Don't Cry for me Argetina

...the truth is I never left you...

I'm at home now. Just pulled up to 19 Mayflower street about an hour ago. Weird. The last few weeks in BA flew by. We had finals, a few farewell parties, and one last trip. My last trip was to Tierra del Fuego, the end of the world. We went to Ushuaia, the most southern city in the whole world, and we trekked through the Andes, skinny dipped in glacier cold water, relaxed, ate good food, and found an awesome bar overlooking the Beagle Channel where we celebrated Caroline's graduation. It was a wonderful way to end my semester. It was absolutely beautiful and it's one of those places that you haven't really heard people talk about, and when you go, you're tempted to keep the secret yourself. This small quiet mountain town, dark for 23 hours in the winter and light for 23 hours in the summer (it's summer there now), is just perfect. I can't descibe it all. Lindisima, buena honda... no se. It was amazing.

I got back from that trip to find BA completely empty... well at least of the people I know and love. Most of our friends had gone home or departed on other adventures. So I spent the day relaxing and soaking up my alone time for the last time ever in Buenos Aires. My parents and Zack came to visit for a few days. So, I got to play tour guide and translator. fun... but I'm happy to be home. We had a wonderful dinner with my family, my host mom, Juan, and my friend Nicola on our last night. That was the perfect way to end our trip.

Now, I'm home for the Holidays and I'm excited to be visiting everyone and to be home for a good amount of time. I don't have to go back to school until mid-Jan so I have plenty of time to just relax and enjoy my favorite time of year.

My Argentina adventure has ended, but this blog will include many more adventures to come...

Random Blogging...

I should be working on 1 of 2 10 page papers I have to write, but I’d rather write about my life in Argentina. I mean it’s pretty cool that I can say that I’ve lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Who else can say that? (besides the 38 million porteños that do live here). On Friday we wore our sweats and jeans to a movie in Patio Bulrich… bad idea. Buenos Aires has a snobby aura in general but it is amplified to the max in this place. But whatever, we had a very comfortable movie and then we went home to our separate families where we cenared and spoke Spanish. Saturday, I spent ALL day in a suburb of BA dancing tango on a roof top. Sounds romantic and wonderfully Argentine right? Not at all. We have this tango class that we have to perform a show which we choreograph. The show is about the 7 deadly sins and ours is arrogance. Seems interesting enough and I guess it would be if 3 minutes of choreography didn’t take 5 weeks to choreograph. I did have a good time sitting on the terraza with the girls drinking mate though. Since I’m not really dancing much in the show, I got to play mate girl while the bailarinas danced. Sunday, we cooked some real Mexican food for Juan – enchiladas! Mmmm… and today we pretended we were in Sex in the City as we met up for café to talk about our single lives.

I couldn’t be happier that I made the decision to come here and study abroad. The classes have been challenging but we try not to let that get in the way of our abroad experience. I’ve met some amazing people and learned great things about myself and life in general. I've definitely had to deal with some stressful situations and I think I've grown a lot. And we still have a month left, which will be filled with all the touristy things we have yet to do, pampering ourselves for working sooo hard in our classes, and enjoying every last second of our time here. But I (and most everyone else) am ready to go home so I really need to focus on the fact that I’m here and not let anything pass me by as I’m already planning my December in Cali.

Bariloche

Bri and I decided to ditch class and head for Patagonia and the Andes. We couldn’t leave Argentina without visiting Bariloche and the Lake District and our time is running short, so we made a game time decision and went for it. We got on our bus Wednesday afternoon, and 20 hours later, we arrived in Bariloche. The bus ride just got us even more excited for our adventure as flat boring deserts turned into huge snow capped mountains surrounded by the bluest water I’ve ever seen. Bariloche is a huge ski town during the winter and a lake sport town during the summer. We basically just went to look at the beauty, since ski season just ended and it was too cold to touch the water. Our hostel faced the lakes and mountains and had an excellent view of Bariloche. So even if we were just chilling, we were looking at huge mountains and a huge lake. The first day was beautiful and sunny. We took advantage and walked all over the place. We went down to the beach, walked through town, and enjoyed the sunshine. We had Mexican food for dinner!! Friday, we went on a catamaran to Isla Victoria in the middle of the lake. It was rainy and cold, but it was still absolutely beautiful. We were able to hike a little bit on the Island, and then the boat took us to a peninsula with a random rainforest (obviously not a tropical one). This little bosque is what inspired the animators of Bambi. The trees were all over the place and absolutely beautiful. They have like 500 names for these trees, and I can’t even remember one. But, you can see them in my pics, http://community.webshots.com/user/becrach.We spent the night hanging out in the hostel after we cooked a wonderful steak and veggie meal ($5 pesos a person). We met some Americans and chatted it up until the hostel nazi kicked us out of the common room at 2am and we had to go to bed. No biggie though, we were pooped! Saturday, we had planned on taking a gondola up to Cerro Otto and hiking around but because of the wind and rain, it was closed. So we did two things we definitely know how to do --- SHOP and eat CHOCOLATE!!! Bariloche is famous for their chocolate, and we spent Saturday finding out whyJ. We had to leave beautiful Bariloche Saturday evening, and now we’re back in BA.

