Loving BA

Racing v Banfield 2 - 0

Becca's 21st- kareoke barBangos with AndresPreparing our Creole Dinner

La Bomba

I started the last weekend off with a bar in San Telmo called The Red Door, where Nora, Emily and I met a great group of people from all over the world and played lots of pool- which I'm horrible at- and seem to be getting worse at. Friday I went to a Kareoke bar for my friend, Becca's, 21st. it was great fun, there was singing, dancing, and kinda live entertainment. We then headed back to Becca's place for some delic. ice cream at 6am! So good. Saturday afternoon was spent shopping with Bex and her portena friend Alicia looking for cheap warmer clothes near Plaza Once. Fail (well for me).  I then headed to Ciudad Universitaria to play my 1st Ultimate Frisbe pickup game in BA. SOOOO much fun! It was really nice to throw and play, considering I haven't held a disc in 3 months. Everyone I met there is really cool and we played some good points. Saturday night Nora and I headed over to Andres' casa to make some Creole dinner with a Cser he's hosting and his roomate, and his sister. After our delic dinner we headed to a party where there were many international people, always a good time.

Sunday Nora and I headed to a Racing v Bamfield futbol match. My 1st soccer game ever! It was AMAZING. I can't even begin to explain the adrenaline within the stadium when Racing scored the 1st goal of the game in the 2nd half. We had seats in the popular (where you don't have a seat and just stand- which is more fun anyways). Before the game Christian was teaching us some Racing cheers- all of which i can only remember one line "Racing mi buen amigo..." The game was interesting and the hinchas-fans- made it even more exciting. I munched on some Churi pan after the game- 'spicy' sausage sandwhich with tons of toppping like chimichurri- and started on the dreaded homework and studying this week entailed. I had my 1st exam this past Thursday in my Lit. class. It went pretty well I think. I studied  a lot for it, and felt pretty prepared, so we'll have to see how it turns out.

And Monday night I headed to La Bomba ( a really popular percussion concert) with Christian, a porteno I met a few nights before, because my Monday night class got cancelled. He's a super cool guy who plays an instrument similar to bongos, but larger, so it was good to hear some details about the Bomba while seeing them perform. You can't help but move when you are there, the sounds out of the instruments are electrifying, an amazing show!

Colonia y Festejando (celebrating)

Zac's Cumpleanos

My typical study sessions

By Plaza de Mayo

Casa Rosada

An ombu- giant tree in middle of parks

Colonia (this pic and below)

Giant Cacti

My new buddy

Cutest cobblestoned street in Colonia

Ruins

Playa

Lemon orchards in la Casa de Limonero

La Casa de Limenero

Thursday was nerve racking! I had my 1st presentation totally in Spanish for my LA Cuentos-sotries class. I had to deliver a 10 mins presentation soley on History and the culture/society of Paseo by Jose Donoso, and then lead the hour and 10 min class through a discussion of the story. I felt like I rambled a lot, but my teacher said she liked the way the class went and my drawing on the board and the activities and questions i planned for the class of 6 (there was only 4 students that day-but I was still really nervous). More to come on my grade... I then fixed up our group project for Geografia, and did all my homework for my Intl Biz class- which was the same day too. And then I last minute had to switch my ticket to go to Colonia- because IFSA gave me the wrong dates. But everything turned out fine, and I was ready for a mini vacation.

Colonia was a lovely time, as you can see. It's a great little city by the Rio de Plata, its about 40km from BA, a 3 hour slow ferry ride, or 1 hr fast ferry. Me and 75 other people from IFSA left early Friday morning and ended up (after a ferry and a short bus trip) in la Casa de Limeros- which is the house of the President of IFSA. He owns many acres and has a giant lemon orchard in the backyard. We had an amazing lunch filled with chorizo-sausage, carne-steak, pollo-chicken, and salad. And after we went down to the playa-beach- and enjoyed the sun and the sound of the waves. It was nice to get to the beach and be surrounded by nature here because BA doesn't have much nature. After checking into a really chik hotel, we headed to our night tour of Colonia. It was really interesting to learn about the history and the Spanish and Portugues influence it has. We also ate well for dinner that night, apetizers, seafood, pie and ice cream, and good company. I woke up early the next day and saw Colonia in the daylight, which was beautiful!

We got back saturday afternoon and I did some homework in Plaza de Mayo- pics, before I headed off to the movies and dinner to celebrate a friend, Zac's, 21st Birthday. We saw Fury of the Titans in English- because the dubbing is supposedly horrible. It was an entertaining movie- full of action. We then dined at Lucas' home for a great dinner prepared by his mother. Empanadas and Pizza, and a great chocolate/strawberry cake. Yum! After we were full we chatted, danced and I played my 1st game with Spanish cards (they are really different- and theres only 50). Forgot what it was called, but it was similar to Mafia played in the US.

Sunday was spent on homework and hanging out with Agustin, one of my friends I met at USAL, in his hometown, San Isidro. It was a great time! We toured SI for a bit and chatted over tea and tostada- grilled cheese. The rain/hail-yes HAIL- sent me home to homework again.

I have plans to go see Much to do About Nothing on Wednesday night with my program, and Tango on Friday, and hopefully my 1st Ultimate pickup game in BA on Saturday! Pablo got me into contact with some people who play Ultimate Frisbe here- super excited! I'm off to practice my presentation for my geography class tonight!

!Divertido!

