Finally

Sorry for such a delayed post but I wanted to be able to give this post time.

On our last Thursday in Argentina, we went to a milonga. A milonga is a place where people go to dance tango and to take lessons. Its like a tango bar. It was a lot of fun to dance with our friends and also with random locals. My friend Hannah spent the night dancing with a random older gentleman. And I mean older. His hair was white. It was a lot of fun to watch them dance. They aren't lying when they say tango is for all ages. We had a lesson before hand where we learned a basic tango step but the most helpful thing (if you're a girl) is to have a guy who knows what he's doing. I dance for probably 15 or 20 minutes with one local who taught me some more complicated steps. Dancing with him looked much more natural according to my friends. And it was fun! Especially once I started to get the hang of it. He was really patient which was helpful. The picture above, I am dancing with my friend Drew and in the picture below I'm dancing with my local friend. I don't remember his name. He was older also.

The next few days we didn't really do a whole lot. Drew (pictured above) was supposed to fly out on Thursday (the night of the tango) but his flight got canceled because of ash. He ended up having to stay in Argentina for an extra week because he couldn't get a flight home. Then within the last few days his computer broke. He's just bad luck.

Those of us who were on the group flight must have found the perfect window of opportunity to make it back to the states. I didn't sleep much on either of the plane rides. I guess I was just too excited! hahaha. I was starting to get tired of the big city though I think. I just began to feel really anxious all the time. It could have just been from being away from friends and family for so long but I really think it was the big city. One of our teachers had studied abroad in Mendoza, Argentina when he was a student and I think if I had been staying for longer, I would have needed to be somewhere like Mendoza. Small, sunny, friendly. Buenos Aires is sunny, but there are soo many tall buildings that none of the rays ever hit you.

I would love nothing more than to return to Argentina someday and to be able to travel to all the different regions I never got to visit. I'm incredibly excited to have Spanish as a part of my life now and I hope I'll always have the opportunity to use it. One things for sure though, I'm gonna miss the people, the food, and just about everything else.


Chau

Back HOME

Hey yall! I'll be posting one last entry about my last few days in Argentina but I've been busy lately. Just wanted to let you know I made it home safe and sound :)

Blah!

Well, today is the last day of class. I have 2 finals today, one in my culture and history class and the other in my conversation class. I don't think they will be toooo hard...but then again, I am a little nervous. After class, we're all planning on doing a little last minute shopping and then tonight we're taking TANGO lessons! Horray!

I wanna go ahead and say HI to all my family reading this!

The Grandpas-Tatarko and Glendenning! Hello! I'm glad you guys are able to follow this :)

Mom, Dad, Mary, Margaret, Becky, Michelle, I hope I'm not missing anyone!

Thanks everyone for your facebook messages and emails! I love hearing form you guys too. I miss you all and love you tons!

Lookie lookie i bought a bookie!

I know its backwards but its Harry Potter y el ministerio del principe-Harry Potter and the mystery of the prince. I'm gonna read it on the plane ride home I think...if I can understand any of it.

One more week

I only have a week left in Argentina :(

There is still a lot that I want to do before I leave. Nothing specific but I keep wishing I had more time here to do whatever I want. 6 weeks hasn't been long enough, but I do miss my friends and family. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to come back! haha

This coming week, we have an essay due on Monday, a presentation on Tuesday, and then 2 finals on Thursday I think. I'm going to be very busy. But we have a Tango lesson later in the week as well so that will be fun!

I really like Soda Stereo. They're an Argentine band. I think I talked about them in an earlier post as well but I just cant stop listening to them! Watching the videos of their concerts is really interesting because they're just ridiculous! The fans are insane! Our teacher said she went to one of their concerts here in 2007 and it was an incredible experience. Thousands of people all squished into a stadium jumping around. I think it would be fun to go to a concert. Unfortunately, the bands main member was in a bad car accident last year and now is in a coma.
Here's a video of one of their concerts! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QShrK0SZ9BU&feature=fvst

I've decided that I'm going to buy the 6th Harry Potter book in Spanish while I'm here too. I'm gonna try to read it on the plane if I can.

