February: under the palm trees by the pool

This February began with my adventure in Alta Gracia. When I was writing about it on the blog I was vague because honestly I didn´t really know anything about it besides that it was an organized event to go to in Cordoba Province and that two awesome exchange students live there. I am so Glad I went. It was so much fun! The main reason we were there was to go to this festival called las colectividades which is really just a celebration of the world. There was a tent for each country which then had decorations, people in costumes, food and drink, and sometimes dance floors. But We did so much more than just go to the festival each night. It began with a storm, a huge storm that luckily Bas, Lucy, Elena, and I (the exchange students coming from Catamarca and Santiago del Estero) just missed. By the time we arrived in Alta Gracia it was raining heavily but we didnt understand why everyone was so late. It turns out that Cordoba capital was left without electricity and so many trees fell over that the bus terminal wasnt working anymore so then some exchange students couldnt even make it. After reorganizing We split up into host families. I was with Nele from Germany in Karly´s (Lives in Alta Gracia) first host family the Maurellis! Alta Gracia and Cordoba is soooo different from Catamarca. It was colder, greener, humider,cleaner, and there were hills not mountains. I know Alta Gracia so well now. Its a small town in Cordoba of about 50,000 people but its only 50 minutes from the capital but its also very historic and to me it looks like it could be a small Italian town. They have one of the oldest dams in South America that the natives built so the town is centered around a park with the lake, and a huge clock tower. Its really pretty and very safe. We did so many excursions that week and it was great to see some of the exchange students from far away that I met on the south trip again. We had pool days, We got to be a part of the opening parade on tv in our blazers and with our flags! Then when we got inside the festival grounds we got on TV again! Then We took a look around and the only continent that wasn´t really represented was Asia, so that was kind of sad because I really miss Chinese food, but I did have some great ethnic food while I was there so it was all good. Then we had a great time dancing in the Brazil tent with the Brazilian Dancers. We were dancing as a group and for the first time in Argentina no one was dancing but us, but we didn´t care we were having a great time. Then Over the course of the week we went to Che guevara´s house which was HUGE for me since my curiosity with South America began with the Movie "The Motorcycle Diaries" It was so cool! They had all of his trips mapped out since he did the big one, but also ones across Argentina. Then also the Museum that showed the historic system of the Jesuit farms in Cordoba which I believe is a site of Humanity. We also got to attend a rotary Meeting which was nice and cool to see how a different club meets. We also got to meet the Mayor and talk with him about the History of Alta Gracia and what our first impressions of argentina were. That was funny since Everyone agreed on "there´s a lot of dogs in the street" Which was later a part of the radio interview. We also got to Go for a hike and then stop at a rotarians house who made us homemade bread and mate which was delicious. We even got to go to a section of Corodoba province where there are Germans. historically its where some Germans fled to after the WW2, but it was still cool to see all the things in German and everything look like a little alpine town. (Later on in the month I went back there with my family and we had dinner and artisan beer which was delicious!) That Saturday Rotary took us out dancing, that was also alot of fun. Alta Gracia was soo awesome and I have so many memories and I thanked the rotary club so much. Mauro (from Alta Gracia, district comittee and went on the south trip as a chaperone) told me that it was an exchange students idea to have the club show Alta Gracia to exchange students like that. Im glad that my club is now doing something like that too. We´re hosting the next weekend but one key difference is that here at the weekends we´re not allowed to leave the premises. So I´ve invited some exchange students to come a little early so I can show them arround before we go to the weekend meeting.

After Alta Gracia I changed families again. I´m now living with one of the Rotary Counselors (not mine, but essentially he´s the head of exchange for our club). Its a big house ( with a pool, whoop!) and sadly I have no host siblings in Catamarca, they are all studying at the University in Cordoba. They all went on exchange though, and one even went to Howland, Ohio! In the district just north of 6690 I think. I met them when I went to the weekend to Cordoba. They are all very nice and cool. One of them even went to live in Honolulu which is neat. Other things this month are: Well I´ve just been constantly doing things with friends since at home all I really do with my host mom is watch movies, and I feel now I need to be more social. So I´ve been trying to organize more things like Baking days or just hanging out or you know getting an ice cream. And since the Aussie lives close to me now I´ve been doing more activities with him. This is because he lives near me and When I got back from Alta Gracia I asked him how he was doing with getting to know Catamarca and what he had done with his host brother and his answer was sleep, eat, and facebook. That his first two weeks his brother never took him to see the main monuments of Catmarca. So I´ve been changing that. Then We went to a little Brazilian style Carnival in Valle Viejo which was cool. The Other Day I was on my way home and I was speaking English with Lucy who´s from New Zealand who was my sister for a weel and I´ve been helping explain Spanish to her ever since and then these two guys start speaking to us in Perfect English and it turns out theyre studying English at the university and we exchanged numbers and theyre so nice and hilarious so Ive been making some new friends here and there like that. Its normal to do that here where as in the us if someone were to be like Hi, Im your friend. Most people would be like What? I dont know you... But here everyone is everyone´s friend so Its fine. Then I recently registered myself for the gym and natatorium so that I can attempt to return home fit. I went for the first time today and I am so out of shape but Im so happy now. I have room for improvement and soon the univiersity will start with Geography! And then we have the weekend coming up. And then in April the North trip. I cant believe I only have 5 more months. Thats scary to me. I wish I could stay and see more of Argentina and learn even more. But I guess I can always come back in the future.

