Finde, Semana, Finde: A summary

So in a need to catch up to present day blog entries I'm going to try to summarize last weekend, this past week, and this weekend (finde, semana, finde!) all in one. 

So last weekend was one of our first chill weekends. We're finally feeling settled and we have time to explore the city because we don't have plans to travel until Easter weekend, Semana Santa. The weekend was actually a lot of fun since we did some exploring to areas in the city we are less familiar with. 

Thursday night I went out with a group of friends that don't have Friday classes. We went to this really awesome hip-hop club called LOST. For the first hour or two that we were there they were having step-up -esque hip hop show downs. It was really cool to see all the talent, especially from the girls! 

When they finally opened up the dance floor the place was packed. I mean you barely had enough room to do anything that constituted dancing. Before the end of the night I had an interesting 'dancing' experience with a guy from France named Pato. A friend who had been dancing on a platform jumped down into a gross mess of beer, cans and cups and lost her footing. She scrapped up her back pretty bad so we ended up going home around 5:30. Still not bad for a night in Bs As!

Friday we explored some places in Palermo including:

-The botanical garden (pretty but not the right season)

-The Evita Peron museum (kinda cool despite my lack of interest in museums)

-Various monuments and parks

We also found some time to play on a playground in one of the parks. Made me very happy. One thing that most people don't know about me is that I'm a big KID. I love swings, teeter totters, and playgrounds. Most of the time parks don't have teeter totters anymore. When they do either no one I'm with will be a child with me, or there is no one that is my size to make it worthwhile. I was so happy when we found one and my friends were willing to look like weirdos with me!

That night my friends Allie, Dana and I decided to splurge a little and have a nice dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Dana's neighborhood. Trying to kill some time b4 respectable dinner hour, we decided to walk around some stands and stores in Plaza Serrano near the restaurant. 

At one point I was walking in front of the girls. This guy runs up behind us begging up to wait. He comes straight up to me unabashedly and says, 'Hey wait, I was walking behind you on the street and I liked you. How long are you here for? If you have a boyfriend it don't matter, if you need more time we can get to know each other on facebook..." I didn't know what to say, my friends were standing there laughing (or trying not to) and I didn't know how to say no. Finally I just said no thank you. He wasn't going to let it end there. He said 'ok beso?' which means 'ok can I give you a kiss?'  I said no and went to turn away, but he grabbed me very forcefully and tried to pull me in!

Thankfully my friend Dana was on duty and pulled me away just in time! We were able to laugh about it over dinner but it really highlights the diffence between men here and in the states. They are not shy or bashful. They don't know how to beat around the bush, and will tell you they want you straight up. Piropos (catcalls) are a part of my everyday life her. Men whistle and call out to woman of all types. It's a part of the culture. You'll be walking along minding your own business and some guy (15-90) will call out about how much he loves you and wants to marry you right now. Sometimes they are not so clean, and others they are very clever. If you're in a group and they hear you speaking English they'll even try their hand at that. 

There are days when it boosts you up and gives you a little bit of confidence, even if you feel silly about it. But there are definitely days when you're walking with your head down to the world, and you just don't want any extra attention, especially from men. It's something you have to get used to. As I learn more lunfardos (slang), and get more accustomed to the accent and language I am able to understand more and more of what is said. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. 

Saturday Dana, Allie, Sharon and I went to check out Puerto Madero. We walked around the street markets and ecological reserve for a chill afternoon. That night Dana, Allie and I decided we were going to a club called Pagana. We pre-gamed outside a park thanks to the lack of an open bottle law :) 

It wasn't sketch at all I promise :P

The club had a different vibe than the other boliches we've been too. It was pretty clear that we we're the only Americans, especially when Ke$ha and the like came on. 

We were enjoying ourselves immensly (despite the lack of attention from the locals [they had their own hotties to focus on ;) ] until Dana somehow noticed that her purse was open. Yup it finally happened, we were robbed. Thankfully she only lost her camera (in her words 'at least it was from highschool'). I can't say its a suprise. The sidesling purse is not the greatest when it comes to clubbing, its low on your waist or hip and depending on where you carry it, it can be easy to lose track of. (ALWAYS KEEP IT IN FRONT DANA! hehe) But now we know to be more aware. I think we did pretty well though, made it 6 wks in a foreign country without anyone in our group getting robbed. 