This is a video from the estancia (ranch). Its one of the gauchos racing toward the ring on the wire! (sorry for the quality)

La Estancia

This past weekend we went to un estancia which is basically just like a ranch. There we rode horses, ate a lot of good food, and watch a gaucho show. Gauchos are kind of like the cowboys of Argentina. The best empanadas that I've ever had were from the estancia. For lunch we had an asado which is like a big old barbeque. We had
chicken, chorizo, and steaks. I felt really unhealthy afterwards. They had a show on stage and they played music from all the different regions of argentina. It was really fun and they danced very well. Afterwards they opened up the dance floor but no one was dancing really. The professionals went through the crowd and selected people at random to go up and dance and guess who got selected....me. Haha, I was glad to have had the opportunity although I felt absolutely ridiculous dancing with a professional while wearing a hoodie, tennis shoes and my winter hat. OH WELL THOUGH :) I know some of my friends got videos and pictures but they haven't shared them with me yet. As soon as I have them, I will post.

After we ate, we went outside and watched them do tricks with the horses. It was really neat. The first thing we saw was a method that they have been practicing for hundreds of years. One gaucho just put himself in weird positions with the horse. It was really interesting because he got the horse to lay down on its back, like its spine. It was REALLY neat.
















The group riding horses (left) and guy doing tricks! (above)


okay, so, a long time ago, when 2 gauchos were fighting over a woman, they would tie her ring to a string and race towards its with a pencil like stick. the one who managed to get the ring first, could ask the girl to marry him. if she says yes, she kisses him and if she says no, she kisses the horse. That's what the picture to the right is. Sorry you cant see this very well! I have videos I can post as well.

The guy telling the stories was being so vulgar it was hilarious.


I've been soooo tired this week! sorry for not posting sooner! We're getting close to finishing up. I'll be home in about a week :( I'm gonna miss Argentina a lot!

But! tonight, we went to go see "Que paso ayer: parte 2?" (what happened yesterday: part 2) or the Hangover part 2. We ordered popcorn (I was soo excited because I've been craving popcorn) and then realized that it was kettle corn! I was so disappointed! Everything they eat here is sweet. I hate it. I can eat chocolate all day but I don't want sugar on everything I eat. That is one thing that I will not miss. The icecream place here that I got to is incredible. Its called Freddo and unfortunately its only in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and some other random South American countries. Everyone I know loves it.

I love exploring here. Don't worry mom, I'm smart/safe about it. The other day, we were walking home from class and I peeled off from the group and just walked around a little. My friend Sarah just goes "you love your adventures." Its true. I do. I do it with food also. I am notorious for ordering random stuff off of the menu that no one can understand. When someone asks me what I ordered, my typical response is "I have NO idea." Its fun!

Tomorrow we are gonna visit the main campus of our university. I'm getting up a little early.

Chau for now!

Sorry sorry!

I promise I haven't forgotten but I'm kind of waiting for embarrassing pictures of me dancing to put online by my friends. We went to a ranch this past Sunday and hung out with Gouchos. I'll write all about it as soon as I can :)

Only in Argentina....Literally

Highlight of today- "Sabor 5.0"

Today, my friend Tyler and I decided that we were going to eat the Burger King Stacker Quintuple. That's 5 patties, 5 pieces of cheese, bacon, and their special sauce. I ate it all. I seriously cannot move. They don't offer this particular burger in the US so we wanted to take on the challenge. We had the option of adding onion rings, and increasing the size of the fries and drink for just 4 pesos more. We decided against it because that was just ridiculous but someone else in the restaurant ordered it right after us. Gross. There's no way I will be able to eat dinner tonight.

Please enjoy the pictures.

