Busy Busy Weekend!

Friday:

One Friday, it was my friend’s golden birthday so she had a small fiesta at her apartment (less than 20 people were there). Most of my friends here live with host families, and one of the main rules is that you’re not allowed to have guest over, let alone a small gathering. It was really fun to be able to hang out at a friend’s apartment and enjoy everyone’s company. They had ordered pizza and we drank beer or wine the whole night. It was a really great low-key night. There were people from Japan, Belgium, Italy, London, America, Argentina, and Brazil at the party. I just thought it was really neat that all these people from all over the world were connected by one person. The whole night we all just sat around eating, drinking, and talking. I didn’t get home too late either (around 1:30 which is really early for here). It was my kind of night!

Saturday:

In the late afternoon on Saturday, a bunch of my friends and I went on a graffiti tour. It was so fun and really interesting! I took so many pictures (I’m going to have a different post on here so I can tell ya’ll the stories of some of my favorites). Our tour guide gave us a quick history lesson on graffiti here in Buenos Aires and what it use to mean to communities during the dictatorship and how it is looked at today. I really really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend taking this tour. It was for 3 hours and half of it you walk around for and the rest you take a mini bus.

I really like this last piece because there is a beautiful bird hidden within this chaotic mess. It's in the middle on the left.

The tour took place in the neighborhood Palermo (it’s a neighboring neighborhood to where I live (Recoleta)). We ended the tour in Palermo Soho. I hadn’t been in that area yet, and I absolutely loved it. I like living where I live now because it’s close to my class and work, but I would live in Palermo Soho in a heartbeat. It’s just really cute, I don’t really know how else to describe it. We walked around a little market place after the tour and got ice cream. There was an artist who had a collection of simple (but really good) black and white drawings that used the metaphor that people are a slave to time. I really liked those. I am definitely a slave to time, it was how I was raised and a big part of American culture. To be on time, you arrive somewhere 15 minutes early. If you show up on time, you are late. God help you if you actually show up 5 minutes late. If I show up somewhere on time, not early, I am a wreck the whole drive over because I am just stressing out about the possibility of being late. It’s pretty terrible ha. The way time is viewed here has been an adjustment for me, and still is an adjustment, but I’m trying to learn how to be more relaxed. I didn’t buy any of his drawings, but I think I’m going to go back and buy one or two (they were pretty inexpensive). It’s good to have reminders in your life to slow down and really take the time to enjoy each and every moment.

After the tour, my friends and I went to China Town. It was very small compared to the China Towns in San Francisco and New York City, but I enjoyed it. We ate dinner there, and it was so delicious! I don’t know what it is about Chinese food, but it’s really comforting to me. I just ordered chicken fried rice (nothing special), but it was yummy. My friend Anna and I thought we had ordered pot stickers, and instead out came these balls:

They look like hushpuppies and are kind of similar, but have chicken inside of them. They were sooooo good! I want to go back and have more. I think that it is really interesting to hear Chinese people speak Spanish. You don’t really see that in America.

Later that night, I went and met up with a couple of my friends at a bar called Antares. Apparently it’s a pretty famous beer bar here in Buenos Aires. They brew their own beer, so while I was there I felt like I was in Colorado. Normally, I’m not the biggest beer drinker, so I wasn’t planning on getting anything there. However, they had this thing you could order that had a sampler of all the beers they make (8 total). My friend and I ordered one and split it. Surprisingly, I really liked a lot of them! In general, I usually don’t like the darker beers, but all the darker beers I loved and the lighter ones weren’t that flavorful for me. One beer was a honey beer, another one had chocolate in it, another one had coffee in it, and one tasted very creamy (this is the one I liked the least). I really enjoyed it, and I cannot wait to go back. I’m pretty sure I’ll be going there when my family comes down, there are a few people who love beer ☺.

Sunday:

Sunday was another long day. We went to La Boca (the famous colorful neighborhood here in Buenos Aires). It was really neat to see all the colorful buildings, but it was a lot more crowded than I thought it would be. It’s pretty small too. The sad thing about it is that all the other neighborhoods surrounding La Boca are very poor, and it’s pretty apparent as soon as the colors disappear you are in a bad part of town. But still, it was neat to see it, and the next time I go maybe it should be during the week.

