Home. In the U.S. that is...

Well, I'm back in the U.S. and guess I have been for almost 2 weeks now. As predicted, time slipped away and I never really got to the blog update. I've been running around since I've been home with wedding events, Christmas, visiting family, etc. It's good to be back again, though there are definitely things I miss. And there are certain days, more certain moments, when I really just miss my "home" from the last 5 months.
I've turned into "that girl," where all my stories have to do with Argentina. Annoying, I know, and if I'm doing this to you I apologize, though it's just whats in my head right now.
The first few days I struggled a bit getting back completely into English mode. All the little exclamations that came out (sorry! excuse me! etc) were all in Spanish. On the plane I kept trying accidentally to talk to the guy next to me in Spanish, even though he'd told me he didn't speak it. Oops.
Anyway, back to "reality." Just wanted to give a quick update for anyone I hadn't talked with yet to say I'm back safely.
Que te cuidas y besos. Chau!

Last full day...

Today´s my last full day in Buenos Aires. At least for a while.
Strange, it hasn´t really kicked in yet.
The past few days have been nice. Quiet, because most of my friends have left or have been traveling. Today I´m finally turning in my independent study. I packed up most of my stuff yesterday. I´ve been successful in doing the last few things I really wanted to do. Tuesday night I went to the Peña de Colorado. Very cool place. There´s a show everynight and you can get food there. Its more folk-music and music/food from the provinces. I went with Steph and had a tasty locro norteño for dinner and we listened to a good band. Well, the was a main guy and then various other musicians would join him based on the song. He played flute and would record as he played and use it to make levels. He could play entirely by himself and he´d create a really cool, full sounding song, recording it all live. Very cool.
Yesterday I went to MALBA (Museum of Latin American Art). I´m not a huge museum person, but I liked this one. Glad I went.
Today I was wandering around the city getting a few last minute things done. I went to a bookstore I had heard about that used to be an old theater. Its really cool. The balcony seats are reading rooms and there´s a café on the stage.
Anyway, time to turn in my paper! Tongiht we´re having a goodbye dinner. I made chocolate chip cookies--yum!
I´ll probably have another entry on the way... I´ll try to update that I´m home safe and sound, though I pretty much jump right back in to a crazy schedule. I´ll see what I can do.
Chau!

La playa, fiestas, and goodbyes

I spent a few days relaxing at the beach with Sarah and Kate! We went to Pinamar, which is about 3 hours from the city by car, but 5 by bus. We had originally planned on staying until Tuesday, but when we found out Sarah didn't have to take her final we decided to stay one more day. It was pretty calm there because high season doesn't really start until next week. Lots of restaurants and shops were closed, but it didn't really make a huge difference to us. The beach was nice, though it got a bit windy in the afternoons.
The first night we got invited to an asado (barbecue) by a group of dads and their kids that were staying at the hotel. Good food and an entertaining night. One of the dads kept jokingly speaking "English" for us, which was spanish with a terrible accent and a few English words thrown in.
The second day was pretty cloudy, so we walked to Carilo, the next beach/town over from Pinamar. Carilo is basically a town in a forest and most of the buildings are cottage style. Really quaint. We went back to the hotel to do our "spa circuit" and massages. It.... wasn't exactly what we were expecting, but something to laugh about. We went back to Carilo for dinner to a nice Italian place. They made a deal with us that, if we corrected the English in the menu, they'd give us free desserts. It was a win-win situation....
Tuesday and Wednesday we spent on the beach. We all got a little burned on Tuesday. I did a pretty good job of avoiding it.... except for a line down the back of my legs that fried. Tuesday night we decided to stay in and ordered pizza and empanadas and watched the mockumentary "Best in Show." Overall, a very relaxing, fun trip.

I've been spending lots of time with Sarah and Kate, which has been lots of fun. Right now lots of people have either gone back to the U.S., will be soon, or are travelling. We had the "fiesta de despedida" (goodbye party) with FLACSO on the 6th. They had it in a fancy place and invited all the students, host families, and FLACSO staff, professors, and tutors. I finally met Dana, who has been living with Cata and Annie for the last few months. She's really fun--it's a shame I didnt meet her sooner! They gave out various awards and prizes and I won 2 things! There was a photography contest (of trips and of Buenos Aires) and I won for one of my Buenos Aires pictures. It was of a car made out of books that, instead of "Arma de destruccion massiva" (weapon of mass destruction) it says "Arma de instruccion massiva" (weapon of mass instruction). I got the picture framed and a DVD of a music festival. They also had a contest of words we had learned throughout the semester. I had been trying to save them on my computer,so was able to turn in a pretty decent list. Anyone with over 200 words got a prize--I got an agenda/planner that has an Argentine cartoon as the theme and a Charly Garcia CD. Not bad, haha. After dinner and announcements and whatnot it turned into a dance party. It was a fun night. Strange to think I won't see a lot of the people again...