Who knew January could be this hot?

Okay so I´ve been dealing with a lot since I last posted. I had 24 hours notice to change families and I did my best with packing up and saying goodbye to the family, then a rotary member came to piack me up and bring me to my new family. When I hopped in the car I immediately started asking basic questions like What´s the family name? How many children? What ages? Where do they live? What is their parents occupation? This was not a shocker coming from my club to be honest, organization is not the strongsuit of argentina, and even less so in Catamarca so I was nervous and trying to deal with it. I was told that I would be staying at an aunt´s house while my new host mom was traveling for her job, so I met the family and they seemed really nice. So I stayed with my cousins for a week which was nice I went to the pool a lot with my little sister, hung out with my older sister. We also went to the mountain town called el rodeo and stayed there for the weekend. We spent time with extended family, had a great asado (barbeque).
I also went with my host sister, her boyfriend, and my host brother
to eat at the american restaurant in town, so I had a good meal of an
argentine style hamburger and fries. Later we went driving around and
went to Bas and Miles´house (Miles´ uncles´family, the cousins of the
kid who is in Ohio right now because Bas´s family is in Buenos Aires)
Their house is so nice, its in the center with a pool and a great
areas for asado, and the family is really nice. We just sat with our
feet in the pool and talked. Bas spoke the most Spanish I ever heard
him speak, he´s finally learning. Then the next day I went to go with
Tessa, Nis, Guille, Carolina, Fernanda, my host sister and her
boyfriend for a late dinner. It was fun because I hadnt really seen
tessa in a while and we decided we needed to do things with our summer
because everyone is on vacation and we´re here in catamarca dying of
the heat. So we made a list of fun and cheap things we can do to make
the summer more interesting. The next day we achieved one of those
goals being go to the pool. That morning I also went shopping with my
host sister and that was fun. Then that night we just went to the
center and walked around and had an ice cream and went home. On
Wednesday was the proclaimed "lazy day" at Bas and Miles´house. they
stayed up until 5 am the previous night playing pokemon and making a
trail of froot loops around the house, which they showed me their
videos. I came over because I didnt have anything to do and Miles
always has something fun in store. So we decided to look at the list
Tessa and I made and we were going to do a midwestern style get
together= do crazy kiddy things and eat junk food. So I made brownies,
Miles got some ice cream from his family shop and we made brownies
with ice cream, coke floats, had hamburgers, fries, and we wrote and
drew all over eachother with sharpies. We were going to have
a hilarious fashion show but we were a little short on supplies, so
thats for next time. Miles is fun like that, he understands the
midwest way of fun, and that day reminded me of the things Kendra,
Casey, and I do when we want to have fun. Then the next day I met one
of my host sisters neighbor friends and we had a nice chat, she´s
really friendly. Then I went to have ice cream with a friend of mine
who was always hanging out with my first host brother. So that week I
told him we have to do something because I changed families and
EVERYONE is on vacation cuz its so hot, so we need an ice cream. Then
we just kind of drove around, talked, and listened to music (he´s a
DJ) and we ran into my first host brother and his girlfriend. We
talked to them for a while and It was nice to see them, even if they
were being all lovey dubby haha. Then my friend dropped me off at
Lou´s Birthday party. Lou just got back from her vacation that night
and we decided to celebrate. It was a lot of fun with lou, tessa, bas,
miles, miles´ classmate, and the classmates´brother. We had a
wonderful time just talking and hanging out. Then on Friday I woke up
and had Lunch, then got ready to greet the day with a nap after lunch,
then actually got ready to greet the day when my host sisters neighbor
came over and we decided to make pancakes with maple syrup. They
turned out pretty good but still not the same as yours! Then we packed
to come to El Rodeo for the weekend. I met up with Bas, Tessa, Miles,
and two more classmates of miles´ to go out dancing. We had a lot of
fun. And today we had an asado (bbq) and empanadas ( this combo is
sacred sunday food). I´m going back to the city tomorrow, think I´m
changing, then going to do something good this week because tessa is
leaving for cordoba so hopefully I can try to set up something like
that. I reallly really really want to go to cordoba or Rosario or
Buenos Aires or Mar del Plata because the North Trip doesnt go to any
of those places and everyone says they are really great cities.
Then I was a little sick again from food or water or something so I was bed stricken and eating rice and bottled water yet again, but very happy with my directtv and my generous host family since my host mom is a doctor she´s very busy but she checked up on me and took great care of me. When I was finally well enough to go out of the house I was told that We were going to Cordoba airport to pick up Lucy, my host sister from NEW ZEALAND! So We went to go pick her up on Sunday and it was nice because I got to catch up with another exchange student living in Cordoba that I Hadn´t seen since November. Lucy is learning Spanish rather quickly and we´ve really bonded in the past week. We´ve shown her around the city and she´s met some of the exchange students (still alot on vacation) and some friends. We´ve shown her around and done a few social outings but a January weekday in Catmarca there´s nothing really to do, since almost everyone is on vacation. Which was definately a point of frustration for this month since I wanted to see friends and everyone was gone. But now I have a partner in crime and it looks like I´m going to Cordoba Province for a week with rotary! One of the District Comittee people from the south trip who´s really cool organized this great group of events for us at a low price. I´m pretty excited now. It looks like things´ll pick up with that and then our host sister leaves soon after I get back and then I´ll have to start University soon!