After La Boca, we went to the San Talmo market. We walked from one end to the next, and it took us allllll day long. It just seemed to never end. Everyone here loves going to San Talmo. There are a few girls who go every Sunday. I wasn’t that impressed. There were some pretty cool things to see and I’m glad I went at least once, but I wouldn’t go there every single Sunday. There’s a market place that is a lot closer to where I live that’s a lot smaller, and I actually prefer that one. The San Talmo one is just a little too long for me. However, I did buy a spoon bracelet that I’m really excited about. Now I can wear a spoon on my finger and my wrist!

I saw this interesting graffiti piece on our way to the market place:

It's an unique twist on See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

On our walk home from the fair, we stopped in a very famous book store here in Buenos Aires. It's a regular chain of book stores here, but this particular store use to be a Theatre. It was breath taking to see, considering it's a book store. It was beautiful. The stage was made into a cafe where people can sit, relax, and drink coffee.

There is just so much culture here in Buenos Aires and there is so much to do! Being here has made me want to explore Atlanta and see what kind of treasures I can find.

Until Next Time,
Liz

A Day with the Dead

On Sunday I went and toured the famous cemetery in my neighborhood (Cementerio de la Recoleta) with a few friends. I know that that may sound weird, to go to a cemetery (well not to my family, who apparently does it all the time), but this one was actually really cool. Some of the tombs were the sizes of mini houses and mini churches. There were some pretty ornate tombs as well. The cemetery felt like it was it’s own city. I thought all the isles needed to have street names or some kind of labels. I wish I could have gotten an aerial view of the cemetery. That would have been really cool too see it from above.

After the cemetery, we went to the Recoleta market. There was a live band playing reggae music. It was interesting to hear reggae music in Spanish, it was a nice little twist. The first time I went to the market, there was a guy selling hand made, ceramic mugs, plates, and candle holders that had a burned leaf design on the sides. I thought it was really cool, but didn’t buy it. Since then I have been thinking about his work non-stop, so I bought a candleholder this Sunday and can’t wait to use it!

On our way home, we had the pleasure of watching two mimes take over an entire intersection of a busy road. I’ve never seen a mime perform before, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching these two guys for about twenty minutes. They were pretty funny, and would single people out and interact with the cars, taxis, and buses passing by. Surprisingly, none of the cars honked at the two guys.

This week for my Spanish class our teacher is the same teacher as the one we had my first week (my favorite!), so it’s been going soooooooo well!

Usually I have been volunteering everyday, but made the decision to take Wednesdays off. Wednesdays are the birthday days. The kids are always wild and so much is going on all at once, and it was just too much to handle ha. Instead of volunteering, I’m going to be exploring Buenos Aires more. This Wednesday, my friend and I went to the Evita Museum. Evita was this incredible woman who did so much for Argentina (google her if you don’t know who she is). In school I never really learned about that many famous women, so it’s nice to see that a woman can do some pretty amazing things too. She helped the poor and played a big part in women’s rights to vote. She started out as an actress/model and turned into a role model the whole country could look up too. It was a small museum, but it was really interesting to learn more about her and all the wonderful things she did.

Wednesday night I watched an Argentine movie called El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes). It came out in 2009 and won an Oscar. It was really good! I would definitely recommend watching it (even to those who don’t like reading subtitles while watching movies cough cough Jason cough). It is a murder mystery that has a really interesting twist at the end.

Let me know if you’ve seen it or watch it!

Unitl Next Time,
Liz

Colonia, Uruguay

This past Saturday I took a day trip to Colonia, Urguay with my friends Talia (from Colorado) and Tamara (from Holland). It takes about an hour to get there by boat. The boat ride was one of my favorite parts; it was like a roller coaster. I really enjoyed it, but many people got seasick. It was kind of gross to listen to a lot of people throwing up, but I still enjoyed my roller coaster ride. When we got there we took a walking tour of the city.

