The race started at 8am, or supposedly started at 8am. We actually got in the water around 11am. There were two swims, an 800 meter swim and a 1800 meter swim. I originally was going to do the 1800m swim, but in the end did both. Two of the kids from the team signed up for the 800 needed someone to accompany them and help them out, so I went with them. And wow, do I love river currents. I just floated alongside them as they swam, and in the end it took about 15 minutes. There were only two minor problems. One was that every swimmer needed a noodle attached to them by a rope in case of emergency. And the two kids swam close to eachother so they got tangled. The other part was that near the end of the race there is a very strong current, and the kids didn´t believe me when I told them we had to aim wayyyyy to the other side of the finish line. So the girl was pushed a lot by the current and I ended up towing her in. Apart from that, everything was great, I never even had to put my goggles on.
After that we went to the start of the next race, in which a couple other kids from my team were competeing. We weren´t many, because a lot of parents didn´t give the kids permission. That race started around noon, and I was strongly tempted to give in to the peer pressure from the other kids on the team and just hang on to the noodle and go for a float down the river. But, my competitive side took over and I swam. It went by quickly, the current definitely makes a difference. At the end, I totally couldn´t see the finish line and everyone was yelling at me to go the other way.... but anyway... I don´t know how much time it took, because when I finished we all started looking for the other kids that competed. When they finally came in, it was obvious that they had a lot of trouble crossing the current to get to the bank. Two swimmers from the team actually swam out to help the last girl. But everything turned out well and nobody had major issues. I think overall I came in 4th out of all the swimmers.
It was really cool to get to do an open water swim in Argentina, and that it was technically in international waters. It definitely wasn´t the super organized Kingdom Swim (never thought I would be calling it super organized), but it pulled together. For example, there was no count of how many swimmers entered the water. Even if I didn´t have the permission slip, I could have just jumped right in. There were a ton of safetly boats, kayaks, and jetskis, along with lifeguards swimming in the water and the obnoxious noodles we had to have. We had a lot of fun. Anybody who has been to an open water swim with me knows that I usually am just a bucketfull of sunshine, happiness, and all good things in the world before a swim, but today that was actually true. All the swimmers entered smiling and left smiling, which was great.
Other news: the new exchange students arrived in FSA yesterday! Boys from Japan and Thailand and girls from Iceland and Austria. We all went to the terminal to meet them, and wow, I hope my face didn´t look that scared when I got off the bus. I was impressed by the Japanese boy, who got off and immediately tried out his Spanish (hola, mucho gusto, hace calor, etc etc). Later that night, we all went to the birthday party of the Iceland girl´s host sister, and I got a nice chance to talk to the Japanese boy Ruka and the girl from Iceland, Salome. It is really weird to be the older exchange students. It really makes me realize that there is very little left, less than 5 months. Woah.
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