Uruu-why as they call it.. ..urugay as we know it

well its been a very interesting past couple days. Saturday morning i woke up to head out to the Buquebus (the ferry) and grabbed my phone that had been charging to call me friends...it was completely dead. I had no choice but to keep on heading out the door and just hope that I'd run into my friends at the boat place. I was nervous because i was actually early and for those 5 minutes before they walked through the door, tons of possibilities were running through my head. Moments like these are the only times when i get really nervous about my spanish speaking abilities..when it really matters and you need to convey a serious need to someone.. THankfully though, as i was just about to ask the lady when the boat was scheduled to leave, my friends walk in! hooray... katie gave us our tickets that she had previously purchased and we sat down to have a little desayuno (breakfast). I think i've mentioned before, but breakfast is hardly a breaking of a fast.. they eat one medialuna (crossiant) and a cafecito (the smallest coffee you've ever seen!) and thats all! That doesnt cut it for me especially since my stomach has been acting funny.. so i got some cappuchino, a yogurt and ate the other goodies I brought from home. After taking it slow, we realized we should've just hoped in the boat immediately.. katie and I did a good job of NOT freaking out but quickly got on board..brittany, one of the girls with us was the last one on the boat and within 1 minute of boarding, we were off :) haha not how i usually like to do things but it worked out. The buquebus was very nice.. you could stand on top and watch buenos aires dance off in the distance, or stretch out on any of the unoccupied seats 4 chairs long..i did a little of both. I thought they drank alot of mate (tea like drink) in buenos aires, but i was wrong. They don't do it near as much as those uruguyans. There was a lively group of older adults who were enjoying their mate (the drink) and had their flag up.. a lively journalist came over and started to interview them about their whereabouts.. i listened for a little while, contemplated where I wanted to pose as a journalist for practice, and then decided to forego the opportunity for the time being. After we got to Colonia, we figured out how much money to change..23 uruguayo pesos to the dollar! and 6 UR to AR.. alot to keep in mind when decided how much money to take out..We mozied around the town into a little resturant and had a great meal. THe bread was to die for, so soft and moist, unlike the bread here in AR. We had a glorious pepsi and kept the bottles afterwards because they were so cool/antiqy. They had a fire in which they cooked our meal over and thankfully I got to warm up by it. Colonia was definitely much colder than buenos aires and I wasnt ready for that. We hoped on the bus to montevideo soon after our meal and it was a nice calming ride through farm land. katie, my travel partner, and I had a nice chat about various things..one thing i noticed while looking out the window was cows on leashes! haha what a funny concept. there were palm trees everywhere..kind of strange as there are none in BA..and also we saw the first 2 pigs i've seen in argentina because they dont really harvest them here like in the states. THe bus terminal in montevideo was happening and somehow we found our way to the taxi line. We arrived at our cute little hostel stuck right in between two buildings and got buzzed in (they have to let you in). Pocitos was the name and there were super friendly guys running the place. Pretty much from the get go we started to chat with the other visitors there. There was leila, an older indian woman super saturated in politics..very cynical i might add. I shall continue the description of the rest of our newfound friends luego! long day means i need some good rest. only 1 1/2 more weeks of school left!

unexpected..

