, it was pretty funny. While we walked around, we stopped and got some Orange Juice…the reason why I mention this is because it was REAL orange juice. And when I say real, I mean this lady had a pile of oranges and she squeezed the juice out in front of us! That’s as real as you can get. It was so delicious too!
Moving along, we met up with our group, which I then found out wasn’t the Expanish group, but a group that Expanish works with for futbol games. They are called Juancho Futbol, and they take you to a restaurant (bar? pub? type place…) and feed you pizza and cervesa before the game. (Yes, I tried the cervesa…and it was nasty!) They try and teach you a Boca fight song (the team we went and saw, which is now the team I call my own, ha ha, was Boca Juniors) and you just eat and hang out and have a good time. Then they drop you off at the game, but there are group leaders who stay with you, so you know where you are going at all times and you’re not just running around lost.
Okay…here we get to the FUN part of the day. Oh yes, I don’t know what any of you have heard about Argentine Soccer… its CRAZY! There are so many fans and they are just the craziest people you will ever meet. At La Boca, there is a large group of fans who are called “Jugador 12” (Player 12). In soccer, there are eleven players on each team, in Boca, they consider their fans player #12 because they are there at every game (home or away) cheering the team on. And they do way more than just cheer. Right before the game starts, as the players run onto the field, the fans start throwing confetti and paper (it looked like toilet paper from where we were sitting) and who knows what all else, onto the field. My first thought was, “this would never happen in the US!” Little did I know, that was not the first time I would think that. Once the game started, the fans started singing and some were playing instruments. From what it sounded like, there are at least three or four fight songs that the fans sing/chant during the game…and what’s crazy is that they don’t stop. For the entire 45+ minutes of each half, the fans are singing and chanting. It never ever dies down. I was amazed at how they just kept it up for so so long.
OH! And before I forget… the highest seats are reserved for the visiting team’s fans. And the fans do NOT get along. I learned this when, as the other fans threw down a flag over the edge of where they were sitting (they held on to one end and let the other just lay over the edge) one of Boca’s fans somehow threw a lighter (or something with fire) up at the flag and it caught on fire! Then, when their team scored a goal, their fans started throwing stuff down at our fans (I wasn’t sitting close enough to get anything thrown on me, no worries!) Some people were even throwing cups full of coke! I heard someone say, “Be careful you don’t get peed on.” =O I don’t know if anyone would have done it, or if it was a normal happening at these games, but at this point, it wouldn’t surprise me.
So, in the middle of the second half, when I thought I had seen all there was to see at a Boca futbol game, Player 12 started shooting off Roman Candles… It started with maybe ten-ish, but just continued to where there were hundreds of Roman Candles being shot off into the sky. What’s even crazier (and this was crazy because no one was allowed to bring lighters into the stadium, so I don’t know how all those people brought in fireworks!) was that people on our side had them too, and started shooting them up at the other team’s fans! It was pretty funny, but could be really scary I would think, having fireworks shot at me…no thank you.
Well, I know you are all curious, but no…Boca did not win. I was so sad for them! They lost by one point (and I don’t know soccer very well, but someone said Boca wasn’t playing very good…). However, it was still a great experience! (Even if a bit scary, what with their fans banging on the walls and the entire stadium shaking…this is not an exaggeration… it shakes!)
After the game, we got back on the bus and the group started dropping us off in our neighborhoods; however, in the process, the bus got pulled over. No one really knows why. I mean, all the drivers here drive like crazy people, so I don’t really know why this particular officer decided to pull our bus over. Then, a police man gets on the bus and starts telling us we need to have our documents out to show that we are allowed to be in Buenos Aires. I’m not going to lie; I was pretty scared for a minute. But then, after he only looked at one passport, he got off the bus. After about a ten minute wait, we were able to continue on our way. I still don’t know why our bus got pulled over, but one of the group leaders said that the police were just doing “their job” because they had nothing else to do… so hmm…I guess it will continue to be a mystery!
Well, that’s really all for the exciting times of B.A. today! School starts tomorrow bright and early (at 10:30 ha ha)! Thanks for reading, more stories to come I’m sure!!!!
Dia 4, Miles of Learning and More to Come! 20 Junio
Hay hay hay…. Today was such a long day, but it was really good!
I woke up at 9:30 (on my own!) after having a great night of sleep. No one was hope (or at least my house mate was sleeping), so I took a shower and by the time I was done, my lovely house mom had breakfast out on the table, ready for me to partake of. Having a banana and some toast (with strawberry jam and dulce de leche!) and café (made on the stove, the old fashioned way!) was basically a perfect start to the day.
After breakfast, I finished getting ready, then set off on my own to find a kiosko (I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned these or not, they are little stores set up everywhere that sell candy, gum, drinks, cigarettes, phone cards, etc) to buy a phone card for my new cell phone! Then I walked around my neighborhood trying to find a Correo Argentina (post office) to get stamps and envelopes, etc. I couldn’t find one, but found myself really thirsty so I stopped into a local McDonalds (Yes, even here, and there is one basically on every corner!) and got jugo de naranja (orange juice) and I am pretty sure it was the best orange juice I’ve ever had… I mean, maybe I just haven’t had it in a long time, but I’m pretty sure it was amazing. While I sipped on my juice I tried to get my phone to work, and of course it wouldn’t… I entered in the number the card was telling me to enter and it just wouldn’t work. Sigh. So I finished my juice and headed back to my apartment to ask if my house mom knew how to do it (maybe I was reading the Spanish card wrong?) Well… I wasn’t. She read it and did exactly what I did and it just wasn’t having it. Then I asked Serri, my house mate and she said when she bought phone cards, she just asked the worker at the kiosko to do it for her because she could never figure it out!
Well, by this time I was due to meet up with Bridget, so I walked to the subway to meet her. I was a little early so I stopped into a kiosko and asked the guy there to see if he could get my phone to work…well, he couldn’t. Sigh.
Bridget and I finally got together and went to have lunch. My first Buenos Aires Pizza…was oh so good. I read in one of my B.A. books that pizza here was basically amazing…and they were not lying. It was just cheese (there were single, large olives atop of each slice, I picked those off, ew) and was just the best cheese ever. Too heavy to want to eat every day, but still wonderful!