Iguazu Weekend

HOLA TODOS! (hey everyone!)

Well! We returned from our trip to Iguazu yesterday at about noon. It was SOO much fun! The weather was incredible, I didn't wear pants or a jacket once.

We arrived at our hostel in Iguazu Friday morning. The bus ride wasn't bad at all. The chairs were really big but it wasn't all that easy for me to sleep on the bus. After we got there, we walked around town a little bit and ate lunch at a restaurant that had a great view of Paraguay from the balcony (we ate on their balcony of course). We relaxed by the pool and just chatted with each other until the evening came. I roomed with Tyler, Drew, Sarah, and these 2 French people who were nice...but not friendly. They spoke Spanish and English (and French too obviously) so it was easy to communicate with them. The hostel itself was pretty nice as well.

That night, our hostel had an asado which is like an argentine barbeque or cookout. We had some delicious chorizo, beef and chicken. It was all you could eat so we all stuffed our faces. That night we all just hung out at the hostel because there was a bar there and a band playing some fantastic salsa music! So YES Aunt Mary! I made it to my first milonga and I have at least one more planned. It was a lot of fun! Guitars, drums, maracas, an excellent happy hour, and dancing! what more could you want?

The next day we went to visit the falls. They were about 20 minutes away from where we were staying. They were absolutely BREATHTAKING. We all had soo much fun farting around at the falls. Just being silly and having fun with each other. It was a really long day though, we had to leave at 9 and then we got back around 5. All in all, walked about 6.2 miles around the park. We put our feet in the water at a beach at the bottom of the falls, it was cold, but it felt really nice. The soil all around that area (including the town we were staying in) was very red. This is because the iron in the soil oxidizes when it rains in the same way that metal signs and things rust. Don't worry Dad, I learned that in geography so I was the smarty pants who already knew all about it. Our tour guide said that when it rains a lot in the region, the falls turn red from the soil they are carrying.


Below, Me and Sarah are imitating the movie Titanic. Like my creepy smile?
















These are mapache or their version of a raccoon. They are NOT nice. I didn't like them at all. We saw one of them attack a girl for her cookies. Not good! We also saw a TON of monkeys. There were people feeding them bread which made me really mad but I didn't quite know how to tell them to stop in Spanish or how to explain why what they were doing was wrong. There are also toucans in the region but unfortunately we didn't get to see any. When we got home that night, our hostel was having a Pizza and Beer night so we, once again, stuffed our faces. The pizza here is not at all like the pizza in the US. They use medium thick crust and cover it in mozzarella cheese and then place an olive on each slice. If you wanted any other kind of pizza like pepperoni, you would get a pizza with 1 piece of pepperoni on each slice. There is hardly any sauce so it is kind of like just eating cheesy bread. I never thought I would miss American pizza so much! I just want some cream cheese and sausage pizza! That, and I also really miss popcorn. My friends and I are going to see a movie sometime this week and I just hope that they have popcorn and that its at least kind of similar!

Anyways! The next day, we had a trip to the jungle where we hiked around a little and went rappelling and zip lining! I had never done either and both were a lot of fun. The most rappelling type thing I had ever done was to descend the rock wall at Galyans Sporting Goods. It was about 2 stories tall but I was expecting it to just be a flat wall but it was not smooth at all. There were a lot of jagged rocks sticking out but I made it down just fine!
Below is just a pictures of me, Sarah and Tyler goofing around after a successful rappelling trip!



All in all, an excellent trip. Somewhere I definitely want to return to someday if I get the chance.

I'm about to head up to Iguazu falls for a 5 night trip

We're taking the Knight Bus just like in Harry Potter!



Haha, just kidding. But it is like a 16 hour trip and we're leaving at 7 tonight. The buses are supposed to be incredibly comfortable and you are supposed to sleep. Anyways, I'm heading out! When I return, I promise I'll have some great pictures (and stories too I'm sure)

Besos! (kisses)