Chau, Argentina

I cannot believe I leave tomorrow! I remember before I left in February, I thought, "June 25th, that is so far off....it will be summer...." Well, now that day is tomorrow and I will leave my host family and life here in Argentina and return to Minnesota, weird....

I am SO excited to see my family and friends and have summer, but I feel like I am leaving a part of myself here. I'm really going to miss my host family and Argentina. I hope I return soon and hopefully my family will visit Minnesota in the next few years. My host Mom told me last week, "No es adiós, es hasta luego" which means, "It's not good-bye, it's see you." I know changes are part of life, especially at this age, but some are definitely harder than others. I have learned how to speak and write well in Spanish (and I have definitely gotten worse at writing in English), but I have learned the most from the people I have met in Argentina as well as the students on my program and I've gained skills that I otherwise would not have learned at the university.




















I am going to miss walking on the streets of Buenos Aires, greeting people with a kiss on the cheek, feeling uncomfortable in the colectivo and subte because there are too many people, hanging out with my host family, speaking in Spanish, walking in the Plaza de Mayo, buying candy at a kiosk so I will have enough monedas (coins) to ride the bus, eating brie pizza at my favorite cafe, drinking mate, people-watching, seeing people make out on the street corners, mojitos, staying out late, watching television shows dubbed in awful Spanish, watching fútbol, talking to random people on the bus or in stores, café con leche and medialunas, cute clothing shops on Santa Fe, the Ateneo bookstore, sitting in cafes and talking for hours, reading the newspaper, thinking in Spanish, Argentinean history, dinners with my family....So Argentina, "No es adiós, es hasta luego." I will return soon.


See you in less than 2 days, Minnesota.

Chocolate chips and soccer

Mate. Cookies. Argentina won the soccer game! Definitely a good day. Also, before the game I ran to the market to buy some flour for the cookies and I found chocolate chips! I have been searching for them ever since I made them the first time...of course I finally found them during my last week here.

It has been really fun to be in Argentina while the World Cup is going on. There is so much excitement everywhere I go about the Argentinean soccer team and news about the World Cup are always on the front cover of all the newspapers. People start talking about the game a few days beforehand and always ask where you are going to watch it and make sure you know what time it starts...it is nuts! The city is always bustling with people and lots of traffic but when the soccer game is on, its like there has been a nuclear bomb in the city...busy streets are deserted and everyone is inside at home, work, cafes, anywhere where there is a television, watching the game. A lot of smaller stores close for a few hours during the game, too. Crazy!!

Summer? Yes, please

I CANNOT WAIT FOR WARM WEATHER. It is June 21st; I should be wearing shorts and dresses instead of my fleece, jeans, and scarf. Minnesota: please have hot weather when I return...

Mate

Ah, yerba mate. I remember learning about this drink in Seniorita's Spanish class back in high school and thinking, "One day, I want to actually go to Argentina and try this" and now I drink it nearly every day with my family. Mate is like a very herby-tasting tea, drunk from a small gourd and a metal straw or bombilla. It is passed around in a circle of friends/family and after one finishes the gourd, it is passed back to the brewer. The brewer then fills it up with more hot water and the gourd is passed to the next person. When someone no longer wants to drink any more mate, they just say "gracias" to the brewer which signifies that they don't want any more.

Drinking mate is such a social thing- people drink it while studying, watching television, in the car, at work, in the park, literally anywhere and everywhere. It is very common for people to carry around their gourd and a thermos of hot water and refill their mate gourd as they please. My Mother and I drank mate together the other day while watching a movie/ talking and that's when she explained to me the etiquette of drinking mate. She told me if someone comes over and there is not a lot of food in the house, there is always mate to share with others. She promised to show me how to prepare it before I leave so I will bring some home to MN! It isn't really sweet but if you like tea, you get used to the herby taste, I really like it!