Moving along, we decided to walk to Recoleta (little did we know that Walking was going to be our main activity of the day…more to come on that). Recoleta was just as wonderful as the first time I was there; I am pretty sure I could go a couple of more times and not see everything there is to see. We left and right outside the cemetery there was this little mini-market thing going on…well, what looked like a mini-market. We started walking along it and realized there were definitely at least 100 vendors there! It was so neat, there was tango dancing (of course) and everything you could ever expect at a market: jewelry, clothes, purses, mate, fruit, books, notebooks, belts, etc. etc. etc. It was so cool! And everything is so cheap! It’s hard to not try and buy everything! However, we did not buy anything! We found out that this little market happens every weekend, Saturday and Sunday and many of the vendors said they’d be here next weekend and the next. So Bridget and I decided that we’d to back towards the end of our trip to get souvenirs and what not, because we’ll have a better grasp of our money situation…aren’t we just smart? =P
After Recoleta, Bridget wanted to go to this park called Jardín Japones (Japanese Garden) because there’s supposed to be a tea house and a pretty lake with a pretty bridge and all this other pretty stuff, lol. So we went…and realized, wow…it’s pretty far. According to Google Maps, its two miles…and that’s not including the 1.5 miles we’d already walked from the pizza place to Recoleta…so yeah! Surprisingly enough, my feet weren’t hurting too bad. Yay for good walking shoes. Once at the garden, Thomas called Bridget’s phone (of course, their phones were working!) and he met up with us a little later, but we had to walk about another mile to find him! The garden was quite lovely (yeah, I just said quite), There were at least two fútbol games going on in different places of the park. However, we did not find any tea house…but it was a big park, we might have missed it somewhere.
After we finally met up with Thomas, we stopped to have a small pre-dinner meal (it was around 6:00 at this point…Bridget and I started our walk to Recoleta around 2:00!) at some random café. I wasn’t too hungry, so I just got café con leche (so good, coffee has yet to disappoint me in B.A.) After the brief meal (and by brief I mean we were there for about an hour and a half) we took off window shopping. Around 8/8:30 we decided to go our separate ways. They both had to be back for dinner by nine. I went back to my place and my lovely house mate allowed me to use her wi-fi usb cable thing and now here I am! It’s taken me awhile to write this update because I have been trying to get my email to work as well. Sigh.
Tomorrow there is a chance of getting to go to a futbol game! I really hope I can go, I am going to have to check my email first thing to see if Natalia got the tickets or not. We shall see…and I asked her about my phone, so that’s even more things to check on tomorrow, sigh (again). Well, even though it’s early (about 12:15 AM here) I think I will be going to bed soon.
Thank you all for reading, love you and will update tomorrow (internet willing of course!) =)
I woke up at 9:30 (on my own!) after having a great night of sleep. No one was hope (or at least my house mate was sleeping), so I took a shower and by the time I was done, my lovely house mom had breakfast out on the table, ready for me to partake of. Having a banana and some toast (with strawberry jam and dulce de leche!) and café (made on the stove, the old fashioned way!) was basically a perfect start to the day.
After breakfast, I finished getting ready, then set off on my own to find a kiosko (I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned these or not, they are little stores set up everywhere that sell candy, gum, drinks, cigarettes, phone cards, etc) to buy a phone card for my new cell phone! Then I walked around my neighborhood trying to find a Correo Argentina (post office) to get stamps and envelopes, etc. I couldn’t find one, but found myself really thirsty so I stopped into a local McDonalds (Yes, even here, and there is one basically on every corner!) and got jugo de naranja (orange juice) and I am pretty sure it was the best orange juice I’ve ever had… I mean, maybe I just haven’t had it in a long time, but I’m pretty sure it was amazing. While I sipped on my juice I tried to get my phone to work, and of course it wouldn’t… I entered in the number the card was telling me to enter and it just wouldn’t work. Sigh. So I finished my juice and headed back to my apartment to ask if my house mom knew how to do it (maybe I was reading the Spanish card wrong?) Well… I wasn’t. She read it and did exactly what I did and it just wasn’t having it. Then I asked Serri, my house mate and she said when she bought phone cards, she just asked the worker at the kiosko to do it for her because she could never figure it out!
Well, by this time I was due to meet up with Bridget, so I walked to the subway to meet her. I was a little early so I stopped into a kiosko and asked the guy there to see if he could get my phone to work…well, he couldn’t. Sigh.
Bridget and I finally got together and went to have lunch. My first Buenos Aires Pizza…was oh so good. I read in one of my B.A. books that pizza here was basically amazing…and they were not lying. It was just cheese (there were single, large olives atop of each slice, I picked those off, ew) and was just the best cheese ever. Too heavy to want to eat every day, but still wonderful!
Moving along, we decided to walk to Recoleta (little did we know that Walking was going to be our main activity of the day…more to come on that). Recoleta was just as wonderful as the first time I was there; I am pretty sure I could go a couple of more times and not see everything there is to see. We left and right outside the cemetery there was this little mini-market thing going on…well, what looked like a mini-market. We started walking along it and realized there were definitely at least 100 vendors there! It was so neat, there was tango dancing (of course) and everything you could ever expect at a market: jewelry, clothes, purses, mate, fruit, books, notebooks, belts, etc. etc. etc. It was so cool! And everything is so cheap! It’s hard to not try and buy everything! However, we did not buy anything! We found out that this little market happens every weekend, Saturday and Sunday and many of the vendors said they’d be here next weekend and the next. So Bridget and I decided that we’d to back towards the end of our trip to get souvenirs and what not, because we’ll have a better grasp of our money situation…aren’t we just smart? =P
After Recoleta, Bridget wanted to go to this park called Jardín Japones (Japanese Garden) because there’s supposed to be a tea house and a pretty lake with a pretty bridge and all this other pretty stuff, lol. So we went…and realized, wow…it’s pretty far. According to Google Maps, its two miles…and that’s not including the 1.5 miles we’d already walked from the pizza place to Recoleta…so yeah! Surprisingly enough, my feet weren’t hurting too bad. Yay for good walking shoes. Once at the garden, Thomas called Bridget’s phone (of course, their phones were working!) and he met up with us a little later, but we had to walk about another mile to find him! The garden was quite lovely (yeah, I just said quite), There were at least two fútbol games going on in different places of the park. However, we did not find any tea house…but it was a big park, we might have missed it somewhere.