Needless to say it brought down the mood drastically and we left very soon after. It made for an early night, about 3:30/4 :P

Monday: was a veryy long but vveryy satisfying day overall. I was up bright and early in order to leave for Casa del Nino at 8:30 am. I mentioned it in one of my previous entries, it is where I will be doing the service end of my service learning class. Being our first day they split us up among the different age groups to help us get to know the kids. Katie and I were in the 5-6 class. They were playing with playdough. I made them one heart (corazon) and all of a sudden I was the master of corazons and estrellas (stars).  I was suprised how quickly they became attached to Katie and myself. I'm not sure if that is typical of the age group, or more of a consequence of their situation. After they cleaned up it was snack time (alfajores: a type of chocolate covered sweet with dulce de leche in the middle) and not a minute after they had finished it was play time. I had at least five kids drag me out to the playground. 

It was great. They were all over me, hanging on me, tugging me, and wanting my attention. Their patience with my Spanish is astounding. A lot of times it leads to us staring at each other and making silly faces to show that we don't really understand. Some of the older kids are better able to help me and explain words to me so that I understand their meaning. One little girl was using the line of different colored stars on her shirt to quiz me on my colors, how cute of a role-reversal!

I'm very happy in my choice to work with kids. I think I'm going to learn a lot from this experience, and I can't wait to start working with a smaller group in our mini classes. Katie and I are hoping to do an art class with the 5-6 yr olds! We were warned not to bring cameras right away because it tends to look like a group of tourists getting off a bus and snapping pictures. I do hope to eventually have a lot of photos to share!

As much fun as I had it tired me out! I'm not going to deny that I went home and took a nap! I only had a few hours free though so I got some work done and went to my grammar class at 5:30. After class I had a bit of free time to go home and get ready for futbol! I'm apart of a cultural immersion group that uses the national sport futbol (soccer) as an excuse to get together once a week. We play soccer for an hour with a mix of Americans and Argentinians. Following the game we head upstairs with a few beers in order to socialize.

 It was a lot of fun! I haven't played soccer since middle school so I'm pretty rusty. The difference in levels is pretty funny. Some people are soo intense and others not so much. Definitely got my toenail less toe stepped on my someone in cleets though! Despite this and a few other harmless injuries I really enjoyed the experience. Its nice to have some time to just run around and let out some frustration on the ball :) 

I can't wait to go back and do it every week. There was only 3 Argentinians there last week, but I'm hoping there will be more in the future. The leader of the group was telling us that we will learn more in the hour of socialization after the game, than we could ever hope to learn on the field in the three months that we will be playing.

Also on the way home from class Monday I saw two people covered in a wet gross mixture of flour, eggs, and water in front of the Facultad de Medicina (A medical college). This was the third or fourth time I had seen this, and it got my attention. I finally remembered to ask my host mom about it. Turns out its a tradition! Whenever a student completes their carerra (the only way to describe this is that its equivalent to our major, its really a lot different, but we dont have a closer equivalent) it is tradition to stand in front of their University and have people throw flour, eggs, and water at them (regardless of the weather!). I can't say I really understand why one would want to be covered in this slimmy combination, but its a cool tradition never-the-less.

The rest of the week was very chill. I'm settling into my classes, and finally going to the correct grammar class.   I like most of my classes but am slightly frustrated with my service class because I was expecting more discussion. I'm hoping that in future classes it will shift. Also my grammar class is making me run in circles. We  are studying preterite. Like studying it, not reviewing it, studying it. And next up is imperfect. I'm feeling slightly held back in that I don't feel I'm learning anything knew. These are concepts I've had a reasonable grasp on since junior/senior year of high school. I'm a junior SPANISH Major! I'm not going to say that I couldn't use the review but seriously I need something more challenging. I have an exam next week so I'm hoping I'll do ridiculously well so that I can request to be bumped up to a higher level of grammar.

