finalmente...el final día de clase

So...I just finished the written part of my final exam. I think I did well! (I hope... :D) In about thirty minutes I have my oral part. I´m not to worried about it. After class I am going home with Joanna and then we are taking a cab to the bus terminal where we will leave for BUENOS AIRES. It is an all night bus ride again, so hopefully I will get some sleep which is very unlikely. Tomorrow we are going on a city tour and then visiting various museums. I am really excited to see the capital city. Then on Saturday we have some free time to get lunch and do what we want. Saturday night we are going to a Tango Show which is where you eat a fancy dinner while watching Tango!! We do a few more touristy things on Sunday and then we get to fly back which is awesome because it is only an hour flight! My family is throwing an "asado" for me on Sunday night. (That is kind of like a barbeque). Everytime they talk about me leaving they start to tear up, so I can already picture the tearful goodbye haha! I fly out of Cordoba at 5:40 pm, and several of the other month students are on my flight to Santiago. Then I am on my own to South Carolina! I am excited about coming home and a sad about leaving. I am going to miss my family here and hope that I will have a chance in the future to see then again. The two girls that I have gotten really close to here live in Florida and Vermont. This month has flown by because I have been so busy all the time. I can´t wait for football season!!!!!! And I definitely can´t wait to move into my new apartment!!!!

Anyways, the past couple of days have been filled with studying and relaxing. Last night Joanna and I went to a Mexican restaurant that was reeeeaaaalllllyyyy good but a different kind of mexican food that I am used to. Then again my bus from hell (N4) took an hour to come to the bus stop! haha but oh well, soon I will have my car again. After this trip, I am very very very appreciative of my car! :D (Thanks Dad and Mom!!!)

I am off to talk about Mate!!!! And then off to Buenos Aires!!!!

¡Chao!

¡¡¡¡¡San Rafael!!!!

hola...
sooo I am going to post pictures of my weekend in San Rafael eventually, but my camera just died...so...I am going to steal pictures from Joanna and post some of them for now. This weekend was amazing. We stayed in a cute little hotel for really cheap, took tours of two wineries, and took a tour of La Cañon de Atuel. We rented bikes all day Saturday to get around the town. I´m pretty sure that I biked atleast 15 miles!!! Haha, it was really fun though. It is hard to explain everything in one post, but I will bring pictures and stories home with me. :D I really needed this trip. It was relaxing, and a lot of fun!!!

photos.

San Rafael...here we come!

ok so I have great news! Today I bought a bus ticket to San Rafael, Mendoza. San Rafael is a town outside of the city Mendoza in Argentina. It is about a 10 hour bus ride, and Joanna, Mary Beth, and I decided to go there this weekend. This is our only free weekend, and we wanted to do something fun rather than just sit in Cordoba. So...we are going to San Rafael. Apparently you can rent a bike there and travel everywhere on bike. I am sooo excited about this. There is hiking, rafting, rock climbing, and skiing. Mendoza also produces 70% of the countries wine, therefore, we are going to go to some of the vineyards. Our professor said that she thinks it is the prettiest place in Argentina and has some of the neatest things to do. We are not completely sure what we are going to do yet, but we´re thinking about hiking and maybe parasailing. We are leaving friday night and will be back monday morning. I am way excited!

Yesterday, I had my horseback riding adventure. We went riding through the foothills, and even forged a river on our horses. Yep, what can I say I am a pro Gaucho (their version of cowboy). :D Anyways, It was quite fun and very pretty, but I didn´t get the chance to take any pictures. :( My host mother made me another scarf. And I am going to miss Valentina´s birthday this weekend but my host family said that I shouldn´t worry about it because this is a chance of a lifetime. Tomorrow I have a meeting with Alfredo (the program coordinator) about my experience and the program. I had a crazy taxi driver last night, but it was ok because Joanna and Mary Beth were with me. Anyways, got to go!!! :D

Chao...