Summer in December?

So there is now officially a month left of summer. This is my second summer for 2011, and Ill never forget this summer. When I last posted I was preparing for the senior dinner at my school. This ended up being a highlight for me. It was so great to bond with my classmates the way we did. We were in full formal wear and had a mass for the students. It was interesting to see a mass in spanish and its a little different from the one in english so I just kind of went along with it. After that we went in a bus to the center of town where the dinner was. Which was a nice hotel. We went into the room by pairs and had our own little red carpet, some fireworks went off too for us, then the dinner was a real dinner! This is huge because in argentina typically they only eat a sandwhich for dinner so I was quite content with my bacon wrapped filet. During the meal there was a nice slidewhow of the graduates and then there were also some games that they played like making the parents dance to los wachiturros, which is cumbia and popular now and then making the graduates dance some old dances. Then later they opened up the dance floor and we had such a great time dancing that at the end we all danced in a circle to a song about being a student. After that we had an after party the next day at noon at my friends house which had a really nice pool and a volleyball court. Its this point in time when I had the best time with my classmates because the next week we also did an asado and swim day.

Belgian Host Brother

So If you dont already know Im still in my first host family because my supposed to be second family decided not to host anyone anymore since the daughter dropped out of the rotary program. So Hypothetically I should be switching soon to my next family but I dont know anything about them yet. So with this said my family was still scheduled to recieve another exchange student named Guillaume who is from Belgium. So weve been living in the same house for about a month now and im glad hes my brother here too.

On with what I did last month

So I showed Guille the ropes of my family and that day we went out to see a movie with the exchange students called in time. It was pretty good. That week the culture classes stopped because tragically the tango teacher died. Then I graduated from my school which was such a diferent ceremony than mine in the US. I liked it though. I got my honorary diploma in my uniform and got a picture with my mom, there were fireworks, a slideshow, and then we even had an afterparty. Then that weekend we went hiking in the mountains with a rotarian, his friends, and almost all of the exchange stdents. This was actually one of those mountain trips where its really hard at the moment (im really bad at adjusting to altitudes) but in retrospect it was actually really fun and I enjoyed singing road trip songs with sarah while we were hiking. The second day we reached the summit of the mountain and you could see the whole city from there. It was also high enough to give me some pretty bad sunburn which is still a weird tan on my legs.
After dousing myself in aloe vera, and going on with my daily life. At this point I got sick. I think I got water poisoning so for a whole week I was on the BART diet and on medication, watching movies and playing with my little brother at home because I felt like I couldnt really leave for long. So when I did I went with exchange students because all of my classmates were in Brazil. So we went to see fireworks, had a mac n cheese day, and hun out. I went with all of my host siblings except for the youngest, who is six to the familys country house one day. we mad a barbeque by the river, and went exploring. It was amazing. Before I didnt really understand what my brother meant by "country house" what he really meant to say was we own mountains and lots of hectacres of land, so much that the river is born on our property. So naturally Joaquin said lets find that waterfall, and we hiked a bit and when we got there it was inredible, large rocks with a medium pool of water underneath. then after taking some pictures the boys decided to try to climb up it, which was impossible because it was completley flat so I got out, and climbed all the way around to get on top and look down at the boys to say are you still trying to climb up it? We ended up finding like 5 waterfalls. we kept going, the last was the coolest and largest. I had such a fantastic time and to me and Guille its incredible to own waterfalls and to literally say to your guest yeah see that mountain in the distance? we own everything until there. So then we went to the rotary christmas dinner which was kind of the oppositte of the point. The club had a special table for exchanges and when we tried to disperse ourselves they directed us to take a seat back at the other special table for us. That week we also did a charity thing at the childrens hospital, we visited some very sick kids and talked to them for a while. I gave mine a Granville baseball cap and he was a sweet boy recovering from a brain tumor who couldnt speak but his coping mechanism was coloring and he is actually quite talented at it. From there I helped my dutch friend prepare her birthday party. We had a great night and I liked spending time with her family, who are very sweet. Then the preparation for christmas began. we had a feast with our extended family outside on christmas eve. all day we were cooking. Then my little brother was constatnly watching the clock for it to strike midnight. Once it did everyone set off fireworks, and we were no exception it was great, and we all wished eachother and merry christmas and proposed a toast. Then came the presents. My little brother scored big with a new fooseball table which we broke in immediately. Ive played him so many times since christmas, Ive improved my fooseball skills so much. I got a cute purse, a shirt, and some shoes. Then as is tradition we went out after and We met up with our friends. It was so much fun. It was also really weird to have such great weather for christmas, having the feast outside, with it being summer and all. Christmas Day was actually just like any other sunday, except that I made banana bread for everyone (to fullfill a weird craving) and then I gave everyone their gifts. The next day I made the christmas cookies that my family makes every year. Granted I had to use some short cuts, but they still tasted delicious. The next day I went shopping and hung out in the center with my classmates. That was great because they had been in Brazil for a while and I hadnt seen them. Then the next day we had an asado at a rotexs house in a town called el rodeo which was so much fun. Then For new years we pretty much did the same thing as christmas but this time with family friends instead of the extended fmily, and then we had lynch with the extended family and hung out at their house until it was evening. Then this week we kept doing things for Edward and Thomas who are both on their way back to their home countries. Edward is from new zealand and finished his year, and thomas has to get knee surgery back in Denmark so this past week weve hung out with them and I just got home from seeing Edward off. It was a big group and we took pictures and people were crying, including me. I also just got a call today from the club chairman of the inbounds that I will be changing houses tomorrow. I know nothing about the family or where they live or anything really. Im hoping to do a lot more now because I had so much uncertainty about which family id be in january I was kind of depressed because now everyone is going on vacation and its so hot here its practically a necesity to go on vacation. so i guess we will see how that goes and ill just try to make the best out of my last month of my second summer.

new Pictures!