After we finally met up with Thomas, we stopped to have a small pre-dinner meal (it was around 6:00 at this point…Bridget and I started our walk to Recoleta around 2:00!) at some random café. I wasn’t too hungry, so I just got café con leche (so good, coffee has yet to disappoint me in B.A.) After the brief meal (and by brief I mean we were there for about an hour and a half) we took off window shopping. Around 8/8:30 we decided to go our separate ways. They both had to be back for dinner by nine. I went back to my place and my lovely house mate allowed me to use her wi-fi usb cable thing and now here I am! It’s taken me awhile to write this update because I have been trying to get my email to work as well. Sigh.
Tomorrow there is a chance of getting to go to a futbol game! I really hope I can go, I am going to have to check my email first thing to see if Natalia got the tickets or not. We shall see…and I asked her about my phone, so that’s even more things to check on tomorrow, sigh (again). Well, even though it’s early (about 12:15 AM here) I think I will be going to bed soon.
Thank you all for reading, love you and will update tomorrow (internet willing of course!) =)
Dia 3, New Families, New Schools, 19 Junio
Well, I have discovered that I do NOT have Wi-Fi in my new home, therefore, updating everyday might be somewhat complicated; however, I tend to find a place nearby that has Wi-Fi. This is B.A., there are so many places with Wi-Fi that I shouldn’t have to go too far. We shall see.
Okay, so day three was definitely an interesting one, and not at all what I expected. I met my host for the duration of my stay…but it was not the one who I was originally supposed to have! We left our hotel around 11:30am and there were three of us in a taxi. Mine was the first house we arrived at. When the lady answered the door, she let me in, and then told me there was a problem. The taxi had already left at this point, and Gabriella tells me that I wasn’t supposed to go there because she didn’t have room for me. Not to mention, Universidad Austral (U.A., where I will be taking classes starting Monday) is very far away from the Palermo neighborhood where we were. So, we called the Expanish School and talked with Natalia, the coordinator. She told me that it was a mix up on her part and that she would arrange to take me to another house. One hour and a mint tea later, I was off in a remis (rental car) to my new home in Recoleta. Recoleta is one of the nicest neighborhoods in B.A., and its closer to my school, so I guess I lucked out. The lady who lives her is named Elsa, she lives alone but also has another exchange student here from Michigan. We each have our own rooms. Mine is this small room behind the kitchen. It’s basically off to itself and I like it. It’s just big enough for me. I even have my own bathroom, but it doesn’t have a shower, so I have to use the other one as well. There is also a balcony next to the living room. I like it because this neighborhood is more peaceful than others and buses don’t go down our street! (That is pretty exciting news, lol).
Okay, moving on the events of the day. After I met my new host mother, I went to my Universidad for a mini-orientation. I had to travel by myself, and it wasn’t the scariest thing, although I am sure I would have felt better if I’d had others with me! The bus I take to get to my school is about three blocks away, and that’s B.A. blocks, not Oklahoma blocks…think more like New York or London, LONG. Lol. Then it takes about 25-30 minutes to actually get to the stop to get off. Then I walk a little less than a block to my school. Universities here are very different than in the U.S. They aren’t campuses; they are just large buildings it seems like. I’ve seen a few and they are all like this. There aren’t yards to hang out in during breaks, etc. And no one lives at their school; they all stay at home with their parents or get apartments. Here it is very common to stay with the parents until one is around thirty years old or is married! Lol. So mom and dad, look out! =P
Anyways, we met one of the coordinators of U.A. who showed us around the school, gave us entry cards so we can get into the building, and talked to us about our classes. I still don’t know how I feel about my classes, I am half-excited and two-thirds (yes, I know) scared out of my mind! But the whole point of being here is to learn and experience this new culture, and my classes are going to help with that.
After Austral we (oh, three of my classmates met at Austral as well, so I didn’t have to travel alone then!) took the bus back to where I first got on at; however, we learned that the bus doesn’t stop at the same place on the way back. We learned from our mistake, lol, and I know what to do now! We walked around for a bit then we decided to go back to our homes to have dinner with our parents.
Now, remember how I talked about late dinners and what not? My host mom eats dinner EARLY! I got home around 8ish and she had already eaten. She had left me food to heat up, so I got to eat at a normal time also! I was so very happy, lol. I do not enjoy eating so late and I guess I don’t have to while I am here. However, she also goes to bed early (its nine thirty and she’s in bed), I don’t know if she’s asleep because she was watching TV, but still… I don’t know anyone around this part of the neighborhood and have no where to go (and in any case I’d be alone until I met up with someone which isn’t the best idea to me). So here I am, sitting in my little room, typing up my daily journal in Microsoft Word, lol. I am going to do some reading and practice some Spanish while I’m up.
How lame am I? It’s Friday night in Buenos Aires and I am hanging out in my room probably going to bed somewhat early (no later than midnight, definitely!)…but you know, I have 6½ more weeks to go out on a Friday night…I think I’ll be okay. It’s not like I want the “late night” habit when I go back to the states, right? Oh, mom would be so proud of my thinking right now!
Other different things I have noticed:
- Cars do NOT follow the lines in the street! It’s as if those white lines don’t even matter. It’s pretty scary, but I try to not pay attention when I’m in a taxi or bus…
- In the two apartments I have been in, there have been toilets in the showers…well, there is a room that has a toilet and the shower, but there is no tub or door for the shower! Does that make sense? There is nothing that separates the shower from the rest of the room…interesting.
- This is my favorite…because it’s hilarious to me: Mullets are IN. They are very popular here. One of the coordinators of Expanish (who is from the states) told us to be careful if we decided to get our hair cut, because the stylists will do Mullets unless we express how much we DON’T want one. So funny…but I’m not cutting my hair while I’m here! lol
Okay chicos, that’s all for today. Tomorrow I plan on some shopping and going back to Recoleta with my new pal Bridget (she’s in the Expanish program with me and is in the same classes at U.A.). More updates later!
