Trip to the South

This is the much awaited post about my three week trip across the country, and of course, Christmas. This is going to be a long post because I plan on giving a day by day summary of the trip, so bear with me here.
I left for my trip the 1st of December, which meant that the 31st of November was my final day of school, which was partially sad but partially a relief to have made it through 3 months. I also got my report card the other day, but I will talk about that later.
Ok. So that Saturday I left in colectivo (or bus) to Buenos Aires with my host mother. The bus was just as nice as the one we took to get to Formosa in August. And at that point it was still exciting to be on the bus... after the trip I now never want to see another bus in my life. Anyway, we arrived in BA the following morning and went to the house of the family of my host mother. We ate asado, hung out, etc etc. The next day I spent with my host cousin and that afternoon, my uncle (real, blood uncle) came to pick me up. I spent Monday through Friday at his house, baking cookies (which turned out a disaster) and chipa (which was delicious) with my cousins, swimming a lot in the pool, etc. I was able to spend a little bit with my other cousins and see some of the family. The Thursday of that week was crazy, starting with a toxic cloud over the city and finishing with a huge rain storm and flood that prevented us from even being able to leave the apartment in car. But, Friday I got to the bus terminal okay and met there with four other exchange students from Formosa to head to Neuquen. 
So. Bus #2 to Neuquen. We arrived in Neuquen Saturday, but hours late, and our poor host families there were waiting for 3 hours in the terminal. My family had an exchange student from Canada, from just outside Quebec City. The two of us went to a dance recital type dinner thing, and the next day to a dinosaur museum and to the beach of a river to swim, tan, and spend the afternoon. It was gorgeous! But I burnt. Bad. So the next day I spent pretty relaxed until it was time to head to the bus terminal again to start the trip. There, the group was waiting, about 25 exchange students, 2 volunteers, and 5 or so older ladies that were traveling with the group. We spent a night on the bus, and in the morning arrived to Comodoro Rivadavia, a smaller city on the coast. We had the afternoon free to adventure, and a group of us went to the ocean to swim (but I didn´t swim, because I was so burnt) and then we hung around the center looking at shops, walking along the coast, until dinner. The next morning we took off in colectivo, first taking a tour around the city, to a bunch of different view points and there was a tour guide that gave us some information.
From there, we started south, another night in bus, and arrived in Calafate in the morning. There the hotel was nice, each room complete with kitchen and was actually two stories each room. Again, we had the day free. My friends and I went to the chocolate factory for a demonstration, and plenty of chocolate sampling. We left with bags of chocolate and went to eat it at the costanera of Lake Argentina, next to a bird sanctuary where we could see flamingos... And then we decided to be rebels and climbed down to the coast and chasing after some loose horses that we saw. Which resulted in some soggy shoes and muddy pants. We headed back to the hotel for get ready for dinner and afterwards went out to the town to look around. The next day we went all together to the national park of the glaciars, and had four hours to pass around trails that had different views of Perito Moreno, which was really fun. There were about 6 kilometers of trails, and that is all the photos you see on my Facebook. The next day was the excursion in boat to a bunch of different glaciars, which was about 6 hours. We had a lot of fun on the boat, and the glaciars looked amazing from the water. We spent one more night in the hotel, and the next day set out again in bus. And I forgot to mention, except for the first few hours in Calafate, there was no water in the town. At all. Which was annoying. But anyway.

First, in the bus, we went to Rio Gallegos for a couple hours, the southernmost city in Argentina not including Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego. Then we headed to Puerto Madrin, which was gorgeous. The hotel was amazing, and our room had a great view of the ocean. We went to the ocean, and that time I did swim. And in the five minutes we were in the water, my friend´s amazing camera with 2000 photos of the trip was stolen, and for that reason there´s some photo gaps on my Facebook because I was lazy and didn´t talke many of my own photos. So that afternoon was spent in the police station. And the next morning we began the return, stopping for lunch in a tea house that Lady Di visited. And we ate cake. Lots of cake. And we finally returned to Neuquen, and had one more night with our families from Neuquen before going to the terminal. And when we got to the terminal, the girls from Japan and Thailand were there... and the two Italians weren´t . And they weren´t there when the bus arrived. And so it was three of us on the bus. Until, the passenger behind me said "Te estan saludando!" (They´re waving at you) and I was confused, until I looked out the window and saw two Italians hanging out a car window waving at us. And they got on the next stop. And we arrived in BA, spent 6 hours in the terminal, then headed to Formosa, one more night on the bus. And finally got back.

