End of the semester...

Reserva EcologicoVamos Argentina!Concierto de Musica de TangoBeso de un ositoCachorroTigre

ElefantesCamelloCamello

Plaza Italia

Puerto Madero

Chori!Puerto Madero- newest buildingsPeruvian RestaurantYummm!Andres y EmilyChe!

The People who made my leather belt (Cinturo'n)Trying on my cinturon :)

Puerto Madero x NocheCrucigramas at Clem's (super dificil en espanol)Vamos Uruguay- Parque CetenarioBex sippin mi mate:)Circulo Militar- Palacio PazLa Bomba de Tiempo

Phew... haven't done this in a while. here we go. The end of June was rough. But I recieved pretty good grades and passed everything ; ) So my classes are officially done! Woot. I thought I may have had to recuperar-retake my Marketing final- but got a 7 on that. Got an 8 on my Marketing International class- so i didnt have to take the final (funny story- we were supposed to  recieve our grades the following week in class- but the profe wasnt there- so because my profe is my friend on facebook... love it!... I was told by my companeros in class to ask him my grade- now this is very different from the states, where its a safety issue to talk about grades over emails there. but heck- here I am recieving my grade over facebook- I love this country!) My paper for my cuentos clase was finished of course 12 hrs before it was due and was last minute graded by buddies on facebook- hope that turns out well, but I have confidence. Castellano class ended with my presentation on the legalization of abortion in Argentina and a 5pg paper about my stance (info: basically all abortion is banned unless the female is in medical danger or is mentally unstable and was violated). Argentina is very infuenced by the catholic church- as much of south america. It's pretty much everywhere (random: some people here do the crucifix when they pass by a church- let me tell you there are many churches here).

Tuesday night was spent celebrating finishing classes with Nora and Emily, and ended with a police officer cutting off a colectivo so I could safely get home on that same colectivo-ha!)

Thursday we went to Lujan Zoo: aka, the most dangerous zoo in Buenos Aires- and a hell of a lot dangerous than any zoo in the states. We were able to pet lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! And of course I rode a camel (hmmm... thought i would have to g2 egypt to do that), kissed a little bear (grape between my teeth), had a parrot on the shoulder, and fed elefants carrots. Oh man that was a great day!

Saturday I went to the ecological reserve(super pretty- but we got a little lost of course on r way out) after Andres and I unfortunately saw Argentina get their culos kicked badly ( very unlike the week b4 where they dominated Mexico- watched that game in Pamela's house)

 : ( The whole coutnry was pretty down that day, but that didn't stop Maria, Bex, and I from going to a boliche in Ramos Meija- about an hr away in the burbs. Not before Bex got her medialuna con jamon y queso did I return home at 9am the next morning. Good fun! The San Telmo ferriado-fair was nice to go to- met up with Bex and Pamela.

Monday went to see Eclipse with Lauryn, Becca and Sarah- it was in english- and span subtitles- can't stand dubbing! i enjoyed it: ) After the movie we headed to konex to meet up with Bex and Nora to go the Bomba de Tiempo ( group of about 12 percussionists- drums, tamborines, bongos, todo!- which was just as great as the 1st time i went. You can't help but dance when your there! The sounds are electifying!!

Tuesday Bex n I took a tour at Palacio Paz owned by Circular Miltar- not gov affiliated. We had a tour that was great (tour guide knowledgeable and sweet and we had some characters- an opera singer- in our group too! It lasted a few hours and learned about the royal families that lived in Buenos Aires years ago. The architecture was magnificent! there was so much detail and color and everything was so rich.  After grabbing some lunch we headed to parque cetenario to watch the Uruguay v Holanda game. It was a great game! But unfortunately ended with south america out of the Mundial : (. I brought my new mate- already cured- and felt super Argenitne- well i guess there more Uruguayan. (btw Uruguayos definetley drink a lot  more mate than Argentinos- both times i went to Uruguay mate was people's 3rd hand). I had a great dinner last night with mi host mama, Pedro-her boyfriend, her brother and sister in-law. It lasted about 2 1/2 hours, haha. It was interesting to have a different dinner here with older people (random: I definelety find it easier to undersatnd older people here  than my peers because they don't use as much lunfardo-slang-Che Boludo!, speak as quick, and pronunciate better. Argentines- or mostly just Portenos talk a lot... and they interupt a lot, and argue a lot, ha. I noticed this over the months, sometimes It's fine, it makes things less formal, but other times it bothers me, because I tire of the conversation or can never get a word in.) Went to Kika, another boliche last night with Lauryn n Sarah and had a great time. Pretty good music that I was missing- techno and hip hop.