Okay, so day three was definitely an interesting one, and not at all what I expected. I met my host for the duration of my stay…but it was not the one who I was originally supposed to have! We left our hotel around 11:30am and there were three of us in a taxi. Mine was the first house we arrived at. When the lady answered the door, she let me in, and then told me there was a problem. The taxi had already left at this point, and Gabriella tells me that I wasn’t supposed to go there because she didn’t have room for me. Not to mention, Universidad Austral (U.A., where I will be taking classes starting Monday) is very far away from the Palermo neighborhood where we were. So, we called the Expanish School and talked with Natalia, the coordinator. She told me that it was a mix up on her part and that she would arrange to take me to another house. One hour and a mint tea later, I was off in a remis (rental car) to my new home in Recoleta. Recoleta is one of the nicest neighborhoods in B.A., and its closer to my school, so I guess I lucked out. The lady who lives her is named Elsa, she lives alone but also has another exchange student here from Michigan. We each have our own rooms. Mine is this small room behind the kitchen. It’s basically off to itself and I like it. It’s just big enough for me. I even have my own bathroom, but it doesn’t have a shower, so I have to use the other one as well. There is also a balcony next to the living room. I like it because this neighborhood is more peaceful than others and buses don’t go down our street! (That is pretty exciting news, lol).
Okay, moving on the events of the day. After I met my new host mother, I went to my Universidad for a mini-orientation. I had to travel by myself, and it wasn’t the scariest thing, although I am sure I would have felt better if I’d had others with me! The bus I take to get to my school is about three blocks away, and that’s B.A. blocks, not Oklahoma blocks…think more like New York or London, LONG. Lol. Then it takes about 25-30 minutes to actually get to the stop to get off. Then I walk a little less than a block to my school. Universities here are very different than in the U.S. They aren’t campuses; they are just large buildings it seems like. I’ve seen a few and they are all like this. There aren’t yards to hang out in during breaks, etc. And no one lives at their school; they all stay at home with their parents or get apartments. Here it is very common to stay with the parents until one is around thirty years old or is married! Lol. So mom and dad, look out! =P
Anyways, we met one of the coordinators of U.A. who showed us around the school, gave us entry cards so we can get into the building, and talked to us about our classes. I still don’t know how I feel about my classes, I am half-excited and two-thirds (yes, I know) scared out of my mind! But the whole point of being here is to learn and experience this new culture, and my classes are going to help with that.
After Austral we (oh, three of my classmates met at Austral as well, so I didn’t have to travel alone then!) took the bus back to where I first got on at; however, we learned that the bus doesn’t stop at the same place on the way back. We learned from our mistake, lol, and I know what to do now! We walked around for a bit then we decided to go back to our homes to have dinner with our parents.
Now, remember how I talked about late dinners and what not? My host mom eats dinner EARLY! I got home around 8ish and she had already eaten. She had left me food to heat up, so I got to eat at a normal time also! I was so very happy, lol. I do not enjoy eating so late and I guess I don’t have to while I am here. However, she also goes to bed early (its nine thirty and she’s in bed), I don’t know if she’s asleep because she was watching TV, but still… I don’t know anyone around this part of the neighborhood and have no where to go (and in any case I’d be alone until I met up with someone which isn’t the best idea to me). So here I am, sitting in my little room, typing up my daily journal in Microsoft Word, lol. I am going to do some reading and practice some Spanish while I’m up.
How lame am I? It’s Friday night in Buenos Aires and I am hanging out in my room probably going to bed somewhat early (no later than midnight, definitely!)…but you know, I have 6½ more weeks to go out on a Friday night…I think I’ll be okay. It’s not like I want the “late night” habit when I go back to the states, right? Oh, mom would be so proud of my thinking right now!
Other different things I have noticed:
- Cars do NOT follow the lines in the street! It’s as if those white lines don’t even matter. It’s pretty scary, but I try to not pay attention when I’m in a taxi or bus…
- In the two apartments I have been in, there have been toilets in the showers…well, there is a room that has a toilet and the shower, but there is no tub or door for the shower! Does that make sense? There is nothing that separates the shower from the rest of the room…interesting.
- This is my favorite…because it’s hilarious to me: Mullets are IN. They are very popular here. One of the coordinators of Expanish (who is from the states) told us to be careful if we decided to get our hair cut, because the stylists will do Mullets unless we express how much we DON’T want one. So funny…but I’m not cutting my hair while I’m here! lol
Okay chicos, that’s all for today. Tomorrow I plan on some shopping and going back to Recoleta with my new pal Bridget (she’s in the Expanish program with me and is in the same classes at U.A.). More updates later!
Dia 2, Walking and Learning, 18 Junio
I am currently sitting on my bed in my hotel room, watching CNN in Spanish (which I do not understand!) and it is only 10:17 at night. In B.A...that's probably the lamest you can get! I am so so so tired and wiped out and enjoying life, but I'm so tired, lol. At 6:00, I looked at my watch and was like, "What?! Only six o'clock?!" It felt so much later...and what is even crazier is that it's only 8:17 at home! How strange to think that.
Well, I would like to start off by telling you about my dinner last night. My friends, my family, you have NOT experienced a great dinner experience until you eat dinner here in B.A. We left the hotel around 8:45 and traveled by subte (subway) for the first time. I kid you not, the subway is the same here as in NY and in London, the look and smell of it anyways, lol. Then, by the time we finally got to the restaurant, it was well past nine. From this point on, I have no idea what time it was...just that we finished dinner around MIDNIGHT or later...yes, later. Let me explain...
We get there and there is already bread on the table (something I have noticed about bread before meals, it's not warm bread...it's cold and hard ish on the outside, soft on the inside...not the best, lol. Anyways, then about...oh a while later they come by and ask for your drinks....then after that, we sat, and talked for about twenty minutes. Now, the meal was a fixed meal from our group, so we didn't get to order. We had a "traditional" meal.
