Ok i realize i`ve become really lazy about my blog, sorry. but at least i now have the energy to post photos.
Argentina 5
Argentina 6
Argentina 7
Friday, December 12, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Foto Foto Foto
For those of you not on facebook, i uploaded more pictures. Here are the public links for all photos so far.
Facebook Photos 1
Facebook Photos 2
New! From Mar Del Plata and Mendoza
Facebook Photos 3
Facebook Photos 4
Facebook Photos 1
Facebook Photos 2
New! From Mar Del Plata and Mendoza
Facebook Photos 3
Facebook Photos 4
Mendoza
We got back from Mar Del Plata on the 26th, and i was off to Mendoza on the night of the 29th arriving on the 31st. This ride in the micro was a piece of pie, only 10 hours. Plus, it was amazing and the chairs were wide and reclined all the way back and had leg rests. I was very impressed.
Marìa Emilia (Mimi),my host mom`s niece, met me at the terminal and we got into another bus to to Tunuyan. Tunuyan is basically a suburb of the capital city of Mendoza. It`s really nice, kind of Americanized. The first day was just hanging out at the house, we went for ice cream and saw some kids dressed up for Halloween but there were only like five of them. That night i went out with Agostina, mimi`s sister who is the same age as me, and her friends to a bar/boliche (club). The bad thing was that i was in no mood for fun because i was so tired, i was kind of a party pooper that night. We decided to leave around 4am, which is early for argentina, and called a taxi. I didn`t come, so we called again. Didn`t come. Fantastic. Agostina`s boyfriend bumped into a friend and he gave us a ride a long with a few other people. Finally got back about 5 am and i slept until it got so umcomfortably hot in the house i had to get up. Saturday was another day to hang out until we had to go to another quince (15 year old birthday party, for girls). The girl who turned 15- she was loaded. It was amazing. Behind the area where the party was there was a private small soccer field, volleyball court, and olympic depth swimming pool. what?!?!? i know. The food was good and so was the music. Mendoza empanadas are really tasty steep competition for Catamarca.
Sunday was a nother relaxing day in the burbs of Mendoza, we had an asado. The family has a really nice backyard with a grilling area for asados with a gigantic mate over it. Agostina told me that the mate (the cup that holds the tea mate is also called a mate) represented friendship. I thought it was pretty cool. The food was soo good, but almost the whole meal i had to hear about how asado is so much better than American BBQ because we cook our meat too fast. He thought we dumped coal and anything flamible under the grill and cooked our meat in thirty seconds. Esentially described a torching, i couldn`t convince him otherwise...im not sure why he didn`t believe me. Either way the food was good. After the Asado at about 4 mimi, ago, their dad, and i got into the car and drove to a town outside of Tunuyan called Manzana. We saw great scenery of the mountains and wine vineyards along the way i took more than enought pictures. Manzana is a little touristy place on the edge of the mountains. We went very hopeful to go parachuting they called it, specifically i think it was more base jumping. I wanted to go so bad, but we had to make an appointment before :( . So instead we went horseback riding. It was awesome. We went with a real gaucho. We were riding and he was telling me all about how he sees americans all the time and a whole bunch of itallians. Also he tried to convince me to go with his company to cross the Andes into Chili on horseback in January. Sounds cool, no?
Monday i went to school with Agostina. She goes to a really religious school they start every class with the sign of the cross and stuff. nuts. I liked the kids in her class though, we spent pretty much the whole day goofing off which is not uncommon here. I think what stood out to me the most is when one of the teachers let the students go over their party check list in during class. They wrote on the board all the drinks they wanted and how much they would have to spend. The funny thing is that it was drinks like... Fernet, Beer, Coke, Wine, Vodka. I was a little confused, but not surprised. I put a picture on Facebook. I was a good time, i`m glad i went.
Around three in the afternoon Tuesday Agostina, her mom,and i got on the bus for an hour and went to the capital city Mendoza. After meeting up with Gerardo, the dad, we went to a big sculpture on the top of a mountain. it`s called the `cerro de gloria` or the Hill of Glory. It signified the independence of Argentina from Spain. It was really big and elaborate...but, the view from that spot was even cooler. i looked down on the city and we could see all of the surrounding mountains. After we went to ... a mall. (?!?) but i came to realize that shopping is the only thing to do in Mendoza except for in the winter when people come to ski. So- yes. I spent the whole night shopping, it wasn`t bad though. When we got back to the house i turned on the Tv and didn`t stop watching until around 3 am after obama made his speech. I had to watch it in spanish though and raise up the volume to hear the drowned out english in the background.
Wednesday I went to the city in the morning with Gerardo and we went to the bus terminal to get my bus ticket to go back that night. After everything was settled i left my bags at his work and walked around the center of Mendoza for several hours. I started by going to a coffee shop and spending about an hour there eating chocolate, drinking orange juice, and writing in my journal. I did some more shopping while walking around the centre, bought some jeans (xaxira- yeah... they`re skinny jeans). While walking around the city i saw some pretty interesting things. One was a bank stirke. Nationally the banks were planning on going on strike on Wednesday and Thursday, but it was called off at the last minute except for this one i guess. There were guys in suits with flags and drums and were inside the bank throwing papers around and chanting and stuff. Things here are a lot more intense then things in the States, as in violently intense. For example... at a football game generally two fans of different teams can sit next to each other with no problem. Here, at a soccer game the fans have to be physically separated by a section of seats on each side lined by police. Also one section has to leave first, then the other can leave a half hour later. If a fan happened to be in the wrong section, the others would literally beat them with chairs or whatever they have. Speaking of violence, i walked into a store and saw a catfight. It was helarious. they were throwing each other into clothes racks and hitting each other with their flip flops. I left the store right away, but did so laughing. In my short time being in Argentina i`ve seen more fights then i think i have in my whole life in the states.
