The last few weeks

Sorry I haven’t updated in awhile, I’ve just been really busy since school’s been over. NOT.  I actually didn’t do anything really until Lauren got here.  Eat, sleep, walk to the store to buy more food, watch some Copa America, etc.  Going shopping with Paz and Romi was a good break from being a vegetable, and it was nice to hang out with them without having to worry about getting up for school the next day.  I also got to witness a FIRST EVER Starbucks tasting because Romi had never tried it before. BLASPHEMY!

The new artist in residence, Alice, got here on Friday so we showed her around a bit.  She went to capital with Facu and me that night to meet some people.  As we waited for the bus at the stop some rando came up to us and asked politely if we could “give him all of our belongings.”  And of course he said it in Spanish so Alice and I didn’t know that he was trying to mug us.  Especially since he couldn’t make eye contact with us, had a grocery bag in his hand, and couldn’t decide if he wanted to keep his gun out or not.  He kind of half heartedly touched Alice’s purse strap and she was so confused that she thought he was trying to tell her there was something on her back.  And when Facu saw the gun, he told him in Spanish “Ok, wait. We will give you what you want,” but the guy just turned around and walked away.  Slowly.  What a weirdo.  Piss poor effort on his part if I may say so.   We were so confused when the bus came that we just walked on like nothing had happened.  Welcome to Argentina Alice!

Lauren Lynn got here on Tuesday; so her, Alice, and I did all of the touristy stuff in Buenos Aires this week. Woo!  Wednesday was “friend day” here in Argentina which is kind of like mother’s day or father’s day, but for your friends.  Everyone gets together with their friends and has dinner.  Isn’t that cute? So naturally, since the 3 of us were on our own, we decided to buy some friendship bracelets and do friend things together and then meet up with the boys afterwards.  Our own little wolf pack.

We spent the rest of the time going out…way too much - and sight-seeing too I guess.  And then, as a last hurrah, we went to La Bomba del Tiempo on Monday night.  If only we had known Lauren’s flight on Tuesday would be cancelled.  I just can’t seem to get rid of her! Haha no just kidding I’m really glad she came.  I had so much fun this past week, it’s going to make it hard to leave on Thursday.  I guess we’ll both just have to continue the fun in Dallas.

I’ll put pictures up later.

Stateside on Friday. 

El Gripe

So school finally finished on Friday and what better way to celebrate than getting the flu!  Woo!  Everyone is getting it too.  I know at least 4 people besides me who had it this week and 4 other people who "weren't feeling well." Everyone's just spreading the love I guess.

But since it was the last day I mustered up some afternoon strength and went to say goodbye to the kids.  They gave Jeff and me a mug each with the St. George's logo on it.  And then lots of hugs and cheek kisses!  Good thing that's allowed in this country otherwise I would have some very concerned parents to deal with.  They kids were really cute though: "Miss, do you like it here? Why are you leaving?" I felt like such a traitor telling them I was going back to the States.

I also remembered that rumor I had forgotten like 4 posts ago.  For some reason everyone at the school thinks I'm technologically gifted.  I would just be walking through the hallway and someone would come up with a random question: "My computer's frozen.  Can you fix it?" Umm I'll give it a look, I guess.  And me, being so technologically savvy just held the power button till the computer turned off and then turned it back on. GENIUS!  I guess I should be flattered, but I just don't quite get it.   It might just be because I'm a little younger than them and they think I'm obligated to know something, but still, who started this rumor? I'm awful with computers, so it's good that most of the stuff was pretty basic.  Here are some of my frequently asked questions:

"Do you know how to move the pictures from the camera to the computer?"
"Do you know how to put a power point onto a CD?"
"Can you make a folder appear on the main screen?"
"Why won't it let me save this?"
"How do you look at the power point from a different view?"
"How do you open this?"

It's like talking to my mom at home ;)  I love you mom.

Anyway, I have approximately 20 days till I'm stepping on free soil. Hot, humid, sticky soil. In the meantime, Lauren Lynn get's here in 10 days so that will be fun. I would like to travel a bit, but we'll see.  Jeff and Sam are going to Brazil which I can't go to because I don't have a visa.  They require one for Americans because we require one for them.  Fair enough.  Can't get angry about that.  It's just that on their government's website they seem very, very bitter about it.  Here's a few snippets from their tourist visa page:

U.S. citizens traveling to Brazil are required to obtain a visa prior to entering Brazil.   This requirement is in reciprocity to the U.S. government demand that all Brazilian citizens hold a visa in order to enter the United States. Citizens of countries that do not demand visas from Brazilian nationals usually do not need visas to enter Brazil.

5. U.S. citizens must pay a non-refundable $140.00 reciprocity fee (as of June 2010).
(This is because the U.S. government charges Brazilian citizens who apply for a U.S. visa a minimum of 2 mandatory fees).
Payment is done at the Consulate on the appointment day.
Cash, personal checks and credit cards are not accepted for the payment of the $140.00 reciprocity fee.

