Update for All

Wow it's been a while since I updated the blog. So sorry, but not too much has happened since. But here we go...

So after I returned from San Martin de los Andes, I had about a week of school and then me and my family went to Buenos Aires! I enjoyed it even more this time around! The weather was amazing, not too cold but not too hot. And it was definitely nice to be out of the chilled Patagonia wind. Other aspects helped to, such as the fact that I know speak more spanish and could more easily communicate with my host siblings who live there. I've got the word to describe the trip now: Shopping.

Pretty much sums it up.

The day we arrived me, Franziska and Belu went out and just walked around window shopping. But the next day, and every one following it, we went to a different street filled with women, and men, streaming in and out getting ready for the summer. There was one part we went to within walking distance of the apartment that I really liked, it's called Palermo Soho. 

I found so many great things! And because of the exchange rate, everything was cheap for me!

But because of my unfortunate frugality, I was probably the person who bought less than everybody else that week. I must mention though that I did get these amazing leather boots which would probably cost around 250 dollars in the US... and I only paid $75. :D

So that's pretty much how the trip to Buenos Aires happened, and it was very upsetting for me when it came time to leave. 

When we returned to Comodoro, I had to go back to school...in the wind... while hearing about my ambitious and wonderful yet callous parents who were then on a private sailboat enjoying the sunshine and heat in the Caribbean... without me. Not ok. But I'm glad they had a good time and hope my mother's 50th was stupendous. :)

A week and day after being back in Comodoro, I realized that it's officially been 2 months. Surreal right? Everybody told me time would fly, but I wasn't expecting so quickly! Two months down, 8 or 9 to go! And hopefully some great ones ahead!

And so there is not so much more to tell. Except that I am utterly jealous of all my friends back in Taos getting ready for Halloween. :( It's not celebrated here.

Coming up on the ninth though, I will be leaving for 16 days to travel with other Rotary Students from all over Argentina. Our destinations are solely in the South and include: Reserva Faunistica Cabo dol Bahias (Penguins!!), Caleta Valdés (Sea elephants and maybe Orcas!) Calafate (Lago Argentina, with El Glaciar Perito Moreno), Tierra del Fuego and San Carlos de Bariloche.

But these are only some of the beautiful, and cold, places we'll be visiting. I'm not sure if I will be bringing my computer or not. If not, I'm sure the next blog will be a loonngg one! ;)

Un beso

K

Pictures from San Martin

The town of San Martin de los Andes

The Americans! and a Canadian on the far right...

Almost all the group.

Some of the many beautiful mountains

Andes Mountains? I think so!

Hey everyone!

So as you know this past weekend I was in San Martin de los Andes for my Rotary Orientation meeting. It was amazing! But lemme rewind a bit...

The weekend before I left for San Martin, me and my friends decided to go clubbing. We went to one of the nicest clubs in the city called Ele. Let me just explain it in a few words: Lights, Dancing and Music. Just like any typical club! But because my "host uncle" knows the owner of the club, we got to sit in the VIP section for a short concert put on by a well-known Argentine reggae singer. Because it was reggae, he sang many Bob Marley songs and it was great for me to be able to sing along with everybody else! After he left, we went to the dance floor and danced pretty much non stop until we left. When did we leave you ask? Well... here's the time schedule: we arrived at Ele at around 2 30 a.m. We got home from Ele around 6 30 a.m. So you can pretty much guess what I did for the rest of the day. But it was a lot of fun to just be able to dance and have fun without trying to figure out what people are saying all the time! This weekend is Franzika's birthday... so we will most likely be doing it all again. :)

Now, San Martin de los Andes. Google it. No I'm serious, go to Google Images and look it up. And that's pretty much where I got to spend a week of my life. I'm not going to describe every detail of the weekend because that would take a lifetime, but I will try the best I can. 

On leaving Comodoro at 1 a.m., we had a 14 hour bus ride to a town called Cipoletti. Because our bus to San Martin didn't leave until the next day, we stayed with host families. That night, my temporary host sister(who went to France last year) took me out with many of the other students who would be going to San Martin the next day. We walked around the town and got something to eat. The next day, it was nice to already know some of the students who got on the bus with me. On the bus altogether, there was about 18 students from different countries going to San Martin. When we got there(about 6 or 7 hours later) there were about 4 more students waiting for us. So throughout the whole weekend, there was around 22 of us. The countries were: United States (5 people), Belgium (2 ppl), France (3 ppl), Germany (a lot), Canada (1) and Estonia (1). 