Finally almost done! This weekend was actually very relaxing. Friday we went to Nuestros Caballos, which is like a horse exposition much like Equine Affaire. My host mom had been telling me about it for weeks, and an alumna from my high school who is here in Bs As, Rachel Clough, had mentioned it as well. Turns out she's really involved in the horse world down here! Her boyfriend had horses in the expo, so I got to meet her at the expo. Katie, Allie, Dana and I went to check out the Confirmation class. Unfortunately we had missed show jumping the day before, but we still got to check out some very beautiful caballos:

Rachels boyfriend and his horse Texas

Some random gorgeous gelding :)

That night the girls and I decided to go to a club that was doing a 90s flash back event. They played Backstreet Boys, mambo #5, Spice girls wanna be, among many others! There were a lot of songs I was unfamiliar with that my friends knew. Apparently I didnt listen to the radio much! It was a rather fun night. We ran into another group of Americans, and one happened to be a kid that's in my Revolutions class. I think it might have scared him that I knew his name, whoops ;) 

Saturday the girls and I found ourselves running low on our budgets. We decided to just go to a street market about 12 blocks from my house. There were a lot of different types of items from the fairs we had been too. There were even tarot card and palm readings! I think I might go back for that. Seems like it would be a lot of fun!! Also I fed the kid in me with a candy apple!

Today, Sunday has been a really relaxed day. I haven't even left the house, I think this might be a first! I've been in my room reading for class, listening to music, and of course BLOGGING. 

Gosh I'm so glad I'm finally up to date, hopefully I can keep it this way! 

A la playa: Colonia, Uruguay

Hey guys!
I meant to write this entry this weekend but was having way to much fun! Plus my english spelling skills are deteriorating. My brain keeps mixing english and spanish spellings. For example, my new favorite is that I keep messing up the spelling of English, in both english and spanish. It comes out as either inglish (english) or engles (ingles). It's pretty frustrating but cool at the same time. Also my friends and I are pretty funny to listen to; we are  constantly mixing up the order of our words when we speak in English!

So two weeks ago now, myself and three other friends planned a trip to Colonia, Uruguay. On our walk to our hostel we got our first views of the town. From this little stroll I came to a few conclusions:
- The town is very small
- They are very fond of classic cars (saw some cool ones)

Once we arrived at our hostel we were very pleased to find that everything was new as the hostel is only a few months old. We took a look at the map that showed where their guests are from. considering the map was only 2 weeks old it was well covered with the highest concentration of guests coming from Europe. Luckily no one had yet visited from Buffalo, and I got to place the pin and represent the 716.

Once we got all of our belonging safely secured in our 8 person dorm, Allie, Dana and I set off to explore the town and go to the bank.

With Uruguan pesos in hand we went on a stroll. I had just been mentioning to them that I thought it would be really cool if we could catch a sun rise and a sunset while we were in Uruguay when we stumbled upon this:

There was a beautiful look out right over the chocolate colored water:

I also found more classics

The sun set so quickly!

That night the girls and I met our wonderful friend Sassy, who followed us around all weekend. (We cannot take credit for naming her :

Sharon had some issues with her ferry ticket so she wasnt able to join us until about midday the day following our arrival. While awaiting her arrivval the first day we decided to hit the beach right away despite overcast skys and the hostel worker joshing us that we might need a blanket. The three of us laid out and tried to enjoy the beach despite the lack of sun. I even pulled out some homework! Suddenly a very wet, sandy and excited  Sassy came running out of now where. She decided that my lap and homework was just the place she wanted  to lay down. She had followed some guys to the beach and was just so excited to have found us again! We eventually made friends with the three guys she had followed (who named her sassy). They were all from the states and studying in Bs As also! Ok well one of them Kevin actually goes to the Airforce Academy and was  just visiting his friend Matt here in BA for spring break. One hell of a spring break trip! haha. The guys and my friend Dana played Volleyball for most of the afternoon.

After Sharon arrived we decided it was a good idea to burry Kevin and make him into a mermaid!

The sun did eventually peek through the clouds for about ten minutes, but soon after it started getting kind of chilly so we all decided to head out for ice cream (perfect logic right?). After our delicious helado the boys had to leave to catch their ferry bc Colonia was only a day trip for them since Kevin had to head back to the states the following morning.