Long time, no blog

So, my computer broke about a month ago, and so I have been using that as an excuse not to blog. But after multiple complaints, I am back too it.
There hasn`t been too much going on. My family celebrated Thanksgiving one Sunday, and I made scalloped potatoes and an arrollado (kind of a rolled up angel cake filled with dulce de leche and chocolate). Afterwards we took a little outing to a nearby lake for a swim and to play on the beach. I`m not using my computer right now, so no photos, but if I remember I`ll upload some. It was kind of strange to have no turkey, no gravy, and no pumpkin pie, but I also liked the fact that there was no snow and we could go to the beach.
More news: I finished school on Friday. No big goodbyes, I actually think the last memories of some of my classmates were of me on the bus trying to get the doors to open. When my host mother asked them later on what they last said to me, it was something on the lines of "Toca el timbre" or "Touch the bell", to alert the bus driver that the doors weren´t open. Next year I won`t be continuing in the technical school, because all of the high school has classes at night, so I will supposedly be going to one of the nearby private schools. That will definitely be a different experience from a public tech school.
And finally, I am in Buenos Aires right now. Yesterday I arrived in a bus (though a pretty swanky bus) and I stayed the night in my host aunt and uncle`s house. Today I will be picked up by my real uncle, and I will stay here until Friday, when I get together with a few other exchange students to head to the Neuquen (in the south), to start one of the AFS trips. We should be doing a whole tour of the south, lasting ten days. Afterwards, we return to Formosa for Christmas. And speaking of Christmas, we decked the tree on Saturday. Of course, it was hot and sunny, and a plastic tree, but same idea.
I`ll upload more photos once I get back from my trip!

Random differences between ARG and the USA

So some differences between the USA and Argentina that I have noticed thus far:

-Greetings: girls greet guys and other girls with a kiss on each cheek. Guys typically greet guys with a hand shake. It is important to kiss/shake hands with everybody upon arrival to and departure from anywhere.

-The ice cream is served in cones, but with spoons, which works well for me seeing as I am incapable of eating from a cone. It's also ridiculously inexpensive.

-The napkins at restaurants are more like wax paper, not paper, so they don't work as well.

-Facebook is used even more here than in the US, as hard to imagine as that may be.

-CocaCola (aka Coca) is very common, and most ice cream stores, hardware stores, you name it, have a refrigerator. It is the typical beverage of lunch and dinner.

-Instead of knocking on doors, some people clap their hands outside.

-Going barefoot indoors is strange. Shoes are more appropriate.

-Very few people have phone plans. It is common to just charge credit onto your phone every few weeks.

-The SIESTA! Between 2 and 6pm, many people take a siesta, a nap for a few hours. I take a siesta on Saturday and Sunday usually. It's the way the people here manage with going to sleep at midnight or one in the morning on weekdays. Also, between about 3 and 5, the city is a ghost town. Almost all the shops besides supermarkets close down. Which is kind of annoying because that is the time slot that I am always home looking for something to do.

-There is no peanut butter.

-There is no school transportation. Students walk, bike, get rides from their parents, or take city buses. The student rate is $1.25 pesos, or about 25 cents.

-In school, all the students stay in the same classroom and the teachers change rooms. Students cannot elect their classes (although they can elect tracks, for example natural sciences, humanities... in my school, things like construction, electricity, etc.)

-Students do not eat lunch in school. They either have morning classes, from around 8-12, afternoon classes, 10-2, or night classes, 6-10. Or in my case, 11-2 afternoon classes.

-The moon here is sideways. It looks like a smiley face.


And that's just the beginning. More to come.

Swimming and other water related events...