After about thirty minutes of eating bread and talking, our first entre' was brought out. A plate for each table, there was chorizo (a type of sausage, which was actually very good) and blood sausage (which was too black and scary looking for me to try!) and some other type of meat, it looked kind of like chicken, but a bit different...and it tasted, fine... I didn't ask what it was, and maybe I didn't want to know. Then, we sat and talked for a while longer...then, the next part of the meal...A big plate of steak. Oh yes, I don't know what kind...I'll try and figure it out later, but just a plate full of these slabs of meat (yes, I took pictures)... so I was like, YUM. And what's even better about Argentine steak is that it's so good, you don't need steak sauce. I've heard that they get offended if you ask for it, lol.
Okay, so then, I was full. I didn't even eat that crazy much, but I ate well and was definitely ready for bed. We talked for quite some time, and then...oh yes, the waitresses brought out the MAIN course. I was like, "AH!!!" Bigger steaks...however, it was one per plate. I couldn't eat it all, but I took a bite and I promise it was the best tasting meat I have ever had in my entire life. Mind blowing great, amazing, wonderful (insert your own descriptive word for "fantastic" here)...My main thought was, "Dad really needs to be here for this!"
THEN, we talked for a while longer...and they bring out the dessert! Helado americano y dulce de leche!!! (American ice cream and...dulce de leche ice cream, literally translated sweet of milk, there is no word in English, as well there shouldn't be!) It was a beautiful dessert. The ice cream was good, it didn't taste anything like american ice cream, but that's what they call it. The dulce de leche ice cream was just amazing. It was smooth and creamy and had a hint of a coffee taste to me (although others said it didn't). Dulce de leche is something very common here. They have it in cake, ice cream, little desserts (kind of like our Little Debbies) called "Alfajores" (I'm bringing a box back with me!). It's such a great thing...
Then, finally....we talked for a while longer and finally left. After about three ish hours of a dinner. A HUGE thing in Argentina in the importance of connecting over a meal. Talking and eating are both very important things, and it shows during a meal. Not all meals are like this (I mean, we ate breakfast like normal, lol) but with a group of friends or family, it's an always thing. So yeah, next time you have a late meal, just think, "At least it wasn't three hours long and ended after midnight"... lol.
Moving along. Today, I woke up feeling refreshed and wonderful, however, I only had about 6-7 hours of sleep because of how late we got back and the fact that one of my roommates in the hotel decided to call her boyfriend who decided to not believe her that she had been at dinner that late and proceeded to ask her question after question about who she was with and were there any boys in the hotel or in her room (there are NO boys in our room, no worries, lol)... and they talked/argued for about 45 minutes, which kept the other two of us awake. Sigh...and we woke up at nine. So yeah. I was still a bit tired.
The first half of our day was spent at an orientation program for Expanish where we learned the basics of getting around the city and what not. We also learned some forms of slang here and what NOT to say, etc. So it was informative, but long (almost three hours). We had lunch around one (empanadas!!! with cheese and meat, so good!)
Then, a few of us just went exploring, walking around. We met back at the Expanish school around three for our "tour" of the city. We took the "south side" tour that took us to La Boca, San Telmo, and Puerto Madero. Definitely Image Search "La Boca" or "Caminito" if you want to see one of the poorest, yet most beautitul neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. It's a colorful neighborhood (literally) filled with music and artists...it can be a tourist trap, but it's worth it just to walk down the streets (there are two). There was live tango dancing and music, free, just on the side of the street. So cool.
After our three and a half WALKING tour of these places, lol, we were so so tired. It was only about seven thirty, but we were hungry and so tired from walking, so a few of us stopped and got dinner (way too early for a porteno [a native of B.A] to eat dinner) at this Italian/Argentine restaurant and had *ta-da!* steak and papas fritas (french fries!). It was pretty good, definitely not as good as last night, but still good. A strange thing about many restaurants in Arg (and maybe in other countries?) is that there is a "service charge" for eating there...so, it's basically like a cover charge at a club, or something like that. At this particular one, it was only 5 pesos (which is a little less than two dollars), so they tell you (tourist books) that you don't really need to tip much. And apparently, tipping isn't necessary in Arg, and when people do tip, it's only about 10% if they were good, lol.
After dinner, we walked around a bit more, then went back to the hotel. And now, here I am typing this all out. =)
Tomorrow, I meet my host family! I don't know what all is in store. We have to check out of our rooms a little before eleven and then off to meet the family. Since my location will change (and as far as I know we don't have wi-fi in my house, unlike some of the other homes in the program, sad) and I will be starting school on Monday, I do not know if I will be able to continue to update like this, but I hope I get to! It's easier than writing it in a journal everyday, but we shall see.
Other:
I did find out that they do, in fact, deliver ice cream! Woo!
And I cannot do my own laundry. When we asked about doing our own, the group coordinator made a somewhat funny face and was like, "No, not here, they do your laundry". It's one of the things that has helped add to the economy since it was basically destroyed in 2001. The delivery system, laundry system, and also, there are workers that pump the gas, not the car driver. Also, what is crazy, gas is SO CHEAP here...less than a dollar a gallon for unleaded, yes...think on that. But really, not as many people drive here as in the US, so I suppose that adds to the difference.
Anyways...I guess that's all. I will try and update again soon! Love you all and if you really read all of this you're crazy but I will never doubt your love! =)
Well, I would like to start off by telling you about my dinner last night. My friends, my family, you have NOT experienced a great dinner experience until you eat dinner here in B.A. We left the hotel around 8:45 and traveled by subte (subway) for the first time. I kid you not, the subway is the same here as in NY and in London, the look and smell of it anyways, lol. Then, by the time we finally got to the restaurant, it was well past nine. From this point on, I have no idea what time it was...just that we finished dinner around MIDNIGHT or later...yes, later. Let me explain...
We get there and there is already bread on the table (something I have noticed about bread before meals, it's not warm bread...it's cold and hard ish on the outside, soft on the inside...not the best, lol. Anyways, then about...oh a while later they come by and ask for your drinks....then after that, we sat, and talked for about twenty minutes. Now, the meal was a fixed meal from our group, so we didn't get to order. We had a "traditional" meal.