Today:

I cannot believe I have 3 full days left in Buenos Aires...I leave Friday night around 8:30 p.m. and I am sure I will be running around/packing on Friday before I take off for the airport. Anyway, today I went to Tigre with my host parents and my mother's nephew for the day. I actually went there in the beginning of the program with some friends but it was nice to get out of Buenos Aires for the day- we had a long lunch near the river and walked around the markets for awhile. At lunch, I almost screamed because I noticed a cockroach on the table right after we were served our food. I absolutely DETEST those bugs and as soon as I saw it, I jumped out of my chair and my parents asked me what was wrong. I could barely speak, I just pointed to the table and said, "CUCARACHA!" Their faces immediately changed and they started looking for it on the table. I refused to sit down until it was out of site, so Ignacio took care of it. AH, they are so nasty!

Tomorrow is the soccer game....Go Argentina!!!!

Less than a week....

I was planning on doing some traveling after my program ended (June 14th is when most of the group left), but I have actually been spending time with my host family in Buenos Aires. I have been exploring/walking around neighborhoods, shopping, and going to some museums but then I got a little sick a few days ago...I am pretty sure it was an ear infection, so the last few days have kind of sucked. Plus I was kind of sad about my friends from the program leaving, so that didn't really help. I think it must've started out as a cold and spread to my ears or something, but luckily I had packed away some antibiotics!

One of my dogs, Toppy:

This past weekend:

Hm. I didn't sleep well because my ear kept me up, hence I was really crabby/tired. However, I did manage to fit in some fun things! My sister, Paula, works in various schools around Buenos Aires, mostly in poorer neighborhoods, and gave me the contact of one of her friends that works in a villa, or neighborhood. I contacted Alicia and ended up meeting up with her on Saturday and she took me to a villa on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. It was about a 30 minute bus ride to get there and I had a great time- the villa is pretty poor and every Saturday, teachers/helpers come out to lend a hand with the kids with their homework and lead activities. When I first got there, Alicia introduced me to all the other teachers and helpers and they asked which subject I would like to work on with a child. When they found out that I spoke English, they placed me with Lucas, a 13 year-old boy who was working on his English homework. I have never really tutored before, unless you count helping people with their homework a little in college, but I dove right in! I corrected some of his exercises and explained how to use the present tense. It was difficult at first because I didn't know what level he was at, but after awhile, it went pretty smoothly. I explained it in Spanish and then wrote down examples of sentences in English and Spanish so he would understand. I liked helping him and would like to try more of it in the future. It was really cool to watch him understand a concept and then apply it to his homework. After helping Lucas, the other teachers handed out a map of all the countries and had the kids draw in the countries that are still in the World Cup (they obviously take their soccer seriously here...). I played with a 5 year-old boy who had glasses that took up his whole face and of course, he didn't listen to the directions, so he just colored wherever he wanted. He was adorable! Afterwards, I went back home and Juan, my brother, and I ordered sushi and watched a movie. I haven't had sushi in MONTHS, so I loved every bite. I went to bed early and woke up around 10 today. For father's day, my parents made lunch at the house and Juan and Paula came over. We ate cheese fondue with various meats and bread, it was so delicious. Also, my Mom's nephew from Salta is taking a class in Buenos Aires for a few weeks, so I went to the airport with my parents to pick him up. Other than that, I just hung out with my family/drank mate. And my ear is almost better!

End of program/last week:

In my last post, I mentioned that my group went to a small town outside the city for the night as a kind of "closing" orientation. It was really nice- it was fun to spend time with everyone and catch up with people that I haven't really had the chance to talk to in the past month because of our research project. I chatted with one of my professors, Nuria, about my grades, my final paper, and how I thought the semester went (I did really well on my research project, which is super exciting). Other then that, it was very relaxing and one night, we had a big group dinner at a local parrilla. It was a fun dinner- we gave out our secret buddy gifts and told funny stories about one another from the semester. Before giving out our secret gifts, we had to impersonate the person we had in front of the whole group and everyone else had to guess who it was. Some were hilarious...this one girl is from Long Island and she always makes fun of the accent there. The person that had Bri spoke in a "Long Island" accent and everyone knew it was her!

Anyway, we got back to Buenos Aires on Friday morning and later that night, I went out to dinner with Sam, Ally, Freddie, and Freddie's family because they had just arrived to Argentina to travel at the end of the program. We went to a Spanish restaurant called Club Espanol and the food was AMAZING. I had bife de lomo (steak) with potatoes and the decor was gorgeous, too. I wish I had taken a few photos from inside the restaurant!