I went to lunch around one in the afternoon and spent a long time there writing and drinking my juice. Tried walking around again but everything was closed because everybody was sleeping their siesta. So i took a taxi back to the mall i had been to the night before and went to the movies. After went to mimi`s appartment and had some more juice and some alfajores. She walked with me back to the bus terminal and i took off at about 9 last night, getting back to Catamarca at about 7hrs.
I love Mendoza. It`s so green and the snow capped mountains are awesome! I prefer the outside of the city- if you`re ever in argentina you have to go.
Marìa Emilia (Mimi),my host mom`s niece, met me at the terminal and we got into another bus to to Tunuyan. Tunuyan is basically a suburb of the capital city of Mendoza. It`s really nice, kind of Americanized. The first day was just hanging out at the house, we went for ice cream and saw some kids dressed up for Halloween but there were only like five of them. That night i went out with Agostina, mimi`s sister who is the same age as me, and her friends to a bar/boliche (club). The bad thing was that i was in no mood for fun because i was so tired, i was kind of a party pooper that night. We decided to leave around 4am, which is early for argentina, and called a taxi. I didn`t come, so we called again. Didn`t come. Fantastic. Agostina`s boyfriend bumped into a friend and he gave us a ride a long with a few other people. Finally got back about 5 am and i slept until it got so umcomfortably hot in the house i had to get up. Saturday was another day to hang out until we had to go to another quince (15 year old birthday party, for girls). The girl who turned 15- she was loaded. It was amazing. Behind the area where the party was there was a private small soccer field, volleyball court, and olympic depth swimming pool. what?!?!? i know. The food was good and so was the music. Mendoza empanadas are really tasty steep competition for Catamarca.
Sunday was a nother relaxing day in the burbs of Mendoza, we had an asado. The family has a really nice backyard with a grilling area for asados with a gigantic mate over it. Agostina told me that the mate (the cup that holds the tea mate is also called a mate) represented friendship. I thought it was pretty cool. The food was soo good, but almost the whole meal i had to hear about how asado is so much better than American BBQ because we cook our meat too fast. He thought we dumped coal and anything flamible under the grill and cooked our meat in thirty seconds. Esentially described a torching, i couldn`t convince him otherwise...im not sure why he didn`t believe me. Either way the food was good. After the Asado at about 4 mimi, ago, their dad, and i got into the car and drove to a town outside of Tunuyan called Manzana. We saw great scenery of the mountains and wine vineyards along the way i took more than enought pictures. Manzana is a little touristy place on the edge of the mountains. We went very hopeful to go parachuting they called it, specifically i think it was more base jumping. I wanted to go so bad, but we had to make an appointment before :( . So instead we went horseback riding. It was awesome. We went with a real gaucho. We were riding and he was telling me all about how he sees americans all the time and a whole bunch of itallians. Also he tried to convince me to go with his company to cross the Andes into Chili on horseback in January. Sounds cool, no?
Monday i went to school with Agostina. She goes to a really religious school they start every class with the sign of the cross and stuff. nuts. I liked the kids in her class though, we spent pretty much the whole day goofing off which is not uncommon here. I think what stood out to me the most is when one of the teachers let the students go over their party check list in during class. They wrote on the board all the drinks they wanted and how much they would have to spend. The funny thing is that it was drinks like... Fernet, Beer, Coke, Wine, Vodka. I was a little confused, but not surprised. I put a picture on Facebook. I was a good time, i`m glad i went.
Around three in the afternoon Tuesday Agostina, her mom,and i got on the bus for an hour and went to the capital city Mendoza. After meeting up with Gerardo, the dad, we went to a big sculpture on the top of a mountain. it`s called the `cerro de gloria` or the Hill of Glory. It signified the independence of Argentina from Spain. It was really big and elaborate...but, the view from that spot was even cooler. i looked down on the city and we could see all of the surrounding mountains. After we went to ... a mall. (?!?) but i came to realize that shopping is the only thing to do in Mendoza except for in the winter when people come to ski. So- yes. I spent the whole night shopping, it wasn`t bad though. When we got back to the house i turned on the Tv and didn`t stop watching until around 3 am after obama made his speech. I had to watch it in spanish though and raise up the volume to hear the drowned out english in the background.
Wednesday I went to the city in the morning with Gerardo and we went to the bus terminal to get my bus ticket to go back that night. After everything was settled i left my bags at his work and walked around the center of Mendoza for several hours. I started by going to a coffee shop and spending about an hour there eating chocolate, drinking orange juice, and writing in my journal. I did some more shopping while walking around the centre, bought some jeans (xaxira- yeah... they`re skinny jeans). While walking around the city i saw some pretty interesting things. One was a bank stirke. Nationally the banks were planning on going on strike on Wednesday and Thursday, but it was called off at the last minute except for this one i guess. There were guys in suits with flags and drums and were inside the bank throwing papers around and chanting and stuff. Things here are a lot more intense then things in the States, as in violently intense. For example... at a football game generally two fans of different teams can sit next to each other with no problem. Here, at a soccer game the fans have to be physically separated by a section of seats on each side lined by police. Also one section has to leave first, then the other can leave a half hour later. If a fan happened to be in the wrong section, the others would literally beat them with chairs or whatever they have. Speaking of violence, i walked into a store and saw a catfight. It was helarious. they were throwing each other into clothes racks and hitting each other with their flip flops. I left the store right away, but did so laughing. In my short time being in Argentina i`ve seen more fights then i think i have in my whole life in the states.