Later that night the girls and I went to a pretty cool club a block away from our hostel. Tres cuartos:

It was a good night but we we're all really pumped for the next day. We finally got some sun! Our first adventure of the day was to check out the historic district (what Colonia is known for). Here are some photos:

Just a pretty view and some pretty ladies :)

Remains of the lighthouse

City Gate (from the back)

After our explorations we decided it was time for some REAL beach time. We spent a good majority of the afternoon in the sun. It was really hot but really windy which made for an odd combination. My skin was hot and warm feeling so the breeze gave me goosebumps :)
Feeling sufficiently bronzed (or sunburned in my case) we headed back to the hostel to get pretty for dinner. We went to a nice restaurant and enjoyed our final evening in Uruguay.

The trip was really a lot of fun. It was nice to finally get out of Argentina and the city for a relaxing weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to follow this up quickly with the highlight of the last two weeks which includes club adventures with a french guy, being approached on the street, futbol, some awesome hip hop clubs and of course everyone's favorite: school.

VISA=torturing foreigners one by one

Hey all you curious blog readers. Before I tell you about my wonderful weekend trip to Uruguay I need to comment first on my trip to the immigrations office for the second part of my VISA process.

So the VISA works a little differently here than most places I have heard of. Instead of getting it before you arrive, you come in with a tourist visa, and from there have to initiate the process for a student VISA. Thankfully my program FLACSO did most of the hard stuff for me. As much as we complain about the disorganization, and the lack of information they give us, they are way more involved than most of the other programs we have heard about. So anyway the process has two parts, and the first must be initiated before you register for classes. The first part was rather easy. I was new to the city and they told us NOT to be late, so I decided to take a cab just to be sure. They took our fingerprints, made us sign a couple sheets, I parted with about $50 (in addition to the $141 I paid at the airport) and we were on our way.

Much to my displeasure, the second part was NOT so easy. Having become more accustomed to the city I felt safe in my decision not to take a cab. A few friends had appointments the day before and warned me the Immigrations office is not easy to find, especially from the subte (subway). Being the practical person that I am, I looked up the best way to get there on a website much like mapquest, only it provides you with bus routes and subte stops. Using this site I found a bus that would stop literally a block away. Now I haven't had much luck with the buses here, they tend to be packed, and it's hard to read the street signs as they go zooming by when you're trying to see around ten people. But I left thinking how hard can it be?

Ok, a little background. For the most part it has been very sunny here with unbearable heat. But of course as I left the house for a trip across town it was pouring rain and windy. Only the second storm we've had in a months time. And it was not drizzling, not sprinkling, but pouring. Thankfully I had my umbrella! (the only good thing that happened)

• Mistake #1: I left with enough time factored in, just in case I got lost. However, I also left the house preoccupied with the fact that I still needed to stop at the bank. 
• MISTAKE #2 (as well as my BIGGEST mistake of the day): with my trip to the bank on my mind, I left the house without my GUIA T!!!! or any of the directions I had to the office. (I didn't even have the address, I had to text a friend for it) For those of you who don't know, the guia t is my life line when it comes to this city. It has maps of all the neighborhoods, alphabetized street lists, as well as all the bus routes in the city and where they go. I was already on the bus by the time I realized this, and it was far to late to turn back. But I figured, its going to take me within a block of where I need to be, once again how hard can it be?

My answer: VERY HARD! 

The bus that I took goes past the train and omnibus station. This is the most common destination of the passengers. Therefore when we got to this stop I was the only one left on the bus. The bus driver did the loop at the station and started heading back into town. I began to panic and asked him about the street I needed. He stopped the bus and told me I needed to get off. I asked him again about the street (granted at this point I still only knew that the street name had argentina in it) and he pointed vaguely behind us. In other words, the bus didn't take me to within a block of where I needed to be, just simply dropped me off in the pouring rain, sans my guia t, and sans the slightest idea of where I was or where I needed to go. I did manage to find the street that I needed, but to my dismay I discovered that it is a huge road with large buses, semis, and trucks of all kinds.