Graduating class of 2011! Humanities Guadalupe High School

Official Three Month Mark

So Since we got back from the south trip it´s been kind of difficult. Right after I got home and the re-culture shock began I became the most homesick I´ve ever been in Argentina and rereading everyone´s notes and letters didn´t exactly help. But nevertheless that is what happened. Everything has been so irregular since returning. School was fine but we were all looking forward to summer really intently. Classes ended on the 25 of November and right now I´m technically on summer break save the traditions of being a Senior. I feel very welcomed by my class and we actually did do a lot of fun things in retrospect. I was blessed with a class that had a bunch of field trips. I think I went on a total of about six. We went to a book fair, had a play day, a day to learn about indigenous cultures and traditions, a walk to the park, and the last day of school we went to a campground in the mountains where we had a barbeque and swam in the river all day. Now that it´s the end my class is seizing the day. On the last day actually at the school the whole grade was in tears, everyone was so sad to end this chapter of their life. They were all saying well since I´m going to university in this city all of you better visit me, or I´ll miss you. This was the exact oppositte of my last day of high school in the US. My last day I was jumping for joy, I went around waving the Argentine flag and I was told I was "the happiest graduate". I was. So to come to a world where everyone is so sad to leave eachother to start life in the real world is a little strange. But I do love my class´spirit, we always had fun and they really loved seizing everything especially when it was a competition with the school. We also had a sort of showcase for the school the second to last week of school where it was a parents night and every department showed off students projects. The school was transformed into the theme Technoscience with cds everywhere and even a robot near the courtyard stage. My class did an amazing dance where all memebers did something, but I was not in it because I haven´t really been there enough regularly to plan it out with them. However my input for the showcase was doing a presentation for the English Department. I did it with a rotex who just came back from Holland and a freshman at my school who actually lived in Berlin for three years. It went really well and I really enjoyed seeing and sharing all of our experiences. it was really interesting to hear about their experiences and great to share them because here everyone is so focused on Argentina. Now we´re preparing for graduation, and the traditional senior dinner which is a formal event. I will recieve an honorary diploma, and then I´ll be done until February when classes start up again but I will go to a school closer to my third family.

We were supposed to change families the first week of December but since my second family is going to Disney world in Florida and Cancun Mexico for ten days, (im missing yet another oppurtunity to go to disney world!) I will stay in my current family until they return. Last week I was worried about the subject because as far as I knew I was changing families December first or second and arriving to an empty home. So I went to talk to my counselor about it. I hadn't really been to his house before but I had met his wife and oldest daughter. He's really a cool guy and I had a nice time just hanging out in his house with his family. His youngest daughter is adorable. And he has a radio station so we talked about all kinds of music and movies. So now I think I'm going to do more things with my counselor. Especially this summer when I'll probably have some very bored moments. I'm really glad that I chose to come here. Especially here because in other places like western Europe I don't think I would've seen the same things. Especially the problems. Because here all of the hypothetical problems we talk about in he classroom are a reality. Like littering, water shortages, and gasoline rationing. Which were all issues in environmental science class last year and when I was kind of bored with those topics I got kind of impatient, natural to my senioritus and wanting to leave so badly. But now I see that we really have issues to think about like those, especially since in the us the products just keep coming and hey Try to make them cheap for us so we can maintain our lifestyle. School is really different here, university is too. Whenever I explain the concept of liberal arts colleges, everyone is fascinated. Here public school is free so most people end up going to la Rioja, staying in catamarca, or going to Cordoba which is the best and largest it makes OSU look puny. But they don't have the oppurtunity to do undecided or have the community that liberal arts provides. So I feel so lucky that I secured that scholarship at Denison. I feel ever more confident in my decision after coming here. It really makes you appreciate what you took for granted in the US. The attitude here is so different about organization, even with Rotary. Usually it takes a month for an idea to become a reality. So Among the exchange students we do spontaneous activites with the help of Facebook. Someone posts and we say "meet us in the center for ice cream at 7 at miles' family's shop" and people come. One of the great things is that by being around all the other the exchange students I'm picking up some words and phrases in their languages. I would say I'm the best at Dutch as there are three Dutch students here and I see them a lot plus with their language being a mix of English and German and with the little German I know I can understand them fairly well sometimes. It's pretty hot here already but everyone keeps saying "wait until summer" I'm getting kind of scared haha, but with a lot of host families that have pools we're gonna have some great pool parties. Sometimes it's the simple things that I miss like sleeping on the pink couch and watching Netflix. Here they only sleep on beds, and Netflix is coming here I've seen many adds for it but somehow my iPod knows I'm in a country that doesn't have it all the way yet so it won't let me watch anything. There is no ethnic food because there are no minorities or ethnicities, although they do refer to certain people as "blacks" even though they're not actually black. I've only seen one african American person here and that was in cordoba a really big city. This really confused me when I first got here, but what they really mean is the shady type of people who steal things.