I went to lunch around one in the afternoon and spent a long time there writing and drinking my juice. Tried walking around again but everything was closed because everybody was sleeping their siesta. So i took a taxi back to the mall i had been to the night before and went to the movies. After went to mimi`s appartment and had some more juice and some alfajores. She walked with me back to the bus terminal and i took off at about 9 last night, getting back to Catamarca at about 7hrs.
I love Mendoza. It`s so green and the snow capped mountains are awesome! I prefer the outside of the city- if you`re ever in argentina you have to go.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Mar Del Plata
So the trip started on October 19th. The sun was pounding down on the little city of Catamarca as about 200 kids all of either volleyball, basketball, soccer, and handball, etc. baked in their matching `Government of Catamarca` sweat suits waiting to load up in the assigned micro (coach bus). I was with the girls basketball and handball teams which was promising because I like the basketball girls and had no idea what kind of hell the handball girls would be during this voyage. The reason I use `voyage` instead of the word `trip` is because a) the distance between Catamarca and Mar Del Plata is km, which translates into mi b) all of that distance is translated into 20 hours of travelling, sorry- voyaging, ...in a bus...with the handball team (who insist that they sound just like the popstar they happen to be playing from their cell phones right behind my head for about 15 of the 24 hours). oh, and a micro broke down so it was really 24.
The most important thing is that we got there in one piece, the majority in one smelly unshowered piece- especially the boys. The hotel situation was crazy, my host brother had to organize it all and it turned out that there weren`t enough rooms so he had to go to another hotel. At first I was a little disappointed I wouldn`t be in the same hotel as him because I didn`t know anybody in the begining of the voyage. The thing is that it turned out better for me, since he and my host mom (director of sports in Catamarca) were extremely busy there was no time to worry about me. So what did i do without supervision? Anything I wanted, of course. (now they just didn`t abandon me, they just didn`t worry about where i was all the time so i took advantage of it)
The day we got there after showering and stuff i walked to the beach, only four blocks from the hotel, with my new friend Rodrigo. So we went to the beach but it was cold an cloudy. He filmed stuff while i walked around looking for sea shells and whatnot. We walked around looking for empanadas, bought two each and went to the plaza near the beach to eat. Just as we were polishing off emapanada number two there was this kinda fat lady standing accross from us and as she went to sit down she let out this enormous fart. All of my previous thoughts of big farts were slapped in the face with this one, auctually im surprised my cubs cap didn`t blow off. The best part was when Rodrigo sat with disbelief and just said `Incredible!`. It was helarious- i don`t care if you think i`m immature.So we got back to the hotel and walked around the city and whatnot with the rest of the group.
Other highlights from the voyage were:
I really got to know more people from Catamarca especially the basketball girls (my new basketball team) and the coaches. Now i feel better about being in Catamarca. Also I think i`ll auctually go to school tomorrow- i now have a little more motivation to make friends.
I love the independance i had. In Catamarca i always ask to go out and tell them when I`m coming back- also i always get rides... which is nice i guess but i don`t like it, i feel too dependent and afraid to ask to go out because i`ll inconvience them. With this independance I got to go out friday night with some younger coaches. The basketball players couldn`t go out (suckers) but i still had a good time. We left around midnight and walked around the whole city. Around six we walked to the beach and all watched the sunrise. It was so cool. I`m sad i didn`t bring my camera but i didn`t want it ripped off of me.
Otherwise the rest of the time was spent at the beach, writing in my journal, or going to basketball games. The U-14 basketball girls placed 14th out of 24 in the country. Not bad considering that Catamarca has only had girls basketball for about a year. Also the girls U-16 placed 8th. pretty exciting.
The most important thing is that we got there in one piece, the majority in one smelly unshowered piece- especially the boys. The hotel situation was crazy, my host brother had to organize it all and it turned out that there weren`t enough rooms so he had to go to another hotel. At first I was a little disappointed I wouldn`t be in the same hotel as him because I didn`t know anybody in the begining of the voyage. The thing is that it turned out better for me, since he and my host mom (director of sports in Catamarca) were extremely busy there was no time to worry about me. So what did i do without supervision? Anything I wanted, of course. (now they just didn`t abandon me, they just didn`t worry about where i was all the time so i took advantage of it)
The day we got there after showering and stuff i walked to the beach, only four blocks from the hotel, with my new friend Rodrigo. So we went to the beach but it was cold an cloudy. He filmed stuff while i walked around looking for sea shells and whatnot. We walked around looking for empanadas, bought two each and went to the plaza near the beach to eat. Just as we were polishing off emapanada number two there was this kinda fat lady standing accross from us and as she went to sit down she let out this enormous fart. All of my previous thoughts of big farts were slapped in the face with this one, auctually im surprised my cubs cap didn`t blow off. The best part was when Rodrigo sat with disbelief and just said `Incredible!`. It was helarious- i don`t care if you think i`m immature.So we got back to the hotel and walked around the city and whatnot with the rest of the group.
Other highlights from the voyage were:
I really got to know more people from Catamarca especially the basketball girls (my new basketball team) and the coaches. Now i feel better about being in Catamarca. Also I think i`ll auctually go to school tomorrow- i now have a little more motivation to make friends.