Sam on her birthday!

The girls after dinner

Last Saturday, it was Sam's 21st birthday as well as the Argentina vs. Nigeria fútbol game. We watched the game at my apartment and made mimosas and ate medialunas (croissants). And Argentina won!! It was fun to watch and later in the afternoon, we ate lunch at Ateneo, once a beautiful theater that has been converted into a huge bookstore and café. To celebrate Sam's birthday, we cooked a delicious dinner at Freddie's apartment and hung out there for a few hours. As I mentioned earlier, Freddie's parents and brother visited Argentina and rented out an apartment while they were here, so we were able to use that. We went out to a bar later and met up with some more SIT friends and hung out there for the rest of the night. Then on Sunday, we had our closing dinner with all of the SIT students plus their host families and a few students even brought their parents from the U.S. that were visiting. It was a nice evening as well and there were so many people there! All of the students and their host families spoke very briefly and some of the families were so sweet. Later, almost everyone from our group went out to a bar to have one last drink together. One of our directors even came and we hung out there for awhile. Since a lot of people left the next day, I said good-bye to them which was really sad. I think if a random person would have walked by the bar, they would've seen about 15 Americans, crying and hugging one another...we were quite the scene!

Host family at the final dinner (minus Paula and Sebastian)

Two of my good friends on the program left on Monday so I hung out with them until they left and that was an even more difficult good-bye. I still cannot believe that the program is done and that our ISP is finished and almost everyone is home now....I was so used to seeing all of those people nearly everyday so it was a hard adjustment for me for a couple of days. Some of us are planning on having a reunion in New York some time next year, so hopefully that will happen. Anyway, the night my friends left, I was feeling kind of upset and my host Mom gave me a glass of wine before dinner and was like, "Have some wine....you look like you kind of need it." Otherwise, I have been hanging out in Buenos Aires, visiting sights/purchasing last minute things. Tomorrow I am going to Tigre with my parents for the day and Tuesday is the next fútbol game, so obviously I will be watching that!

Besitos.

DONE!

I am finally done with everything and it is such a good feeling. I had my presentation today and it went well; my professors even told me I spoke really well and my adviser for my project came, which was really nice. No more school until September! I am glad I presented today and got it out of the way; tomorrow is another full day of presentations. I thought it was amazing to hear some of the other students speak today, too- in the beginning, some of them could barely speak Spanish and today, they all gave a 20 minute presentation entirely in Spanish! They were pretty interesting but they got a little long, especially after listening to 11 of them....I was so antsy after the last presentation that I pretty much ran out of the building.

Closing Week
It is the final week of the program and tomorrow (Wednesday) will be the final day of presentations (thank god!). On Thursday, we are going outside the city to have a closing orientation with just the students on the program. We are going to evaluate the program, talk with the directors of the program, and receive grades. I am looking forward to a relaxing mini trip with everyone, it should be fun. We get back Friday and it is my friend's birthday on Saturday so we are all going out to celebrate! Sunday is the final dinner with our host families and all the the other SIT students. I cannot wait to meet everyone's host families- it will be fun to put a face to all the stories we have told one another about our family members. The program officially ends on Monday and almost everyone is going home, CRAZY! From now until Monday, my friends and I are going to squeeze as many activities/places to visit/favorite bars and cafés in before we all leave.

I have mixed feelings about heading home- I am going to miss it here but I'm starting to miss my family and friends. I'm also looking forward to summer in Minnesota. I feel like my seasons are out of whack- I left in February, where it was freezing at home but when I got to Buenos Aires, it was summer and now it's fall here. When I get home it will be summer....weird. I also cannot wait for peanut butter and fresh fruit and vegetables. I don't understand how people here are not 300 pounds, there is so much bread, fried food, sweets, pasta...sounds like the South beach diet a little, right?

Speaking of food, off to dinner and then a movie.

P.S. Last night, a few of us decided to go to a movie after preparing for our presentations and we ended up seeing the new Sex and the City movie. I thought the wedding scene in the beginning was hilarious but the rest was just AWFUL!