so i havent gotten to adequately document my thoughts lately because things have just been a whirlwind here. I'll try and recall as much as i can but you won't get the juicy, long, excessive details like usual :) (I know someone is thankful about that). ANYways, I have finally begun to feel better with the exception of some small stomach problems but I will take that over what it was. I went out on tuesday morning and felt like a new person..sickness just plays with your mind and your outlook on everything. I admire those who are really actually sick and still have positive outlooks because that's one of the hardest barriers to pass..the bad outlook barrier haha SO i've really grown to enjoy my 30 minute bus ride both to my internship and back from school..the days are long.8 to 5 Or 8 some nights. At my pasantia (internship) we just chat and do whatever we want..most times we slightly work and mostly chat but its a great environment to learn. The kid who works with me from my group is a huge jokester and even does it in spanish..bold. I just shake my head and stick to what i know..we love to share music and favorite artists with the boys we work with..its fun to show them what we like and where we live via google photos. I have gotten my routes and more importantly STOPS down pat..earlier this week i wasnt thinking, went and got on bus 92 when i was supposed to get on 110.. my peso wasnt working so the guy didnt make me pay and that was lucky because i got off 4 mins later and switched buses.. i caught myself walking to bus 110 yesterday when i needed 92... i just have gotten all mixed up but i think now..finally..after 3 weeks i'm confident with stops and such. WE had tango this week and progressed some in our abilities..basically theres not enough boys so the girls dance with the girls and thats just silly..they also dont play music that matters so its more or less just a basic "getting the steps down" kind of thing and i'm ready for some MUSICA! The other day on the bus, a lady next to me randomly did the catholic forehead to chest, arm to arm thing and I felt compelled to say something to her.. so i said "tu estas catolica" which means "you're catholic?" and she didnt understand i guess because of my accent, so i repeated it a couple of times and then she understood. I thought maybe she had just seen someone with like a bad outfit on and was like Oh Jesus..and did the sign BUT gabriel at my pasantia told me that when they pass a church you do it.. makes sense now :) Gabby says he's religious and Omar said he's definitely not. Adam is a strong non-beleiver and there's been some intense convos among him and the gay-christian he rooms with. There's an extremely interesting dynamic of people on this trip..two outlandish yet classy black girls, one crazy very confident girl black girl who was a stripper, some feminine males, a couple regular boys, adam who you cant beleive one word as true bc its always a joke, david who is a smooze and is exactly like JOhn Paul, and then the rest are pretty regular characters. BUT i have to mention this one kid.Justin..from jefferson or something..like an hour south of augusta. He has the funniest laugh ever because it sounds sooo nervous..he also says ridiculous things like..when theres hurt dogs in my town we call them ray charles..thats not to be offensive but that is what this kid says.. "My family just calls them this...." there are many justin moment when we're all in awe of the crazy things that come out of his mouth, not meaning to be entertaining but that are so very funny. On monday I went to the dr. and taught the dr. a new word.. stuffed up because he didnt know what that meant and he spoke english. The moneda crisis is getting worse and worse for me because i can never keep enough on me to last a day..because 3 buses a day is a lot of monedas... also, one must understand that NO ONE besides a legit store like a supermarket will break 100 pesos..which mind you is only like $20 american dollars.. they dont even like 50 peso bills or $20 peso bills.. i mean its ridiculous.. you want to buy something thats $2 pesos and you hand them a 10 and they ask for something smaller.. or you buy something thats 3 pesos and instead of giving you a moneda back, they hand you a piece of candy and send you on your way.. i mean reallY?! anyways, for this, i've walked strategically into the kiosks and looked at what is very oddly priced so i can get as many monedas as i can.. problem with this is you have to buy stuff everyday and constantly spend money!
man.. lets see what else has happened..some of my friends have gotten skype so i've enjoyed talking to people other than just the regulars :)..which i love talking to but to hear a good friends voice is just awesome. I am at a loss of memories for wed and thursday but i'm sure they will come at some point. We had our first test this week.. as well as a paper due everyday we didnt have a test so thats probably why i havent posted in a while. Fridays are fieldtrip days though so today we went in the city. First though, on our way from the internship, we were waiting on the bus at a light and i could see down the road ahead that people were gawking at something..looking up at an apt and down at the road..up and down.. we passed by on the bus and noticed a shape that looked strikingly similiar to an outline of a person...on the ground.. put two and two together, the guy apparently jumped out of the apt and was muerte (dead) on the ground.. the police walked over and grabbed his shoe that was a couple feet away and put it with his body...man it was a strange feeling to walk by and experience that.. one block from my school however everyone was just carrying on with their business right there and everywhere. that shook us up a little and adam and i were talking about ways to go and what leads you to that point..its just sad. We got some good food today, not empanadas, not chinese but i got a chicken panini!!! it was great just a little burnt :) we walked to abasto, and toured some museum about someone gardel, one of the fathers of tango.. it was cool and then we went to the abasto supermarket which is now a really fancy mall. we went to freddo, to get ice cream and it was awesome.. chocolate suizo con americana is the best! so after our class ate (our professor didnt come bc she had hurt her leg so one of the TA's came and another professor from GA named Gary) I was asking gary about a good place to shop and he needed to see my map so i got it out. Gary, Anita and I were at a small circular table and gary had his computer case in a chair that was touching his leg. We were talking about where a street was and about 30 seconds later, looked up and gary started to FREAK out.. his computer was GONE! hes a professor here so all the students stuff was on there and now its adios. Seriously though i dont know how the ladron (thief) did it because we weren't face down in the map.. just looking at it.. the comp case/brief case was in all of our periffiel visions but whatever..crap happens and I was paranoid after that. I went to the atm, got some sweet pesos out, and took my position waiting at the bus stop. I started talking to a sweet old women and we chatted for a while. She talked really slow in spanish and i dont know if it iwas just because i look like i need that or what.. it was fun though! I got home and was able to relax for a while which was great after a crazy week. I'm headed to URUGUAY tomorrow..colonia and then montevideo. I hear that uruguayan pesos are like 7 times the amount here...not in worth but amount needed to buy anything...so a meal is a couple hundred pesos.. ahh another coonversion to master. but, its time for bed and i gotta pack! chau for now

el lio...chaos

well its been quite a while since i've gotten a chance to write.. i've been living the lavish life of someone sick.. but the end is near! saturday i got out for a little while. i was headed to the clinic "ER" since it was saturday but it was going to take way too long and cost more than need be so betina and i just went to the pharmacity and got medicine. im pressed for time now.. as always so i will continue this I HOPE tomorrow! CHAU

You do not have any friends. Once you find some friends, they will appear here.