I love the independance i had. In Catamarca i always ask to go out and tell them when I`m coming back- also i always get rides... which is nice i guess but i don`t like it, i feel too dependent and afraid to ask to go out because i`ll inconvience them. With this independance I got to go out friday night with some younger coaches. The basketball players couldn`t go out (suckers) but i still had a good time. We left around midnight and walked around the whole city. Around six we walked to the beach and all watched the sunrise. It was so cool. I`m sad i didn`t bring my camera but i didn`t want it ripped off of me.
Otherwise the rest of the time was spent at the beach, writing in my journal, or going to basketball games. The U-14 basketball girls placed 14th out of 24 in the country. Not bad considering that Catamarca has only had girls basketball for about a year. Also the girls U-16 placed 8th. pretty exciting.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Im Sorry!
hey everybody i know i havn`t written anything in a while but right now im in mendoza and when i get back i`ll write novels about this trip and Mar Del Plata, i promise.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Off to Mar Del Plata
Yep, i leave in about an hour. send emails even though i don`t know what my internet situation is going to be.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Something left unsaid...
i forgot to mention in my last post that I WAS IN AN EARTHQUAKE!
well, auctually it was just a tremor, but equally as cool. don´t tell my mom.
This week I haven´t done much, mostly getting ready for my final exam in spanish and going to Mar Del Plata. The other exchange students are getting ready to go on their big south trip starting Saturday. Monday was Columbus day (or something like that) and we didn´t have school. There were teacher strikes today and yesterday. But hey, I guess two days of school during the week is better than nothing, and five. ;)
well, auctually it was just a tremor, but equally as cool. don´t tell my mom.
This week I haven´t done much, mostly getting ready for my final exam in spanish and going to Mar Del Plata. The other exchange students are getting ready to go on their big south trip starting Saturday. Monday was Columbus day (or something like that) and we didn´t have school. There were teacher strikes today and yesterday. But hey, I guess two days of school during the week is better than nothing, and five. ;)
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Bike Rides and Asados
So , it´s been a while. But that´s ok.
Last sunday, Federico and i went to an asado, but to get there we rode 40km (about 25mi) to a smaller town outside of SFVCatamarca. Suited in our snazzy shades and padded spandex shorts, we headed out at about 8 am. Leaving the city definately was not my highlight. We flew downhill on busy streets and here in Catamarca (or posibly Argentina in general judging by my few hours in Buenos Aires) the traffic laws, and laws of common sense while driving, aren´t exactly followed and much less enforced (they run red lights, don´t slow down at intersecions, and like to play chicken with busses who definately aren´t chicken). I almost got hit at least 3 times, but after the first encounter I happily turtled my way to the bottom. We rode the outskirts of the city for a while and then turned on this little gravel road (thank god for padded spandex). Other than the part that this road was gravel, it wasn´t that difficult. It was canyon like, mostly flat. The scenery was amazing, we cosed rivers and saw really cool flowers. We arrived at a little pueblo, it was so cute and very movie-like. There was one road with all of the houses, a church, and all the old men reading newspapers along the sides.Out on the road in front of us a horse a buggy were approaching us, and there was an old man in the front yelling “flowers, plants, vegetables!”. The town was so different and I really enjoyed riding through it even though it didn´t last long since it was tiny. Outside of that town was a lot of cattle and farms. Further along the road we encountered some horses, this was my favorite part. There were three horses chowing don on some foliage on the side of the road, two brown and one black. When one of the brown ones saw us coming he started to walk in the other direction, the others kind of watched us with little movement or curiosity. As we got closer to them the brown horse started to run a little (sorry, im not up with my horse jargin, posibly “trotting”), about the same pace as us. It was awesome, we were riding with that horse for about two or three minutes which is auctually quite a while. We continued and saw more scenery and finally intersected with a paved road with nothing around. Fede said “we´re here”. I was relieved and a bit confused, after all, it had already been 30km and alter a whole summer of being lazy and unconditioned (except for my huge biceps after hauling all of Matt´s crap from car to field, usually a few times, then back again.. But i´m not complaining! :D ) i was kind of tired. But, remember this was a 40km bike ride, not 30. The last ten was spent riding up mountians to a construction zone, where we pushed our bikes the rest of the way up the mountain. We were pretty high up, and then Fede told me he didn´t know where we were going, great. so we turned around and found a little path and of course took it. The thing about this path was that it was super narrow, covered in rocks, and steep. Of course, i didn´t ride it, but rather pushed and carried the bikes the whole way. I vaguely remember yelling at Federico telling him “te odio!” a couple times, hah. Eventhough the last 10km were hell for me, it was totally worth it. The dice (dee-kay), or the lake, was really pretty from our view (shown in facebook photos). It was also worth it because the whole way back to the asado was downhill and paved. I think my max speed was about 50km\h and that was turtleing my way down. Oh well, i still felt pretty badass.
Then-- the asado. An asado is a tradicional Argentine barbeque, but with more meat if you can imagine. The fire started up and the men started cooking the beef and mountain goat meat (they explained it to me as a little sheep). The food was amazing, not quite as much variety as an American bbq but still tasty. The food just kept on coming, which i guess is the best, and worst ( because i can´t say no), part about it.
The week that came after the asado I had Monday and Tuesday off of school because of teacher meetings. That was sweet because I mostly hung out and not gong to school was the best part about it. Oh, and i didn´t go school thrusday either because of teacher strikes. Definately different from Conserve School, but im making the most of it. I´m reading a lot more than i ever have, i bought National Geographic and Rolling Stones magazines with exceptionally long articules (in spanish) and i read them and scribbled all of my translations which really helps. Also, school helps with conversacional spanish. All in all, school is getting better, except for the learning part.