It’s really small, very safe, and extremely quiet compared to the noisy city of Buenos Aires. The tour lasted for about an hour and then we had the whole entire day to walk around. The town looked very old, with cobble stone streets, and had two distinct styles (Portuguese and Spanish). Both groups had conquered the city at some point. Portuguese buildings have a pointed roof made of tiles; whereas, Spanish roofs are flat. Portuguese streets arch up (the highest point is in the middle of the road) and have no sidewalks; whereas, Spanish streets arch down (lowest point is in the middle of the road) and has sidewalks. All of the buildings were really pretty and were painted different colors (white, pink, blue, or green).

The whole town looked as though it was sponsored by Coca Cola, so that was cool to see as well.

The town is famous for having vintage cars in it. Our tour guide said it’s really cheap to fix up vintage cars because all of the parts are local. I really like vintage cars, so I enjoyed seeing them all over the town.

One of the old cars had a table set and two chairs set up in it at one of the cafes. I thought that that was pretty neat.

My friends and I climbed up the lighthouse towards the end of the day and enjoyed the view of the whole town and the ocean. After the lighthouse, we went to this really cute café and ate some dessert and drank hot drinks. I ordered hot chocolate, and they brought out hot milk with two pieces of chocolate on the side. I thought that that was pretty neat, and it tasted pretty good too!

Until Next Time,
Liz

The Opera

On Tuesday night I went to the Theatre Colon to go see the opera Fedra. The theatre was beautiful. The opera was a Greek tragedy about a step-mom falling love with her stepson. Spoiler Alert! In the end, pretty much everyone died. The opera was sung in Spanish, and above the stage there were Spanish subtitles. At first I thought that the subtitles were weird, but in the end they really helped me follow the story line. The music in the opera was beautiful, but the acting was a little cheesy, but over all it was a fun experience. To get to the theatre, I rode the subte (the subway) for the first time! I was nervous, but it was really easy, so now I have a quick way to get to places that are farther away. There are 3 different subways to take. So far I have only mastered one of them.

I had a mini-freak out the other day about learning Spanish. My classes are going ok. I’m learning some, but not as much as I would hope to have learned in a class that I go to everyday for 3 hours. Each week we get a new teacher. I really loved the teacher we had last week. I learned so much with here. If anyone in the class didn’t know a word she would explain the meaning in Spanish and then write the word on the white board in Spanish and English. When we learned a new verb tense she would ask a student to explain the tense in English. And for the majority of the class we would just all talk. I really loved it. My teacher this week only speaks in Spanish, so if she explains something I’m confused about I just get more confused. And I just all together stopped asking what words I don’t know mean, because when she explains the meaning I have no idea what she is saying. We talk a little in class, but we mostly just do worksheets that are not that helpful. The last two days have been better though. I’m enjoying my class, I’m just a little concerned that I’m not learning a lot, but my host mom has said that my Spanish has improved tremendously in the past two weeks.

Yesterday in class everyone was talking about the different holidays in their countries and us Americans explained what Black Friday is like. Our teacher just thought it was hilarious how crazy Black Friday can get. Today’s class was pretty great though because she explained all the different past tenses with the verbs and I think I understand a lot better.

I’m about to expose how big of a nerd I truly am. Since I don’t think only taking this Spanish class will help me improve as much as I want, I’m making a ton of flashcards. Basically every new word I learn, I make a flashcard for it. I’m also making flashcards for all the different verb tenses. In my free time, I am also reading Harry Potter in Spanish. So far it’s going really well! It’s a really slow process, I’m only on page 15, but I love being able to understand it. I tackle one paragraph at a time, and I need to look up a lot of the words. I get really excited when I don’t have to look up a single word in a sentence, and sometimes I can understand a whole paragraph (one that’s really short). Each word I look up I put it on a flashcard. I read through the paragraph once, and then reread it again. Like I said, it’s a slow process, but I’m really enjoying it. I have so many different piles of flash cards too ha. I have a different pile for each verb tense, a vocabulary pile, and a Harry Potter pile. I’m pretty proud of my piles, it’s kind of sad. I would rather stay in on a Friday or Saturday night and go over my flashcards and read Harry Potter than go out to the bars or any other social event. That’s kind of nerdy and antisocial of me, but oh well ha.