this is what facebook tells me.. it lies.. Right now i feel somewhat friendless because I haven't got very far from my house in 2 days. My sickness has escalated into something more and now it's just a pain! I'm gonna head to the hosptial tomorrow to try and get some antibiotics for this crazy sickness..started with a headache and stuffy nose, then escaladed into light-headedness, intense body aches, stomach pains, soar throat and a loss of voice! gah what a welcome to argnetina. I'm trying to see the good in this but its hard when i see all my other friends pictures from study abroad and they are in sunny flowery fields and i'm here..in a concrete mall and can't go anywhere. I dont really know how I got to be such a "country mouse" but i'm pretty positive i NEED to live on a farm, with at least one goat, and hopefully a horse or two at some point..and Of course a border collie. anyways.. the city is nice its just hard to see the lord at work here. People i feel like are so focused on going out at night and moving up in the world that it just makes me feel stuck. i just feel like theres alot of people searching here..i felt like i came to a nice reminder the other day while playing soccer..the whole reason I camer here, have invested so much time in spanish is to be able to communicate and be joyous with people of other cultures. I suppose I wasn't ready for the culture shock of the large city and was envisioning my cute little towns of Nicaragua and Honduras. Unfortunately I feel like I haven't bettered my spanish that much yet and am hoping that changes very quickly. The pace they speak at is just ridiculous! I honestly think I will just need to move to central america for an extended period of time and that will fix my language barrier :) maybe one day. i miss my friends and the comforts of america..fresh fast food even though that sounds like an oximoron.. Here they just have empanadas, pizza and meat..and its not usually on the go. I am beginning to appreciate being an american.. everyone is striving to learn OUR language because thats the one that matters. GOsh try and wrap your head around that. When I get discouraged about speakin spanish, i just remember I've already got a huge head start on alot of people. The other day while working at my pasantia where we read through newspapers and look for clients, i was reading an english newspaper and Adam was like.. why dont you just do that for a job-live in a spanish place and work at a spanish newspaper that writes american news..and be the editor or writer..interesting thought.anyways its time to get to sleep while i can still breath out of my nose and my throat isnt killing me. besos

city mouse..

city life is an interesting one. Unfortunately I've been sick almost my whole time here and it's gotten progressively worse. THere are some funny things that happen here. ONe day i went to 6 bookstores looking for a bible (because i left mine on the plain when i got here 2 weeks ago) and every place told me a different place to go..then i went to this nice mall called alto palermo and was 1 step away from the bookstore when i felt a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to a young man rambling off spanish words and all i caught was linda y hermosa (beautiful). I didnt understand the last part so i said "como" and he was like i'll just talk in english. He was like I need to get your info so we can talk again and i was like.. umm thats not gonna happen becuase i dont know you. He asked for my email and again i said nope..sorry. and then asked for facebook and i just told him my first name. FInally he got the picture and accepted the reality and headed on his way. I am flattered he was so caught by my outward appearance but he also needed to realize i can only expect the worse from people here. I have run into a lot of friendly people but thats been during one on one conversations. The other day on the way home I was sitting on the bus and we were stopped at a light.. i was sitting backwards so facing the oncoming traffic when i noticed a boy trying to get on the same bus behind us.. he couldnt so he came to ours.. and they didnt let him on.. he went back to the first one, was obviously mad and then judo chopped the door and took off! haha crazy kid. my internship is going well and thats where i think i'll learn the most spanish. we basically look through newspapers searching for one of their 30 clients and when we find it we mark it. Today i didnt get to go to class or my internship because i woke up and felt horrible. I took a nap from 8-12 and then from 3-7.. im hoping i'll get better quickly because this is no fun. we had our second tango lesson last night and it went well however the tango here is equivalent to the waltz in the US.. ancient. I got my laundry done today for the second time thus far (bc i didnt bring enough socks or underwear and have yet to find some cheap ones) When i went to pick up my stuff.. i only brought enough pesos for one load which i though it was.. the guy was so nice and just told me to bring it in the morning.. my favorite strangers are the ones who work at the lavenderia! tomorrow we're going to eva perons grave and the zoo and im pumped! One thing i forgot was that we played soccer tues night! i knew there was a team but didnt know how it worked. kasey accompanied me and we went to club de amigos where we found the girls team about to practice. it was fun to goof off with them and be active for once. They played so daintilly there i felt like a monster on the field haha i wasnt playing too hard i am just use to being physical. We have practice again tues and then a game on sat (if i'm here). Thats all i can think of for now..i want some updates on things back in the states!!

the details of mendoza..