I started dance classes this week. The main instructor is pro in argentine folklore and tango and other tradional classes like that. He kind of reminded me of a mushroom (you know- small pants, big body). Anyways, this week we learned "el gato", it´s folklore. it´s hot. (not.) It´s a lot of fun though with the other exchange students.
Last week, my host sister Florencia´s basketball team won a championship and are champions of the province of Catamarca, so we´re all gong to Mar del Plata on the 19th for a week. That´s pretty exciting, and my spanish is geeting better.
That´s about it for now.
Last sunday, Federico and i went to an asado, but to get there we rode 40km (about 25mi) to a smaller town outside of SFVCatamarca. Suited in our snazzy shades and padded spandex shorts, we headed out at about 8 am. Leaving the city definately was not my highlight. We flew downhill on busy streets and here in Catamarca (or posibly Argentina in general judging by my few hours in Buenos Aires) the traffic laws, and laws of common sense while driving, aren´t exactly followed and much less enforced (they run red lights, don´t slow down at intersecions, and like to play chicken with busses who definately aren´t chicken). I almost got hit at least 3 times, but after the first encounter I happily turtled my way to the bottom. We rode the outskirts of the city for a while and then turned on this little gravel road (thank god for padded spandex). Other than the part that this road was gravel, it wasn´t that difficult. It was canyon like, mostly flat. The scenery was amazing, we cosed rivers and saw really cool flowers. We arrived at a little pueblo, it was so cute and very movie-like. There was one road with all of the houses, a church, and all the old men reading newspapers along the sides.Out on the road in front of us a horse a buggy were approaching us, and there was an old man in the front yelling “flowers, plants, vegetables!”. The town was so different and I really enjoyed riding through it even though it didn´t last long since it was tiny. Outside of that town was a lot of cattle and farms. Further along the road we encountered some horses, this was my favorite part. There were three horses chowing don on some foliage on the side of the road, two brown and one black. When one of the brown ones saw us coming he started to walk in the other direction, the others kind of watched us with little movement or curiosity. As we got closer to them the brown horse started to run a little (sorry, im not up with my horse jargin, posibly “trotting”), about the same pace as us. It was awesome, we were riding with that horse for about two or three minutes which is auctually quite a while. We continued and saw more scenery and finally intersected with a paved road with nothing around. Fede said “we´re here”. I was relieved and a bit confused, after all, it had already been 30km and alter a whole summer of being lazy and unconditioned (except for my huge biceps after hauling all of Matt´s crap from car to field, usually a few times, then back again.. But i´m not complaining! :D ) i was kind of tired. But, remember this was a 40km bike ride, not 30. The last ten was spent riding up mountians to a construction zone, where we pushed our bikes the rest of the way up the mountain. We were pretty high up, and then Fede told me he didn´t know where we were going, great. so we turned around and found a little path and of course took it. The thing about this path was that it was super narrow, covered in rocks, and steep. Of course, i didn´t ride it, but rather pushed and carried the bikes the whole way. I vaguely remember yelling at Federico telling him “te odio!” a couple times, hah. Eventhough the last 10km were hell for me, it was totally worth it. The dice (dee-kay), or the lake, was really pretty from our view (shown in facebook photos). It was also worth it because the whole way back to the asado was downhill and paved. I think my max speed was about 50km\h and that was turtleing my way down. Oh well, i still felt pretty badass.
Then-- the asado. An asado is a tradicional Argentine barbeque, but with more meat if you can imagine. The fire started up and the men started cooking the beef and mountain goat meat (they explained it to me as a little sheep). The food was amazing, not quite as much variety as an American bbq but still tasty. The food just kept on coming, which i guess is the best, and worst ( because i can´t say no), part about it.
The week that came after the asado I had Monday and Tuesday off of school because of teacher meetings. That was sweet because I mostly hung out and not gong to school was the best part about it. Oh, and i didn´t go school thrusday either because of teacher strikes. Definately different from Conserve School, but im making the most of it. I´m reading a lot more than i ever have, i bought National Geographic and Rolling Stones magazines with exceptionally long articules (in spanish) and i read them and scribbled all of my translations which really helps. Also, school helps with conversacional spanish. All in all, school is getting better, except for the learning part.
I started dance classes this week. The main instructor is pro in argentine folklore and tango and other tradional classes like that. He kind of reminded me of a mushroom (you know- small pants, big body). Anyways, this week we learned "el gato", it´s folklore. it´s hot. (not.) It´s a lot of fun though with the other exchange students.
Last week, my host sister Florencia´s basketball team won a championship and are champions of the province of Catamarca, so we´re all gong to Mar del Plata on the 19th for a week. That´s pretty exciting, and my spanish is geeting better.
That´s about it for now.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
So about another week has gone by, I intended to post earlier but the internet keeps cutting out here.
well, the first interesting thing that i experienced this week was the southamerican cup for Patin (skating). definately something i haven´t seen before. In a nutshell, patin is figure skating, but not over ice my friends (too dificult to maintain in warmer climates, obviously), it´s the old school skates. so basically i got to watch male figureskating... and the male programs there aren´t as developed as it is in the states (becuase, it´s definately not the most machismo sport on the planet) but it was entertaining nontheless. we mostly went there to watch my host mom speak, since shes the director or sports in catamarca, and it was great. at least i think it was, not like i understood it, but everybody clapped, so i did to.