Now, I have to pretend like I’m actually in school and write 2 10 page papers in Spanish about who the heck knows. I have a couple weeks to work on those, but let’s be honest, I have the option of going to Mar del Plata this weekend (the beach) or working on my papers…

… I guess you’ll have to keep reading to find out what I choose. Until next time,

Besos y abrazos!!

PS... you can already donate to Relay for Life to our Green Chupacabras team!!

more of my life in Buenos Aires...

So, I guess it’s been awhile… Since Spring Break, the girlies took me out for my bday, I celebrated Día de la Madre with my host mom and her sons, watched a Project Runway marathon with Bri, went shopping, spoke some Spanish (haha), had a Bible study, went to Tierra Santa (the Holy Land), went to Uruguay, and went to a fashion show.

To highlight a few things, we went dancing for my bday and I was “kidnapped” by the worst kidnappers ever! Ha- they tried. But it was a great bday, filled with good company and DANCING!! Who could ask for more??

Día de la Madre (Mother’s Day) was cute. I did a little treasure hunt for Haydee which she enjoyed, and then it was great to spend the day with her and her family. She wasn’t expecting anything for mother’s day and her son’s surprised her with lunch and she pulled out all her fine china. She was really happy to be with her family and it was great to see her so happy.

One of my friend’s here, Bri, and I started to do a mini-Bible study, which is great! It’s keeping us in touch with God since it’s difficult to find our niche in a Spanish speaking country. The churches are nice and everything, but it's hard to really learn anything when it takes so long to translate what they're saying.

Oh wow Tierra Santa! It’s a holy theme park here designed to tell the story of the Bible. It’s figurines and statues set up throughout the park with some shows of moving figurines. There was a GIANT Jesus – the size of a goal post on a football field and the Creation show was the last thing we saw. There was a sexy live belly dancer which I didn’t understand at all. The only thing I liked about the park was that at each Bible story, they posted a few words describing the story and the Bible verse it referred to. This way, we could know for sure what was going on. Besides that, it was funny in an odd way, but it mostly upset me how much it was just like a crappy Disneyland.

We went to Colonia, Urugay this last weekend with IES. 75 American students boarded a boat and set off across the Río de la Plata. It was a short relaxing trip. We ate fattening Chivito: a huge pile starting with French fries on the bottom, followed by lomo (a cut of beef), then cheese, then fried egg, we drank yummy drinks, and we lied on the beach. Oh how I miss the beach…

Today, Amanda and I went to a cool fashion show sponsored by some hair dying product. It was so funny and cool. The models would come out in these ridiculous outfits and the announcers would talk about Silkey hair dying products. Some of the clothes were super cute and we kind of wished there were free give aways, but a lot of it was suitable for a Barbie/Wonder Woman.

And we’re getting ready for another trip…

Spring Break #2 of 2006!!

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Last night, we stayed in Buenos Aires to go to Teatro Colon to see Swan Lake. We could have left on Thursday night, but decided to stick around to see the ballet. Teatro Colon will be closing soon, so we had to take advantage of the opportunity. It was a beautiful ballet, and worth missing a couple days of vacation. Mark, Sean, Danielle and I got on the bus at 4pm and are now on our way to Salta to begin our Spring Break adventure.

Sunday, October 1, 2006

Today, we arrived in Salta at around noon. We were bombarded by hostel people at the bus station and decided to hop into the tiniest excuse for some type of mini mini mini van I’ve ever seen. We got to our hostel, Salta Backpacker’s, checked in and went out to lunch and the local artisan’s market. It was a relaxed day, walking around Salta – beautiful sunny and warm! Later, we sat and had café in the main plaza and then sat through the evening mass at the huge cathedral – Iglesia Catedral. While it was a little difficult to understand the Spanish with the echo of the microphone through the huge church, it was a beautiful mass. After that, we just went out to cheap pizza and beer and went to bed.

