What’s one month between friends? My Great Argentine Trip part 1

So it’s been about a month since my last post. My bad. In my defense, I have been traveling the country like a fiend for a week… where I was for the other three weeks, I couldn’t tell you, but I was for sure studying very, very hard…

OK! So let me just throw myself into spring break. Every year, Argentine students just decided that one week they aren’t going to come to school, because they feel as though they’ve worked super hard and deserve a break. I can relate. During this week (known as ‘Student’s week’) international students take advantage of their newly acquired Spanish skill and confidence and travel the country to various locations. The group of friends that I was going with had decided that we were going to go to Rosario, Iguazu, and Cordoba. We felt that since we would be traveling by bus, it would be best to split it up into four bus trips in a circular formation so that we could maximize our free time. The week leading up to our departure, I was wondering how I’d fit everything that I would need for 9 days into my backpack (seeing as that was the only bag I really had for travel), however, after some organizing I managed to get everything I needed into my backpack. Exito! I met up with my friends at the bus station (we had already bought our tickets 3 weeks prior), we found the correct terminal, and got ready for our amazing journey! Just as the bus was pulling out… it went back in again. One of the bus attendants came down and said something very quickly in Spanish. We didn’t really catch what he had said, but everyone was getting off of the bus. We thought that, since there was a sand storm in the area, we had been delayed so we just sat around and waited. After 2 hours, we found out that it was not a sand storm that was holding us up, it was a Driver’s Strike. Of course the only company having a strike would be the one that is supposed to take us on our 14 hour bus ride to Rosario. We didn’t know how long it would last, so we waited around the bus terminal until midnight, then called the night a bust and decided to go back to our host families and then assess the situation in the morning. None of us were particularly happy as this was a serious wrench in our plans. We were supposed to spend 2 days in Rosario before heading off to Iguazu, but now we’d have to reevaluate our Rosario activities so as not to miss our next bus.

When we woke up the next morning, we rallied at the outlet that sold us our tickets to get more information. They told us that the strike was still going on and that we would just have to wait and see how it played out. We told them that that was sooooo not going to work for us because we already were behind on our schedule. We explained to them that we had a bus out of Rosario the next night, so either the company takes us there, or we get our money back. Obviously a South American Company is not just going to call off a strike because 7 North Americans are annoyed, so we got our money back and promptly left to go to the other, strike-free, bus company next door. We bought our tickets and, satisfied, went home to get ready, once again for our trip. The plan was pretty much the same as last time, except this time, we decided to execute plan Actually Leave The Bus Terminal. We loaded our stuff, found our seats, and waited with bated breath as the bus pulled away from the terminal. Success!!! We actually left lot this time and we were on our way to Rosario!!!

I’ve never traveled by bus before, and I must say the experience wasn’t too terrible. In fact, it might even be better than flying. Let’s discuss:

1)      No pain-in-the-ass security

a.       Security isn’t that huge in their airports (with their fake ‘customs’ and whatnot) so really the closest thing they have to a security check point is the tired and hungry looking woman at the Information desk.

2)      Better service!

a.       Not five minutes into our commute the nice bus attendant lady was serving us appetizer sandwiches, our full-on dinner, and offering as all different kinds of drinks. To top it off, there was a movie AND a blanket and pillow! Suck it United!

3)      No fear of falling out of the sky

a.       Granted, there could be the potential fear of an on-road accident, but have you seen the cars here in Argentina? My double-decker bus on steroids could soooo take on your little Fiat.

All in all, the 14 hours that I spent on that bus were not the worst of my life. When we finally arrived in Rosario, it was cloudy and cold, and we were tired and felt like we needed a good shower, but personal hygiene would have to wait, because we had roughly 8 hours to take in the sights and sounds of Rosario before our next bus left for Iguazu. We left our stuff at a baggage area in the bus terminal and headed out when we realized that we had no idea what way we were going. We eventually figured it out and began wandering the streets anyway, looking at the cool way that some of the streets were designed and looking at what a bunch of the signs had to say about the history of the city. After about an hour of walking around, we happened upon the shrine that was built to commemorate the creation of the Argentine flag. The National Flag was created in Rosario, so there was this huge monument with a really tall building and an ever-burning flame.

We went up to the top of the highest part of the monument and were able to look around the majority of the city. It was such a great view! After taking pictures galore, we all came to the consensus that we were starving, so we found an awesome restaurant that served a great brunch and rested there for about an hour. While eating, we came up with a plan of attack. With us missing one day in Rosario due to the strike, we had to consolidate our list things to do, meaning that we would need to get to the major stuff. We decided that we would do a boat tour of the harbor (which would take roughly two hours) and grab a quick lunch before heading back to the bus terminal. The boat tour wasn’t for a while, so in the mean time, we continued to walk the city. Rosario had so many colors! All of the street vendors had merchandise that was so colorful, even the street art and the graffiti was brilliantly shaded.