so i was sick and got better.. yep- that means school. I suited up in my obnoxiously plaid uniform monday morning at about quarter to seven (it really is ugly..) it consists of a skirt that´s nearly two sizes too long for me, a polo, the same socks everyday (not a good situation for me), oh! and old man shoes. for breakfast, i was asked what i like to eat, naturally being the american i am, i said toast. so-- my host mom made an enormous pile of toast, but since i don´t eat 15 slices in the morning, it´s in a bin in the firdge (which kinda defeats the point of warm crispy melty toast in the morning, but i take one for the team anyways)everything is good though, i enjoy my classmates-no specific friends yet, but it´ll come along with the language. So everyday we start with everybody in lines facing the flag, and they play a very very long dramatic song while somebody raises the flag slowly, i respect it but it´s still super cheezy :P . Also in school, since there are no books, i´m learning how to take notes by hand again. but the thing is that the teacher stands in the back of the room reading the page at a billion words/min and i can´t understand it, much less keep up. Also, something else i found interesting.. in english class today, we had to do a worksheet (yes, they´re making me do worksheets) and i kid you not, this was one of the problems:
Complete the sentences with the correct form of the verbs in brackets.
5. Terrorists threatened.........................(blow up) the store.
not much else exciting has happend here, just trying to get into a routine here and focus on learning spanish and making friends...
well, the first interesting thing that i experienced this week was the southamerican cup for Patin (skating). definately something i haven´t seen before. In a nutshell, patin is figure skating, but not over ice my friends (too dificult to maintain in warmer climates, obviously), it´s the old school skates. so basically i got to watch male figureskating... and the male programs there aren´t as developed as it is in the states (becuase, it´s definately not the most machismo sport on the planet) but it was entertaining nontheless. we mostly went there to watch my host mom speak, since shes the director or sports in catamarca, and it was great. at least i think it was, not like i understood it, but everybody clapped, so i did to.
so i was sick and got better.. yep- that means school. I suited up in my obnoxiously plaid uniform monday morning at about quarter to seven (it really is ugly..) it consists of a skirt that´s nearly two sizes too long for me, a polo, the same socks everyday (not a good situation for me), oh! and old man shoes. for breakfast, i was asked what i like to eat, naturally being the american i am, i said toast. so-- my host mom made an enormous pile of toast, but since i don´t eat 15 slices in the morning, it´s in a bin in the firdge (which kinda defeats the point of warm crispy melty toast in the morning, but i take one for the team anyways)everything is good though, i enjoy my classmates-no specific friends yet, but it´ll come along with the language. So everyday we start with everybody in lines facing the flag, and they play a very very long dramatic song while somebody raises the flag slowly, i respect it but it´s still super cheezy :P . Also in school, since there are no books, i´m learning how to take notes by hand again. but the thing is that the teacher stands in the back of the room reading the page at a billion words/min and i can´t understand it, much less keep up. Also, something else i found interesting.. in english class today, we had to do a worksheet (yes, they´re making me do worksheets) and i kid you not, this was one of the problems:
Complete the sentences with the correct form of the verbs in brackets.
5. Terrorists threatened.........................(blow up) the store.
not much else exciting has happend here, just trying to get into a routine here and focus on learning spanish and making friends...
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Nearly a week
well, it´s almost been a week- a great week.
at midnight on friday i met up with a bunch of other rotary kids and we took the bus from Catamarca to Córdoba, arriving at six in the morning. of course, i didn´t sleep at all and had to go though all the Rotary standards of lecturing about how i can´t use drugs and have boyfriends and whatnot. but that´s ok because we had a good time at night, we had a dance, but it was weird or "different" because it was a costume party. i was a ladybug. :) the cool difference from rotary in the states and rotary here is that in the states we could only dance until midnight or so, but here it went to 2:30 and that was still early... i didn´t sleep that night much, my bed was like a rock and my pillow like a brick- but in the morning i was awake because there was no hot water for the showers. auctually, the shower didn´t exsist much either. imagine a bathroom without a shower, now put a showerhead and knobs on the walls, a drain on the floor, and a squeegie. that was it. Sunday we did more rotary meetings about such and such and left around four.
we took the bus from Carlos Paz (sorry, the hotel was in Carlos Paz (close to córdoba)) to Córdoba with some older "used to be exchange students". we ditched our stuff at one of the guy´s appartment and headed out in the big city. we walked like half an hour looking for a mcdonalds that turned out to be closed. so instead we went to a mall, which surprisingly is not very different from anything in the states (except that their fast food is empenadas and strange sandwiches) so some friends and i walked around until we were bored and convinced the older guys to take us out into the city. so we did. it was so cool. the arcitecture (despite the enormous amount of graffiti) was spanish colonial and very pretty. we saw a fountain show, then continued to something to the equivalent of a flea market. there were tons of people but it was still a good time.
we caught the bus around midnight and returned to Catamarca at about 5:30 am. I came off the bus with a sore throat, and it´s only gotten worse. I went to the doctor today and it turns out i can´t go to school tomorrow. (yes!)
now school is something else that is definately not what im used to. i´m going to Instituto Belgrano, supposed to be the best school in Catamarca, and today was my first day. First, there are only 3 years for highschool (i´m in second) and you don´t change classrooms all day, the teachers rotate, oh and there are no books. When i first came into the classroom everybody was sitting on the desks or talking and doing whatever, so naturally i thought it was some sort of recess, but oh no. it was "culture" class. so i asked where the teacher was and she was sitting at a desk talking to a group of students. then the bell rang, all of us went out of the class room and down the stairs to a small kiosk in the school ( i think it´s pretty cool ) and hung out for the real recess. when we returned to class i came in and sat down but the thing is that you´re supposed to stand next to your desk until the teacher says you can sit, oops. i felt like an idiot. but it´s ok because i missed that class, me and two other exchange students were asked to do an interview with a seventh grader doing a school progect about the environment, so he asked us how our country informs the people about global warming (or as he said, global heating) and whatnot, i was really impressed with this kid, he was super smart. we stayed there for about an hour and a half , missing tons of class time. but when we did return to class, it was literature class which i think the teacher spent more time shhh-ing the students and only read through one paragraph. it´s definately "different" from Conserve School.