 When I finally found the street sign I discovered that there were no numbers listed, nor did any of the buildings have numbers. After walking a fair distance and having no idea if I was going the right direction I decided it was time to ask friends for help. One friend texted "Just make sure the railroad tracks are on your right hand side" I yelled in frustration WHAT TRAIN TRACKS!?!?!?! Through all of this it is still raining, and although I have my umbrella, my pants are wet and the wind is starting to pull my umbrella inside out. As the time neared 11:45 (the time of my appointment) I decided it was time to call the emergency line that FLACSO gave us. DUN DUN DUHH!!! So in broken frustrated spanish I tried to explain that I was hopelessly lost, and how poorly organized the trip was, that we should have had some type of help getting there. Ok the second part is a lie..I really wish I had told them off! Very astutely whoever was on the line told me that the office is located in quadrant C5 plano 10 of my guia T. hahaha You think I'm calling you because I'm lost, guia T in hand? Um please, do you think this is my first day?

Once they figured out that I didn't have my guia t they wanted me to tell them where I was. My joke was: "You don't know? Why don't you know? Shouldn't you know these types of things?" Apparently it didn't come off as funny in spanish. When we figured out where exactly I was (it took a while) they began to give me directions to get me there. Even as I was walking I still wasn't sure I was going the right way. In english it would have been hard, spanish made is d**** near impossible.  The streets all connected at odd angles, so that once you crossed one street you weren't sure what street you were on anymore.

Also along the way the bus that should have dropped me off within a block drove past me...very mockingly. I muttered under my breath, mother f*er! But I'm pretty sure the coordinator heard and understood because he said very suprised "Que cosa?!" Which is basically him asking what on earth I had said. He eventually got me to the immigrations office (quite the feat), but it was a painful process. The rain and wind, and a pretty bad area really wore me down. At one point I was sure I was going to be robbed. The wind repeatedly broke my umbrella and the rain had no mercy. At one point the tears started and I couldn't hold them back for a good minute. Got a lot of strange looks on that one.

The visa process itself was very painful. A lot of waiting, and signing papers, and more waiting, and fingerprinting, and more waiting, parting with yet MORE money, and more waiting.
But finally it was over, and what do you know the sun was out! Well I'll be damned.

I'm really glad that day is over. Now I know: Nevvver leave the house without your guia t. But I must say, I'm pretty lucky that this was my hardest day here so far. I know people who have had much worse happen. Pickpocketing is very common here, and you have to be aware of yourself and your belongings at all times. And at times even that is not enough.

This entry was longer than I was expecting, but don't worry I'll have the Uruguay blog, complete with pictures up within a day or two. The weekend is coming! (although not quickly enough)
Until then Chau!

Classes

So today finishes the first two weeks of classes, but only because this weekend is a national holiday and therefore we get a four day. The start of classes was really kind of hectic because all of the different schools that we take classes at start at different times. For example I am taking classes with my program FLACSO, as well as a class at UCA. The class at UCA started a week before the FLACSO content courses. To make it even more confusing, the Spanish classes at FLACSO started the week after the content courses. This delay in the start of some of my courses is the reason for the delay in my post about them :)

Now I can say that I have officially been to all of my classes. Finally! And tomorrow marks one month that we have been here too! Kinda crazy to think how quickly it went. Anyways in total I am taking seven classes. I'm taking 3 Spanish classes: grammar (required), oral expression, and phonetics. The grammar class I think will be pretty boring because we're mostly discussing the subjunctive (GAG); oral expression should be ok, except the professor is pretty giggly and I have a feeling we will be doing a lot of middle school activities; I think phonetics will be my favorite of the Spanish classes, the professor is pretty chill and I think she is going to be the one who really trys to help us improve from where we are now...not just teach us as though we're all at the same level.

 I have three other classes at flacso: Cultural Issues in Argentina History, a Living and Learning Cultural Seminar, as well as a Service-Learning Class. The cultural issues is the only real class in the lecture sense, but with huge amounts of reading. The Living Learning class is a seminar that will help us navigate during our time here. It is supposed to give us an outlet to discuss our experiences and try to help each other become more culturally aware. The service learning class is your basic 'go out an volunteer during the week then come back to class so we can discuss what it means to volunteer and how to do it in a meaningful way' type of service class.