Watched Spain beat Germany-yes!- today at Clem's apartment. We had some pretty good kinda spicy hamburger pasta and fruit kabobs that Clem made:) yumm. 1st time playing crucigramas- scrabble spanish style. it was tough! but I won, haha! I headed to Puerto Madero to enjoy its beauty at night and got stuck waiting 20 mins 4 the subte to strt running, but then I had to walk 20 mins to find a collectivo back home- oy ve! jaja.

Planning on meeting up with Eze(yay!) and Nora tomorrow to hang out in Palermo and see some museos and grab some lunch before hitting a boliche with Esteban. I'm loving not having classes- but this will end soon enough : /

Nora and I are taking an 8pm bus to Santiago, Chile:) this sunday. We'll be traveling for 2 1/2 weeks (CHile->Mendoza->Salta->Jujuy->Cordoba->back to bsas. Im pumped! I'm chillin at my host house until I head out, but I'll be staying at Andres' place when I come back. Hopefully can update b4 my long trip.

Phew fue muy largo!

Empanadas at 7am...

Painting at the ComedorJorge y Pelucha (teddy bear- aww)

Laura n I (Rocio's despedida)

This past week was filled with Mayas, Mayas, and fiestas! I've been working a lot on my Maya paper, which is due this Thursday for my Geografia clase. I think as long as the paper is decent the profe will give us a good grade basically bc he thinks all the extranjeros are idiots and hes super nice- but we still gotta make sure its good. ANywhere from 10-20 pages, hmmm.... I have about 4 1/2 right now and going strong. Good news: I got a 10/10 on my cuento (story), and we critiqued in class and apparently my paper had many fans  : 0 who knew... Next week have another final for my Comercio internacional clase, whew lots of reading to do! Hopefully ill do as well as my last, dedos cruzados.

Thursday I cam home to an apartment with no electricity- apparently 14% of the city was without electricity at that point. And mi mama y yo made up the 5% that stayed without electricity for a whole day- bla!

Friday I went to a CEPNA religion/culture event, which was really intersting, I always love hearing indiginos talking about thier culture and expereinces. After I met up with my new friend, Rocio's place to hang out with a bunch of her friends (buenas ondas- good waves~~ cool people) at 4am we headed to a boliche (bulnes and lavalle- the intersection and name, ha!) to do some dancing, and ended up at another friend's house to eat some yummy empanadas at 7am and drinking some mate. Got some 3 1/2 hrs of sleep and headed off to the Comedor to do some wall sanding and painting. After a few hours of work, Jorge made us a great lunch of a type of canelones filled w spinach and others with ham. We pretty much took as long eating and chatting as we did working on the walls. After a quick nap I went to Andres' housewarming party for his new apartment. We went to dinner (Napolitan pizza- yumm) and bought some dessert to celebrate. I went to Rocio's despedida fiesta - good bye party with Lauryn -after waiting forever for a colectivo. It was good fun, and resembled the interesting night before, except instead of the empanadas we has medialunas-croissants- just as delicious. Still keeping up with the running at parque centenario : ), which is what i did today. I also met up with NOra to go over our paper at a cute little cafe, Oasis, with a just as cute mozo-waiter, before my last geografia class.  Other goal for the week, besidesthe paper: find out when the heck I'm coming home, and from what country...