After our Chocotorta

Parque Cetenario

Parque Cetenario

hanging out with Andres#2

Pablo & Our Chocotorta!! 1/2 Nutella filled and 1/2 dulce de leche

Saturday we met up with Pablo to make a CHOCOTORTA... yummmm..... it's a really famous cake here. Ingredients: chocolate cookies, coffee, dulce de leche (or substitute with Nutella like we did too), cream cheese, and a Porteno-> ok not really, but its a nice touch. Once all the tapas- layers- are put on, you have to refrigerate it for atleast 3 hours. After our baking lesson Nora and I headed off to Abasto shopping to meet up with Cser, Andres (yes I now know 2 Andres, 3 Pedros, and about 6 Juans). We watched a BAFICI corto (4 short movies in one- 1 French, the rest were Argentine) which were interesting but really confusing to understand- not because of the language. I really liked one about trying to escape poverty. After the cortos we headed of to the COTO to do some shopping for dinner and made a great parilla at Andres' apt. We hung out there the rest of the night listening to him on his guitar and other music, chatting, and practicing my tango moves- yes, I am still taking lessons even though its tough.

Sunday Bex, Nora, and I got together at the park to eat our chocotorta we made for ourself, the other one we gave to our friend Zac for his bday. The chocotorta was just as amazing as it sounds, and we scarfed it down while the kids running around us stared us down- no joke. I then went to another BAFICI independednt movie titled Secuestro y Muerte, which was also interesting and confusing, but had a little history in it too.

These past few days have been school, which is the same, I pretty much have my routine down, which honestly at this point, I'm happy with. Although I have my 1st presentation on Thursday in my Lit class- I'm doing Paseo, by Jose Donoso, and I'm super nervous about it! But I feel pretty prepped already. I then have another project due on Monday, where my group must present too for my geography class- we are working on the Iran Iraq War. No classes on wednesdays, so this is my work day. And Friday I'm off to Colonia, Uruguay for a night, with IFSA.

This week

This week was intenso! I finally went to all my classes this week, and I’m liking them so far! i really like my cuento latinoamericano contemporaneo class- have to present next thurs tho! my marketing class seems cool- i really like the teacher-hes really animated, and i have 3 friends in my internatl mkt class that r super cool!, and my castellano class seems really good- we are reading a novel and practicing much needed grammar. As for my geografia class- Im not sure if I will be in it, or have to switch to another class, because of a cupo (a cap on how many intercambios-me- can be in a class

: (

I have 2 classes that end at 10pm, yikes, so I come home starving, and my host mom is heading off to bed, ha. This past Wednesday I went to my 2^nd Tango class and I loved it, even though there was no one else under 50 there. Haha, my companero was named Luis (which looked like Robin Williams- no joke- I was going to tell him- but decided tango steps were complicated enough to communicate) and we were both beginners so we were seperated and given easier/beginning instructions. tango is a lot of fun, but really tough to get down. You need good balance- which I don't have, be good with your feet, and you have to be comfy with people in your privacy bubble.

Today I went to a meeting with CEPNA- the organization that works with Indigenous people. I'm really excited to get to know the poeple with this organization and get to talk to indiginos, teach them my culture and some English, as well as learn about their culture. I've already been learning a lot from Rosalia and Fernando (heads of CEPNA) about indigenous poeples in Argentina and in the Americas.

I plan on making a cake tomorrow for a friends' birthday and going to watch independent films sat and sunday for BAFICI- International independent film fest ;) should be fun!!

Igauzu Falls y Corrientes (Easter weekend)

MMM facturas and coffee

Costanera

My favorite Spot!

Coatis trying to steal our food- so cute!

Me & my Easter treat

Nora sippin mate

hangin' out with the guitar

Zoo

Costanera

There were 'wild' horses hanging out all over Corrientes city- like this one

Amazing murales

1 of the 7 Churches that was closed on Easter when we wanted to go

Gaurani - Indigenous peoples of Missiones

My favorite spot!

Garganta del Diablo

Ma I had to take this one for you! (salto=cateras= waterfalls)

Lizard

On El Practico

Garganta

Garganta del diablo

Tortugas

Butter(fly)fingers

The Bus trip there

Waiting for EL PRACTICO- the bus that takes us to Igauzu

Well Igauzu was AMAZING!! As you can see. Our 17ish hour bus trip there was well worth it. The 1st day Nora, Bex, Lauryn, and I headed to la garganta del diablo- the devil's throat- and it was intense. We couldn't even see to the bottom of the falls. There was water coming up at us too, that's y we are soaked in some of the pics. The 2nd day we traveled around the rest of the falls, the upper and lower parts, and this was another amazing day. Igauzu National Park was filled with butterflies, rainbows, caotis (really cute Argentine racoon) trying to steal our food, birds, and of course the cateras-waterfalls. There are around 2,000 waterfalls within the park. When we were walking around the trails the 2nd day, every 10 mins I kept saying "oh this is the best view, wait no this is the best view" the park just seemed to get more beautiful every second! Can't say much more- pictures & video!!

We stayed in a hostel for Friday night, the 1 night on our trip we actually got a bed. This was a pretty hostel with a pool and a great free breakfast. It wasn't as cool as our art hostel in Montevideo- but I guess who could top that? the rest of the nights were spent eating bus food and sleeping in semi-camas on the freezing bus. But I got a lot of homework done, and slept for the most part- so I was happy.

Sunday- Pascau- Easter- We headed to Corrientes, which is another province in Argentina. Its up north, about 12 hr bus ride from BA. We got there super early and met up with some wonderful people-Lia, Manuel, y Sebastian. We went and got some coffee and facturas- pastries- for breakfast, had some mate, went to all 7 churches in the city Iwhich were all closed on easter- they had masses at the time we had our bus), saw the pretty plazas, and watched a game of Paddle- kinda like tennis-popular there, walked on the cosanera (coast- really pretty), went to the local zoo, had some mate, learned how to cook some really yummy fried dough, had some terere (cold mate), listened to people play guitar, had some mate, ANd then traveled back to BA. Oh yes, and I even got a chocolate egg for dessert on the bus that night : )