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!