So lots of things have been happening recently. I´ve continued with field hockey, but yesterday I also started swimming! It takes place at one of the private schools, but on the team there´s kids from all different schools. Practice yesterday was from 7 to 8 and was great! The coach said we could come at 6 to do distance, so today I went at 6, did 2000 meters, then rested until the practice started at 7. It was a little chilly outside so it was actually nicer to stay in the pool. Practice ended at 8 and I needed to get to field hockey, so I ran from the pool to my friend´s house, 8 and a half blocks, in under ten minutes. Pretty impressive for after a swim practice. Then we got crafty and tried to make grilled cheese to eat before practice, but because we lacked butter we used eggs and did a french toast grilled cheese combo that wasn´t the height of American cuisine, but food is food, and we were hungry. Then, we left for field hockey, from 9 to 10:30. Lots of running. So I'm falling asleep while writing right now. But, I'm really happy that I'm getting out, doing things, and exercising.
On to other water related activities. Ironically, one morning last week I was looking up Formosa Weather in Wikipedia because it seemed odd that in the subtropics there hadn't been any rain for a month. Except for one time we heard it raining outside for a few minutes. I wondered, how could there be so much rain, as Wikipedia says, if it has been so dry? And later I found out.
Analise, the girl from the USA, and I were sitting outside of some arts building. We have to go there to take tango classes, but I will go into detail on those another time. We had 400 pesos (or 80 dollars) worth of documents with us that we had to give to our director for a refund for our doctor's visit. And 400 pesos is a lot to us, that is enough to last weeks here. Anyway, we were sitting on the windowsill of the building, waiting for our director's exchange students to pass the papers to them. And then the lampposts flickered on. Ok. Nothing weird there. Until they flickered off. Ok. Guess whoever turned them on changed their minds. And they flickered like that for a few seconds. And decided they wanted to stay off. And then, the man walking by in the street looked up, then walked faster. Ok. Then it began to drizzle. But just a little water. Analise puts the papers under her shirt, to keep the water off. And the people in the street begin to full out run. Ok. Come on guys, it's just a little rain. Honestly. And all of a sudden, it seemed like Niagra Falls had been transplanted right on us. Analise and I are the only ones left on the street. And we run. Full out book it. But the kioscos don't let us inside, because already we are absolutely soaked. Our favorite bakery is packed full of people. All the stores are locking up. As we run, Analise has an idea. Call a taxi! But of course. We pause under an overhang and I call a taxi. The phone disconnects. I call the other taxi number. The phone disconnects. Ok. Great. So, we look at each other. And we are in a perfect movie moment, with that perfect look without speaking, which means "We're in this together. Either we make it, or we die trying." And we run. Nine blocks to Analise's house, in the rain, hail, eight inch deep puddles, flying tree branches, mud, honking cars, and who knows what else. Finally we arrive to her house, our shoes fully soaked, not a dry inch on our bodies, and of course we take out our shoes on the street because god forbid we track water in the house. We proceed to the kitchen and take out the papers, our money, and our phones, and assess the damage. The papers, more or less legible but ripped beyond repair (AFS didn't accept them, we have to get more next week). Our money, completely soaked, but eventually dried. And our phones, suprisingly, worked. So no serious damage. And we get changed, get food, and watch movies on Analise's computer in the dark, because of course the power is out. So later, I go home, while I'm walking, observing all the destruction in the streets. And when I get home, who is my host mom Skyping with but my mom! Unfortunately the connection cut, but how funny that while they were Skyping I was running across the city in the downpour. Looking back, there were many things that would have made this situation better. Like just staying under an overhang in the street. Or calling someone to pick us up. Or actually listening to various host parents and friends that said it would rain. And how funny that earlier that day we were talking about how odd it was that they don't go to school when it rains. Well, I for one would not want to be outside more then five seconds in that weather. So now I get it. When it rains, it pours.

Just some general stuff...

So once again my family is pestering me to write a blog post (yes, you know who you are), so here we go. It's been just over one month, and so everything is falling into a routine. I started field hockey, I don't know if I already mentioned that. It's been going well, it's at a club a little ways away and we practice twice a week and have a game on the weekend. So far I've only been to two practices because I've been sick, but more details on that to come. It's really fun though, it's a nice way to meet some new people and get exercise. I started because another exchange student mentioned it, so we are doing it together. And being the two foreign girls that people assume don't speak Spanish, we miss out on a lot of the news, like games being cancelled. So we arrive at the field only to see nobody but our taxi driving away. And an example of Argentine lifestyle: we arrived at a 9:15pm practice at 9:00. And it was pitch black. Nobody was there, no lights were on, the building was dark... so we sat on the bench for a minute and then decided we might as well run a few laps just to say we did something, and then we would call a taxi or try to walk the 3 mile walk home. And so we ran, and as we were leaving the field (9:17ish) another team mate got there, and turned on the lights, and before long everyone was there. I guess getting to things early isn't really a thing here.
So I also got sick this past week, starting on Saturday. Your classic cough, fever, sore throat (I really need to remember how to spell throat, I've been having issues with that word). It was pretty bad on Saturday, which meant I missed out on going to a quinceañera, and I was home sick through Wednesday. So it was pretty boring, just sitting on my bed reading or on the computer. I was grateful to go to school on Thursday. I went to the doctor on Monday. I never intended on going, but I was with the other USA girl, who was also sick, so we went together with her family. Because it was a holiday, all of the public places were closed, so we went to the nearest private clinic, which happened to be a maternity clinic. So we got some looks. But oh well. We got some medicine and now it's a week later and I feel much better, although I still have a cough.
And as far as my birthday goes.Wednesday, my birthday, I went out with the exchange students and some volunteers for hot dogs (pretty deluxe hot dogs), then Friday I celebrated with my host family, seeing as it was my host father and my birthday that week. There were about forty people there that night for dinner, dancing, and a really sweet video that my host family made with clips from my family and classmates.
Besides that, life is pretty normal. Everything has settled into a routine, and every day I can tell that my Spanish is getting better!

A Day in the Life

So, after some requests for a blog update, here we go. My typical day here. Granted, I've only been here for two weeks, but I do have a basic routine.