Monday, October 2, 2006

5:30 am wake up! Yeah we’re hardcore travelers. We got on a bus to Humahuaca, a small town in Jujuy – 5 hour bus ride. It’s a tiny old indigenous pueblo surrounded by multicolored mountains – Andes. We had a lovely day, walking around, perusing all the tourist traps and taking lots of pictures. We ate lunch at some cheap place that was $5 pesos for a 3 course meal. I love Argentina! And nothing short of a dog laying on the restaurant floor. I wouldn’t expect anything less. We went back to Salta (another 5 hour bus ride), got ready for tomorrow and went to bed.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Another early rising for another early bus. Today, we went checked out of our hostel and headed south to Cafayate, another small pueblo. Again, we were attacked by people when we got off the bus, but we put our faith in a cute tiny lady, named Ema Inti. She and I assume her family and friends run the only tourist office in Cafayate and their own hostel. She kindly led us to the hostel where we could drop our bags and then explained to us all the ways we could spend our day. We ran into about 10 other people from IES too (no one here ever wants to run into more Americans, but I guess that’s an impossible wish). We originally had planned to go to Quilmes, ancient Indian ruins, but after hearing all the other things we could do, we decided on the Quebrada tour. A quebrada is a canyon / gorge, and here in Cafayate we were able to trek through 6 different areas of the canyon. It’s similar to the Grand Canyon (for reference) but completely different. We climbed up and down all around these beautiful colorful formations and of course took tons of pictures. We went into this one that was just a giant enclosed circle; they called it some type of theater. When we walked in, this man started playing a flute. We all just stood in silence watching him and listening to the beautiful music inside this well amplified “theater.” He then put down his flute, and picked up his guitar and started singing. We had a mini concert inside of a quebrada! Who could ask for anything better. I had been in kind of a bad mood on and off the whole trip before this, but after hiking through some of God’s beautiful creation and clearing my head, I was all better. The last stop was la Garganta del Diablo. Basically a little kid’s climbing dream come true. There were hundreds of rocks to climb on that kept going up and up. Lots of fun! The bus ride back to the hostel, we were serenaded again by the guitarist/flutist. We had tamales for dinner, said goodbye to Sean and Mark as they would be heading onward to their next adventure at Iguazú, and we went to bed in the Balcon International.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Danielle and I got to sleep in! Woohoo! (until 8:30am). We walked around Cafayate, bought some sandwiches to go and hailed a cab that would take us to the Indian ruins at Quilmes. It was about an hour drive there, an hour to fart around at Quilmes, and an hour drive back. When we got there, this guy gave us a mini tour of a museum of old artifacts, giving us some background information. The Quilmes Indians were there around the same time that the Incas were. They’re small city is left completely intact to show where and how people of the time lived. The Quilmes Indians were influenced by the Incas and with the advanced technology of the Incas, were able to have irrigation. But before Incan interference, they used to put water out in the open, knowing that it would evaporate and over time turn into rain. We wandered through the ancient ruins telling stories of how there were probably Quilmes children who snuck out at night just the same as kids today, and imaging little babies taking their first steps on these rocks and dirt. We imagined how many people had walked this same path over hundreds of years.

After Quilmes, we went to Tucuman to catch a bus to Mendoza. We had a 2am hot chocolate while waiting for our last leg of our journey to Mendoza.

Thursday, October 5, 2006

We arrived in Mendoza at around 4pm. We met some more hostel people and put our lived in their hands. We got on board this crazy beat up jeep and were taking to the Casa del Sol. We relaxed a little, used the internet, took showers, and decided to go out to dinner. Just as we were leaving, Christian invited us to an asado. Of course, we would never pass up meat and wine so we agreed. The told us to be back at around 10, so we went shopping at Mendoza’s daily artisan’s fair and walked around Mendoza a tiny bit. Then it was time for the asado!! Probably one of the best I’ve had in Argentina so far. The company was great, the food was amazing, and the music was great! The family that runs the hostel has 7 siblings, so 4 of them and the father were at the asado and some of their friends. Then there were these two beautiful Israeli boys just fresh out of the Israeli army, and Danielle and me. Spanish, English, and Hebrew went around the table as did the meat. After dinner, we were invited to go out on the town with now 4 Israeli boys and Raul (the oldest brother), and of course we would not pass that up. We went to the “bar/club street” and settled on some random bar, where we just sat around and drank beer and listened to the Israeli army stories. Dude, I’m so over Latin lovers!