That night, we had a Rotary meeting and then went to our hotel to sleep. Although I'm pretty sure no one actually went to sleep until at least 2 30 in the morning. The next day, Friday, we had lots of rotary stuff to do... not too exciting. Except that night we had a Tango lesson, it was very fun. 

On Saturday though, we had a busy day. We took a boat tour on the huge lake they have. The lake winds around through the big mountains with places you can get off the boat and get to eat, or take walks or do a little shopping at the small booths set up by the local people. We arrived at one of these spots, after a very cold but very beautiful boat ride, and took a short walk until we met with some of the rotarians at a camping spot. There was a river right there and grass to play futbol on. We all hung around until it was time to eat the burgers that they had grilled there. And of course, Alfajors for dessert. When we arrived back to the mainland, it was already 4 o clock. We then had time to just wonder around town and do as we pleased. I love the town! It reminds me just of a small Colorado ski town. Somewhat later, we then had a Salsa lesson. And that was even more fun than the Tango lesson. We then went out to dinner and back to the hotel. The next day, we had to catch our bus at 11 a.m. Upon arriving in Cipoletti, we had about six hours until the bus to Comodoro. So everybody went to one of the Rotarians houses and we hung out and had something to eat. 

I got home yesterday in the afternoon. 

Next week I get to go to Buenos Aires!! I'm so excited. 

Sorry this blog was so much shorter than my other ones, but I am feeling lazy today... :)

New Pictures

My host sisters: Belén y Franzika (she will be staying until December)

Yum... or as they say "rico" :)

My house until January <3

Some friends and I in Rada Tilly. Left to right: Pau, Me, Belu, Franzi y Dani

Again in Rada Tilly, you can never escape the wind.

Left to right: Belu, Cande, Me y Dani

4 Weeks! Pretty much a MONTH! ¿quuee?

Before I start I just want to say that this post is going to be shorter than my other ones. For some of you Im sure this is sad... :) but for others nice to have such a quick simple read. I also want to say that if there is improper grammar its because I dont practice english these days. Also no apostrophes... after stupidly searching the foreign computer for five minutes I remembered they dont use them. Now lets begin-

HOLY SHIT! (pardon my language) I honestly cant believe its pretty much been A MONTH! 

I have been here for 4 weeks! I feel like it was just 2 weeks ago that I was bed ridden for throat surgery and high on codeine; 1 week ago that I was in Houston; and last week that I was having fits over not knowing what shoes I was actually bringing when it came time to pack and my mother rolling her eyes while uncaringly stuffing them in much to my cries and pleas!!! ok.... that was a little dramatic, but it went something like that.

Anyway, my point is... time flies, especially when youre having fun and NOT sitting in school. I have been going to school for about 3 weeks now. But in truth if you fit together all the days that I actually have gone to school, its probably only 2 weeks. Going to school went from being the scariest thing of my life to something that Im being forced to do...sort of like at home. If I try to pay attention, I get a headache. And the only class that I understand pretty well is math. But this could be due to the fact that I learned what theyre learning 1 or 2 years ago.

Lets get to something exciting and positive. FIESTAS!!! Since Ive been here, I dont think I can count the number that I have gone to. Last weekend, I didnt have school on Friday (cant remember the holiday because theres too many) so there was a party on thursday. And then of course on Friday. On friday, it was a girl from Germanys 15th party. Like in Mexico, a quinceñera but they call it something different. On Saturday Belu took me to something called Collectividades. The city of Comodoro has it every year in this gigantic gymnasium. When we got there, we were going to have to wait in a line that must have been at least a block long. But luckly, Belu saw some friends and we snuck in with them up front. When I went in, it was overwhelming. On one side of the gym there was a giant stage (those of you who know Solar Fest: it was like that), and all around the entire gym were different booths set up with international food from around the world. The smell was so intense. It was so packed tight with people that anywhere we went we had to push and shove and hold hands to stay together. After getting a couple free beers from the German booth (thanks to Franzika) we went to the Bulgarian booth (I think) and got some good food there. Then over to the Uruguay booth for some Papas Fritas! We then found a somewhat large enough space in the crowd and watched one of our friends,  Vale, do a greek dance on the stage. 