After about thirty minutes of eating bread and talking, our first entre' was brought out. A plate for each table, there was chorizo (a type of sausage, which was actually very good) and blood sausage (which was too black and scary looking for me to try!) and some other type of meat, it looked kind of like chicken, but a bit different...and it tasted, fine... I didn't ask what it was, and maybe I didn't want to know. Then, we sat and talked for a while longer...then, the next part of the meal...A big plate of steak. Oh yes, I don't know what kind...I'll try and figure it out later, but just a plate full of these slabs of meat (yes, I took pictures)... so I was like, YUM. And what's even better about Argentine steak is that it's so good, you don't need steak sauce. I've heard that they get offended if you ask for it, lol.
Okay, so then, I was full. I didn't even eat that crazy much, but I ate well and was definitely ready for bed. We talked for quite some time, and then...oh yes, the waitresses brought out the MAIN course. I was like, "AH!!!" Bigger steaks...however, it was one per plate. I couldn't eat it all, but I took a bite and I promise it was the best tasting meat I have ever had in my entire life. Mind blowing great, amazing, wonderful (insert your own descriptive word for "fantastic" here)...My main thought was, "Dad really needs to be here for this!"
THEN, we talked for a while longer...and they bring out the dessert! Helado americano y dulce de leche!!! (American ice cream and...dulce de leche ice cream, literally translated sweet of milk, there is no word in English, as well there shouldn't be!) It was a beautiful dessert. The ice cream was good, it didn't taste anything like american ice cream, but that's what they call it. The dulce de leche ice cream was just amazing. It was smooth and creamy and had a hint of a coffee taste to me (although others said it didn't). Dulce de leche is something very common here. They have it in cake, ice cream, little desserts (kind of like our Little Debbies) called "Alfajores" (I'm bringing a box back with me!). It's such a great thing...
Then, finally....we talked for a while longer and finally left. After about three ish hours of a dinner. A HUGE thing in Argentina in the importance of connecting over a meal. Talking and eating are both very important things, and it shows during a meal. Not all meals are like this (I mean, we ate breakfast like normal, lol) but with a group of friends or family, it's an always thing. So yeah, next time you have a late meal, just think, "At least it wasn't three hours long and ended after midnight"... lol.
Moving along. Today, I woke up feeling refreshed and wonderful, however, I only had about 6-7 hours of sleep because of how late we got back and the fact that one of my roommates in the hotel decided to call her boyfriend who decided to not believe her that she had been at dinner that late and proceeded to ask her question after question about who she was with and were there any boys in the hotel or in her room (there are NO boys in our room, no worries, lol)... and they talked/argued for about 45 minutes, which kept the other two of us awake. Sigh...and we woke up at nine. So yeah. I was still a bit tired.
The first half of our day was spent at an orientation program for Expanish where we learned the basics of getting around the city and what not. We also learned some forms of slang here and what NOT to say, etc. So it was informative, but long (almost three hours). We had lunch around one (empanadas!!! with cheese and meat, so good!)
Then, a few of us just went exploring, walking around. We met back at the Expanish school around three for our "tour" of the city. We took the "south side" tour that took us to La Boca, San Telmo, and Puerto Madero. Definitely Image Search "La Boca" or "Caminito" if you want to see one of the poorest, yet most beautitul neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. It's a colorful neighborhood (literally) filled with music and artists...it can be a tourist trap, but it's worth it just to walk down the streets (there are two). There was live tango dancing and music, free, just on the side of the street. So cool.
After our three and a half WALKING tour of these places, lol, we were so so tired. It was only about seven thirty, but we were hungry and so tired from walking, so a few of us stopped and got dinner (way too early for a porteno [a native of B.A] to eat dinner) at this Italian/Argentine restaurant and had *ta-da!* steak and papas fritas (french fries!). It was pretty good, definitely not as good as last night, but still good. A strange thing about many restaurants in Arg (and maybe in other countries?) is that there is a "service charge" for eating there...so, it's basically like a cover charge at a club, or something like that. At this particular one, it was only 5 pesos (which is a little less than two dollars), so they tell you (tourist books) that you don't really need to tip much. And apparently, tipping isn't necessary in Arg, and when people do tip, it's only about 10% if they were good, lol.
After dinner, we walked around a bit more, then went back to the hotel. And now, here I am typing this all out. =)
Tomorrow, I meet my host family! I don't know what all is in store. We have to check out of our rooms a little before eleven and then off to meet the family. Since my location will change (and as far as I know we don't have wi-fi in my house, unlike some of the other homes in the program, sad) and I will be starting school on Monday, I do not know if I will be able to continue to update like this, but I hope I get to! It's easier than writing it in a journal everyday, but we shall see.
Other:
I did find out that they do, in fact, deliver ice cream! Woo!
And I cannot do my own laundry. When we asked about doing our own, the group coordinator made a somewhat funny face and was like, "No, not here, they do your laundry". It's one of the things that has helped add to the economy since it was basically destroyed in 2001. The delivery system, laundry system, and also, there are workers that pump the gas, not the car driver. Also, what is crazy, gas is SO CHEAP here...less than a dollar a gallon for unleaded, yes...think on that. But really, not as many people drive here as in the US, so I suppose that adds to the difference.
Anyways...I guess that's all. I will try and update again soon! Love you all and if you really read all of this you're crazy but I will never doubt your love! =)
Dia 1, Oh the Confusion of a New City! 17 Junio
Hello all! Look at this! I am able to update already, here on my first day in B.A. This city is...like a big city should be. There are plenty of people...everywhere. There are big buildings small buildings, etc. But I am getting ahead of myself.
So, my flight left yesterday, Central Standard Time from Houston at 9:00pm. The flight was a horrible ten hours long...ten hours that I did NOT sleep. Sigh. Therefore, I have been up now for 35ish hours. Yes, it is apparently possible.
Then we arrived at the airport where we went through customs and got money changed and all that fun stuff. It was a pretty easy walk through. Then...we had to wait 45 minutes for our taxi because he left us there and had to come back and get us. Sigh...however, we made it to our hotel in one piece.