wow.. this week has been so busy i havent gotten a chance to catch up so i'll try and remember as much as i can.. basically we got up super early on sat morning (greeted by our drunk house boy who was talking super loud and woke up the other one.. funny people come in at 4 30 from a night out) we arrived a the airport at 5 and again on the way saw tons of people out like it was the middle of the day or something...the flight to mendoza was quick and i even got to lay all the way down in the back of the plain. Our breakfast was some cookies that amounted to 1000 calories.. something i realized after the fact! we dropped our things off at the hotel once in mendoza and headed straight to the rafting place. the bus ride was beautiful and even more refreshing than the sights was the air! i could definitely notice a difference in the air quality going from the enormous city where i feel my lungs being blackened to the prestine wine countryside..it was good for the soul. Anyways, while on the bus we met our guides.. Pablo or Caru, the other Pablo (the "professional photographer") and later the 3rd Pablo.. haha they aren't too inventive with names here. We were given an awesome neoprene wet suit with boots and gloves to top it off.. the water was freezing! Our guides name was Crusty..and he was interesting. ITs funny becuase alot of the people i've met thus far speak english and you just dont know it.. that was definitely the case with 2 of the pablos and alot of the other tourist people..i suppose they have to know english bc thats who comes here to visit. Wouldn't you know half way through the meandering river.. i had to go to the bathroom. We had stopped for a minute on the side and i decided to run up the hill and go. However i didnt want to take off my neoprene suit because it would take a while and the air was COLD..so i just went in it haha It didnt really occur to me that nothing would be able to escape my jumpsuit which was kinda nasty but just made me laugh. I was nervous everyone would see just what i did because all the boats were waiting for me as i can running down the hill.. oh well mission accomplished and only 1 person asked how i did it so fast...and i told them :) By the time we finished our escapade down the river, we were cold and hungry. Everyone was able to rinse off and put back on their warm clothes. After a little while we were seated a large table and the food started to come! Whenver they eat lunch here... they eat! Breakfast and dinner are miniscule and lunch is huge.. (too bad back in the city we eat lunch on the go making the amount of food i eat in total not much). It started with empanadas, then salad, then bread, then papas fritas and then a mystery plate.. This man with a sick mustache came out and started to cut into something that looked like a huge bread casserole..but of course inside it was a TON of tender meat.This guy was proud of his cooking and everyone could tell :) so we're enjoying this beautiful meal all the while looking out the glass windows at the andes, the clear river and the beautiful blue sky when all of the sudden I CHOMPED on my tongue. Talk about ruining a moment.. this hurt SO bad I couldn't move, I couldn't talk, all i could do was sit there and tears started running. NO one knew what had happened and with the sun beating on me.. i was literally in the hot seat with my friends wondering what happened. It was so stupid.. but i gathered myself.. informed everyone what had just happened and that i was ok.. and continued to try and enjoy the moment. Later i went to the bathroom and i've never seen such a mangled tongue from one chomp..not to self.. eat SLOW and carefully haha. Once finished (a couple hours later) we loaded up to head out..however I was in the bathroom when they started pulling out and ran out there just in time (they said they were simply backing up but i dont know :) ) also there was a super cute little mut running around and he brought so much joy to me! all the dogs here just bring comfort because they remind me of mine and how much i love animals. We headed an hour away to the canopying place and the 1st guy we met was NORMAN! haha we were signing waivers and what not when all the sudden a bench these girls were sitting on just split and they went falling to the ground.. haha it was really funny because they had noticed it rocking earlier and enjoyed it. We got the run down on how to do our caribeaners and then hiked up to rope number 1. The view was somewhat contrasting but still beautiful. We were on mountains made of a bunch of little rocks, and dirt and twiggish bushes.. not very eyecathching..but when you looked out, there was a beautiful blue/green lake that backed up all the way to a pretty mountain in the back. I loved the air rushing by, sounds of excitement, the whizzing of the cable and the silent movements of the guides telling us to slow down. This activity was one of the first that got my hear rate up in like 2 weeks.. climbing up to the ropes that is. I dont get to work out or run much in BA becuase people just dont do that here. It was funny that i was enjoying the view so much and talking about it with my friends when all of the sudden one of the prissy black girls says " I dont know why yall like this.. they're just a bunch of big rocks"...which is a ridiculous description of the freakin ANDES. after we finished the 8 zip lines including on HUGE one over the lake.. we all gathered on the porch and got to sit for a while. Will and I were just taking in the beauty accompanied with some smooth spanish songs when a hip american song came on and put a whole new spin on the view. the ride home was enjoyable but everyone was exhausted. We showered and went to dinner where we got the special "malbec" wine of mendoza. I dont know what it is but wine by itself is just too much so i mix it with sprite and its perfect. Luckily we were planning on going to bed right after the meal because the wine made us all soo tired. That was one of the first nights since arriving to argentina that I slept soundly. Breakfast was a large one thank goodness as we had a long day ahead of us. the picture on the left is acongagua which is where we went sunday. it was a long 2 hour ride there but enjoyable still. we stopped a little touristy shop and i got a mug to use for my tea here since they're cups are the size of a little girls tea party set. we walked around a little loop for 45 mins or so and that was our activity for the day. One of the coolest things though was that bonnie brought andes mints... so we had fun eating andes in the andes! we were kinda bummed because the walk was cool but not a replacement for skiing. However they couldnt really do anything bc we stopped by the ski place on the way.. and not a drop of snow was there. Instead of telling us theres not enough snow to ski, they should've said NONE. haha it was a cute little village though that looked somewhat like vail without all the stores and