We spent around 3 or 4 hours there and then walked home in the rain at about 1 30 in the morning. Because I was suffering from a cold, I went to bed exhausted. But Franzika and Belu didn't come back home until 5 or so. 

And so time has progressed... 

On thursday next week, I have Rotary Orientation in a place called San Martin de los Andes. And yes... its in the Andes. Its going to be beautiful and fun. Right after that on the 13th of October I am going to Buenos Aires again with the whole family! I cant wait! I think thats when Ill be getting a new camera, so hopefully there will be more pictures coming! Until next time...

Un beso

First Week of School

So I ended my last post with the day before I went to school...

Monday morning I woke up at 6 30a.m. and got dressed so fast I didn't understand what was happening when I had so much extra time. And then I realized it's because I wear a complete uniform to school :

Grey pleated skirt; four or five inches above the knee

Grey knee socks or tights

The most unfortunate awful shoes I am forced to wear

A white polo with a green and yellow collar; the logo of the school IMR (Instituto Martin Rivadavia) on the pocket

And a dark green or grey V-neck sweater over the shirt.

When we left the house, it was still dark out. When I arrived we walked into the school, which right inside the door is the Gym. All the students were lined up with their classes, and I'm pretty sure just about every set of eyes was on me. When everybody starting getting quiet, I started freaking out because I thought it was for me. But then I found out that's just what they're supposed to do. When I found my correct line, two students came out with the Argentine flag and raised it while all the students rehearsed their version of "The Pledge of Allegiance". We then wait for our first teacher to come and lead us to our classroom.

The curious thing about school that I'm not used to is that we have the same class the entire day, in the same classroom the entire day. The teachers just switch the classrooms and come to us.

Within the first hour, nobody had really come over to talk to me and I started getting nervous. And then once one girl had the courage to go talk to the "Foreign Kid", the whole class decided they would also. So, I was surround by just about every person in the classroom all introducing themselves and trying to talk to me at once... in spanish. Or some of them even tried to speak in english, but that was even hard for me to figure out than if they were speaking spanish. When the teacher finally called everyone back to their seats, I felt exhausted. 

And so the day progressed. With every class in spanish I pretty much just sat there staring into to space and maybe if I felt like it try to figure out what the teacher was saying. All of the teachers didn't speak any english, so they just introduced themselves and that was that.

At the end of the week, I only have one word to describe everyday of school: Headache.

That, and Exhaustion. Almost everyday after school I come home and sleep about two hours.

The only teacher I found all week that spoke somewhat decent english was, well... My english teacher! And I must admit, that class might be just about the most amusing thing of my life. She had me read a few things sometimes. Let me just say, the english teachers at school are like the spanish teachers at Taos High: Think they know it all, but really they don't. 

The most upsetting classes of my schedule are: Physics (in spanish) and Chemistry (in spanish). But the teacher is kind of straightforward and standoffish, so she just looks at me and says in spanish that I don't speak any spanish so I don't matter... little does she know that I actually understand it when she says these things. :) Alright by me, less things and homework to do. Yes. I do have homework. For history: A history on Argentina, Geography: A geography on Argentina, Language: Reading a book and translating about Argentine Politics, and English: An awful book about Argentine spanish with a copious amount of giant vocabulary words that I have to look up every other word. I feel like telling my english teacher that when she can read that book in english, I will. But I won't... yet.

Anyway, thats how the week went. I had a Rotary meeting on Thursday night and got home at 1 a.m., so my host mom told me and Franzika that we didn't have to go to school the next day :).

I don't have too many plans coming up, so I don't know when the next time I'll write is but I will update whenever I can. I am actually trying to find and join a swim club. I had the intentions of practicing my futbol (soccer) while down here, but every time I try and mention something like that, people just look at me like I'm crazy and usually ask: You mean watch futbol right?.... or.... You play futbol?

So I guess it really isn't the reality for girls to play in South America. *sigh*

Until next time...

xoxo

New Home

I'm not sure where to start this post, seeing as I did much more in Buenos Aires after my last post. 

But I can say that my last couple days there, I did pretty much the same thing as the days before: walking around the city, seeing some famous monuments and meeting many new people. We went to a park called Palermo Woods, which you can walk to from the apartment. It's like their version of Central Park, it was beautiful. There are so many rollerbladers everywhere (Dad you would like it). Even though its winter here, it got so hot somedays! The subway one day was torture. It was so crowded and everyone was sweating. 