I'm very excited about this class because, if all goes according to plan, I will be working at Casa del Nino.
It is kind of the equivalent to an after school program. The kids go either before or after school ( the elementary schools that these kids go to are only half day programs), the morning kids get breakfast and lunch, and the afternoon kids get lunch and a snack. The families that the children come from are very poor, and so these meals help ensure that they have food in their bellies which makes learning a whole lot easier! Because many of their home situations are not ideal many of the children struggle in school. So Casa del nino provides the extra help they need. I'm sooo excited to work with kids! Its going to be such an experience getting used to their accents and how quickly they talk. They are going to teach me so much more than I could ever teach them in the next three months!!!

The last class that I am taking is at UCA, its called American Revolutions Compares. It compares and contrasts the revolutions in the US, Mexico, and Argentina. I think it's going to be a pretty fun class. I'm not too sure about the professor yet. I only went to one of the two classes because I had to skip the second one for an orientation activity. The first class the professor showed two movie clips as a part of his lecture, and while I like Marie Antoinette as much as the next chick, I'm not a huge fan of showing clips during lectures. I struggled to decifer what he wanted us to take away from the clips. Anyway it should be a pretty interesting time, the topic sounds like a lot of fun :)

Anyway thats how classes are going so far, I'll keep you updated on how they proceed. Maybe I'll find the strength to retell my wonderful VISA adventure soon; Personal note to self: NEVER LEAVE YOUR GUIA T AT HOME!!!!

Mendoza

Man this whole blogging thing is harder than I thought! But I guess its a good thing because that means I'm staying busy. Classes at UCA ( the catholic university of argentina) started last week and classes at UBA (university of buenos aires) and FLACSO (my program) start tomorrow. They have different start dates because UCA is a private university and can pretty much do what they want. Point being that from here on out life is going to get even more busy, seeing that I'm currently enrolled in 8 classes, one with a 4 hr/wk service requirement. But I'm so up for the challenge! We have the equivalent to a 2 wk drop period so if I'm overwhelmed I can make my schedule a little less demanding.

Before I get to deep into boring school stuff I definitely need to rewind and tell you guys about Mendoza. I have to admit that I almost decided to forgo mentioning it, but considering it was such an awesome experience for me I can't allow it!

We had a five day holiday weekend completely free of any type of orientation events. Myself and five other girls decided to take a trip to Mendoza. We braved a 18 hour bus ride that turned into 19hrs after stopping at almost every bus station between Bs As and Mendoza. Here we are following the trip:

Despite having traveled for so long we managed to grab our stuff, hail two cabs and make our way to our hostel:    Zona Sismeca. Shout out to them. This was my first hostel experience and it was pretty awesome. The staff there was so helpful. At one point during the weekend someone (ahem dana ;) ) managed to lock the keys to a padlock inside of a locked locker. At 11 o'clock at night Carlos (i think thats his name!) pulled out a circular saw and showed us how far they would go for their clients! We didn't have much luck with locks that weekend..our key would work from inside the room but not outside. At somept I was locked into the room and it was looking like I wasn't getting out ;) ha that was fun. Also the key eventually just stopped working from the outside altogether. When this happened one of the staff members somehow (this still slightly concerns me) monkeyed her way up to our second story window, climbed in and opened the door from inside!

So after getting showered and settled into our room we decided to head out and find some breakfast. Oh boy, we found a cafe with the worlds best fresh-out-of-the-oven crissonts. Following breakfast we walked down the street and stumbled upon a parade that was happening for Vindemia, the huge annual wine festival. This festival was one of our many motivations for visiting Mendoza.

Unfortunately we quickly realized that our hastily planned weekend was not going to include Vindemia. The tickets for the festival were sold out for the entire weekend by the time we arrived on saturday morning. We weren't too upset though because as it turns out their huge wine festival is not a festival in the way that Americans would imagine it. It's more of an evening concert/pageant show. In order to salvage the weekend we booked two trips with the tourist office. Some of us were having trouble deciding which to trip to go on, but I think that in the end we were all very pleased that we chose to do both.

The first of the two trips was a horseback riding trip through the Andes mountains. We were told that it would include the ride, dinner, wine, and some guitar music. The trip cost us roughly $60 US, but for the experience we had I would have paid $500. No joke this was the type of experience that you don't have often.