Cata is gone as well. She, her boyfriend, and a friend are in Colorado for a few months with a work-exchange program. She left before Annie did! We had a suprise going away party for her the 7th, which was fun. I got to meet a lot of her friends, who are really nice.

Other than that.... I've just been trying to do a little bit of everything in the time I have left. Unfortunately I'm not completely done with school. Turned in my lit paper on Friday, but I still have to finish my independent study paper. I've been trying to combine schoolwork, hanging out with friends, and checking off the last things I've been wanting to do in the city.
Alright, well that's enough procrastinating for me. I'm going to work a bit more on my paper--it needs to be done!

Time is ticking...

Hello to all! Strange to think that in a few weeks I´ll be back home in the U.S. and jumping into a busy schedule again (well... not that I´m not busy here, but a different busy schedule?). I was very anti-going home before...but I´m starting to be ready. It´s going to be really hard to leave obviously, but there are things I´m just starting to miss more and things here that well... I won´t miss as much. I´m going to try to make the most of my last 3 weeks though!

"Thanksgiving" went well. We had our family dinner with my host family, Annie, and one of Joaquin´s friends. They weren´t exactly a fan of the pumpkin pie. Oh well. The boys tried a bite and were done, but Elvira said that they even did that was out of love for me.

Lets see.... what else is new.
Took my 2nd anthropology parcial and I got a 9 on that as well! I´m proud and a bit suprised to say that I have the highest grade in that class (they posted all the grades online with names. A little different than the US). I went back last week to get my grade form signed and hung out with some of the girls for a bit. That was fun. During our conversation we started talking about U.S. culture and they know/watch more U.S. tv shows than I do and know a lot about the music (or at least certain aspects?). It was interesting. They asked if any of the Argentine music or tv programs made it to the US....not so much. Hopefully I´m goign to go out with some of the girls this weekend. We´ll see if it works out.

Finished with choir and we had a choir concert at the conservatory (not the past Saturday, but the one before). It went pretty well considering it was the most disorganized choir I´ve ever been in and probably less than half of the choir came to the concert. After our last class I went out with some of the people for a bit, which was fun. I never really did make good friends with the people in that class. Aquaintances and "friends" in class, but nothing more. I´m ok with that though I guess.

Took the 2nd Cuestiones Culturales parcial. It went well, was easier than I thought it would be. I´ll find out tomorrow what I got. Last night Sarah took me out to dinner to help her study for her parcial. I can handle that --free pizza and icecream to ramble about my notes? Sure! It was good catch-up time as well after a long day.

I´m such an honors kid. The majority of my update is about classes... Sorry.

Yesterday I finished my painting. I´m really excited about it, I like it a lot. I can´t take complete credit for it, because I got a lot of help, but its still exciting to think that its "my" painting.

On Sunday I went to the Delta for the day, which was lots of fun. Close to Tigre, but not quite. I went with a group of people from the program who I´m not super close with, but I´ve become better friends with a few of them recently. More or less the people from the Argentina v. Bolivia futbol game. Sarah and Amanda came as well. We took 2 trains and then a boat ride to Juan´s (Argentine friend) house and met up with some of his friends there. We had lunch then spent the day in the water and hanging out. Very relaxing. I love boat rides as well, they make me happy. I had planned on having a dinner party at my house that night, but realized that wouldn´t exactly work once we didnt get there until 1 and needed a ride back to the train station. It was a fun, relaxing day though.

I can´t really remember what else I did last weekend. Saturday night we attempted to go to a peña (traditional music and sometimes food and dancing) but it was us and lots of grandparents, so we ended up sitting at one of the tables outside and talking instead. Friday night I went to a party for one of Michelle´s Argentine friends... except the party ended up being everyone goign to a boliche and her friend didn´t get there until 4ish. haha. There were lots of changes in plans this weekend.

Today I took my Spanish written exam. The "theme" was indecisiveness. The first reading pretty much described my life. I need to work on that....
Thursday is the oral exam and then I´m done with everything with a fixed schedule. I have to turn in my paper for literature and write and turn in my independent study paper. Both of those have flexible due dates though.... which actually makes it a little more difficult sometimes. I´m going to go to the beach for a few days as well, though I´m not sure how I´m working my schedule yet.

Anyway, off to tango and then getting some work done tonight!

¡Feliz día de acción de gracias!

Just wanted to say feliz día de acción de gracias a todos (Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!). Tonight I´m going to eat dinner with my host family. We´re having chicken, which is more or less similar to turkey (not that common and pretty expensive here) and mashed potatoes and I don´t know what else. I´m going to make pumpkin pie as well =)

It´s strange to think of everyone back home celebrating "normally" with their families and whatnot. Oh well. I´ll be celebrating with my surrogate family here.

Spanish and English are the same,right?

So today I went to lunch with some people. As I was casually looking over the menu I was thinking in the back of my head, this is too complicated for me right now, I'm just going to "cheat" and read the English underneath. As I started reading, I realized how much easier it was.
Then I also realized that the first line was in I talian and the second in Spanish.... Go figure.