resturants. we stopped at a another little place on the way home that had some cool hats made of alpaca fur. There was an old spa that was closed because some huge rocks fell on it and killed 7 people.. the rest of the people that were there got out but it has been closed ever since. It was a spa with natural hot springs and since its been closed for a while.. the hot water has discolored the rock to orange and green slime looking stuff..it was really weird looking. I was bummed i didnt get to buy anything there because it was all hand made and good quality but i'm sure i'll have plenty of other places to get things. From there we headed to eat lunch at a small little place. We got empanadas, salad, papas fritas and then meat. ONe of the choices was intestine and i tried it.. NASTY. another choice was goat and even though i love those little guys.. i tried it.. and it was good. We went back to the hotel and i just needed to work out.. so i got my stuff on and went down to the hotels little gym. I on one of those machines that has the weights and you can sit facing them and pull the bar backwards to work your triceps or pull the bar from above to work your biceps. Well i tested both bars before sitting down and then pulled the bottom one to get it working.. wouldnt you know the top one feel off on to my head and gave me a huge welt. It most definitely could've knocked me out but thankfully didnt. Again an unfortunate event that hurt!! After that i just needed some fresh air so we went on a brisk walk around the town.. we didnt make it too far before we ran into a festival. We took a look and found some things we liked and wanted to go get some money. The last table was a group of old men that knew a few words of english like beautiful and come back.. haha and they said them to me. We came back with our money and got a cool journal, some earrings and some other people got wine holders and stuff. The men starting singing to us an english song when we were leaving and it was just funny. We showered and went to subway afterwards and one of the same old guys who had told me his favorite resturant came up and was like.. umm this isnt where i told you to go and we just said we needed to american food. After that, the boys wanted mcdonalds ice cream so we went there! We got back around 12 and a group was getting ready to go out to the club with one of our younger guides (about our age). I decided i was only in mendoza once and went with them. We went to apeteco and it was aweosome! we got in free and only the boys had to pay. It was a classy place with blue lights and it was happening. We sat down and everyone got their drinks of choice and at about 2 30.. it started getting crazy. The table of boys behind us was super rowdy and when they started to bang their cups on the table in a rythm it was time for us to join :) That entertained them for a while and then one of the quietest girls got up on the table and was dancing..unfortunately the club owners didnt like this and it came to an end.. but only for a minute. The tables started to disappear and it got super crowded. Our little group was staying closely knit because its so obvious we're foreigners. There were some interesting run ins but nothing too weird. I think everyone had a good time and half of the group left at about 3 but some of us stayed until about 4 me included. We were so tired and our ears were ringing after 4 hours of dancing! I loved the music there and the fact that the dancing there wasnt the same type as in american clubs. I liked this club much better than the one in BA because it was not sketchy, the music wasnt american and overall feel was much safer. Im glad i went but dont envision myself frequenting clubs like the rest of the argentines do. THe next morning came quickly as we headed out to horse back ride! it was kind of a last minute decision but i am supre glad our group leaders worked it out. We went in the opposite direction this time and it took a while to get there. The horses were so old and just a bunch of followers but it was great to get up into the mountains and then see out over the city. We went in two groups and ours was the first. I was on a beautiful tall horse that i spotted immediately and asked to ride it (gringo was his name). When the next group went, i got a chance to wonder up the hill and just sit admiring the beauty of where i was. It was some much needed quiet time as that is few and far between thus far on this trip. I also got to chat with Marcela who is one of the cordinators here.. she speaks english but we chatted in spanish for about 20 mins just about alot of Afterwards, Gary (one of the professors) and I realized that over the hill offered some good shots and we took off to do that..while the rest of the group went to see the guanacos (llama like animals) Apparently my friend and traveling partner katie was enjoying the animals and went to take a picture when all the sudden he let it out on her and covered her in spit! My other friend bonnie was laughing at her and he turned and got her toO! haha they were covered and it was gross. They had little goats and i was so glad to see animals. From there we went to a quaint little wine place and had a spread that was unbeleievable. There were like 30 little trays of everything you could imagine. It was beautiful and we were all served some wine to go with it. we soon learned that the spread in front of us wasnt even our lunch and thats what empanadas started coming. Then other little things came and it was great. We had a pretty intense conversation about religion with one of the boys and we tried to keep it friendly but this particular kid is an intersting character. We had a wonderful dessert, took some pics and headed to the winery for some wine tasting. Unfortunately at this point my big camera's battery was just about gone so i didnt get as many pics as I would've liked. It was also really funny when we were on the bus to the winery because everyone was feeling a little something from the wine. The tour was nice but I didnt really listen because I was busy taking the few pictures i could. We tasted two different kinds of wine after walking through the underground cellars.. they are SOO huge! The first one we tasted was a combo of 3 diff types and was 2005 i think.. and the second was a 2000 something malbec that was super bitter. Then of course everyone got to buy stuff and be a tourist. We headed back to the hotel, got our things together and then headed off to the airport. I would say i had a wonderful time on this trip because we were in the outdoors and the whole group was together. During the week in BA we dont really see everyone besides our group lunch and tango lessons. ONe of the black girls danielle was fed up during the hiking trip and said "alright I'm done being dora the explorer for the day".. i thought that was hilarious. So thats a wrap.. so sorry for the long post but i just gotta get it all down somewhere!