 Despite heavy clouds and a short sprinkle, the mountains were beautiful. My camera simply does not do the Andes justice.

As you can probably imagine I was psyched to get to ride! Not only did I get to ride but our guide also let two of us gallop through this small stretch, it was soo awesome. Through the Andes to boot!

While we were riding Allie asked me how to say stubborn in Spanish. Neither one of us could remember it and I got so frustrated with myself I wiped out my dictionary... I rode through the Andes with a dictionary! :

Thankfully my trusty steed Domino didn't mind :P

After our incredibly awesome ride our guide, Diego led us back to the 'salon' where he made us an amazing dinner. It was asado which is beef, and chorizo which is sausage. He kept coming back with more and more. Finally we said no thank you, but he insisted! Turns out every time he came back it had been a different cut of beef, and each one looked so good I couldn't say no! And of course dinner was accompanied by the promised wine. Seems like we made up for not going to the wine festival just by the amount of wine we drank!

As I said, dinner was fantastic. But not only the food, our company was a great group. We met a couple from Austrailia/New Zealand, one from Brasil, and one from Bs As. We also had dinner with three girls from Harvard who joined us late. By the end of the night I think we had made a great group of friends.
The group of just the ladies and Diego:

 The whole thing was just an experience. Our guide, Diego was phenomenal as well. After cooking our amazing dinner he sat down with a glass of wine and his guitar.

The trip to the mountains and back was supposed to finish up around 10:30, but everyone was having so much fun that we didn't leave until midnight!











The second trip we planned was a bodega tour. The tour was a little more tame than the night before. A bus picked us up at 2 and we toured two different wineries, and an olive oil farm/factory. The first winery was kind of neat because everything is organic. They use the seeds and stems that are left over as compost because they are rich in minerals that are good for the growth of grapes.

Like I said this experience was less thrilling, but we were in Mendoza, and are known specifically for wine so we felt compelled to go see what all the fuss is about!

Riding was definitely my favorite part of the whole weekend, but a close second is the night we arrived in Mendoza. We had bought two cheap bottles of wine, and found our way up to the terrace of our hostel. At night it becomes like a big hangout. The hostel also offered a free glass of wine as a Vindemia gift. The six of us met a French man named Jerom on the terrace and together we taught him how to play Kings. He didn't really understand the concept of a drinking game. He kept asking why you need a game to drink hehe. It was a fun time getting to know him and the girls in my group better.

It struck me several times how recently I had met these girls. Allie, Dana, Katie, Sharon and Melinda. We had met only a week and a half before we planned this trip, some of us even more recently. This is the kind of trip you might plan with friends you've known for years. But everything went great and we all got along very well. Over all I'm very pleased to have spent this time and shared these experience with these girls. I know them all a lot better now than when we left, and we have continued to spend time together. I can't wait to spend the next five months getting to know them and everyone else I have met here!

Week two: Already saw the inside of a hospital

(hospital Aleman)

Finally I have found some free time to share my experiences from the last two weeks, and boy have they been crazy. I have so much to share in fact, that this entry may be cut into two just to spare everyone from my lack of writing skills.

As many of you know, I am every form of a Klutz that exists in this world. This unfortunate fact led me, very promptly I must say, to my first foreign hospital visit. The second day of orientation I forced a bathroom door shut when it would not close. This led to much difficulty when trying to exit the bathroom. When I finally did pull the door open it slid right over top of my big toe, quite the owie. Despite the pain I decided to suck it up, knowing there was nothing that could be done to save the toenail. The nail was very painful for two or three days, and I managed to hit it on everything possible, causing excruciating pain. On the fourth day I noticed considerable amounts of swelling just below the nailbed, as well as bright red areas. This worried me a little, but never having lost a toenail before I decided it must be normal. My mother informed me that if it started pussing I should be worried.

It wasn't until five days after I had hurt the toe that I finally got up the courage to ask my host mom, Magdalena, to take me to the hospital because I was worried about an infection. I felt silly asking to go to the emergency room for a toenail! But that is how it works here. Ambulances are free, and it is very natual for someone to take an ambulance to the hospital for a fever or something simple that we would never consider an 'emergency'. Thank goodness Magdalena did not see the need for an ambulance, or I would have felt very silly! We walked there together, and along the way she chided me gently for not telling her sooner.