I’ve been becoming friends with other girls who are a lot better at Spanish than me, so I told them we are only going to speak in Spanish from now on, so that will also help me out. I have a little over two more weeks left in my class, after that, I’m thinking of taking private lessons. I think those would also be really helpful. I’ve heard they can be pretty expensive, but I can just take it twice a week or so and see how it goes. I’ll keep ya’ll posted. I know all of this can sound a little anal, but I really care about becoming fluent in Spanish.

Until Next Time,
Liz

Estancia

My first trip out of Buenos Aires was to an Estancia, which is similar to a ranch or a farm. We left Buenos Aires around 10:30 and got the estancia around noon. We were greeted with wine and empanadas.

The empanadas were by far the best ones I have had since I’ve been here. The dough was the perfect mix between crispy, flaky, and buttery, and the meat was perfectly seasoned. I ate about 4, and would have eaten 20, but I knew we had a really big lunch later, so I had to control myself. There was a HUGE grill with so much meat on it!Five other girls from my program were on the trip (Sarah, Talia, Anna, Bri and Ayla).

I already knew Sarah and had met Talia and Anna once, but had not met Bri or Ayla (they are twins) before. It was really nice to get to know some of the other girls. They are all great! We went for a really short horse ride. This was my second time riding a horse, and I loved it so much more than the first time (even though the first was way better). The first time I rode a horse (it was in Silverton, Colorado with my boyfriend Jason), I was really intimidated by the horse and the horse could sense it; however, this time I felt a lot more comfortable on the horse and was able to really enjoy the ride. I really loved it, and want to start riding horses more often.

Lunch was so amazing! We started out with a salad, which was pretty good. First came out a chorizo (which is a sausage).

Honestly the best sausage I have ever eaten; it was so flavorful! I put the sausage on some bread and ate it like a sandwich. Next came a chorizo negro (black sausage).

This sausage was very strange. I’m pretty sure blood is one of the ingredients in it. It did not look good at all, but we had to try it! Alex, Talia, and I took a very small amount of the sausage, cheers-ed our forks and tried it. It actually was not as bad as it looked, but it’s not something I would choose to eat again ha. Next we were served a small steak. It was delicious! My piece was over cooked and a little dry, but I could still tell that the regular ones were amazing. Lastly, we got come chicken, which was also very tasty.

For dessert we got these really sweet pastries that had apples inside them. I was so full from all the meat, but I still managed to eat three of them.

Overall, the trip was great! We got back to Buenos Aires around 7.

Sometime during the day a volcano erupted in the deep South. My host mom said it was in Argentina, but then at class on Monday some of the people said it was in Chile. As we were driving back to Buenos Aires, the sky looked so dirty, similar to the lovely smog in Atlanta, but much dirtier. I had later found out that it was the ashes from the eruption carried up North by the wind. It was difficult to breathe. If I wasn’t constantly drinking water, my throat would get extremely dry. It was an odd feeling. I had left my window open in my room, and everything had a thin layer of ashes on it. Luckily the maid came the next day!

Until Next Time,
Liz

Finally Settling In

This past week went really well. I am a lot more comfortable with the kids now. I was really worried about the language barrier, but in reality it doesn’t really matter. I can somewhat understand what they say, and if I can’t it’s fine. On one of the days, I was helping a five-year-old girl, Wendy, with her writing. I would write words in Spanish and then she would copy them. When we were done with writing, she colored for a bit and then ran off to go do something else. A little bit later she came and found me while I was with some other girls and she was crying hysterically. I tried asking her what was wrong, but because she was crying so hard (combined with speaking Spanish) I couldn’t understand her at all. After a few minutes she calmed down and then she said she missed her mom. I was relieved nothing serious had happened, but it still broke my heart to see her crying. She cried for about 15 minutes, but then some of the other girls came over and made her feel better. So far, this past Friday has been my favorite day working with the kids. We did some homework sheets, but I mostly played tagged (a.k.a I was always ‘it’) with a little girl and boy. They would go and hide behind a pole and I would say “Where are the kids? Where are the kids? I don’t know!” And they would laugh so hard and try and push each other out behind the pole so I could see them. Some of the other kids would come up to me and point while saying “they are right there!” and I would say “Where? I don’t see them!” and then they would take me to them, and I would finally “find” the little ones. It was cute and a lot of fun. It’s just so amazing how happy these kids seem when they have so little. It just shows me that in life all you really need to be happy are people in your life that care about you and whom you can enjoy life with.