Friday, October 6, 2006

We really slept in today – until 11! Then we got lunch, the worst I’ve had (a super pancho). And then we went PARAGLIDING!. Raul (the dad), Raul Jr., Christian, and Jorge took 2 of the Israeli guys, Danielle, and I paragliding. They drove us in the crazy jeep up to a mountain in Mendoza and took turns taking us down the mountain with the “parapente.” It was a beautiful view of the Andes and Mendoza, very slow and relaxing. There was not a lot of wind so it didn’t last very long, but it was a good experience for sure! Since we had worked up such an appetite, we went to the store and bought fresh pasta, sauce, hamburger meat, and bread. I kind of ruined the pasta, but it still tasted good. We invited Raul Jr. to eat with us and he got up from the table while we were eating. A minute later, I heard his voice from behind me tell me to close my eyes. When I opened my eyes, there was a package in front of me that said “panaderia” on it (bakery). He made me open it and it was a beautiful chocolate cake with whip cream and strawberries. Mmmm… he put a little tea light candle on it, and he and Danielle sang “Que les cumpla feliz” to me. We ate cake and then at midnight, they sang to me again.

Saturday, October 7, 2006

My Bday! Raul Jr. joined us for a day of biking and wine tasting. We biked around Mendoza and this huge park and then we later got on a bus to Maipu the country’s biggest wine place. We went to South America’s biggest wine museum, toured, and tasted a few wines. After that, we went back to the hostel and finished our left over pasta. Raul Jr. gave me a bracelet for good luck and then walked us to the bus. We bought an extremely cheap bottle of champagne for the bus ride, $4.75 pesos ($1.50 USD), to celebrate my birthday and we watched a weird movie on the bus and fell asleep. All in all a good bday.

Sunday, October 8, 2006

Back in BA. Reality hits. My wallet was stolen – we think while we were sleeping on the bus. What a wonderful spring break and my happy mood was so easily destroyed. I know it’s not that big of a deal, everything is replaceable but I can never understand why a vacation can’t be 100% flawless. (at least for me). I spent the day trying to get online, eating, and sleeping. And now we're going out to dinner with Bri’s parents.

Study abroad...

by becrach

Another fun and exciting trip… am I really in school??

Wednesday afternoon, we all ran around town shopping, packing, and preparing for our trip. We got on the bus at 7pm and sat for 20 hours. We arrived at Puerto Iguazú on Thursday afternoon and enjoyed the day at our campsite. The weather was beautiful with the sun shining on the endless greenery. Palm trees, grass, and other tropical plants all around us and our little tent. (very little…). We cooked hot dogs, went swimming, hung out, cooked pasta, made a campfire, relaxed, and went to bed. Friday morning we woke up and headed for the Parque Nacional del Iguazú. We were able to enter the park as Argentine residents (because we live here) which saved us a bunch of pesos! Then we went on this awesome “safari”/ boat ride through the jungle and the falls. We got super soaked and then laid out on a little beach right next to the falls. I’m pretty sure under the top ten most relaxing things someone can do; lying in the sun on the sand next to giant waterfalls, in the middle of the tropics, is up there. After that, we walked around the park some more, saw the devil’s throat (la garganta del Diablo) and took in as much sol y agua as we could. That night, we were able to enjoy a nice meal from the restaurant on our camp ground, relax some more, and hit the hay. At about 6:30am Saturday morning, I felt a rain drop on my forehead. I proceeded to get out of the tent, run to the front desk and beg for a cabin. Haha. We spent have the rainy day inside our cabin sleeping. After the rain died down, our hero hombres came to rescue us. They made us go to the falls again, and I am glad we did. The waterfalls (if possible) practically doubled in size from the rain. We hiked some more, took more pics from different views, and enjoyed las cataratas. My favorite part of the trip was standing on a ledge right in front of the waterfall. We were all there screaming and shouting, getting splashed, with our hands in the air, so glad we chose Argentina!!

On another note, it’s the half way point and I need to take a moment to reflect on the time I’ve had here from all aspects…

My Spanish: I maybe know 50 more words, and can tell my madre what I did and ate each day, but have not advanced much more than that

My health: I haven’t been sick once, besides the normal Becca stomach aches. And of course, I’ve been very tired – but I’m enjoying my awake time!

My friends: the people here are great. We all think it’s funny that even though the students here are from all over the country, we are all so similar. Humor translates.

My classes: oh I’m in school?

Home and PSU: I miss you every day

My feelings/ emotions: I’m on an emotional roller coaster every day. I love life, I don’t want to wake up, I love life. But some recent events have made me wonder what’s so great about life. And then I saw some pretty waterfalls, and now I know the answer to that – life is what’s great about life.

Thoughts on the present: I am grateful every day I walk down the dirty BA streets. I’m grateful for this opportunity and grateful for life. I thank God for putting me here, teaching me things, and introducing me to new people and experiences. I’m grateful for Argentine culture and American culture. Sometimes when you travel, you realize how much else there is out there in the world that is possibly much better than where you came from. Here, I just feel like, BA is okay and State College, PA is great and sunny Cali is better.