When we got there I was beyond grateful for her presence. She helped guide me through the very confusing process. We got passed around even with her there. The first man we asked told us we needed to go talk to the lady across from him. This lady then told us that no, we had been correct and we needed to talk to the original guy. Once all this confusion was sorted out it was determined that, being a foreigner I needed to pay up front and be reimbursed later. Boy was I sweating when he took my credit card!! But it didn't turn out to be so bad after all. Including the x-ray it was roughly $80 american dollars for the whole visit. Man was I relieved!!

The x-rays came back clean, no fracture, so the dr (who spoke no english) gave me a prescription to prevent/kill any infection I might have, and told me the nail should fall off in a week or two. I must say as a whole my first foreign hospital visit was surprisingly quick and easy. We went to Hosptial Alemana which is said to be one of the more technologically advanced hospitals in the area, but I was also told that most of the drs speak english. Thankfully Magdelena was there to somewhat interpret my broken spanish and the drs foreign (to me) argentine accent, and the x-ray technician was able to demostrate with hand gestures how he wanted my foot placed. As I was leaving he started speaking english to explain what I needed to do next. To me was sort of interesting that he spoke english and the dr did not.

The only thing that was slightly disconcerting to me was the room where the dr did his exam. When I went into the hospital I was not expecting your typical american hospital, but I have to admit when I saw the bed sheets where he wanted me to sit I was a little concerned. I'm not going to be sensational and say that they were filthy, because they were not. But after 20 years of hospitals and doctors offices with fresh linens and/or new paper ( I don't know what else to call it) to sit on I was a bit put off.

Other than this tiny concern my experience was not a scary one, as some people report of foreign hospital stays. I think I am lucky enough to be in a big city where I have many hospitals to choose from. The cherry on top? They didn't have to drill a hole in my toenail as I was expecting!!

Nueva manera de vida (A new way of life)

Finally after months and months of talking about it, a lot of preparation and anxiety, I am in Buenos Aires :) Thankfully I have five months to explore this wonderful city because it is huge! I flew down Wednesday with two girls from my college who will be in the same program as myself. We arrived Thursday morning and by the time we made it through immigration, customs, and baggage claim it was about 9am. We met the other program participants and drove by bus to a very nice hotel.

 My first view of BA from the bus!

I went to a small restaurant with Erin and Katie for lunch. Our first attempt to eat in Buenos Aires wasn't very successful; the waiter spoke very quietly and we could not hear him, nor could he understand us. He actually had another waiter come over to take our order! This try was much more successful. Upon returning to the hotel I met my three roommates for the evening, who were all wonderful.

 Much later that night, (as it is a custom in BA to eat dinner anywhere from 8-11pm) everyone from the program went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. They fed us very well including this incredibly rich dessert they call something like pancakee con dulce de leche. Its almost like a very thin pancake wrapped up around an incredibly thick and rich sauce (kind of like a carmel but not quite) and covered in syrup.
After spending the night in the hotel, the following morning we started orientation activities at FLACSO, (the program site where everyone will be taking some classes). Activities included an oral exam and workshops on    how to get around, safety, etc.

 After a veryy long day we finally got to meet our families! My host mom picked me up, and brought me out to the car. Her boyfriend drove us to the apartment. The two of them are sooo cute together. They joke and play off one another. My host mom's name is Magdalena,  and is the sweetest woman. She showed me around the apartment (very pretty) and let me unpack while she made dinner. I finally got to meet her daughter Rocio at dinner. She's very nice, I think about 23, and is studying Pyscology at UBA (Universidad de Buenos Aires). I really like them both and look forward to spending more time with them.

Since Friday we've had a lot of orientation activities and not much else. We don't start registering for classes until next week because we can't technically register until we start the visa process. But today we are taking walking tours around the city. The challenge is that  we have to find our way to the location of the walking tour first. Lets just say, I'm not a city girl. Me and directions don't really get along well. I tend to get lost more than most people. Thankfully my house is very close to FLACSO, and a lot of bus stops. Wish me luck on this adventure because I might need it!
Well thats all I've got for now, more adventures later!