Vamos Argentina!

Ferria de MatederosGaucho LLama!Folklorico dancingRosario (they change the date everyday on this calendar made from flowers)

Monumento de la BanderaCostaneraFish MarketParilla

Sculpture made from a dead tree- to "give it life"- there are a few scattered around Rosario

Tribute to the MalvinasThe random dogs that always end up following us

Still el Monumento de la Bandera

Eternal Flame for the lost soldiers

Rosario's Playa de Mayo

Phew this past week has been crazy! I had another parcial (and hopefully my last!) in my clase de Comercio International. The exam I felt went a lot better than the 1st one. At least I wasn’t guessing what the questions were, jaja. If I get atleast a 7 on this test then I don’t have to take the final, that would be AMAZING! Monday Nora and I gave our little presentation about the Mayas to the profe and the other extranjeros in the class- I guess it went well. It was a lot more informal than I thought it was going to be. But that was ok for me, less stressful. SO IM OFFICIALLY DONE WITH 1 OF MY CLASSES! I was really excited. I was pretty much stuck up in my room studying from Sunday to Thursday for my exam, with the exception of my other classes. O ya, and I’ve been without internet in the house since Tuesday : ( It’s really a pain in the culo, but hey, I’m surving. Solution: go to my 2nd home, la casa de Nora.



Last weekend I went to Rosario for 1 night with about 50 other IFSA students. As my friend summed it up, “No es feo… pero no es lindo”( its not ugly, but its not pretty). Nevertheless I’m still happy I went because I got to see a little bit of the Santa Fe provincia and there were some pretty cool things to see, like the Monumento de la Bandera (where the Arg flag was founded), the parques, the pretty costanera-waterfront, and the architecture, and the fish market was pretty cool too. At night Bex and I utilized the sweet big screen in the hotel room to watch Los Incriebles(Incredibles-Disney) en espanol. We also got to eat a good dinner and lunch. For dinner we went to a parilla, where we had an assortment of cow. Yep, I even tried ceso (brain), and rinones (intestines), (not recommended) jaja, wow how things have changed. A year and a half ago I wouldn’t have even touched a tomato…


And the week before that was spent perfecting my Paper for the Mayas (which ended up being 14 ½ pages). Bex, Zac, Lauryn, and I went to StereoTipos too, which was a improve show in a completely dark theater- it was as if one was blind. It was pretty cool, and funny.


Friday was errand day (still didn’t get a jacket tho : /, of course after watching the US Sylovokia? game, which the ref made a really bad call, but nevertheless it was entertaining. And I ate a burrito too, it was decent, but it tasted sooo good bc I haven’t had Mexican food in a while. I meet up with my Friend Andres, the 1st one we met. He invited us to his friend’s birthday party at a bolichito (miny boliche, jaja). Btw it’s totally normal to invite other friends to a birthday party or goodbye party or whatever here, even people you just met the 1st time, it just makes for a bigger party, the more the merrier. It was nice to see our buddy again, and his friends were really cool too. After the party we ended the night with yet another Mexican restaurant…odd I know. I shared nachos with guac and salsa. Saturday I went to play ultimate again, of course tons of fun! I realized Im really out of shape, yikes, and my body is killing me now. I then met up with the gang of Zac, Lucas, Fede, Agustin, his buddy Nico, and Bex for fast food dinner at abasto Shopping (which is actually considered higher end by Argentines). I got an oriental dish of stir fry. We split up and Bex, Agustin, Nico, and I headed to pick up 4 other friends to go to Crobar, for free (usually 60pesos): P I really enjoyed myself there, good atmosphere and fun people. Techno music and rock- the guys had a friend in the band that was playing too. Today I went to la Ferria de Mataderos, which was really interesting. Basically we saw some gauchos racing on horses, llamas (see pic-ha), folkrorico dancing, ate a lot of good food (tamale and a piece of cake), and bought some pretty good stuff. I bought my 1st mate (super cute and Im really excited to use it)! and a really cute gorro (hat), and of course a homemade alfajor. Bex and I ended up at Mc Café and tried to use their wireless, but of course there were no outlets and my comp’s battery is useless. But I sent a Feliz dia de Papa email to pops. Interesting: Father’s day is the same here, but mother’s day isn’t. Went to church tonight too for the 1st time here. I actually really enjoyed it because I could follow along and it was interesting to hear a mass in castellano.


Yesterday I went to the Museum of Bellas Artes with Andres. We spent a good 2 ½ hrs there and it wasn’t enough! That place is huge. It was really nice, so many things to see and everything is so different, and all the artists have their own flares- of course. We then went over to Romina’s (Andres’ sister) house to have some good hot chocolate with canela- cinnamon and galletas. We hung out, played some cards, and got my measurements taken for clothes that Romina is designing (she’s a design student).