Thoughts on the future: I don’t really want to go back to school. I want to visit my friends and family, but being back in a class environment doesn’t really strike me as a good time anymore. I also feel like I don’t have a lot to look forward to anymore being in PA. I know that’s not true, but it’s how I feel. I want to drop out and be a nomad, but since I can’t do that, I’ve decided that when I graduate, I’m taking a year off before the real world.

All in all, todo bien. This is a growing experience in more ways than I’ll ever know. This week: midterms. Next week: spring break!!!

A Weekend of Fun (yeah, another one...)

Thursday night, we went dancing at a hip hop club called Lost. We had lots of fun and danced all night. Friday, I went to a Frida Kahlo exhibit and a walking tour. Friday night, we went to Asia de Cuba, a ritzy restaurant/bar/club, for Emily's bday and we ate and danced and then went to bed a little early. Saturday, we spent all day in Tigre, a cute river town and then went to Vinos y Bodegas 2006 for some unlimited wine tasting. MMMM... Sunday, I went to chuch and then hung out with Juan, the girls, and Rodrigo. Fun weekend. I don't have many other words to describe it, but fun!

Las Esteras

I did not want to come back to BA…

September 7, 2006

Today, we arrived at the Posadas Aguape Hotel at around 8am after a long night of omnibus and a 2 hour bumpy dirt road truck ride. I took a nap in the truck and when I opened my eyes, we were completely surrounded by water, driving on a tiny dirt road in the middle of a giant lagoon. It was absolutely beautiful! This morning, we ate a completely homemade breakfast complete w/medialunas, bread, ddl, cereal, and my fav fresh squeezed orange juice. Then we willingly followed our guide onto a boat big enough for just the 14 of us, with no idea of what we were about to experience. He took us through the lagoon a little bit on the boat and we got off at another random chunk of land. The whole time, we’re enjoying every second, taking pictures and taking it all in. the beauty of the water and the green and the absolute glory. When we got off the boat, we were led into a small random jungle. The jungle was cool, filled w/ palm trees and tarzan vines and crazy plants and moss covering everything, but it was all just nice and pretty until we saw the monkeys. We saw babies and mommies and one daddy. We saw some sitting and relaxing and some swinging on the vines and some playing with each other. They were so cute and fun to watch. We also saw crazy worker ants and beautiful birds.
Later after lunch and our siesta, we went on our boat tour where we saw a countless amount of caymans (yacarés – similar to alligators) and capybaras (carpinchos) and chajas and the most beautiful indescribable sunset. It was so relaxing being out there in the open, away from the noisy city, and inches away from all this wildlife. Later, we had guiso for dinner and went for a walk around the area.
I’m so grateful that I got to go on this trip and that I’m seeing the most unimaginable and unplannable things. It’s a wonderful adventure at the same time as a relaxing quiet time with new friends. We spent some time talking to Elvira too (in Spanish), which is always fun. She’s a very sweet woman. Three more days of this place!

by becrach
by becrach

September 8, 2006

Today, we woke up to a cloudy sky with hopes that it would clear. After another great breakfast, we went to the boat – I guess to see more animals. It started to rain though, so we headed back to camp. We had lunch and just relaxed all day. Every one took naps, read, sat by the fire and just enjoyed the storm. We weren’t able to do any more of our planned activities but it didn’t matter. It was a wonderful lazy day. When we needed a little revitalization, Leah, Alicia, Danielle, and I jumped in the pool. Either brave or really dumb, the sky was practically black and it had been raining – but we had to do it. It was pretty freaking cold but it was worth the thrill. The rest of the evening, we relaxed some more, had dinner, sat by the fire, watched a movie, and went to bed. I love storms!

September 9, 2006

We woke up to another day of sunshine and beauty today. We never know what’s planned but we ate breakfast and followed our trustful guides to the trucks where we all squeezed in ready for adventure. We started driving on the roads, muddy from yesterday’s rain. We were headed out to another lagoon for some bird watching. The drive was awesome! We got to see different vegetation, some cows, and just enjoy the bumpy wet muddy ride. We saw lots of cool birds including a pareja de chajas (my new favorite animal). The chaja finds a mate and it monogamous for life and are always together. How cute! We drove along and it seemed like we might be close to our destination when we got stuck in the mud. We all got out and all the girls watched the boys valiantly push both trucks out of the mud. I’m pretty sure the drivers were annoyed but we were all enjoying the scenery and comedy of the event, snapping pics whenever we could. Of course, we had to turn back and it was probably for the better because we came back to an awesome asado. We ate lots of meat followed by some more meat. Then we celebrated Danielle’s BDay with a cake with ddl of course and sang Spanish happy birthday. The rest of the afternoon, we sat by the pool, some swam, I read, and again – we just relaxed. Then we went out on canoes to see more yacarés and carpinchos. All in all, a very exciting and eventful day.

by becrach

We left on Sunday, and now I’m back in BA going to classes again. Spring break is coming up so that’s what’s on every one’s mind now. Yeah spring! Weird huh?

