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

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Hydra

The school’s Hercules play was this week.  It involved grades 1^st-3^rd 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 1^st 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!

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

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

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



A little fun in the graveyard.

Another week finished! My time here in Argentina seems to be going by faster and faster each week.  It’s hard to believe I’m already half way done with my stay. 

I went to the Sublime concert with Jeff on Wednesday which was a nice break during the week.  Because besides that, this past week was just busy with play rehearsals and classes.  Speaking of classes, I haven’t gone to spin class in over a month.  Oops.  The most exercise I’ve gotten was walking all around Quilmes with Facu, trying to find a post office that actually sends packages and not just letters.  Because who would have guessed that you can’t send packages at the post office?  Silly Argentina. 

Things here are “flexible,” as someone recently told me.  And in all honesty, that is the best way to describe it.  One of my favorite games to play is “put credit on your cell phone” because it’s quite common for the “system to be down” here so I usually end up having to go to 2 or 3 different places to get it done.  Another fun game is “collecting enough change for the bus.”  The buses here only except coins, or monedas, and the shops are extremely stingy with coins when they give you change.  Even as a paying customer, when I ask for my change back in coins they get a little fussy and shake their heads “no.” So you have to be strategic about how to get enough coins: like buying a Subte pass one way and giving them 2 pesos because then they HAVE to give you coins back.  Because if you buy a roundtrip pass and give them 5 pesos then they will give you back 2 pesos in cash. So better to stand in line twice to make sure you have money to get home. 

Jackie and I tried to solve our coin problems on Saturday by buying a Monedero card for the bus but the place that sells them had a sign out saying they weren’t selling cards that day, only recharging them.  So then, the two of us tried to wait for the expensive bus because it takes cash (and by expensive I mean $1.25 USD). But I guess they just decided they weren’t going to run that day which we discovered after waiting 45 minutes.  Well, at least it’s consistently inconsistent.

But despite Quilmes’ best efforts we prevailed!  We made it into capital around 3:30 pm.  But only because an angel of a newspaper salesman exchanged money with us.  Bless that man! 

Tomb in the Recoleta Cemetery

In town, we sat down for a bit and had una cerveza and then went to visit the Recoleta Cemetery.  I know that sounds weird, but I promise, it’s completely normal to walk around the cemetery and take pictures.  It is actually quite an incredible place.  The tombs were huge and so ornate that some even looked like mini cathedrals.  I do feel kind of like a weirdo though because I was taking pictures of dead people’s tombs, but they were just so cool.  But at the same time, it seems a little invasive.  Especially since some were super creepy because the doors were cracked open or the glass was shattered and there were all these rando cats running around.  But we all know that cats are evil, so it was perfectly appropriate for them to be there.  And since Jackie does pinhole photography she had to take some of her homemade cameras to set up.  We had fun finding them at the end; a little scavenger hunt in the graveyard when it’s closing, no big deal.  And of course we made sure to stop and say hi to Evita on the way out.

Melted sidewalk in Recoleta

Then we headed back to home sweet Quilmes.  When we got back, we met up with the boys and went to a local club here for some dancing.  Here are some more pictures from our day!  I hope you enjoy them.  

Jackie setting up her camera.

This is a little Eerie.

The inside of the previous tomb - I'm sorry for intruding!

Creepy hand...

plants growing inside a tomb

say hi to Jesus on the right!

This looks like a building you might find in a city.

Shoes?

 Also, I would like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my amazing mom!