Today in between Castellano class and Marketing I went to Plaza San Martin for the 1st half of the Argentina v Grecia game, and the 2nd I watched in Emily’s place. It was a lot of fun watching the game with everyone, really intense, but still tons of fun. We kicked butt! Let’s see if we can continue our streak this Sunday against Mexico. That’ll be a tough one, but I’m pumped. VAMOS ARGENTINA!


On the agenda for tomorrow- FINISH MY MONOGRAFIA-paper- for my cuentos class. And hopefully watch the US game. I’ll be really glad when I’ll be done with that class! I find out this thurs if I need to take the final for Intl marketing, and next Tuesday I have my marketing final, my paper and presentation for Castellano- and after I’ll be completely free! Whew. Got the internet back today ; ) Weeks like this past one make me realize how dependent I am on it. SO that’s why this blog is super delayed.

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...

Bariloche y San Martin de los Andes

Delicious Brazilian food at Lauryn's 21st bdayGreat Brazilian music and dancingOn our way to Bariloche in the microWarming up at the top of Cerro Catedral- tallest MT in BarilocheBottom of Cerro CatedralDouble rainbow taken from hostelView from top of Cerro Llao Llao- my favorite spotGorgeous!Cerro Catedral

From here down are Nora's pics

National Park Nahuel HaupiDog with dreadsMt Trenedor in the backLago de 7 colores and Isla de amorGlaciers near TrendorMt TrenedorLake Nahuel HaupiTop of Cerro Llao LlaoTop of Cerro CompanarioFreezing cold bus ride thru 7 lagos

Studying one night in our freezing cold hostel in San Martin

Almost getting attacked by dogs (prob the 5th time in South America so far) on our hike to la BanduristaVista BanduristaOvejas!Holly!Bus trip back through the Andes

A Wednesday a few weeks ago we celebrated Lauryn's 21st at a really cool Brazilian restaurant- Malucu Baleza, after dinner we got to enjoy a great performance and danced to the wonderful Brazilian rythms which reminded me of good times in Brazil : ) Earlier that day I volunteered at a comedor, helping seniors in the community get their lunches and cleaning up after (and i was able to eat too- always a plus), chatting with them, and doing some activities with them after. I really liked the people and the atmosphere is nice too. We are in the process of doing renovations there too. And i got my haircut too! 32 pesos, woot woot, but I guess I got what I paid for, and my hair is a little uneven- which of course I noticed later that night. haha.

Thurs: Hung out with Agustin after class, and had Burger King for the 1st time here- and it was really tasty. Found out my INTL MKT [which btw I got a 7 out of 10 on my PARCIAL : )- really good for extranjeros, and even for Portenos too] class was cancelled, and hung out with Ceci, Juli, Cristina and some other friends from class at a restaurant nearby.

Friday: Arrived a little too late, even 4 Argentina, to the bus station, only to find out the bus was an hr late. I did hw and read on the ride over and slept like a baby.

Sat: Arrived later than expected, and headed to Cerro Catedral- biggest MT in Bariloche. But was dissapointed when the snow and the fog made the amazing view not so visible. We then found our great HOSTEL 1004, which was on the 10th floor w amazing view and stocked kitchen and great atmosphere.

Sun: Spanish bus tour of incredible MT Trenedor and nacional park Nahuel Haupi. Favorite part was the glaciers and being able to hear Mt Trenedor cracking

Mon: Rained out, so we went to pretty much all the chocoleterias in town and explored the shops as well as the costanera of centro de Bariloche

Tues: Walked along Chico Cirquito to Avellenid Tacul and hiked up Cerro Llao Llao- favorite spot bc there was no1 there and had amazing view, and also hiked up Cerro Campanario- also amazing, but had too many people up top, a confiteria, and gift shop too. But we saw a condoor! super cool bc they are almost extinct. We then had our Bicentenario/wine tasting/appetizer party at the hostel to celebrate the 200 years of this great country.

Wed: Took bus to San Martin de los Andes- super cute town surrounded by MTS

Thur: Hiked up the Bandura only to get lost and almost get attacked by dogs- this is prob the 5th time so far that dogs have almost attacked me. We then found our way to la Vista- viewpoint of La Bandera (GORGEOUS)- which was in Mapuche territory, and then made my way to La Islita, but not before passing  herds of sheep, a few llamas, some jack rabbits, and roosters and hens, and few horses and oxes. Lost Nora on the way, and ended up trekking back to the Hostel to find that she had gotten a ride back from some nice visitors. We walked around town a bit more and headed to our bus.

Fri: Arrived surprisingly on time in the afternoon and hit the books. Went out that night with Andres to a really popular American bar in Recolleta, the Alamo and met some other really cool people.

Sat: Rained all day : / so plans were cancelled, but got some studying done and went out for some pizza with Nora, Bex, and Zac. Yummm!

Sun: Tarea and had a movie night with my IFSA girls at Becca's place. We watched La Princessa y El Sapo- Princess and the Frog en espanol, it was good fun, and we all brought some snacks to chow down on.