The Luxuries of Buenos Aires

I went to a protest, a bar, and a museum, watched Evita, played Tabu in Spanish, saw a soccer game and went to church this weekend. There were 2 protests in one night; one about asking for more security and harsher punishment for criminals and one was about human rights in general. Pretty intense crowd. There were people calmly singing with candles and the other one had drums and people shouting and marching and waving flags. It was a very interesting night and I got to see what true passion is. La Marcha, the one about needing more security, had a Time Square New Year’s sized crowd.
by becrachThe fútbol game was amazing. We got to see Boca Juniors play Estudiantes in the Boca stadium, which is HUGE. The fans were singing the entire time and we were trying to sing along but all we got was da da da BOCA!! Da dee dooo daaaa BOCA!!!
by becrach I haven’t seen a soccer game all the way through since freshman year of high school, and this was no ordinary soccer game. I definitely enjoyed it. After the soccer game, we went to this restaurant/ bar called the Alamo and it’s apparently owned by some rich dude who just wants Americans in his bar. So they give away free stuff all the time and they play American sports! I was really excited to see my Big Ten highlights on Sunday. I’m going to the same church every week now just because I like the people. I actually understood the sermon this week too, so that was a plus.

Classes are going well and my home stay is wonderful. I get a home cooked meal EVERY NIGHT! And breakfast every morning. I get clean sheets every week and my madre even cleans my room. She’s a lawyer and she’s very smart, religious, and opinionated. She’s definitely my “mom;” every single day she asks me what I had for lunch, and when I told her that I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, she said “what would your mother say?” I told her that my mother loves pb & j but she didn’t buy it as a nutritious lunch. Something else besides my madre though, that I think Stephanie Field would appreciate, is there are no laundry mats here. You have to take your laundry to a little laundry woman who washes, drys, and folds all of your clothes. Oh the luxuries of Buenos Aires!

This weekend, I’m going to Esteras de Íbera, which are huge wetlands in the north. I’m going with my “history of the environment” class and I’m really excited!!

Week 4! Tomorrow starts week 5... LOCO

Another week of FUN classes.... well as fun as classes can be. We had our first arte en español class, which is SO cool. Each week, we go to an art museum and learn about a few artists, then we have to describe a peice of art in Spanish to the rest of the group. It's a great way to practice and learn more artistic terms, and a great way to learn about all the amazing art in this city. That was Friday afternoon. Friday night, we went to this awesome monthly exhibity opening called Gallery Nights. It's an entire street of new galleries opening with free champagne and interesting people. ¡Que divertido! Then of course, we went out around the town to a few bars. Saturday night we went to the coolest show de Tango. It's a tango orchestra of young men who play the piano, violin, cello, bass, and accordians. It was this dark underground club and it was amazing! I can't even explain it, but enjoy the clip! Sunday morning, Lauren and I went to a Presbyterian church. We didn't know what time it would start so we went 2 hours early (haha) and sat and had cafe. Then, we sat through a service which we tried so hard to understand; at least we could sing the hymns... Afterwards, this woman came up to us and in English, invited us to have lunch with the "young adults." I guess anyone under 50 is a young adult. But we went and had ravioli with about 8 of the church members, and met the pastor and his wife. It was very fun and we had a little Bible study. I'll be back next week for sure! We were there from 11am-3pm just talking and getting to know these sweet sweet people. Today, I'm going to homework....