mendoza.. la mejor cuidad

mendoza was AWESOME!!! theres SOO many stories to tell.. i definitely dont have time to tell everything now but some food for thought.. there was a guanaco (llama like animal) that the group was looking at (i was away taking pictures of the mountains) and apparently my friend was being a tourist, taking pictures, and all the sudden she was covered in spit! haha el guanaco escupo! i started working this week and i think this is the week that spanish will come to me :) ojala ( i hope)... more stories to come tomorrow! hasta luego.

lost..what happened and where we went

ok i'm trying to do this in recall form..which is very hard to do after 2 full days of BA life. yesterday was simple for the most part..we just got up and went to school, kasey, me and the 2 girls upstairs from our program. Kasey and I had our usual lunch in pelli bar next to our school where we met manuel y miguel. We also met a nice argentine boy who likened himself to a country boy as he was explaining he was from a small town in BA...a strange concept to me since BA is a city and they're are tons of small towns within it! He told us he was working on making some videos and working on his english... nice guy..Class was just another learning session about the slums of south buenos aires. We had to read a regular argentine article which is pretty hard to interpret. Towards the end of class we started hearing a strange squawking and turns out it was just a funny sounding bird somewhere outside. After class my friend adam and I got on bus 92 thinking it was taking us home..wrong. I thought we were in the same building as we did tango but that wasnt correct so we got on the IDA route.. which is going.. and not the vuelta route.. returning and make no mistake. they are NOT the same by any means. After about 4 mins we realized this, started chatting in english about where we were and then a nice woman helped us on the bus.. in english which is very uncommon. So..we take a seat on the bench as to keep ourselves out of the obvious lost tourist category and put my knowledge of the guite to use. we were going to try and find a bus that took us back to where we wanted to go...then we decided to hop on the subte..well we walked the wrong way on the one road and then were too fed up to work any more on getting home that we just split a cab. its funny because you can be "lost" in your terms but theres always a radio cab driver that knows how to take you anywhere you want to go so you're never REALLY lost. Once home, i jumped in my long awaiting bed for some much needed rest. the head cold i've had since monday is taking a toll on me! a nice 3 hour nap did me well since we were plannin on going out last night. We had a nice dinner of chicken and rice and peaches for dessert. Afterwards i caught up on some skype convos and kasey took a nap too. Around 12 we got our plans together and headed to palermo to meet our friends at Post Street Bar. I had written out some directions from the original bar..sugar to the dance club..LOST but since the location of the first meeting changed, my previous directions were slightly off. Good thing i have a massive map of the city and figured out we were really only 1 block off course. ANyways, we had a really cute old man named JUGO drive us to the place and we talked about his dog PANCHA because he had a picture of her up in the front of his car.. he was so sweet. back to the night, we hung out for a while til about 1 30 at the bar and then got a cab to Club Araoz...aka LOST. Supposedly break dancing ended at 2 but that wasnt true. The entering process was something i'd never experienced as we were waiting in line for a while not sure where to pay. we got some direction, paid about 8 us dollars to get in, walked through a metal detector, got patted down, my purse got searched, and THEN we went in. Turns out some guys from atlanta were right behind us haha small world. so the dance battle went for a while and it was sick..something from those dance battles. And kasey the movie goo-roo tells me that the same song on zoo lander during their dance off was played during the dance off in the club. at the end of the break dancing these 2 men come out and do a coreographed dance to end things and begin the regular dancing. THankfully the boys from our group were pretty protective of us to the argentines and we appreciated it greatly. WE americans definitely got some interesting looks and comments but since i couldnt understand them, i really didnt care :) SOmething super interesting was when we entered the bathroom, a woman was handing our pre-portioned toilet paper!!! haha it was crazy but they didnt have any just laying all around the ground like waisteful american toilet users :) so the club kept us entertained for a while considering they played soulja boy as the first song and continued to play all of OUR rap songs... about 3 30 we called it a night and headed on home via taxi. este manana, we arose, ate, showered and headed to class but of course that includes stopping at pelli bar for some epanadas. Class was intense today as we listened to an interview about the politics of BA..super hard to pick up anything. I think my spanish is just hiding right now and I need to dig it up :) I can't remember if i included in my post the other day that our teacher taught us cuss words.. haha she was just talking and then all the sudden dropped the f bomb in english and then spanish.. haha part of the culture i suppose..not mine though. after class i had to run errands, the pharmacity, the ATM, the ferreteria (to get an adapter) y to get more phone minutes. Funny story about the adapter, i got one from this man and then came home needing to charge my camera battery before our trip tomorrow. I couldnt fit the plug in and was soo sad.. I got the house boy to try and he couldnt do it either. I went upstairs to our friends room and was complaining and as i was ssaying "see look it wont go" it slipped in!! so great. we took a big step and took our dirty clothes to the lavenderia today and picked them up tonight. The cutest and friendliest younger man i've seen this whole trip works there and it was good to see one smile for the day..because you dont see many! I need to go to bed so here are just a few more random thoughts.. while eating mcdonalds ice cream tonight, my friend was looking at his bag and realized someone had slit a huge knife throught it in hopes of stealing something. they didnt but its just scary to see a huge slit in your bag! also, when i was preparing my sentence for the pharmacist today i was going to say "necesito medicino para mi naranja" which says i need medicine for my orange.. good thing it didnt make it to my mouth before realizing that was super wrong but really funny! When adam and I took the bus line and got lost, it was one thing, but we didnt realize we told blake to get on the same bus, and he did later! He ended up in the outskirts of town, went through the slums, it was dark and well.. hes gay so he was very nicely dressed....and this was all my fault :( He ended up getting off the IDA route and on the VUELTA... then walked to his address on the pueyredon street..only to find out it was a totally different street with the same name.. in which case he got in a taxi.. 4 hours later, he was home! haha man... thats the kind of thing thats super scary while happening but if you get out safe, funny afterwards. im hoping this doesnt happen again to anyone. thats all for tonight, i'm traveling to mendozA for the weekend and will return late monday night! chau chau..pics to come soon!

swimmy..

today was good. a man go on the bus, shouted some words in spanish, gave everyone candy...i thought he might just be a nice man.. then a few stops later, he took it away and off he went...strange. i had a great hamburguesa cooked on a charcoal fire and i tried to ignore how unsanitary they were. I have a head cold and i dont sleep well at night because the old wood bed creaks everytime i move. I'm so starving in the morning I have to get up and eat and use the restroom at 8 even when i dont have to get up until later... these are all negative things but i am enjoying it more and more by the day. we had a wonderful coffee break today minus the 5 blisters on my feet from these stupid old navy flats...i will never purchase shoes from there again, they two purchases have failed miserably. i sucessfully took out money from an ATM in spanish and got my sports clearance. tonight was fun with the girls after a hour of TANGO lessons. buenos noches..or chau