at midnight on friday i met up with a bunch of other rotary kids and we took the bus from Catamarca to Córdoba, arriving at six in the morning. of course, i didn´t sleep at all and had to go though all the Rotary standards of lecturing about how i can´t use drugs and have boyfriends and whatnot. but that´s ok because we had a good time at night, we had a dance, but it was weird or "different" because it was a costume party. i was a ladybug. :) the cool difference from rotary in the states and rotary here is that in the states we could only dance until midnight or so, but here it went to 2:30 and that was still early... i didn´t sleep that night much, my bed was like a rock and my pillow like a brick- but in the morning i was awake because there was no hot water for the showers. auctually, the shower didn´t exsist much either. imagine a bathroom without a shower, now put a showerhead and knobs on the walls, a drain on the floor, and a squeegie. that was it. Sunday we did more rotary meetings about such and such and left around four.
we took the bus from Carlos Paz (sorry, the hotel was in Carlos Paz (close to córdoba)) to Córdoba with some older "used to be exchange students". we ditched our stuff at one of the guy´s appartment and headed out in the big city. we walked like half an hour looking for a mcdonalds that turned out to be closed. so instead we went to a mall, which surprisingly is not very different from anything in the states (except that their fast food is empenadas and strange sandwiches) so some friends and i walked around until we were bored and convinced the older guys to take us out into the city. so we did. it was so cool. the arcitecture (despite the enormous amount of graffiti) was spanish colonial and very pretty. we saw a fountain show, then continued to something to the equivalent of a flea market. there were tons of people but it was still a good time.
we caught the bus around midnight and returned to Catamarca at about 5:30 am. I came off the bus with a sore throat, and it´s only gotten worse. I went to the doctor today and it turns out i can´t go to school tomorrow. (yes!)
now school is something else that is definately not what im used to. i´m going to Instituto Belgrano, supposed to be the best school in Catamarca, and today was my first day. First, there are only 3 years for highschool (i´m in second) and you don´t change classrooms all day, the teachers rotate, oh and there are no books. When i first came into the classroom everybody was sitting on the desks or talking and doing whatever, so naturally i thought it was some sort of recess, but oh no. it was "culture" class. so i asked where the teacher was and she was sitting at a desk talking to a group of students. then the bell rang, all of us went out of the class room and down the stairs to a small kiosk in the school ( i think it´s pretty cool ) and hung out for the real recess. when we returned to class i came in and sat down but the thing is that you´re supposed to stand next to your desk until the teacher says you can sit, oops. i felt like an idiot. but it´s ok because i missed that class, me and two other exchange students were asked to do an interview with a seventh grader doing a school progect about the environment, so he asked us how our country informs the people about global warming (or as he said, global heating) and whatnot, i was really impressed with this kid, he was super smart. we stayed there for about an hour and a half , missing tons of class time. but when we did return to class, it was literature class which i think the teacher spent more time shhh-ing the students and only read through one paragraph. it´s definately "different" from Conserve School.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
First day (this is going to be a long one)
So after the crazyness of o´hare with my bags being too heavy and my extensive train rides between terminals because we weren´t clever enough to go to the domestic flight terminal for a domestic flight, I land in Atlanta and bum about until I´m about to board the plane. I saw another girl with a Rotary blazer (they´re on the rage in Paris) and introduced myself, there was then a group of four of us on the grueling 10.5 hour flight from Atlanta to the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. Turns out that even if you have been on an airplane before there are always new things to learn. 1) the moon is beautiful, oh wait, that´s just the light at the tip of the wing... 2) never ever ever go to the bathroom barefoot. no matter how fearless. don´t. 3) don´t trust airborne meats. Finally i landed at 7 45 B.A. time, breezed through customs, and met my host dad and one of my host sisters. we took a cab from the airport to his office, he works for the government and lives in Buenos Aires from tuesday to friday. we hung out at his office and got some café con leche and media lunas. then we headed out for the next domestic airport.
First of all. traffic in buenos aires is rediculous. there are lanes painted but don´t auctually exsist. it´s the first time i´ve seen somebody be in the farthest left lane and still manage to turn to the right. and the cars were so close that i swear i could have stuck my toungue out the window and swiped a couple of windshields. i survived though.
i boarded and landed my catamarca flight, and had several family members and friends to greet me. it was pretty cool. I have two host brothers, Federico and Eduardo who are both considerably older but i have pretty much spent most of my time with them and my little sister Florencia (i felt reasonably tall in argentina, until i met flor, she´s twelve and she´s like 4 inches taller than i am, kind of reminded me of when i first met greta). Mi mama is really friendly and funny.
right away we had lunch and i saw my house for the next couple months. it´s great, not too big. my host parents totally spoiled me, i already have my own bathroom, a cellphone, and a computer (i´m not expecting to keep it..). I like them alot, they´re really fun.
after lunch we went sightseeing, we went up this road on a ridge that overlooked the city of Catamarca, que bonita! we also saw a pretty cool lake. We stopped by mi mama´s office and it turns out she´s a director of sports (or something like that) and there are a bunch of gyms for basketball, gymnatics, and a track.. oh and did i mention there are fútbol fields everywhere! two auctually accross the street from where i live. cool huh?