Friday:

Friday night I went out to dinner with my friend Sarah to this restaurant we walk by to and from work. It was pretty good! I ordered some gnocchi with pesto sauce. With the bread we got there, there was some sort of thicker cream dipping sauce with tomatoes in it, it was so delicious! I asked the waiter what it was and he just said it’s a cream sauce with tomatoes, ha, so I’m sorry I don’t have a better description. I had meant to bring my camera to take pictures of what we ordered, but I had forgotten. Also, Sarah and I had learned an important lesson that night. Sarah asked for a glass of wine and the waiter asked her if she wanted a small or big wine, and she said big. A big glass was only 2 pesos more (about 50 cents more). However, apparently when you order a grande wine that means the whole bottle (at least at this restaurant). We were so surprised! Back home the difference between a glass of wine and a whole bottle is $20 or a lot more. I still can’t believe that a whole bottle was 50 cents more than a single glass. I helped her finish the bottle of wine, and it was actually pretty good!

Much later that night I went out with the group of the Ausies who are here. It was so much fun! The going out habits are very different here in Argentina compared to back home. People usually don’t go to the bars till about 2 in the morning. The bars usually don’t get crowded until around 4 in the morning, and people go home around 7-8 in the morning. Very very different than home ha. We left the apartment a little after 1 and only went to one bar. The bar was actually a lot of fun. It had a live band at first, and they played songs in English. After that, for the next few hours, they played remixes of American songs and I knew all of them! So naturally I had a wonderful time. As soon as they started playing songs in Spanish I left ha. One of the Australian boys had just found out that he got kicked out of his home stay (he never really told me why he got kicked out, but he was living with my host mom’s sister and my host mom had told me last week that she did not like having him live there), and he was super bummed. To cheer him up, I showed off my awesome dance moves (so a TON of arm motions combined with jumping up and down). If you have seen me dance before, you know how hard it is to resist my sweet moves, so he cheered up eventually ha. Over all, the first night going out to the bars was a lot of fun, except the Argentine boys are really persistent and do not understand no, go away, I have a boyfriend, etc., but I found out some good tips from some of the other girls on how to get them to leave you alone.

Saturday:

I went on a bike tour of the city with about 20 other people in the same program as me. It was a lot of fun! All our bikes had names, my bike's name was Thrilla. Some of the other names were Capo, KillerD, Talent, they were all fun names.

We got to see a lot of the city, which was great. I really enjoyed it because it made Buenos Aires seem smaller than I originally thought. I walk everywhere, so everything seems so far away, but when riding a bike everything was really close. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take a whole lot of pictures because we were riding our bikes for the majority of the time, but I took a few. We passed a few parks that look really nice and have small lakes/ponds in them. One of the parks has this beautiful bridge in it, so I’ll be going back to that park and taking pictures for sure.

When we got to the last park, we took a break and drank mate with orange soda. I normally don’t like the mate with the hot water, but it was sooo tasty with the orange soda. The sugar in the soda was the perfect balance to the bitterness of the mate. My first mate sip here in Argentina!

After mate, some of us played with a hackie sac and then with a soccer ball. Surprisingly, I wasn’t that bad. I’m no Maddy or Kate (two of my good friends from high school who played soccer in college), but there is some hidden soccer skill in me somewhere. Ha one of the boys told me I should come and play soccer with them, ha I just laughed (if only he knew how horrible I really am). Biking on Saturday made me really miss my bike rides back home, so I’ll have to go biking soon again sometime.

After bike riding, I went to an ice cream shop with my friends Richie and Sarah. It was my first time eating the ice cream here. It was so GOOD! I got the flavor called Chocolate Suiz, which is chocolate with dulce de leche. The chocolate here is different that the chocolate back home. I don’t know how to explain the difference, but I really love it!

