Monday, June 27, 2011

Iguazu Falls!

This past weekend I flew with Peggy to the North of Argentina to Iguazu Falls.  We almost didn’t make it because of the Ash cloud from the volcano in Chile.  But after an hour or so delay we were able to take off and fly north.  Take that volcano!

The waterfalls are located on the border of Brazil and Argentina.  Paraguay is also very close.  Unfortunately I couldn’t go to the Brazilian side of the falls because they require a visa for Americans.  But it worked out fine because the Argentine side is better since you can go below the falls, on top of the falls, and get a pretty good long shot of them as well.  Wow.  That’s all I can really say.  They were amazing.  Much different from Niagra where you only really need to spend an afternoon looking at the falls.  We spent two days walking around the area and we still didn’t do everything! 

It was cold and it rained a lot, but only after we had already left the park for the day.  And the hostel we stayed out was pretty nice because it wasn’t very crowded because of the weather.  So it worked out perfectly for us. 

La Garganta del Diablo
La Garganta del Diablo (The Devil’s Throat) was ridiculous.  It’s the main waterfall and I can’t even begin to describe the amount of water the flows over it.  It was one of those moments where you just look at it and are speechless.  Un montón de agua! So much water!  It really makes you sit back and realize how miniscule we really are in the grand scheme of things. Here's a video of it, but it still doesn't quite capture it.




The other falls were breathtaking as well.  There was so much green everywhere!  We saw monkeys, birds, etc.  There were also these other animals called coatís that would come to the area where all the tourists were and try and steal their food.  It was funny to watch.

Afterwards we almost didn’t make it back to Buenos Aires because the bus didn’t come when we thought it would.  And when we tried to order a taxi there weren’t any because it was a local election day.  Luckily, we managed to convince the only available taxi to bring us to the airport and were able to make it back.

Earlier in the week though I was surprised to hear that Katherine Lagow was in Baires.  So I met up with her at Jackie's art exhibition and we went to get some dinner afterwards.  It was good to finally see Jackie's photos!  She does pinhole photography and then printed them on metal sheets or drew them for display.  They were awesome!

The artist and her work!
Now there are only two weeks left of school.  And I’m spending this week at the North campus to help out a bit with the kindergarten.  It’s a bit of an inconvenience getting up early for the hour commute, but oh well, I can get over an inconvenience for one week.  I’ll let you know how it works out!  Here are some more pictures from Iguazu: 

La Selva

Giant mate!


a secluded fall



Rainbow



Saturday, June 18, 2011

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Hydra
The school’s Hercules play was this week.  It involved grades 1st-3rd as well as Jeff, Peggy, and me who were asked to help play some of evil roles.  Mwahaha.  I was the Hydra and the Ice Titan.  I died a lot.  But if was fun.  I’ve never been part of a play before so it was a good first…next stop Hollywood! 

Jeff was Nessus and the Cyclops and had some rather daunting lines to remember like “step aside two legs!”  Peggy got to play the Fire Titan and join me in having little kids stab her with light up swords.  We all enjoyed it though. 

Titans
The kids were pretty funny. They would forget they had microphones on and be like “your turn!” or say something completely inappropriate like “I just farted” in Spanish.  And then when they saw Jeff, Peggy, and me they would start talking to us backstage when they were supposed to be really quite.  Or they would leave the stage in the middle of the play to ask their teacher a question.  So cute at that age.  I have a good video of the 1st graders dancing to Kool & the Gang.  This one kid at the end has some pretty good moves.***The server is rejecting the video I have, here is a shorter one that's not quite as good though.

So, besides some short attention spans and a few curtain mishaps, it went very well.  The costumes were awesome.  Facu’s mom did most of them and some of the face painting.  The art teacher made the Hydra costume which looked very scary!  