so then we came back to the house and i txted a girl from rotary and she got all the other kids to come to the plaza and i got to meet most of them. lucky me all of them speak english, this spanish businuess today has been exhausting! The plaza is basically a huge hangout for anybody under 20. it´s nuts, there´s so many people there. so we hung out and then went to get a pancho. a pancho is a footlong hot dog bun with three little hotdogs in them (i´m pretty sure they´re big vienna sausages) slathered in mayo, mustard, and salsa. they´re pretty good, i only had a bite of one of the guy´s . Gene and Jude´s is still takes the cake.
it was about 20 40 hours, yeah they use 24 hr clocks, and i asked eduardo and federico to come pick me up, they did but the back of the truck now had new headboards for my room and a nightstand. i´m totally spoiled. i love it.
for dinner we just walked over to this place that looks like a gas station to an american, but was really a burger joint with a gas station attached. i walked in and florencia has like 5 friends there and we all sit down to eat. burgurs were good. we walked back and now flor still has a couple friends over and i´m chilling with Eduardo in the kitchen.
Maybe i´ll go to sleep soon considering i have to catch a bus at midnight tomorrow to go to cordoba and i know those rotary kids wont let me sleep.
First of all. traffic in buenos aires is rediculous. there are lanes painted but don´t auctually exsist. it´s the first time i´ve seen somebody be in the farthest left lane and still manage to turn to the right. and the cars were so close that i swear i could have stuck my toungue out the window and swiped a couple of windshields. i survived though.
i boarded and landed my catamarca flight, and had several family members and friends to greet me. it was pretty cool. I have two host brothers, Federico and Eduardo who are both considerably older but i have pretty much spent most of my time with them and my little sister Florencia (i felt reasonably tall in argentina, until i met flor, she´s twelve and she´s like 4 inches taller than i am, kind of reminded me of when i first met greta). Mi mama is really friendly and funny.
right away we had lunch and i saw my house for the next couple months. it´s great, not too big. my host parents totally spoiled me, i already have my own bathroom, a cellphone, and a computer (i´m not expecting to keep it..). I like them alot, they´re really fun.
after lunch we went sightseeing, we went up this road on a ridge that overlooked the city of Catamarca, que bonita! we also saw a pretty cool lake. We stopped by mi mama´s office and it turns out she´s a director of sports (or something like that) and there are a bunch of gyms for basketball, gymnatics, and a track.. oh and did i mention there are fútbol fields everywhere! two auctually accross the street from where i live. cool huh?
so then we came back to the house and i txted a girl from rotary and she got all the other kids to come to the plaza and i got to meet most of them. lucky me all of them speak english, this spanish businuess today has been exhausting! The plaza is basically a huge hangout for anybody under 20. it´s nuts, there´s so many people there. so we hung out and then went to get a pancho. a pancho is a footlong hot dog bun with three little hotdogs in them (i´m pretty sure they´re big vienna sausages) slathered in mayo, mustard, and salsa. they´re pretty good, i only had a bite of one of the guy´s . Gene and Jude´s is still takes the cake.
it was about 20 40 hours, yeah they use 24 hr clocks, and i asked eduardo and federico to come pick me up, they did but the back of the truck now had new headboards for my room and a nightstand. i´m totally spoiled. i love it.
for dinner we just walked over to this place that looks like a gas station to an american, but was really a burger joint with a gas station attached. i walked in and florencia has like 5 friends there and we all sit down to eat. burgurs were good. we walked back and now flor still has a couple friends over and i´m chilling with Eduardo in the kitchen.
Maybe i´ll go to sleep soon considering i have to catch a bus at midnight tomorrow to go to cordoba and i know those rotary kids wont let me sleep.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Contact info for the mass email
Hey everybody--
Address:
Pasaje Anesi 879
Catamarca, Cta. 4700
Argentina
Phones: (there is a time change, the same as eastern time)
host parent's home number: 011-54-3833-439412
(remember--the address and phone number are for my first host family and will change in a few months, i'll update of course)
I do have an international cell phone- the number is 447924208072
to call me from the US call 1-866-305-6462 (this number is free for you, not me) or direct using the country code 011.
CALLING IS EXPENSIVE, SO IS TXTING (about $.70/txt). you can always email me!
casey.murphy@conserveschool.org (<--i also use this for MSN)
casey.murph10@gmail.com , and of course---facebook to.
:)
-Casey
Address:
Pasaje Anesi 879
Catamarca, Cta. 4700
Argentina
Phones: (there is a time change, the same as eastern time)
host parent's home number: 011-54-3833-439412
(remember--the address and phone number are for my first host family and will change in a few months, i'll update of course)
I do have an international cell phone- the number is 447924208072
to call me from the US call 1-866-305-6462 (this number is free for you, not me) or direct using the country code 011.
CALLING IS EXPENSIVE, SO IS TXTING (about $.70/txt). you can always email me!
casey.murphy@conserveschool.org (<--i also use this for MSN)
casey.murph10@gmail.com , and of course---facebook to.
:)
-Casey
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
15 and 3/4 hours until take off
Yeah, I'm excited. No, I'm not nervious. I take off from O'hare at 3:45 tomorrow afternoon, and fly to Atlanta, then an 11 hour flight to Buenos Aires, then to land in Catamarca at 3 in the afternoon on the 11th. Right now I have no expectations, just planning on taking it for what it is. Lot's of travel-- we'll see how it goes.
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