el fin de semana

This past weekend was packed full. On Friday night, I just spent time with my family talking and eating and hanging out. I wanted to get to bed at a decent time because we had a long long day ahead of us and I was starting to become sick. Saturday was sooooooo long. We met at the University at 9:30 and headed to Alta Gracia (a town just 45 minutes outside of Cordoba). In Alta Gracia we visited the Estancia first. This estancia was founded by the jesuits of Spain in the 1600s and is now made into a museum. It was good but it was almost like being in class for the entire day because our profesor came and gave us a lecture in each room. Then we had lunch which was extremely good (I had lasagna. But it was different the normal lasagna in the US. It was sooooo yummy). Then we went to the museum of Che Guevarra. Aparently Che lived in Alta Gracia when he was young because of the dry conditions of the town (he had asthma). And it is now made into a museum all about him. If you study history, then you probably know somewhat of who Che is. But I did not. He is a revolutionist from Argentina, and went from country to country starting revolutions because of dictatorships. He worked hand in hand with Fidel Castro (apparently when Castro was good. I never knew that, but I guess I need to brush up on my Cuban/South American history :D) Anyways that was another very boring ordeal, but I made it through alive. Sunday (as I said in my previous blog) was spent making Budin de Pan with Joanna, Shoko, and my host mother. I will have to make it when I come home because it is very different and very good. I am sick, and my family has been taking very good care of me with many cough drops, hot teas, and they even made me a scarf :D!!! haha. anyways. I am soooo excited about tomorrow because I am going on a trip through the Sierras on horseback! ¡Hasta Luego! :D

they are going to hate me for this.

soooo last night, joanna, shoko, and i got together at my house to make a traditional argentine dessert for class today. we made budin de pan. it turned out really well, and last night was really fun because we got to spend the whole day with my family talking. (which is the best way to learn). things are going well here. :D miss you guys!!!!

here is a video of our bus ride to the Che Guevarra museum.


one more of our wait in a coffee shop.

recap.

so i am finally going to write about what has been going on here in argentina. the pictures that i posted a couple of days ago are over about the past week. the pictures of me in a pink wig were taken at a peluca party. peluca is wig in spanish. anyways over the past week i have done so many things. i have taken horseback riding lessons, gone to a gaucho festival in Cosquin, eaten nasty food, eaten good food, spent time with my family, and spent time with my new american friends. today i have my first big exam which i feel like i am not ready for even though i studied all last night and this morning. we always have so much homework and sometimes i feel like i can`t experience argentina because of all the work i have to do. but anyways, things are good. my family is amazing. mom and dad will be happy to know that i am being taken care of very well. my mom here cleans my room everday, does my laundry, makes my food, and sends me to class with a snack in hand. :D i feel like i am 10 again haha. so i guess when i am get home i will be spoiled and have to wake up to reality. the kids are great and i am very glad that i was placed with a family with kids. i think that it just adds so much more to my day. i have one free day and that is valentina`s birthday (my sister here) so i will be spending that day at her birthday party. i have become really close to two girls here: johanna and mary beth. i have only known them for 2 weeks but i feel like i have known them all my life. haha. yesterday was a monumental day for argentina and it will go down in their history books. AND I WAS HERE TO EXPERIENCE IT!!! it is a really long story but if you would like to be informed i`m sure that you can go to cnn and check it out. they have a really corrupt government and president and i feel for the people. but yesterday the people won for the first time in ages and everyone was celebrating in the streets. i do miss certain things like: grits, fresh vegatables, my car, san jose`s, and of course my family and friends. my spanish is continuing to get better which is great. i understand almost everything that my family and teacher says now, but i am still struggling with the talking part. sometimes my brain just wants to shut down, but this is an intensive month so i hope that it will help me in the long run. i saw a movie here in spanish: walle! it was really good and the guy who sold us our tickets was like you know that the movie is in spanish right? and we were like si. haha! it was good but the talking parts were really fast. i understood the majority. tomorrow we are going to some museums alllll day. and sunday i have free so i am looking forward to that. hope it is not too hot there!!! the weather is great here, haha!

chao

am i really in argentina???

ok ok ok here are pictures. i am going to have to explain them later, i have class in a few....ugggg!

more pictures. centro. my family. new friends.

Centro.