Today was pretty eventful. Got up early and went to the airport to meet Sarah and her sister and get my ATM card before they headed off to Barriloche. Found my way there on a bus, which I was pretty proud of myself for. From there went to do a dress fitting for my dress for Rach's wedding. Apparently their power had been out though and they didnt have time to finish. They tried to call me but I never got the message since I didn't hear my cell phone ring and they talked to Elvira but I wasn't at home (and our house phone doesn't call cells, her cell didn't have minutes,etc). Oh well. Now I'm going back tomorrow.

Did some work. Went to lunch. Did some more work. Had a meeting with my tutor for my independent study (I dont think I ever wrote this but I switched tutors a couple weeks ago. Not so cool considering how close it is to the end of the semester, but things are much better now). Things are really starting to click and I'm getting excited. Finished/turned something in for lit and talked with the professor a bit about the final paper. I have some ideas for that now as well. So overall a good day.

Had a bit of a headache when I came home so I napped and now I'll do a bit of work and eat dinner and whatnot.

And to end on a completely random note, apparently back home my cat jumped out of the second story window today while my mom was painting. He's fine though. Crazy cat.

A weekend of firsts

This weekend has been quite eventful and full of new experiences.

Well, Friday wasn't too terribly exciting. I had a meeting with my tutor for my independent study (very little time left and lots to do--eek!), did some work, then went home and went for a run (about time!) around the ecological reserve in Puerto Madero. That night I went to dinner with Alex at Cumana, which has food more typical of norhtern Argentina. We both had yummy empanandas and shared desserts--including an empanada filled with dulce de leche! I had heard a lot about the restaurant and finally went. It was packed! Lots of people waiting outside for a table. It's not that big of a place and the menu is very simple (empanadas, pizza, tamales, etc) but we found out what the big deal was all about....

Saturday I went to the Argentina v. Boliva futbol (soccer) game! It was my first soccer game I've been to in Argentina. It was fun and Argentina won 3-0. They played in River stadium (the biggest stadium in Buenos Aires/Argentina, which is the Buenos Aires team River Plate's home stadium). One of the guys in our group is from Bolivia and proudly wore his Bolivia jersey sitting in the middle of us. We were in a calmer section though, so fortunately there weren't any problems. It was interesting to see/hear all the chants and random traditions of the games. I usually couldn't make out the words completely though (a bit harder w/ the stadium echo effect). During one though everyone jumps and says something about if you dont jump, you're English. Haha, fair enough. The other interesting thing of note was that at one point during the game they used firehoses to spray the crowd. It was really hot in the sun (fortunately we were in the shade), so they did it to cool people down. Apparently they do it when there are problems in the crowd as well though.

After the game I rode the subte D line the entire line to get home--first time I'd done that. It was slightly difficult walking home to my house because there was a HUGE parade of Comunidad Homosexual Argentina going through Avenida de Mayo. I hadn't seen a parade here before either and this one was huge.

Saturday night I went out to dinner with Michelle and Amanda. We went to Meridiano 58, where I had gone with some girls at the beginning of the semester (and wanted to go to with my parents, but they went there for lunch just as a coincedence). I did wear my new dress though, which keeps me on the weekend of firsts theme. After dinner, Sarah, Michelle, and I attempted to go to Acabar (a restaurant/bar where you can play boardgames) but it was way too crowed. We found a fun spot called Sonomans and relaxed on the patio outside. Apparently we picked a good place because it got packed!

Today I went to the Feria de Mataderos with Sarah, Kate, Amanda, and Michelle. Mataderos is the barrio/neighborhood its in, which is in the southwest corner/limits of the city of Buenos Aires (almost out of the Guia T!). Mataderos means slaughterhouse. This feria is similar to a lot of the others, but this one has more of a folk/provincia feel to it. There was music and folk dancing all afternoon. They had a lot of food typical of Northern Argentina. We ate tamales and some kind of cornbread with cheese. They also had some kind of horse races. It started late because there were cars in the path. They found the owners for some and then just pushed a taxi out of the way (which had to be good for the car?). We watched for a bit (they rode so fast on the pavement and without real saddles!), but it looked like it was about to pour any moment so we left. From there we took a bus back into the main part of the city and I took the subte home (We took the subte--the entire line of E--plus a taxi ride to get there. From the bus I then rode the entire A line minus 1 stop to my house. I'd never ridden the whole line and now practically 3 times in 2 days!).

I took a nap for a bit, but now its time to do homework. Lots to do! Its so strange how everything is starting to come to an end. I don't like it. I'm just not ready yet. I'm not sure if I ever will be. Some people are staying for an entire year (a lot of them decided to do it while they were here this semester). I'd love to do that or study somewhere else for another semester, but its just not really possible. There'd be a lot of things I'd miss out on next semester as well. Oh well. Alright, time to do work!