adventures on the collectivo and elsewhere

well the trend continues..chaos is eminent, for me at least. Yesterday we walked to school..about 30 blocks which equates to an hour total. The Argentinians are up early, spraying the sidewalks in front of their stores and doing business instantaneously. The men here are typically dressed very nice, at least the ones out at 8 oclock am are. Once arriving to the Universidad de Palermo, we went on a city tour which lasted about 3 hours. We went to the extremely coloful barrio, La boca where its just as touristy as Hilton Head...but also very dangerous at night or by yourself. The houses are painted with old yet very bright shipyard paint to give it a new feel. I'm not sure when this all happened but its awesome as the rest of BA is a concrete mall. We also drove through the slums and it was very, very disheartening but every big city has them. The highlight of the day was probably lunch in which we feasted on a gourmet buffet FOR FREE and got free refills (something thats super hard to come by here since everything is in bottles). When I say free, i mean we already paid for it in the program cost :) Anyways, after about a 3 hour meal/hang out, we continued back to the school where we had orientation. We were all dozing off by then as it had been a super long day already. After orientacion, we went looking for adapters and "transformers" so we could charge our electronics without melting them due to the different voltage. We also stopped by a fruit stand and the supermarket for some cheap wine and sprite (that we have yet to have time for).All that took about an hour and 1/2 and then finally, we hailed a radio taxi, the safe ones, and a nice man named Oscar took us home. A nice hot shower was super welcomed after a crazy day in the city and Isabel's gnochi and tomatoes hit the spot. She made us a great salad and dessert was vanilla pudding with oreos. Something strange I've noticed is that we never see her eat and she will sit down with us, but doesnt eat! I asked her about it and she said she usually just has some tea or something small. The crazy part is they dont really eat breakfast either so I dont know how they do it. After dinner I decided to read and ended up falling asleep super early and then mozzied (I've never spelled this word before..) on back to bed. This morning kasey, my roomate, needed the keys and after my eyes had seen the light, I couldn't sleep. Maybe it was the fact that I was sooo hungry so I decided to get up and eat and then a little later, went back to sleep. Today I didn't have class until 1 and so I took it easy with Isabel (our mom). A testament to how smart our subconscious is: I had a dream that I was in my exact room now, and woke up to check my watch and it was 1... so i was scrambling to get ready and thought I would have to take a taxi.. basically I was freaking out about missing my first day of class.... well then I really wake up and its only 11 and I was fine! So I figure out how to call my moms patient Lily who's here studying as well and finally get in touch with her. It was time to go so I threw my things together, got directions and headed out to catch the collectivo solo. I walk 3 blocks away and get on bus 92...but it was going the wrong way, so I get off immediately and cross the street and do the same thing, this time going the right way. Thankfully a student got on behind me and noticed my destination and motioned it was his too. So when he saw me getting nervous near time to get off, he motioned when the right one was.. then walked me to the universidad and I was so greatful. HOwever, once going up the elevator to my floor, I realized it was the wrong building (since there's 5 to choose from) and went down to the street again. I was SOOO releived to see my friends outside the building eating emapanadas and didn't care that I was already 10 mins late. I decided to eat some lunch and chill for just a minute after such an exhausting ride. Class was good, we basically just talked about where we live and how we got to school. I think it'll be a super enjoyable class especially since we have field trips every friday (educational of course). After class, Adam, Carrie, and I met Anne to go to our internship (pasantia) at Colombo Pashkus. Business's are so strange here becuase they hid behind beaten up garage doors but inside they're super nice. So we speak to a box who someone lets us in :) were we met a stout little man dressed very nicely who let us up to the interviewing room. We chatted a little while in spanish (which got our heads spinning) and then one of the executives came in dressed to the nines. He chatted with us for a little while about our majors and past experiences and then decided it was time to talk in english. Anne stood up for our spotty spanish saying that we'd only been there for 3 days and mostly what we've studied is how to write and read. We got a nice tour of the place and Patricio explained that there are 2 branches of Colombo Pashkus: one is showbiz (like opening night, management for actors and actresses, models ect.) and one is for corporations. We met all 30 of the people who work there and then went to the first floor where we will reside (in clippings). He explained this to be similiar to going through magazines and picking out where the companies have been represented and cutting them out..sounds great :) ANyways, we tried to find our way home and it wasn't working, so we just took a cab. Dinner was great tonight, Eggplant, tomatoes and sausage..and of course bread salad and dessert. I had to do some homework about how to get from my school to my internship and then home and tell her multiple ways to do so. Basically I have to take the crazy bus everywhere or walk. ANyways, thats a wrap form the past two days, i apologize for the length of these posts, theres just so much to tell! They talk with such a thick accent its hard to understand but I'm working on it.
Chau for now!