THE BUS
Well I´ve never been claustrophobic or anything like that but when I´m taking the bus I may as well be. I´ve never been in a place with that little personal space in my life. The bus is actually safe in Argentina. And everyone says that Catamarca is very tranquil so I´m comfortable taking it quite often to get to the center for my culture classes duuring the day. Anytime after about 11:30 at night though I refuse to take the bus. This is because I went with my host sister once to eat with a friend and we took the bus back at around 1 or 2 am. The bus fare is usually 2.50 pesos, and the bus driver charged us 8 pesos. I asked my sister about it and she said that the drivers only hike up the prices at night because inspectors come during the day to check it out, but at night since no one is checking them and they have command of the bus they can do whateer they want. It´s for this and the other reason is that I don´t really know when exactly the last bus leaves to go to where I live, but even if I did who knows at what time the bus would actually arrive so I conclude taking a pricey taxi and being safe about it is far better than being stuck alone in a shady bus stop. This is really my main issue right now because I really like my family and all it´s just that all of my rotary activities and hanging out occurs in the center and getting back to where I live can be a real hassle sometimes and there were times when I actually had to stay over at people´s houses. Like once I went to a friends to watch a movie and the brother left and set the security alarm. He said that if we tried to leave or open a window or do anything the police would come, so we had to stay.

This summer I am trying to fill it with activities but it will be quite difficult and I´ve heard from other people that summer here can be kind of boring. Here the culture is to go out every day in summer, including Christmas which is like a dinner with family and then a huge party. It´s also a time for lots of pool time. I am perfectly fine with pool time and my second host famiy has a pool. I´ve only gone swimming for three days and already I´m tanner than I was all summer in Ohio. The pool is something to look forward to but right now in my family we dont really go out much, my family works and then we eat together, have siesta, they work some more, then we have dinner and wrap up the day. So lately I´ve been playing with my little brother but I´m yearning for an activity for me to do. So I´ve decided to get my butt up a little earlier each day and then I can learn to cook from the maid and help her with lunch. This and then I want to cook more for my family. And then in the center when I switch families I will take up swimming with another exchange student who has a different activity planned for every day of the week practically. I didnt really realize the wide variety of activities we had at GHS. I even told people that we had a cake club and bearded man club. my goals this summer are to cook more, learn more spanish, travel to some other cities, and swim a LOT. I´m looking forward to actually learning how to cook the argentine style because then I can bring it back with me and use it for years to come.