Us with Hades, a muse, and Hermes
Cylcops and Fire Titan
Yesterday a few of us went to see La Fuerza Bruta which is this really cool music and acrobatic show.  I don't really know how else to explain it, except that it's very surreal.  The things they do are like things you might dream about, it's very strange but very cool.  They're from Argentina but travel around the world apparently.  So that was quite fun to watch.  Now I'm just waiting to head to Iguazu and then for Lauren Lynn to come visit :)  And until then, I have just got to figure out what I am going to do this fall as far as jobs and traveling.  Job hunting can be stressful, especially when you're hunting on two different continents.  And I really want to get over to Europe but it depends on a lot of different things.  I'll keep you posted!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

The Revolution Continues

I just found out that Ron Paul is running for President again.  Thank God.  As our current administration has proven time and time again, the majority of U.S. politicians have one goal in mind: increase their power and that of the federal government by decreasing our personal freedom.  Mr. Paul is the exception.  He reminds us that there is still hope to empower a politician who actually cares about the people of his country: their liberties, their laws, and their privacy.  He is also consistently consistent with his voting record.  If the founding father's didn't write it, he doesn't vote for it.

Check him out: Ron Paul 2012

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

I was born under a wandrin' star,
I was born under a wandrin' star.

Wheels are made for rollin'
mules are made to pack.
I've never seen a sight that didn't look better looking back. 
I was born under a wandrin' star.

Mud can make you prisoner, and the plains can bake you dry.
Snow can burn your eyes, but only people make you cry.
Home is made for comin' from, for dreams of goin' to,
which with any luck will never come true.

I was born under a wandrin' star,
I was born under a wandrin' star.
--The great Lee Marvin

Sunday, June 5, 2011

La Boca

Another week done!  And as we inch closer to the weekend of the play, we've had more and more rehearsals to fine-tune everything as best we can.  Some of the kids really need help with their lines still, but a bunch of them have them down pretty well.  I got to try the Hydra costume on this week and I must say the art teacher did a really good job painting it.  I'm going to be so scary!   Haha.

This weekend I went up to San Isidro for Luli's birthday (Manu's sister).  It was a lot of fun and a good opportunity to practice some castellano.  Although trying to play Taboo in Spanish was quite a challenge.  I wasn't really much of an asset to my team, but the other team had Manu so I guess it evened out :p  Dinner was yummy, and for dessert Luli had 3 birthday cakes...good girl!  And a friend of hers decided to put what seemed to be a firework on the cake instead of a candle.  It was pretty funny watching her try to blow it out.  All the cakes had some form of dulce de leche in them too so of course I had to try them all.  Afterwards we all went to Kika, a discoteca in capital and then we went back to Manu's house after.  I cuddle with his dog Lupe on the couch.  Their other dog, Afra, is a big Argentina dog called a "dogo" that is really cool. 
Apparently they can be very dangerous though because some are very mean and aggressive, but his is really nice.  She just gets a little carried away sometimes and forgets how big she is.  So I didn't try cuddling with her. 

Then today Jeff and I went into La Boca to check out El Caminito, an area there with all different colored buildings.  It was really neat, it reminded me of a more colorful New Orleans.  La Boca is also home to the Boca Juniors, they team Maradona played on, rival of River Plate.  We opted not to walk to the stadium though because it's in a dodgy area, so we just got our fill of it when we drove past.  There is a small market in the area that goes on during the day so we walked around and looked at some really cool paintings.  And we each got a pendant made from different coins.  I got one from Argentina and Jeff got a coin from Portugal that's really cool.  Here was a German one I really liked: 

Almost got it for Nathan but it was a bit too pricey.  Sorry Nathan but I'm too cheap to be a good sister!  Then it started getting dark so we left.  It's too cold when the suns not out, plus we were told that La Boca is pretty sketch at night.  Just like Maradona. 

Here are some more pics from La Boca.  I guess my touristy outings with Jeff aren't helping the rumor mill much.  Oh well.


Statue ouside a museum in La Boca

kids playing soccer