I will be staying in the Hotel Tango for 2 nights, then on Friday I will go to meet my host family. I learned today that I will be staying with a lady named Gabriella and her 19yr. old son. She is a vegetarian!!! In the land of BEEF, I get stuck in the house with a vegetarian. I'm sure she's kind, just no beef...although, I guess she's not fully vegetarian because she eats one meal of fish and one of chicken every week. Sigh. That's okay, plenty of other opportunities to eat meat.
Moving along. Things I've noticed about B.A. so far... people aren't afraid to stare. And it's not the creepy kind of looking at you stare, it's the curious kind of stare. Thomas, Adam and I went to the Recoleta Cemetary (again, google image search) and it was very cool, on our way there, I realize we must have stood out. Thomas with his map, me with my OBU Bison hoodie, and Adam wearing shorts (no one else in this world down here was wearing shorts). People weren't rude about staring, but they do it, and if you look back, they don't look away. Quite interesting.
Moving along, the sidewalks are WAY TINY. Let me just say, when you can get three people next to each other on a side walk here...well, it's pretty big. I'm not even kidding. Of course, I suppose there are places with larger sidewalks, but most are narrow, and the roads are as well...Most roads are one way, two lanes...
It's probably about 60 degrees here (and it feels WONDERFUL compared to that Oklahoma weather I left behind) but the natives think it's freezing. I find that so interesting. They wear big coats and some have scarves and beanies. You'd think it was 15 degrees out...oh well, at least I'm comfortable in my light sweater.
The doors...are different. Almost all doors have a lock on them and you have to be buzzed in to get inside. Some places you have to actually talk to someone on the other side, but in most there is a security guard standing close by and he lets you in. And you have to be buzzed out, which is strange to me as well...
You can get anything delivered...basically all restaurant chains deliver, and not only that....your laundry! Yeah, they do it for you and bring it back to you...I don't know if I plan on doing this...but we'll see. I do know that I will have to do my own laundry at a laundromat, so yay for money I didn't plan on using for that, sigh.
Anyways...other things I did today, went to Recoleta Cemetary (mentioned that...) and saw the Obelisk and a museum of Leon Ferrari's work (which is way cool)...
We are about to go get dinner here in a little less than an hour. They eat really late here. Us having an 8:00 dinner is considered really early, lol. And they don't get up any later! It's generally a 7-8 o'clock morning for most! Ah! I don't know how they do it.
I also saw a really pretty park that I want to sit in and read a book...I'm such a nerd.
Anyways, that's it from this side of the equator, for now anyways. I don't know if I will be able to write this often or not. But we shall see! Love you all!
So, my flight left yesterday, Central Standard Time from Houston at 9:00pm. The flight was a horrible ten hours long...ten hours that I did NOT sleep. Sigh. Therefore, I have been up now for 35ish hours. Yes, it is apparently possible.
Then we arrived at the airport where we went through customs and got money changed and all that fun stuff. It was a pretty easy walk through. Then...we had to wait 45 minutes for our taxi because he left us there and had to come back and get us. Sigh...however, we made it to our hotel in one piece.
I will be staying in the Hotel Tango for 2 nights, then on Friday I will go to meet my host family. I learned today that I will be staying with a lady named Gabriella and her 19yr. old son. She is a vegetarian!!! In the land of BEEF, I get stuck in the house with a vegetarian. I'm sure she's kind, just no beef...although, I guess she's not fully vegetarian because she eats one meal of fish and one of chicken every week. Sigh. That's okay, plenty of other opportunities to eat meat.
Moving along. Things I've noticed about B.A. so far... people aren't afraid to stare. And it's not the creepy kind of looking at you stare, it's the curious kind of stare. Thomas, Adam and I went to the Recoleta Cemetary (again, google image search) and it was very cool, on our way there, I realize we must have stood out. Thomas with his map, me with my OBU Bison hoodie, and Adam wearing shorts (no one else in this world down here was wearing shorts). People weren't rude about staring, but they do it, and if you look back, they don't look away. Quite interesting.
Moving along, the sidewalks are WAY TINY. Let me just say, when you can get three people next to each other on a side walk here...well, it's pretty big. I'm not even kidding. Of course, I suppose there are places with larger sidewalks, but most are narrow, and the roads are as well...Most roads are one way, two lanes...
It's probably about 60 degrees here (and it feels WONDERFUL compared to that Oklahoma weather I left behind) but the natives think it's freezing. I find that so interesting. They wear big coats and some have scarves and beanies. You'd think it was 15 degrees out...oh well, at least I'm comfortable in my light sweater.
The doors...are different. Almost all doors have a lock on them and you have to be buzzed in to get inside. Some places you have to actually talk to someone on the other side, but in most there is a security guard standing close by and he lets you in. And you have to be buzzed out, which is strange to me as well...
You can get anything delivered...basically all restaurant chains deliver, and not only that....your laundry! Yeah, they do it for you and bring it back to you...I don't know if I plan on doing this...but we'll see. I do know that I will have to do my own laundry at a laundromat, so yay for money I didn't plan on using for that, sigh.
Anyways...other things I did today, went to Recoleta Cemetary (mentioned that...) and saw the Obelisk and a museum of Leon Ferrari's work (which is way cool)...
We are about to go get dinner here in a little less than an hour. They eat really late here. Us having an 8:00 dinner is considered really early, lol. And they don't get up any later! It's generally a 7-8 o'clock morning for most! Ah! I don't know how they do it.
I also saw a really pretty park that I want to sit in and read a book...I'm such a nerd.
Anyways, that's it from this side of the equator, for now anyways. I don't know if I will be able to write this often or not. But we shall see! Love you all!
Argentina, Beforehand
So, I recently realized that maybe there are still some of my friends who don't know I'm leaving the country in just a couple short days. I realized this when a friend said "going where? packing for what?" Therefore, here is an informational note for all those who may or may not be remotely interested in why I am leaving the country.
It all started freshman year when Thomas Mosley and I had to do a cultural report over some Spanish speaking country in our Spanish III class, Thomas just HAD to do Argentina because he had some weird fascination with the place. So we did the project and from that stemmed the interest for me!
Last year, Thomas found this program called Expanish (if you're that interested, [which, really, why would you be? but why not, right?] you can check it out at Expanish.com). He discovered that they do study programs in none other but the beloved Buenos Aires, Argentina. He then decided he was going. Period. And I thought, "Well hey, I'm a Spanish minor, why the heck not go?" (Or something like that thought crossed my mind).