La semana pasada...

The past week was a little hectic for me because I had a parcial in my International Marketing class. I studying a lot for it, and was really nervous for the test, but it's done. I think I did pretty good on it, but here, you never know. When I turned it in the profesor looked a little confused- I'm sure my formatting was diferent than the rest and had tons of errors on it, and after apologizing many times- the prof said don't worry about it- yes literally in English. haha!

La Granja (I'm in the orange UofI sweatshirt-of course)

Friday I went to Caballito's sole museum - El museo de Ciencias Naturales- and it was kinda run down, but still had some interesting things to learn about. Nora and I planned out our 20 page paper for our Geografia clase, and started on that a little bit too. We then headed over to Tunedra to have some dinner at Chris' house. We had some pasta and torta that he made, it was pretty good- except for the fact that the torta had tuna- yuk! After dinner I headed over to hang out with some friends at the same bar- The Negril- we hung out at last week. good fun : ) Saturday I spent 3 hours playing ultimate, which was so much fun, but really tiring. And later that night Nora and I met up with Alejandro for a Greek Fiesta- yes we saw about 80 plates being broken, either on the floor or on people's heads. And of course Alejandro taught us how to dance Greek style. OPA!
Monday I had to wake up early to do volunteer at an organic farm in the city. We were broken up into groups and helped pelear (shovel), semillar (plant seeds), and arrancar (take out) weeds. After our labor we ate choripan and I tried morcilla (blood sausage) and was very content. Nora, Bex, and I then met up with the president of IFSA, Mario, to talk over our plans for Bariloche (Rio Negro province, pretty much SOuthwest of BA, around the Andes MTs.) SUper excited to go!!! We will be leaving this Friday and coming back the following Friday. It's gonna be great : P

RACING, mi buen amigo...

Sweet Mama'sNew friendsCapucha- hood- shot after the game- it was coldFU'TBOLHinchadas- fansJuan

Constitucion train station

Last week was pretty laid back for me compared to the previous. I'm pretty much settled in with all my classes, but am dreading my 1st parcial-exam- in my International Marketing course. Besides studying and doing homework- because that's always pretty much the same I celebrated 5 de Mayo with my IFSA friend Lauryn, and some others. Nora and I met up with a Chilean friend, Sebastian on Thursday and hung out in the Recoletta area, which of course I ended up sleeping in my 2nd home here- Nora's house- her host mama has an extra room with bunk beds- which I was offered whenever I wanted. So sweet! Friday I met up with my friend Esteban who I haven't seen in more than a month b4 that. Later that night   I went to see a play with my Castellano class- which the title was too long and complicated to remember- sort of how the play was. It was really bizzarre, but I understood most of the SPanish- I had trouble with the plot and the purpose of it... I actually stayed in Friday night, which was a good decision to catch up on some needed sleep... I watched part of a movie with Spanish subtitltes and the volume really low. Saturday Nora and I headed to Avallaneda with our friend Christian and a new Korean freind who's  been traveling for 5 monts which I didn't quite remember his name. We met up with another friend in the stadium, Juan, who we met before. ANd we all watched in dismay when our team - RACING- lost 3-0 to River. Q triste! Some churipan (sausage sandwhich with tons of toppings) cured our sadness after the game. Nora and I sent our friend on his way back home and then headed to a bar in Constitucion where we met some old drunk men- haha! One fought in the Malvina war- so we had a little history lesson from him, and the others were good fun. We met up with Esteban and his friends from work shortly after that and ended up going to thier restaurant, chilling out till 8 am chatting, dancing, and eating delicious empanadas.

My favorite cheer from Racing that I must leave:

Racing mi buen amigo...Esta campaña volveremo estar contigo

Te alentaremo de corazon
Esta es tu Hinchada que te quiere ver campeon
No me importa lo que digan
Lo que digan los Demas
Yo te sigo a todas partes
Cada vez te quiero mas.