7. All consular fees must be paid in U. S. Postal Service money order made to the Consulate General of Brazil

Thanks for the shout-out Brazil.  Also, I'm not sure if we make it extremely difficult for other countries to pay for their visas, but only accepting a U.S. Postal Service money order seems very picky.  Very, very picky. Especially since the only way to obtain one is to go to a USPS office and hand them a wad of cash.  Who still uses money orders anymore?  Well, besides my dad. So pretty much, if you are currently not in the USA and you are not my dad, then you do not stand a chance of paying for your visa.  I guess I'll just have to postpone visiting my friends until later.   I will make it someday!  I still love you Brazil!

I'll let you know if I figure out any travel plans soon!

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

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

La vida facha.

I finally made it into capital during the day.  Victory!  I took a bus to San Telmo, a neighborhood that hosts a “fería” on Sundays.  It’s kind of like a flea market or a smaller version of El Rastro in Madrid.  I picked up my own personal mate, a scarf, and some great boho earings.  Such a buyer...

Hard at work making orange juice.

There was also this cute little old couple selling freshly squeezed orange juice and I couldn’t pass that up.  I managed to snap a photo of them at work.

The head girl from St. George’s, Mary, met up with me and showed me around a bit.  Then she took me back to her home in Recoleta which is another neighborhood in Buenos Aires.  I had tea with her family and they showed me some places I need to go visit while I’m here in Argentina.  So much to do!  After that, we caught a bus back to school with the other boarders from capital.

Cricket is a sport that I’m not very knowledgeable about because it’s not very big in the U.S.  I think my previous experience with it didn’t go very far beyond a brief scene of it in Bend It Like Beckham.  But, being a British style school, it is very big here at St. George’s and I got the chance to watch a match.  Never again.  I’m kidding, it was fun, it’s just that the matches are a bit lengthy.  I’ve heard that some games can even take as long as 5 days.  Rugby is also popular here.  I didn’t realize how big it was outside the UK since our sports sphere in the USA are dominated by football and basketball.  There's even a rugby world cup.

St. George's cricket match.

I’m trying to remember what else I forgot to update yall on since I was sick last week.  Oh, apparently when you’re sick, there is a specific diet here that is a cure all for I dunno, umm, everything.  They told me to eat cheese, meat (which means beef here), chicken, and apples, no potatoes!  I followed it until I overheard them telling that to about 12 other people with completely different calamities.  That was comforting.  But I did discover that antibiotics are ridiculously cheap here.  Plus, you don’t need a prescription.  I think it cost me $4.50 for mine.  Well done, Argentina!  Too bad they made me throw up. 

Had some awesome gnocci last night.  It's tradition here to eat it on the 29th of ever month, although no one seems to know why.  So I did the bus/subte/train combination up to San Isidro last night (quite a feat), and met up with Manu and his cousins for dinner.  His cousin is a chef and made what might possibly be considered the best spinach gnocci in the world.  I just wish it wasn't so difficult to get there and back during the workweek.

Still not used to the night life here.  We usually hang out at someone’s place until 3:30am and THEN go to the discotecas.  We leave those around 6/7am and head back to someone’s house to continue on until 10 or 11am.  Because of this I am proud to say that I have now mastered what I like to call the night nap.  I sometimes fall asleep between 12am and 1am and then have the boys wake me up before they leave.  It’s very hard to get up at that point, but so far the night nap has proven successful.  Well, only if you ignore all the crap I have to take from the guys for falling asleep and being lame.  Now, it’s the mid-morning nap that's a toughie (8-10am nap).  And as far as music goes here, they listen to pretty much the same stuff we do, plus lots of Reggaeton.  Mmmm Reggateon...

Some early morning rockband.

And lastly, I get made fun of a lot.  So I guess not a whole lot has changed since I moved down here.  They're more used to having people from the UK, South Africa, or Australia here, so my "American accent" is deemed horrendous…and apparently very fun to imitate...y'all.  And also, everyone calls me a yankee.  Of course I correct them because I'm more of a redneck (thank God?).  Yankees are from New England.  Like my mom. Nobody likes Yankees, sorry mom.  Also, the Argentine people get pretty offended if someone from the USA says they’re American because Argentina is also part of the Americas.  Fair enough.  I try to cut us sillies some slack and tell them that while they can say they’re Argentine or Argentinean, we can’t really go around saying we’re United-States-of-American because it sounds absolutely ridiculous; so we shorten it to American.  They don’t like that either.  So I always try to avoid it and say I’m Texan or from The States. But Barrett made a fabulous point the other day: While Argies can claim to be from America, us staties are the only people from ‘Merica, the one and only.  Born and raised.


Here are some more pictures from Argentina:

Plaza del Mayo

La fería in San Telmo

Scarves, or bufandas, at the fería.

walking to the beach in Pinamar

La playa

And I’d like to give a quick SHOUT OUT TO JOE WELSCH!  Again.