I took tango lessons for the first time on Saturday night, and absolutely loved it! It was so much fun. I thought I would be terrible, because usually me and dancing is just not a good combination, but I think I did pretty good for my first class. I have no idea how I looked while dancing, but I was able to remember the steps (well most of the time), and that is half the battle. I thought it would be awkward dancing with strangers, but it really wasn’t. The teachers only spoke in Spanish, so the majority of the time I had no idea what they were saying, but they always showed us what to do and that was enough for me. The teachers are dance partners and are also dating. They are literally the most beautiful couple I have ever seen in my life. I really loved it! I want to take them every weekend. I’ll keep ya’ll posted on how the dancing goes. I am definitely looking into other dance classes when I get home. It’s so fun, and something different and fun to do.

Until Next Time,
Liz

iQue Dia!

Today was soooo AMAZING! I really love my Spanish class, even though I get lost a lot. The class is really small, which is really great; that way everyone has to participate. Volunteering was also really really great today. I made my first friend! Ha I know that that sounds kind of lame, but I am really excited about that. I finally have someone to do stuff with. We've made travel plans already are are planning on taking tango lessons. Watch out Buenos Aires, I don't know if this city can handle my awesomeness when it comes to dancing. Everything is still so overwhelming (which I expected), but it's really nice to know that I am not the only one going through it.

This is a really short entry, but I just wanted everyone to know that everything is going great. It's funny how one day can change everything for the better.

Until Next Time,
Liz

Exploring

Friday:

I had another new experience with volunteering. I met two other American girls who are studying abroad here. They were both really nice and gave me a bunch of tips about Buenos Aires. One of them went to CU for a year, but is now going to CSU (boo!), so I thought that that was cool. This time at work, we participated in an after school program. I think Friday is how most of the days will be like. It was a very good experience and yet another eye-opener to how much Spanish I do not know. Some of the kids will have work sheets they have to work on, some of the younger ones just color, and then others just hang out. For a little bit I played Donde estas Wally? (Where’s Waldo?) with two little boys, and at first they were really into it so we didn’t talk much, but after awhile they wanted to talk and I could not understand anything they were saying. It was a little frustrating because it seemed as though all the other volunteers (who have been in Argentina for 2 months or since July) know so much more Spanish then me and can communicate with the kids a lot better, so I felt really lost that day. After the schooling part was over, the kids went outside and played. Some of them played futbol and then the others jump roped. These kids LOVE to jump rope! It’s pretty cute. Some of the boys get really into it and get a little rough with each other. It was fun to play with the kids thought; I really enjoyed it. I just cannot wait to improve my Spanish a lot more so I can talk with the kids better.

This weekend was a good first weekend. I walked around the city a lot a lot a lot. I don’t really know anyone so I explored the city by myself. In general, I don’t really like exploring by myself because I enjoy experiencing things with others, but I wasn’t going to just sit inside all weekend by myself. Buenos Aires really feels like New York City. Besides everyone speaking Spanish, I don’t really feel like I’m in a different country far from home. Anything I need, I can walk to, which is great. I will be walking so much these next three months; so thankful it’s not going to be cold. The people here are also very friendly. A few people have joked around with me. I have no idea what they are saying, but if they laugh I laugh and we have a good time ha.

Saturday:

I explored my neighborhood (Recoleta) some. I went out to find the park that is near where I live so I would know where to go running. It’s pretty close, maybe a 10-15 min walk. It has a lot of strange, but interesting, sculptures in it, as well as a lot of statues. I walked around the park for a bit, it’s pretty big. There are so many neat looking trees everywhere!

Right next to that park is the Floralis Generica, which is this huge metal flower. It’s pretty cool.

There is a museum (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes) near the park that is free to get into so I went and checked it out. It had paintings by Degas, Monet, Renoir, Rembrandt, Manet, and so many more. There was a small collection of Degas’ ballerina paintings and drawings, so I was really excited to see those. I love his ballerina paintings. The dancers always look so graceful. His paintings make me wish I were a ballerina. It would be nice to look graceful while I dance because obviously I am anything but graceful when I dance, although I do have some pretty sweet moves ☺.