day 1 in BA

wow is the best adjective i can use right now.. i've seen so much in 24 hours its ridiuclous. The fairwell was a nice one as I waited patiently and was accompanied by Jimbo for a while. After security, we waited for even more time but thankfully I was entertained by Bear Grylls and Will Ferrel scaling ice walls on Man vs. Wild. Our flight to Miami was delayed an hour but made for the most beautiful sunset that shed just enough light to read by. By the end of the hour and 1/2 flight, it was storming and I saw lighting bolt horizontal to our plane just minutes before landing (all I could think about was that plain from Brazil and what they might've experienced).We arrived to Miami and waited around for another hour delayed flight to ARGENTINA! We were feeling somewhat anxious about dinner as it was 11 45 and we hadn't eaten since lunch. That served as an early welcome to Argentine eating schedule which I will explain later :) and SO we boarded..2-5-2 is how the seats were arranged and thankfully mom knows I like the window and thats where I sat..32 J next to Ernesto who spoke 5 languages! I decided to check our the situation before taking some medicine to help induce sleep..I decided I'd rather sleep than eat and began to drift off only to hear DINNER vaguely out of one ear, which quickly got my attention..it was 1:30am..dinner time! Suprisingly the "poscho" (pollo or chicken with argentine accent) was great, accompanied with mash potatoes, green beans, a roll and small salad..I was definitely a member of the clean plate club and will be for the duration of my stay. I chatted with my seat partner Ernesto and learned many helpful things before drifting back off to sleep. Apparently it happened pretty fast because when I woke up this morning, my tray was still out and trash cleared :) I got a good 5 1/2 hours of sleep sitting upright..and thankfully when I had to go to the bathroom, Ernesto did too and had already gotten up..perfect timing! At about 7:45 we realized it was morning and could see the ice crystals all over the windows. They served a nice breakfast of a crossant, orange juice, yogurt, and cafe (coffee). One strange thing I saw out the window was a lake that looked like it was covered in snow. Ernesto informed me that it was indeed salt and other minerals..so strange. He said you can swim in it in the summer but if you open you're eyes you're a dead man! I wonder if you can float in it like the dead sea though becuase that'd be cool. One other thing I was talking to Ernesto about was the greeting becuase I saw two men kiss checks outside the our plane once on the ground. He quickly explained by example how to do this and leaned over and kissed my check.. I was utterly shocked and all I did in return was to make a kiss noise. He quickly informed that this would be considered rude and you have to kiss back! haha Better not even think about the face germs while meeting people! So To leave we had to put on face masks check out with customs - I now realize in the midst of this I left my bible on the plane :(.... Then came my first crucial encouter..the customs women saw something missing from my form but I couldn't understand what..my friend Katie finally caught what she was speedily saying and worked it out. We waited a while for our luggage and I got some good suggestions for resturants from other passengers waiting. At this point we weren't sure if someone was going to be waiting for us or not becuase the other group had arrived at 7 and it was now 11. We gathered our things, and headed out through a door that closed up to look like a wall..and there was David! He introduced us to Angela and went to get the two other girls who had been waiting for us..our roomates, poor kasey and caroline. We enjoyed the 35 min ride into town and got a little view of the poor outskirts of BA. We met our madre at the Universidad de Palermo which is where our classes will be and stuffed our things into a radio taxi for a squished ride to our apartment. Isabel (the mom) has a family but they aren't here. INstead there are two other boys from other programs, Ian from Idaho and Tommy from LA. We live in Recoleta which is the ritzy part of BA comparative to the east side of NY (so i'm told). We have a door man and the keys are so old timy its riduclous..not to mention the elevators! We live in a high rise right off of Montevideo on the 4th floor. Now..the elevators, the smallest ones you've EVER seen..they have two old criss-crossy iron gates you have to close and there's two ways out so you must close 4 doors to get anywhere..the side panels of the elevator are non-existent so you can exit either door..so you go up past staircases..anyways, it's just weird. Our apartment is pretty big..small kitchen and study area, huge family room, 3 rooms down a long hallway with 2 bathrooms right next to each other (including biddays (sp?)) and Isabel's room is on the other side of the house. We really havent seen much of her as she went to the supermarket and then left for the evening. Today we showered quickly after our arrival, met up with our 10th floor friends in our program and headed to the mall. We stopped to sit at an outside table for a minute to look at the map to keep us from looking too turisty and a man immediately came out to give us menus. In spanish I told him we were looking for a place to eat and get empanadas and he insisted we were in the right spot (but it was super ritzy and we didnt want it). So the girls and I got our game plan together, and i went in to hand him the menus and told him we didnt have pesos becuase that was true. So...stop 1..get money form the mall (patio bullrich) Stop 2...eat something. Before either of these could happen, a nicely dressed older man came up to us motioning at his car and insisting he was trustworthy. I felt bad for him because he really did look reliable and wanted to help but I told him it was our first day and we couldn't take any chances..aren't you proud mom :) SO.. the mall was about 7 blocks away and it was chilly about 52 I'd guess outside today. THe mall was very nice and everyone was out dining. It was basically like all of these resturants were just gathered in the main plaza but they still had waiters and stuff. Our meal of a simple TINY salad and quesadilla with water was 24$ (pesos), a bit on the expensive side because its about $7US. We napped for a while after this escapade and ate pizza with our house boys. WE reunited with the 10th floor girls and their house boy (who has been here since march and is very helpful) and met up with Will and David. We found a nice resturant and it was quite the struggle ordering and paying and all of that but we did it! They gave us peanuts, bread and fried potatoes while we were waiting but you dont get a drink until you order..and then its bottled and only one (a struggle for me because I usually get a refill about 3 times). I got an empanada, cheese and ham, and it was great. An interesting fact is that they charge sitting fee regardless of what you get, and then add tip on top of that. So far things have been on the expensive side but to put into perspective, my meal tonight- a coke, empanada and lots of free bread, plus a sitting fee and tip was $18..about 6 or 7$US..way better than lunch. I expect to find much cheaper things outisde of the confines of Recoleta. Its definitely time for a good nights sleep though and we have a city tour tomorrow at 9. So buenos noches!