A very tragic thing happened on my third or second to last day there. My camera was stolen. Well, my bag actually. But the only valuable thing that was in it was my camera. This might seem like extreme bad news, but to me its first: A lesson learned, and second: Grateful feelings. This is due to the fact that right before we went out to eat (when it happened), I had decided to take out my wallet (which had my credit card, debit card, I.D. and my passport in it) and my plane ticket I had just gotten for the flight to Comodoro before we left for lunch. I don't know what I would've done if I had left all that in there. But I had had this feeling that something bad was going to happen when I did that, talk about intuition. 

So I am so very sorry, but it will be a little bit before I can post more pictures. But let me get back to some good news!

So the morning of my flight I had to wake up at 4 15 a.m., a bit of a change from the last couple mornings. Juli and Fran took me to the airport in a taxi and I got there at 5 00 a.m. I checked my bags on ( paying a heavy fee because of the weight) and went through security to board the plane at 6 00a.m. The flight was only about 2 1/2 hours (most of which was spent sleeping) before I saw the coast of Patagonia. It is beautiful here! It may not be green, sunny, warm or tropical, but it is equally gorgeous. With its small mountains, random looking cliffs sticking up everywhere, something that looks somewhat like sagebrush and waves crashing onto the rocky coast. 

If I thought it was cold in Buenos Aires... Nothing compared to here. The minute I stepped off the plane ( down the stairs because there's no connecting thingy) I was hit with the oh-so-famous wind of Comodoro Rivadavia. And believe me, it was not warm wind. Only wearing a sweatshirt for warmth, I rushed inside and quickly got my giant bags. Lili was there waiting for with a smile. After a quick kiss and very, very few words, we were in the car on the way home. The entire drive was along the coast with mountains on the other side. 

After many one way streets (which confuses the hell outta me) we arrived home into the warmth. The house is nice and groomed all the time thanks to Vilma. Ramiro (Rotary counselor) came over for a quick visit and then I went in my room and fell into a dead sleep (I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the last night). I woke up to find Lili gone to work and Belu home with a friend from school, Pau (or Paula, they love their nicknames). Pau speaks amazing english and automatically began helping, teaching and translating for me. We went around the house and they showed me different objects, while labeling them with pieces of paper in spanish. 

After Pau left to her english class, another friend came over, Agust (Agustina). She speaks amazing english as well, she just spent 3 months in the States. She also helped me with a few things that day. With the help of people like this, I already feel like I'm accelerating exponentially. Soon Agust had to leave and so did Belu. So I was home alone (except for Vilma of course). I did a little unpacking and then took a short nap. 

That night was Friday night. So Belu had several of her friends over, including Pau and Agust. The others I met were Dani (Daniela) and Vale (Valeria). The taught me some simple card games and I had a great time. I automatically felt comfortable with these girls, and they were impressed with my spanish... which made me feel like I was goin somewhere :). 

The next day I was awoken by Lili when she slowly explained to me that Franzika was going to be here soon. 

OOPS. I didn't mention Franzika did I? She is a Rotary student from Germany who will also be staying in Comodoro. But because her family is having some problems right now, Lili and Belu gladly are welcoming her into the home for 2-4 weeks.

Anyway, me and Belu ran out to pick up some dry cleaning and when we got back Ramiro and Franzika were there. She is incredibly nice and sweet and is sharing a room with me. Because she doesn't speak any spanish and limited english, I have found myself doing much translation, which I can tell already is helping a lot. 

That day (yesterday), Belu again had her friends over and everyone decided we should go wash Lili's car (that Belu uses). Piling 7 of us into one small car we headed into town.

It was somewhat sunny and warmish (not without the wind of course), and I had a great time. And of course I met more friends. That night was much the same as the night before, cards and such. Franzika had to excuse herself at 8p.m. to sleep because she is suffering from jet lag... rough.

Today was a fine day as well. We had a great lunch of asado (meat... lots of meat), bread and such and they had some family friends over. After that we (by we i mean a group of friends) went on a very cold walk and came home and just sat around and talked. Well, them talking me and Franzi smiling and nodding.

It is now 10 30p.m. and Franzi has gone to bed. I have school tomorrow and I'm extremely nervous. Pau is in some of my classes along with Becky (exchange student from California) so I will hopefully not be completely lost but I am still scared.

So far I am loving it and I'll let everyone know how school goes! And when I get a camera I'll be sure to show where I'm living! 

xoxo