Asado at a campo (not really related to this post)

Monday through Friday, I wake up at about nine for school. Get into my uniform (white polo, white skirt), sit at the kitchen table and eat some crackers or chipa (a type of bread) and have a cup of mate cocido. Here, breakfast isn't big, and a lot of people I know don't eat anything in the morning. Depending on the morning, I either go with my host mom to one of her English classes, or straight to school. Every day but Tuesday we drive, Tuesday I take the city bus (aka collectivo/bondi). School starts at 11:00. I have ten-ish classes, two or three per day. Because I go to a technical school, a lot of them are science related. I have math, chemistry, electrical engineering, technical drawing, history, geography, language arts, English, and physics. And at least one other thing, but I can't remember at the moment. Like I said before, the class is kind of crazy, but that's ok. I understand most of what goes on in my classes, especially chemistry and math. And English, obviously. I do most of the homework, which is more than I can say for a good number of my classmates hahaha. Once school ends, we all go out to the bus stop and take the bus to our houses. It's a city bus, and costs 1.25 pesos a ride, which is about 25 cents. I get home between 2:30 and 3:00, depending on when the bus comes. When I get home, my host parents are taking a siesta, so I heat up my lunch on the stove and eat, then either go to my room to do homework/take a siesta, or I go hang out with some of my friends. Between 2:00 and 5:00 there isn't much to do, most shops shut down until five. Dinner is at 10:00 more or less, so between 3:00 and 10:00 I'm really free to do whatever I want. I already know the city well, and from most areas I can find my way home easily. I walk a LOT here, some days as many as 40 blocks, which translates to 4 kilometers from walking to run errands, go eat, etc. Speaking of eating, I do a lot of that here to. All the food is so inexpensive and so good! But on Monday I start field hockey, which will be three days a week. Once the pools open, I'll start swimming on my own. Anyway, after dinner, I usually read, go online, whatever until about midnight when I go to sleep.

Before a party: nations represented:
Italy, USA, France, Japan, Germany, Argentina, Thailand, Denmark

Friday Night through Sunday, there is always too much to do. This is the time of year where there is la eleccion de la reina in every school, which is kind of a prom queen type election that is really a chance for the schools to show off and have parties. Each school has a theme (Tangled, Burlesque, Party Rock are a few examples) and the kids from each school dance and then all the girls that are contestants walk down the runway while they are scored. I went to one last weekend for a school called Don Bosco, and it went till about 4 in the morning. The one I went to last night was for San Martin, and tonight there is one for Santa Isabel. Most of the schools rent out giant athletic clubs or something similar to hold the parties, and between 500 and 1000 people go to the popular ones. The one at San Martin was not as good, so at 1:30 we all left to go out to eat and then walked to our houses at 4:30. I'm not going to the one for my school because it isn't supposed to be very good haha. Tonight is supposed to be the best one. I've been going with a group of exchange students/volunteers. It's really cool, because whenever we hang out the conversations are some mix of English, Spanish, and maybe Italian or German. So a general schedule for weekends: meeting up to go to parties around 10:00, leaving for the party at 11:00, go home and to sleep at 4:30, wake up at 10:00, hang around, take a siesta from 3:00 to 6:00, head out again at 10:00. It's been really fun, and a good balance between school and a social life.

First Day of School!

Today was my first day of school here in Argentina! Of course, I had my stylish white skirt and white polo shirt. I still need to buy white long socks, and I must say that the skirt is by no means in Academy dress code, but it isn't too bad. I arrived around 10:30am and talked to some teachers and classes began at 11:00. In my class there are between 20 and 30 boys, and only one girl besides me. Different from the US, to say the least. I went to school in the car with Maya because she teaches English in the school there. Today I had two classes. First, chemistry. I actually understood a lot of what was going on, because the teacher would read a sentence from the textbook and we all would copy it, so I also have all the notes from class. I could understand the content because I have taken chemistry before, though there were a few things that confused me. Next, math. At first my partner showed me the work they were doing and I didn't recognize anything, but once we started doing the math I understood it really well. Again, a few things confused me but the majority was good. Though I honestly had to ask my classmates to repeat things five times to understand them because they talk so quickly and with so much slang. Two AFS volunteers were at my school and at least one works there, so I know some people there.
In the past few days, I've gone to the ice cream store (which sells ice cream for about 75 cents... which may not be a good thing because I'll go there way too often) and spent some time with the other exchange students. My week already is filling up with all of the mate drinking and adventuring and everything!
Tonight they're supposed to show the exchange students on the local news station and have a segment on our arrival. And they interviewed me when I came and I was so tired that I didn't understand anything... and my Spanish was not at its best. So I'm looking forward to watching that haha.