Life on a double decker bus for three weeks

So today is my first day home since October 24, now what have I been doing since then? I´ve been on the most amazing trip of my life. Sometimes when I describe it it might not sound that way to everyone, but even the bad things or the mistakes are all part of my fond memories of this trip now. We started the trip from Catamarca early in the morning on the 25, and I rode my first double decker bus! it was so cool, and then when we woke up we were in cordoba capital, where we hung out at the bus terminal for a while, and then walked around a bit to get to know some basic landmarks, then we went to a cool shopping center called patio olmos. It was there that I had my first American fast food bacon cheese burger in months, it made my soul and arteries happy. There we met up with some of the other exchange students from the other districts that would be traveling with us. Finally at 1pm we all were ready and heading out in the bus to start a great adventure. we spent the night in the bus, which was ok because it´s more comfortable than an airplane, and there were nice tvs and a dvd player so we watched lots of movies, and most of them I´d wanted to see for a long time so I was quite happy on the bus snuggled up eating an alfajore snack. Some of the best memories I had on the bus was when there was absolutely nothing to do and we just talked or joked around. like how the New Zealanders would criticize us jokingly over the American pronunciation of certain words, or word choice for example "the desert is called jelly guys, not jell-o!". We ended up having multiple debates about things like that, but they are some of the most hilarious people I know. And we actually got to know each other really well and we shared so many stories. One of my favorites is about one guy´s first experience with a bidet (which is in every single private bathroom in Argentina) he said at first he thought it was for washing your feet, and that he turned the knobs so much that the water hit the ceiling. Our first stop was Puerto Madryn which is a coastal town, it´s actually where the Welsh settlers landed to make a better life for themselves, and in that province there are still people of welsh descent that preserve their language and customs, which I thought was pretty cool. We stayed there for three days, and did some great things. We went whale watching, saw seals, and PENGUINS! Then we went to El Calafate, which I think was my favorite part of the trip. There we had these awesome mountain cabins with an incredible view of the mountains and the lake. We stayed for three days, and we walked down to the lake, which is one of the largest in Argentina and there´s actually flamingoes living there! which is cool and weird because the mountains stay snow capped all year and I always envision flamgingoes being in a very tropical climate. The second day we were there was the most incredible, we went to the parque de los glaciares, and saw the glaciar perito moreno, which is incredible! It´s a glacier that is right on the lake, but it´s very jagged and jaded, but then right next to it are the mountains in spring with so much green foilage and waterfalls. It´s the only advancing inland glacier in the world, and we got to trekk on it with crampons. Which was awesome, and we drank some of the water which tasted amazing. I´ll never forget it. It was also nice in Calafate to have green grass and nice sun, not overbearing catmarca sun. So we hung out alot in the backyard of our cabin and read, listened to music and took pictures. It was so nice not having to worry about anything, just enjoy the scenery. Then we left calafate at 3:30 in the morning to start making our way to Ushuaia, that was at least 35 hours in the bus. We had to go through customs three times because the only way to get to the little part of tierra del fuego that Argentina has is to go through Chile, take a ferry, and then reenter the country. Traveling in between cities in Patagonia and in Tierra del fuego is unlike any other traveling I´ve done because when we drive 30 hours in the bus, we only stop like three times, there´s a lot of nothing out there. It´s pure nature, it´s incredible. Tierra del fuego is close to New Zealand is what the kiwis tell me, just change the foilage. It has the same basic things of mountains, and the ocean, and lots of sheep. It was at this point where all of the New Zealanders were a bit home sick, I thought all of the landscapes were incredible, just so raw and wild. In ushuaia we went to the national park which was kind of cool, and we also got to play with some sled dogs just outside of the city. This was pretty fun there were so many of them and since it´s spring here it´s not the season so we just got to see some pictures and artifcats about sled dogs and then we got to play with them. Something else that´s cool is that Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world and so most of the antartic travel and expeditions leave from there, so in all the tourist shops one can buy just as many trinkets that say Antartica, and they say Ushuaia, because Ushuaia is closer to the south pole than it is to Buenos Aires. And it is a tax free city, this may sound amazing at first but in reality the cost to get products to the southernmost city in the world makes it pretty expensive, except for Electronics, which are manufactured on the island. That´s another thing, all of Patagonia is pretty expensive, especially food. On the way back from Ushuaia I was at my low point because I was getting sick and tired, but I still loved being on the trip with these incredible people who are like my family. From there we went onto Esquel which was our last place with awesome cabins. I really loved the cabins because I was sort of the "mom" of the house of 7 girls. I had everyone on a schedule, always making something in the kitchen and cleaning. In the morning we went to another national park which was cool, it had bamboo, some indigenous paintings on rocks and we did a hike which had an incredible view of another lake with a bunch of mountains. Then we were on our way to Bariloche! Bariloche is the 2nd or 3rd most touristic city in the whole of Argentina. It´s a huge party town, there is a tradition that all the seniors of every school go to Bariloche for a week and just party. When we went the season was over, so It wasn´t as crazy as everyone had told me. It was really cool though because it´s the section of Argentina that looks very German. It has amazing skiing, chocolate, and the architecture makes me think it´s a little mountain town in the alps. It also has a really big lake. All of the lakes in the south were beautiful. Then we made our final stop in San Martin de los Andes, which was a small town and famous for their gardens, while we were there it was raining the whole time so we just chilled when we were there. Which was nice because we needed a rest. And then we got ready for another long bus ride between san martin and cordoba which was about 24 hours and then we said goodbye and then the catamarca people had another 6 hour bus ride ahead of us. After such an adventure it´s almost impossible to describe what it´s like until you´ve lived it because it becomes normal, it becomes your life. And now that I´m back in my host family it seems like it was all a dream, but it wasn´t it was my life. And now I can´t wait to do it again in the north trip, but I will dearly miss the kiwis.
Traveling to other parts of the country it makes me realize how distinct each province is in their own culture. For example the people from Tucuman use some different words and phrases that I had never heard, the same for Cordoba, and the students from Santa Fe have a different accent, some of them told me my accent was wrong, and I was like well I speak like everyone in the northwest of argentina. And the Siesta is not really done in the south, they don´t really need to escape the heat so there´s is really just an extended lunch, it´s not like catamarca where things are closed for like 5 or 6 hours. Also in the south we met way more tourists from our countries, which was kind of cool because some of them had amazing stories to tell, like this one dutch couple had been all over the world and they had been doing it since they were 18, and they were telling us about Africa and how they really enjoyed Rwanda, and a week after they left the genocide started.
Then again it also cements commonalities in the argentine culture, especially food. Like how here cereal is not prepared with milk, it´s prepared with a very think yogurt which is typically flavored vanilla or strawberry or something. This type of drink I saw in France, so it´s actually really delicious with frosted flakes. Another trype of food is the alfajore which is like a cookie with dulce de leche sanwiched with another cookie and covered in chocolate, this can also be donce with a brownie like mini cake, both are amazingly delicious. One of my favorite foods here is like a grilled chese sandwich but it has jam and mayo in it to but the way it´s made is different, there are three layers of bread, and no crust. they´re called tostadas and it´s my comfort food. Another thing is the highway infastructure is not very good. Most of the time we were traveling on dirt roads, and there are even dirt roads here in Catamarca which is a sizable city, same goes for sidewalks there is commonly piles of gravel or things in the way when you walk around which is why I usually wear flats around, because it takes skill and pacience to walk around stuff like that in heels. Street dogs, there are so many dogs on the street here, there´s a plaza in every town we go to, and something has to be named after San Martin. Another thing is the money here is really worn out and most of the time cashiers don´t have enough change so they´ll ask you for change, or give you something that´s the equivalent of a peso or two, like a little candy.
Having to go back to a regular schedule will be kind of weird because for two weeks we had a different schedule every day, some days we´d leave at 3am, others at 7, others at 1 pm. I´ll have to regain knowledge in spanish, tango, and guitar. But I feel the bonding that we did on this trip was incredible and I want to see this group again. It´s weird to think summer is only two weeks away. I´m not sure what I´m going to do with all of that free time. There is so much change coming that I´m waiting to see when more definate things come so then I can plan out my time.