Córdoba

We had a four day weekend! We left on Thursday night at 11:59pm on a 10 hour bus ride to Córdoba. We arrived, walked through the town and arrived at the Córdoba Backpacker's hostel where we spent Friday night. We rested ate lunch and walked around the city center. Cordoba is much older than Buenos Aires and a lot of the buildings have been around for hundreds of years. There are beautiful cathedrals and churches on every corner it seems and a university that students have attended for centuries. Friday night, the girls and I went out to a Parilla and ate some meat, and some more meat after that, and when we thought there couldn't possibly be anymore meat... there was more meat! Sausages, steak, pork, and chicken up the wazoo. And wonderful wine from Mendoza, their wine making province. All that for about $10 USD. We then went back to our hostel, and hung out with all the other travelers. We taught a couple Argentines how to play "bullshit" (a card game) which was extremely funny trying to teach them in Spanish. We woke up Saturday morning for free breakfast at the hostel and headed off to our next adventure. Nicola, Amanda, and I went hiking at Parque Nacional Quebrada del Condorito (a national park with condors). What a day! After finally getting bus tickets and sitting through a windy bumpy road on a little tour bus, we were dropped off in the middle of nowhere. The bus driver got out of his seat and stood up to tell us that was our stop. We got off the bus and looked around; at nothing. There was a small road and some hills on either side of us. No sign that said, "Welcome to Parque Nacional, you stupid Americans, follow these signs," no nothing like that. But there were 3 backpackers that got off the same time we did and when we started walking the wrong direction, they hollered at us and led the way. Gracias a Dios. We then proceeded to hop a fence to get into the park, wondering if this was even at all legal. But the backpackers did it and we followed. Before I go on, let me tell you about our attire. haha. the backpackers each had a GIANT back pack with huge water bottles and a tent. They were wearing warm jackets and shoes suitable for hiking. I was wearing bright red pants and a tshirt and carrying a pretty floral purse. Nicola was wearing cut off sweats and flip flops and Amanda was hiking in jeans with her purse and professional camera. The backpackers kept telling us it was going to get cold and we weren't going to make it and basically told us we were crazy. The people at the info booth pretty much said the same thing but we didn't care. The hike was supposed to be 2.5 hours to this huge gorge, "Balcon Norte" and we had exactly 4 hours to hike there and back. But we didn't care. We just said, "well we won't go all the way to the top and pfff, what's cold anyways?!" So we hiked and this is what we saw...
When we got back to the hostel for that night, the Morada hostel (still in Cordoba) we went shopping for groceries and Amanda cooked a gourmet meal for us, with a little help from everyone. We had pasta with homemade vodka sauce, a HUGE salad, garlic bread, grilled vegetables, the same Mendoza wine, and some Colaciones (a yummy dulce de leche dessert from our amigo, Mark). We sat in the kitchen of the hostel and laughed and ate and ate and laughed for hours. Sunday, we had breakfast at the hostel and then went to Alta Gracia to visit Che Guevara's childhood home. Alta Gracia was a cute small town with a lake and really cute old homes. There's an ancient Jesuit chuch there and other historical museums. I didn't go inside Che's house, but there were artifacts there from his childhood and family photos all over. It was so crowded; it was really amazing to walk up to this house in the middle of no where and be in the middle of a huge crowd, all people coming to learn about and honor Che. Later, we went back to our hostel, ate our leftovers from the night before and headed back to BA. Another long bus ride, and we'd be home, or our version of home for the next 3 months.

All in all, it was an adventure in and of itself; filled with good company, great stories, and a LOT of laughs!

P.S. USPS Mail actually only takes a little over a week. UPS, FedEx, and DHL will never get to me because customs opens stuff and doesn't let much pass. My address is:
Rebecca Borough
c/o IES Buenos Aires
Carlos Pelegrini 1069, Piso 13
C1009ABU Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA

Las Clases

I started classes on Monday, and they all seem to be decent. I'm taking:
Spanish 4
Cultural Icons of Argentina
International Relations
History of the Environment
Tango - which doesn't start for 2 weeks
The Spanish class, we're all hoping will be more challenging because we looked at the syllabus, and we've pretty much learned everything on it twice. But of course. I've been taking Spanish every year since 9th grade, so the last 3 classes of Spanish have just been a review for me. And that's ok, because we're always learning new words and practicing speaking, and it will be an easy A. The other classes, I don't really know yet, because we've only had the first intro day, but everything seems interesting.

What else? I really like my madre more every day. She's crazy busy and super smart. She talks a lot, which is good because I can't. She's a good cook and I get to taste typical Argentine foods all the time. The steak here is amazing, the rumors were true. The other night, Juan took me to a famous cafe called the Tortoni. It's huge and the interior is all historic. He took me around Buenos Aires more and showed me some neat things that might not be in every tourist book. I'm spending too much time speaking English so that little night out with Juan was great and inspired me to go meet Argentinos so I can actually speak Spanish. This weekend we're going to Cordoba, which is the 2nd largest city in Argentina, and one of the oldest. It has a huge university and it basically a college town, so I think us college students will enjoy it. That's all for now!

San Pedro

So I guess they thought we needed a break from the city because they took us to this small cute little town on the river (Rio del Plata) a couple hours north of BA. It was a fun trip but it was funny to be with all Americans and be speaking English for 24 straight hours. We ate dinner on the river in an old boat house. It was a huge Parilla (barbeque) with every type of meat you could imagine. After dinner we all went back to the hotel and danced and played cards in the hotel lobby all night. Crazy Americans! Friday, we woke up and ate medialunas and drank fresh squeezed orange juice, walked through the town, ate again, and went on a boat tour of the river. It was all in all a very peaceful and relaxing little trip.