Near the museum there were hundreds of little vender stands selling anything and everything. It was pretty neat to check them all out. I think they are there every weekend, so I’ll have to go back and buy a few things.

Sunday:

I went to a different neighborhood (Palermo), to check out the other plazas (they are like small parks) and some of the gardens. I walked through the Botanical Garden. There weren’t really any flowers, but it had a ton of tress. It felt like I was out of the big city for a bit. It was fun to people watch too. There were tons of people sitting on the benches hanging out, drinking their mate, and just enjoying the day. There were also cats everywhere, so that was kind of funny.

I also saw the Monumento a la Carta Magna y las Cuatro Regiones Argentinas. It’s kind of like a huge fountain in the middle of a busy intersection. It’s really pretty. (sorry for the picture being soooo huge, I couldn't use the small one because it was turned on its side)

My last stop for the day was the Japanese Garden. It was really pretty. Even though there were a lot of people there, I still got a calming feeling from it. Again, it was nice to feel like I was out of the busy city. My host mom told me it’s the biggest Japanese garden in the world outside of Japan (she told me this in Spanish so I might have misunderstood her).

So far, my favorite time of the day is dinnertime. I’ve been by myself a lot so far, so I enjoy sitting down with my host mom and practicing my Spanish. She has told me that I have improved a lot already since I’ve been down here, so that’s exciting!

I really want to go on trips while I’m down here; however, I’m a little worried that I won’t make friends to go with. I don’t really want to travel by myself. So far I’ve met people who have been here since July (studying abroad). They are very friendly, but they have their group of friends already, and I’ll only see them at work on Fridays. The other group I have met is the big group of Australians. They are here through the same program as I am, have been here for a month or two, and most of them all live in the same building. I know I just got here and I have plenty of time to make friends, but I’m still a little worried. I want to make sure I make the most of my time while I’m down here, and having friends would definitely make that easier. I’ll keep ya’ll posted on how making friends goes ha. I’m not complaining at all, I’m just a little concerned. It is kind of nice though, to be alone, because I’m learning a whole new kind of independence. My program does offer a lot of fun activities, so I will be taking full advantage of those for sure. So far it’s been good. Spanish classes start tomorrow and I feel like I’m a little kid excited about their first day of school!

Until Next Time,
Liz

My First Day

I made it to Buenos Aires! Everything has been pretty good so far. When I got on the plane I was kind of freaking out a little bit about the fact that I'm going to a different country where I do not know anyone and I only know how to speak a little bit of Spanish. I was basically feeling scared for the first time about these next 9 months. I wanted the plane to turn around and take me home ha. The feeling I felt was very similar to the feeling I felt when I went skydiving with my brother and sister. While we were in the plane, all I could think of was "I am NOT jumping out of this plane!" I really wanted to back out of it, but once my feet finally hit the ground (after the longest minute of my life free falling) I was overcome with joy and happiness. So while I was on the plane to Argentina, wanting to go back home, I just remembered how glad I was that I actually went through with skydiving (I was pretty proud of myself actually ha), so I knew that whatever adventures lie ahead of me in South America, that I would be ok and be extremely happy about everything I am going to learn while down here.


I am living with a host mom. Her name is Teresa and I absolutely love her. I think we are going to be a really good fit together. She loves to talk, and I really need someone to practice my Spanish with and she is extremely helpful. I'm really looking forward to getting to know her better


Today was my first day of volunteering. It was a lot of fun! We handed out Toms shoes today to the kids and their moms. It was really neat to actually see the whole Toms motto (buy one pair, give one pair away for free to kids) in action. The kids are so cute and everyone in the calle (slum) is very nice. Today was a little hectic since we were handing out shoes, so I'm looking forward to when things slow down, and I can actually play with the kids. It was nice meeting some of the other volunteers. There is a big group from Australia, so that's kind of neat to meet people from other countries. I can't wait to actually make friends! Hopefully that will happen sooner rather then later ha, but we'll see. I start my spanish class on Tuesday, and I'm really looking forward to that.


Until next time, 
Liz