Month numero dos

So I´ve now been in Catamarca for 7 weeks, the first four weeks were a lot of fun, but after the real work began this month I began to struggle more and began to realize that it takes a strong person to become an Exchange student. While I´ve been having a lot of fun hanging out with the Exchange students, my school classmates, and learning tango and guitar at the culture school, it hasn´t been without its challenges.
One of the main challenges has been directions and transportation. I am not a directionally smart person, I´ll be the first to tell you that. There are many family stories where I have been the one to completely screw up the orientation of the group, and frankly it´s been a miracle that I haven´t really been lost for a whole 7 weeks. But I did have one scare, which was incidentally to a rotary Exchange student barbacue. I made my way to the center and then took a cab to an adress that Zatik texted me(the event was at his house) I wound up on the other side of town, luckily my cab driver was nice enough to realice that I was not where I was supposed to be, and once we figured out the real address he began to educate me about directions in Catamarca. To make it even more challenging there were four streets with the same name in Catamarca the city, and then each house has an old number and a new number for directions, where my host family and I live in San Antonio there aren´t any numbers. Luckily we live on a corner but even then if you wanted to deliver a package it could be one of four houses. So I´ve had to learn quickly street names and bus stops, which is good for me. And I would say that so far it’s been pretty successful because I still cant tell anyone street names in Granville. To make it more difficult buses here never come on time, there is a hypothetical schedule but no one knows it, or sticks to it. So the thing is I just assume that a bus will come at about every quarter of an hour, which is true sometimes. But that´s been a point of frustration that it takes so long for me to get where I need to go especially if I want to get there on time because I live about 30 minutes away by bus from the center of the city. So to be on time for guitar lessons and tango takes a long time, and sometimes I don’t get home from tango until midnight depending if the bus is actually on time. It´s also been harder this past month because my host brother has been in cordoba for the past two weeks and I really miss him. When he´s around I feel more engaged and like I do more things and see more things. It´s good that we´re separated for this time I guess because it means my security blanket is gone and I have to really navigate everything without him. But it´s definitely harder without him, especially the transportation part since he drives.
I feel like I´m improving my tango, guitar, and language skills a lot. I feel way more comfortable dancing now than ever before in my life, I can kind of play a argentine folklore song on the guitar now and I feel my Spanish is developing nicely. I feel very lucky that I came to Catamarca because The inbounds here we really are a tight group because there´s a lot of us for such a small city. So I´ve had a lot of fun getting to now all of them and we´ve done a lot of fun things together everything from doing eachother´s hair to going out to the movies. I feel like we are so close even though it really hasn’t been that long since I got to know them. I guess that´s one thing about long term exchange, all the inbounds bond faster because when you think about it we´re naturally drawn to people who are in similar situations, and not many people are teenagers, thousands of miles away from everything they ever knew, and non native speakers of the language. While I´ve enjoyed getting to know everyone from exchange and their siblings, I´ve also had fun getting to know the people from my school. I go to the same school as my host sister (which is rare among inbounds in Catamarca) so I´ve had the advantage of getting to know the younger group from her, but also the older group, my classmates. Our school is very small, I used to think Granville High was small, but by comparison Granville is huge. I´ve really enjoyed my Sociology and Literature classes because we work and analyze things and we think about the big questions when we study a certain subject. My other classes are fine, but most of the time we don´t really do anything, and when we do half the time I don’t understand because there is so much noise in the classroom and its hard to decipher what it is the teacher is trying to explain. I´ve really enjoyed sociology though because we´ve been talking a lot about the way society structures itself and how societies change and now about different cultures and relations to other cultures so I get to talk about cultural differences between the US and Argentina and the teacher is really nice.
Its now officially spring here and it actually rained rained here three times this past month woo hoo! It was nice to see that spring actually exists here because we had a hot streak of 97 degree days, which was interesting because the school has no AC, we have fans. So my classmates and I made fans out of paper and I kept buying water at the little snackbar, that and my host sister and I every day would buy loads of ice cream and eat it during siesta and watch tv in the dark to keep cool. I really like the whole siesta concept. It´s really awesome, the only negative thing about it is that I don’t fall asleep until 2 am and then by 8:30 am I´m really tired and have issues paying attention in school since we don’t change seats all day, it´s the teachers who switch rooms. Siesta is usually from 2 to 6, most shops are closed during this time, then they reopen and maybe stay open until 9 or 10. This is really in Catamarca, I hear that in larger cities like Cordoba and Buenos Aires they cut down the siesta.
Another thing I love about being here is sense that dancing is essential to life. Everywhere I go there is a different style of dancing and guys aren´t shy to ask you to dance. In fact some guys here dance more than the girls, like my classmates in between classes will turn up their music and just start dancing. I like to think I´ve learned a thing or two from them, but in reality I think I need some more practice.