So everyone has been asking who is who in the pictures: The youngest, smallest little girl is a cousin and the other little girl is my little sister. Her name is Valentina, and she is 6 years old. The little boy is Facundo and he is my little brother, 11 years old. Max is the one on the computer playing Warcraft (haha derek) and he is my other brother who is 14. The woman is my host mother and her name is Miriam. The Father was not there because he was working. I haven´t quite figured out how their work schedules go. The Mom hasn´t worked yet, and they say that she is a lawyer. She said that she had a tribunal today. And the father only works on sunday from like 6 in the morning to like 11 at night. They don´t go to church but I think that they are Catholic. 99.9% of the population here is Catholic and I don´t think that they go to church. I would like to go to church at least once just to see how it is, and to attend a worship service in Spanish. Anyways, yesterday we went on a city tour of cordoba in the "centro". We got to ride on an omnibus which is a tour bus that has the two levels, one of the very top so you are overlooking the city. I got to ride on the top, and it was a beautiful day! They have a lot of old buildings and my camera died so I didn´t get to take many picutures, but I´m sure that I will be going there again, so I´m not too worried. Then we ate lunch and had class. Class was good, and I learned something completely new because in Argentina they speak Castellano. Castellano is spanish but it has some differences. They use a second person tense that is completely new to all of us. It is called vos and hard to explain. But yesterday I learned how to use that, and I think that I will get the hang of it. Then I took a test to place us into 3 different levels. We will each be taking the same class but at different levels. The test was hard (haha!) but I think I did ok. Today I have class at 2:30 until 6:00. It is long but we take a break in between, and I think that the teachers are going to be really good. I think that I am going to learn more here than in any of my classes back home. Tonight the tutors have planned an activity for us. We are going to eat at a restaurant called Mariachi at 9:30. They eat soooo late. And 9:30 is actually pretty early for them. They normally eat around 10 or 10:30. They are always drinking "cafe con leche" which is coffe with milk instead of water. I really like it! They think that drinking milk by itself is nasty, and they laughed at me when I said that I loved milk by itself. I take the bus everywhere. Everything is different, but not in a bad way. The food is pretty good, but to me nothing extremely special. They eat sooooooooooooo much beef!

pictures.

thank you.

Thank you all for commenting. I love getting messages! Anyways I have some more pictures that I will post probably tomorrow or the next day. Today I slept most of the day because they go out so late at night. They don´t go wherever they are going until 1 in the morning because dinner is so late (sometimes 10:30), so I didn´t get back last night until 7 in the morning. I went out with the exchanged students and all of the tutors. We went to the campus and talked and hung out, and then after that we went to a disco, which was different. They didn´t dance much and it got very crowded around 4 in the morning. There are two kinds of taxis here: remis and taxi. The remis is green and you can call ahead of time to get them to come get you, but you can sometimes get them on the street too. You can only get the taxi, which is yellow, on the street. It is safe and cheap. It was only 9 pesos for me to go from my house to the university (which is about 15 minutes) last night. That is about 3 dollars! Oh and one of my favorite parts of argentina is that they say chao instead of adios. I think that is so cool, and I say it all the time. Haha! That is all that I can think of right now. Haha-my brain is fried!

la segunda dia.

¡Hola!
It is my second day in cordoba and I am becoming accustomed. Yesterday was a little tough because I hadn´t slept for 31 hours. And my brain was fried from all the spanish. My family talks extremely fast and argentinian spanish is way different than mexican spanish or even puertorican spanish. My house and room is so cute. I have the extra room that is outside and away from the main house. It is different here because every house is surrounded by a gate that you have to unlock to get in, and then they have various things inside their gate. Sometimes they might have a courtyard and then a lot of separate rooms. My family has a pool and a sitting area and then only one separate room with a bathroom, and that is my room! Anyways, Today I had orientation and that was really good and brought my spirits up because I got to meet my tutor, Natalia, and my group which are the other girls who have the same tutor. There is three of us and then the tutor: Me, Joanna, and Brenda. Orientation was really good and tonight I am doing something with my groupa and tutor. I am not sure what yet but we are meeing the the university. Oh-this is really funny-when I got to the airport my family was calling me Sox. And I tried to correct them but they didn´t hear me or understand or something. So finally a couple of hours later I told them and the papers that they got had a mistake, sox as my first name and heather as my last. Finally they got it and were embarrassed but I thought it was funny (didn´t laugh at them thought). Anyways i thought that was funny! Everything is getting better and I think that this month is going to be great. I can tell that my spanish is already getting better too. :D



This is my tutor, Natalia.



This is my room!



My room and window.



And my bathroom.



The outside of my room.



The house.



My "hermanita".