Friday night, we went out... well tried to go out to a bar near where I live. We proceeded to walk all around our neighborhoods looking for a bar that wasn't packed or didn't have an age limit. We ended up just eating dinner at a random restaurant. Who knows what'll happen tonight!

I found Peanut Butter!

This week has been mostly about making this place home to me. I am very accustomed to coming home (to my dorm) from classes and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but here, they don't even know what peanut butter is. I went on a journey to find peanut butter and after vigorous searching in 2 stores, my host mom took me to find some. When I found the holy peanut butter, it was dusty because no one that even works in the store knows it's there and when I went to pay for it, the cashier asked me what I was going to do with it.

Other things I did to make myself feel at home were I bought a Cosmo in Spanish and made myself dinner one night. All in all, I feel pretty much at home except in a much more exciting place with much more to do, and a bigger challenge to communicate.

And we're already traveling. Tomorrow, we go to San Pedro, a little town by the river. And we'll spend the night there and tour the area. Bueno!


P.S. to answer some questions:
When do they have dinner? around 9. (It's a good thing I walk a lot)

Are people generally friendly (not just to good looking young girls?) yes, very friendly and helpful and when they hear my gringa accent, they want to speak English

How is the cost of living - hotels, restaurants etc? the cost of living is pretty good here, but mostly because we have the American dollar. But in comparison, it's about the same as in the states with the peso.

What are the nice hotels in the city like? They are very nice and ritzy. I live pretty much in the city center and I pass super luxurious hotels on the way to class every day (but that might just be the lobby)

Any golf course near by? yes, but I don't know where

Do they ever sleep in Buenos Aires?

You might as well just pack up all my stuff and send it to me now, because the Porteños know how to live and I don´t know if I can come back after this. (They´re Porteños because they live on a port - duh) We went to a club called Che on Friday night and it was sooo fun. The clubs don´t usually open until 2am so we went for coffee first at a local cafe. We went to the club and danced for 2 or 3 hours with our little group and plenty Argentinos. Practicing Spanish in a place you can´t even understand English because of the noise was ... interesting. We probably got home around 530/6am to sleep for a few hours and then wake up and tour the city. The tour was really cool. We got to see the Casa Rosada (pink house), their version of the White House and we saw a bunch of other important buildings and neighborhoods. Last night, we went out for Kate´s birthday to a little plaza that had a bunch of restaurants and bars. We´re all having fun just being with new people and getting to know each other. There´s so much more to say, but I´ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Look at my pictures HERE!

It's Wednesday, my 3rd day here. (the post before says aug. 1, but it's wrong). I will be putting pictures up maybe next week after we take a tour of the city. As of right now, I am feeling good with my Spanish and about getting around the city. I miss home and am not quite as excited as everyone else here, but I do like it. My madre is very nice and tries hard to help me out when I don't understand things. She has taken me around the city and helped me to get oriented. The past 2 days, we have had orientation and we will for the next 2 weeks. We are learning about cultural "norms" and things about Buenos Aires. Intro Spanish lessons started today, but the real ones will start after the orientation ends. The dialect here is different than anywhere in the world and they have different forms than we ever learned in school, so that will take some getting used to, but I'm glad that they taught us early on. I live in the center of city in an apartment and I live very close to the IES center so everything is convenient for me (so far). I feel like I should be typing in Spanish, I'm already starting to think en español. Bueno, hasta luego

My First Day

I'm in my bedroom in the home I'll be staying at for the next four months. Today was a long and tiring but fun and exciting day. I met a girl on my flight so when we got to the Buenos Aires airport, we stuck together and waited for the rest of the group and our guides. We were at the airport at about 8am. We sat around and waited for about 2 hours and then people started congregating and pretty soon, we had a van organized for us. The bus had 11 IES students, all of whom were being dropped off at our various homestays and dorms. We drove all around Buenos Aires for a couple of hours doing that. It was cool to see the city. It's a big city. Very loud and fast moving like any big city. I arrived at my apartment on Cordoba where my mother met me at the door. I'm on the 13th floor and just living with Haydee Filomeno. I have a nice room with my own door to the balcony. We ate lunch (fish burgers, salad, and soup), I unpacked, showered, and napped, and then we walked through the town. She showed me some of the main streets and where I can shop for basically anything. We then came back to the apartment and met her son, Juan. Senora has 3 sons, Juan is the middle and he's 30. We then walked around through the city somemore. Juan speaks very good English and so he said this would be the only day we speak English, because it's my first day. Senora is a very sweet woman and she is very happy. So far, I am having a good time and I am going to sleep so well tonight. Tomorrow we have our orientation.