Personal Space is something that is engrained in every culture, and every culture interprets it in a different way. In the United States everyone has their own imaginary "bubble" a fake boundary to ensure the safety and comfort of said person. In Argentina my bubble was popped. Everyone here is warmer, everyone wants to touch everyone. Kiss them on the cheek to say hello or give them a hug or just pinch their cheek occasionally or just joke around, which we do in my class a lot. This was a huge adjustment for me. In Ohio practically no one touched me except close family and friends and to go from that to my first day of school where I said "Hi, I´m an exchange student from the United States" and my entire graduating class sawrmed me to greet me with hugs and kisses was a huge shock. When I told my friends that we don´t greet eachother with kisses in the US, they remembered my first day at school and how I was happy to be there, but that my expression was a mix of happy and shock to be touched by so many people.
Technology
Technology here in Argentina is actually very expensive, but of course every member of my generation is wired to it. While they have different websites and programs that are popular I like swapping knowledge over the technical side of things. This makes me miss my laptop from the US, because I really want to show them how something works or a specific song or file that I don´t have here which is very frustrating. I did bring an external hardrive here with all of my files from my laptop but for some reason it crashed and only opens the new files from Argentina. So this means that I have no way to update my ipod for a whole year! I completely understand my districts rule and I respect that but I am an exchange student who loves music and the exchange of music so naturally I want to download all the songs I´ve already fallen in love with here, but I can´t. All of the public high schools here by law of the minister of education must provide each student with a netbook, I think it´s nice because it really gives each student an equal oppurtunity to do their homework. Another thing is practically no one here has an ipod, the main thing they use here is to have a cell phone with an mp3 in it, the most popular being a blackberry. People here love Facebook, I thought I was on Facebook alot in the US, but the truth is here my classmates are on Facebook more than I think I´ve ever been on. Whenever we´re in the computer lab everyone goes straight to Facebook, to our facebook group of this graduating class, and then chats. It´s ridiculous, and I told them so, I think it´s actually very funny, but to them it´s kind of normal.

There are many different styles of music in Argentina. There is everything from Folklore, which is with Spanish acoustic guitar and more native to the northwest (Catamarca), to Rock Nacional (Rock). Now Rock may sound very generic, but it´s legitamate that Argentina really loves rock and has certain guitar patterns throughout this genre that were unfamiliar to me with Rock from the US. Then of course there is all the dancing music like Tango, Cumbia, and Cuarteto (from Cordoba). Cumbia is hard to describe, it´s like a mix between electronic sounds and rapping/singing, its mainly for dancing. If you´re curious about it youtube "tirate un paso" by "los wachiturros" its the cumbia anthem right now. Cuarteto is very upbeat and fast paced, and I really like the dancing style to it, it involves lots of spinning and twirling. It´s really cool, and most of the singers who sing cuarteto aren´t very good according to my host brother. He says that their voices really don´t matter since it´s really all about the beat. Tango, of course is beautiful and dramatic and more of a Porteño thing (Buenos Aires). People here don´t really tango. In Catamarca most people have a large passion for Cumbia. I like them all, so I have no problem dancing or listening to whatever, but there are some people here who say "oh I don´t like Cuarteto" or "I really don´t like Folklore". You could say the same in the US with country music I guess but to me they´re all beautiful parts of the complex Argentine culture.

Drinking Soda with a straw
Eating Customs south of the border are very different, some of them are the exact opposite of everything you´ve ever been taught for example the communal cup. The first day I came here I had one glass of coke for three people which is ok, but if there´s a big group of if someone buys a coke in the classroom people want you to share. They see everything as communal, which makes sense and I don’t want to be seen as a hog so I´m always happy to share, I just give people fair warning “I´m sick” when I was sick this past month with a cold. Another thing is that everywhere where you can buy soda there are straws. They drink all types of the small soda bottles with a straw, which was interesting the first time I saw it. I was like “Why did the lady hand me a straw?” Another thing is there are all kinds of sodas here, some that are from the coca cola company that we don´t even have in the united states. But mainly there are lots of different types of fruit sodas, which are really delicious. Another typical little snack you can find at any of the kioskos (which are everywhere) is these mini cakes or little cookies that are filled with dulce de leche and then covered in chocolate. Yum. I´m planning on learning how to make Dulce de leche soon so then I can make my life complete when I return and my host mom makes it homemade! Which it’s a very specific process I´ve heard so I´ll be experimenting with that soon. While at the same time the eating customs here are very different, I feel that my love of food has made my transition here easier. Many of the foods here are similar to ones I love in the US, and everyone always asks me about what food is like in the US. Plus one of my best friends here also has parents in the restaurant business so We´ve cooked together once and we´want to learn more about argentine cooking so we´re going to try to organize a recipe exchange activiy between US, Holland, and Argentina. Since food is universal I think it´s made our bond stronger, and since Argentina shares a brotherhood with Italy and many foods take from that root I feel comfortable because all my life my father has cooked Italian food for me.
There is one week until the South Trip! I have never been so excited for something in my life. It´s times like this when I am so glad I decided to do long term to Argentina. We´re going to all the provinces in Patagonia and going to many different national parks but we´re going the farthest south you can possibly go Ushuaia. I cant wait to plaster my blog with pictures of Patagonia, there are things there that I am sure I will see no where else on the planet. We´ll be gone for 17 days and we´re travelling with another district. I can´t wait to have this incredible experience and to bond with more exchange students! While this month has been more regular with schedules and filled with more challenges like directions and coordinating transportation I still feel the need to stay here. I really love it here and I´m so glad I´ve had the chance to meet all of these incredible people, from inbounds, to host families, to my classmates. I´ve learned so much already about all kinds of subjects, I can´t wait to learn more. Even though it´s weird to think once I´m back from the south trip I only have two and a half weeks of school left and then it´s summer! I guess we´ll see what that entails since everything here is pretty spontaneous, but now I´m off to prepare to go south!