And here we are, a year later, about to take the trip of a life time, along with our friend Adam Ray!
Wait, what are we going to do there?! Good question.
For starters (and the main parental approval point) we will be taking classes, three of them. Spanish Conversation, Latin American Culture, and Latin American Government and Economy. As I always say, I don't understand government in English, what am I going to do in an Argentinian Government class?!?!? Well, hopefully I'll learn something. These three classes will be giving us 9 credit hours, which is ultimately what made me decide to be a Spanish major, seeing as I can graduate on time now with both Spanish and Communication majors because of this trip! Yay for making parents happy, right? right?! =)
Other little tidbits of wonderfulness for you to know:
- I will be staying with a host family. And no, I have NO idea about who they are, if they have kids or grandkids, what their lifestyle is like, if they're active in church, etc. etc....oh the mystery of it all!
-There are actually only 5 students taking the same program Thomas, Adam, and I... meaning there are only two students I won't know in my classes. However, there will be eleven students doing something with the Expanish program from who knows where.
-Other than study, the program offers weekly activities such as futbol (ahem, soccer for those of you who refuse to accept the true meaning of the word football) games, watching tango!, touring the historical-ness of the city, taking a weekend trip to the wonderful Iguazu Falls (please go image search it in Google...you'll be even more jealous than you already are!), and a trip to Cordoba, Uruguay!
When will I be back? Well, according to a lovely older lady I work with, I will not be coming back if I meet an attractive Argentine male who will lure me into loving him with his wonderful hotness...
But, let's assume that won't happen. My plane arrives back on Oklahoma soil on August 9, I'm not expecting a huge "welcome back!" sign in the airport...but you know...*cough cough*
Oh, and since I haven't mentioned it, I leave Tuesday. My flight from Oklahoma leaves at 4:25pm and goes to Houston. We then leave Houston at 9pm and arrives in the lovely wonderful magical world of Buenos Aires, AR at 9:49am (that's 7:49am to those of you who will be left in the Central Time Zone).
Will I be able to contact you? Good question again! My main form of communication will be internet. I will not be on often, but I'll send out the occasional "holla" when I can. I will try and update notes and what not for those of you who care enough to read (and if you are still reading this, then I mean you!) I will be given a cell phone there that can be called from the states...I mean, my parents are buying a phone card, I don't expect you to do the same. And I can call from land lines with my calling card...but like I said, emails, facebook, etc. will be the most obvious and best way to get in contact with me.
Wow, this was longer than expected, but if you know me, it was probably shorter than YOU expected, and Jackie Dallas, if you are still reading I will buy you ice cream. =P
I love you all and cannot wait to tell all of the fabulous stories I will have when I come back. Please pray for me, Thomas, and Adam as we go through this experience!!!
It all started freshman year when Thomas Mosley and I had to do a cultural report over some Spanish speaking country in our Spanish III class, Thomas just HAD to do Argentina because he had some weird fascination with the place. So we did the project and from that stemmed the interest for me!
Last year, Thomas found this program called Expanish (if you're that interested, [which, really, why would you be? but why not, right?] you can check it out at Expanish.com). He discovered that they do study programs in none other but the beloved Buenos Aires, Argentina. He then decided he was going. Period. And I thought, "Well hey, I'm a Spanish minor, why the heck not go?" (Or something like that thought crossed my mind).
And here we are, a year later, about to take the trip of a life time, along with our friend Adam Ray!
Wait, what are we going to do there?! Good question.
For starters (and the main parental approval point) we will be taking classes, three of them. Spanish Conversation, Latin American Culture, and Latin American Government and Economy. As I always say, I don't understand government in English, what am I going to do in an Argentinian Government class?!?!? Well, hopefully I'll learn something. These three classes will be giving us 9 credit hours, which is ultimately what made me decide to be a Spanish major, seeing as I can graduate on time now with both Spanish and Communication majors because of this trip! Yay for making parents happy, right? right?! =)
Other little tidbits of wonderfulness for you to know:
- I will be staying with a host family. And no, I have NO idea about who they are, if they have kids or grandkids, what their lifestyle is like, if they're active in church, etc. etc....oh the mystery of it all!
-There are actually only 5 students taking the same program Thomas, Adam, and I... meaning there are only two students I won't know in my classes. However, there will be eleven students doing something with the Expanish program from who knows where.
-Other than study, the program offers weekly activities such as futbol (ahem, soccer for those of you who refuse to accept the true meaning of the word football) games, watching tango!, touring the historical-ness of the city, taking a weekend trip to the wonderful Iguazu Falls (please go image search it in Google...you'll be even more jealous than you already are!), and a trip to Cordoba, Uruguay!
When will I be back? Well, according to a lovely older lady I work with, I will not be coming back if I meet an attractive Argentine male who will lure me into loving him with his wonderful hotness...
But, let's assume that won't happen. My plane arrives back on Oklahoma soil on August 9, I'm not expecting a huge "welcome back!" sign in the airport...but you know...*cough cough*
Oh, and since I haven't mentioned it, I leave Tuesday. My flight from Oklahoma leaves at 4:25pm and goes to Houston. We then leave Houston at 9pm and arrives in the lovely wonderful magical world of Buenos Aires, AR at 9:49am (that's 7:49am to those of you who will be left in the Central Time Zone).
Will I be able to contact you? Good question again! My main form of communication will be internet. I will not be on often, but I'll send out the occasional "holla" when I can. I will try and update notes and what not for those of you who care enough to read (and if you are still reading this, then I mean you!) I will be given a cell phone there that can be called from the states...I mean, my parents are buying a phone card, I don't expect you to do the same. And I can call from land lines with my calling card...but like I said, emails, facebook, etc. will be the most obvious and best way to get in contact with me.
Wow, this was longer than expected, but if you know me, it was probably shorter than YOU expected, and Jackie Dallas, if you are still reading I will buy you ice cream. =P
I love you all and cannot wait to tell all of the fabulous stories I will have when I come back. Please pray for me, Thomas, and Adam as we go through this experience!!!
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