Besos.

Mini vacation

The last few days have been hectic- I transcribed all of my interveiws/wrote my analysis and conclusion/met with my advisers all week and finally finished on Thursday. I have to make a few more corrections, but for the most part, it is DONE DONE DONE! Such a good feeling. On Thursday, I met with my Spanish teacher to edit my paper and later and I finished the paper around 4. Some kids from my program had bought bus tickets to Iguazú and on a whim, I called the bus station and booked a ticket, too! Within half an hour, my ticket was booked and I ran home and packed/got money. The bus left around 9 that night and I went early to get my ticket from the booth.
The Retiro bus station is confusing/dangerous, especially if you don't know what you are doing. Luckily I had been there a few times, so I knew how to get around there. However, I had always had my ticket beforehand, so I had to find the ticket booth. I was walking around, looking for signs to tell me where to go but was still kind of confused. All the sudden, this guy, dressed in a red shirt with a clipboard came up to me and asked if I needed help. I realized his accent was weird, and it turns out, he is from New Zealand and is working in Argentina for a couple months. His job is to help travelers reserve a hostel for their next destination. Anyway, he helped me find the booth I needed and I met the girls at the bus a little later. Since I was so frantic beforehand, I didn't realize how much I packed until I met the girls at the bus and they looked at my pack and said, "What did you bring?!" I brought enough outfits for three days when I all I really needed were some t-shirts, comfortable pants, and sweatshirt. We were gone three nights, but since the bus ride was about 15-16 hours each way, we spent two nights on the bus. On the way to Iguazú, we watched the worst movie ever, 2012. Basically, it's about the end of the world and everyone in the world dies....uplifting, right? People on the buses have the worst taste in movies because on the way back to Buenos Aires, we watched Planet of the Apes and Terminator 4. Ah.

Iguazú
We got to Iguazú around 2ish on Friday and took a bus to our hostel/checked in. And by hostel, I mean a hostel palace. It was one of the nicest/biggest hostels I have ever stayed at and it was fairly cheap, about 48 pesos (which is like 12 american dollars). We shared a dorm room with 6 other girls and even had a private bathroom. After getting our room, we took a bus into town and found a place to eat since we hadn't eaten lunch/hadn't eaten much since the bus food was kind of gross. We ate around 5 and bought some food for lunch/snacks for the next day. There wasn't much to see in town so we headed back to the hostel and had some wine and talked to some other students staying in the hostel. My friend, Freddie, ended up seeing a mutual friend in the hostel. One of her friends from school in the States is studying in Buenos Aires on the Butler program and some kids from that program were at the same hostel as us. Small, small world. Around 8, we all went back to our room and fell asleep around 10 to a movie. We were all exhausted from the bus ride and wanted to get up around 6:30 the next morning to make it to the park right when it opened.
On Saturday, we made it to the park a little before open and it turned out to be a beautiful day! Iguazú is right on the border of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina and is one of the biggest waterfalls in the world. A lot of people like to see the falls from the Brazilian side, too but in order for Americans to get into Brazil, we would have to apply for a visa, which can be a hassle. First, we took a train from the entrance to Devil's throat and there were man-made bridges across the river. All of the sudden, these enormous waterfalls appeared and they were just stunning. I can't desrcibe it well, and looking at picutres doesn't do it justice- it was just breathtaking...the amount of water and sounds the falls made was crazy. I learned that when Eleanor Roosevelt saw Iguazú Falls for the first time, she exclaimed, "Poor Niagara!" In any case, we stayed at this stop for awhile, mesmerized by the water and took a bunch of photos. Then, we took the train down again and there were more walking trails that leads to other falls. There are also different places people can view the falls and they were all awesome. I really liked the way the park was set up and of course, I took a lot of pictures. We stayed there until 2:30, checked out of the hostel, and caught our bus at 4:30 back to Buenos Aires. And here I am! We got back at 9:30 this morning and now I'm trying to get everthing organized for next week.

It was a great mini getaway and I am SO glad I eneded up going, even though Thursday was so crazy. If anyone has a chance to go, it is definitely worth the trip.

Some pictures:

On the way up






















Cataratas (Waterfalls)