I'm not usually a graffitti person, but even I thought this was cool!

After no time at all, it became time for the boat tour. To be honest, it wasn’t my favorite part of the trip. I don’t really need to sit on a boat to see the city, but the rest of my friends enjoyed it, and it was nice to relax after a lot of walking so all in all it wasn’t terrible. After the boat ride, it was a quick lunch, and then off to find a cab to take us back to the bus terminal. This proved to be more difficult than we expected. In a tourist city full of cabs, we found it impossible to get just one! Luckily, we did find one but obviously weren’t going to be able to fit everyone into it; we were just deciding who would go and who would stay when another one pulled up. This is known as kismet people. Positive Kismet. We rode the cabs back to the bus terminal and all too soon grabbed our stuff and filed in line to board our next bus.

I was much more apprehensive about this bus ride because when you look at it, 22hrs on a bus seems like a lot longer than 14hrs… maybe because it’s 2hrs shy of a full day. Either way, I was not looking forward to remaining stationary for roughly an entire day. After we packed onto the bus, we settled ourselves in for the looooooong bus ride ahead of us. Once again, busses proved their superiority over planes, when the bus attendant whipped the curtain back holding a bottle of whisky and some candy. His plan was obvious: Get the passengers as drunk and happy as possible so that they would pass-the-hell-out and leave him alone. Why do I say this? Well, after whiskey, came wine (red and white), more wine, and then some champagne. If I was a recovering alcoholic I would be sooooooo pissed right now. My friends and I all thought the free flowing booze was hysterical and of course they didn’t refuse anything. There is really nothing more to report about a bus ride besides the fact that we just sat there… and sat there… and sat there some more. Maybe all of the alcohol was to distract the passengers from the fact that the in-bus entertainment SUCKED. They showed this movie called “Buried” with Ryan Reynolds. In it Ryan is [Spoiler Alert] buried. As if that wasn’t a bad enough plot, he just sits there for the entire freaking movie! Like, actually just lying there the entire 2 hours buried in this box. Why, yes, Mr. Reynolds, you have come a long way. Crappy movie aside, the bus ride wasn’t too bad. I don’t remember too much of it seeing as I was sleeping for most of it. Hey, I had nothing else to do so I figured, meh, why not, sleep is definitely something I’ve been lacking in this country. Only when it started to get hot and humid on the bus did we begin to realize that we were getting closer and closer to Iguazu.

FINALLY! We had arrived at our destination! After getting all of our stuff off of the bus, we walked to our hostel. I had never stayed in a hostel before, so I was excited to take on this new adventure. We checked in and went to our room which had about 14 bunked beds. Only about 7 were occupied, so we chose the beds closest to a corner. After that bus ride we all needed to pee and take a shower, which we did [individually] before going outside to hang out and relax. There is a very big difference between Mendoza and Iguazu; the humidity. We all noticed, and loved, the humidity that is so absent from our home of Mendoza. After a good period of relaxing, in which we had mate and cookies, we decided to walk to the river (which was close by) to see where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet.



A little Post-Arrival relaxation!

After a brief walk, we arrived. It was so cool to see all three countries in one glance separated by a river. There were little shops next to the riverside so we stopped there for a little bit (it had started to rain… remember this, it will come up again later) and looked at the all of the merchandise.


Paraguay to the left! Brazil to the right!

 After some time, we got hungry so decided to head back to the hostel to figure out a place to eat. When we got back we found a restaurant and a new British friend and then feasted like champions on some amazing Argentine barbeque. Feeling stuffed and happy, we went back to the hostel to make plans to go out. When we got there, one of the German people who was staying there asked us if we were “ready to make party.” And thus, the North Americans became friends with the Germans. It’s that simple. The 7 North Americans, 3 Germans, 1 Belgian, 1 Mexican, 1 Aussie, and a Brit all decided to head out to find drinks. We came upon a fun looking bar with a deck (that was covered due to the torrential down pour that the earlier sprinkle had turned into) and sat ourselves around a bunch of pulled together tables.

It was such an amazing experience to be able to talk to so many people from so many different countries at one time. We were having a great time just talking and sharing traveling stories when two girls approached us. They were traveling as well and they asked if they could join us. We were in a “the-more-the-merrier” kind of mood, so we were more than happy to receive them. Our new friends were from England and “Spain”. Why the quotations? Well, for one, home-girl sounded like she was from California… and not the eloquent part. Second of all, I overheard her ask the waitress something and I’m pretty sure that my Spanish is better than hers… I’m not trying to be petty, I’m just saying… anyway, these girls had already had a few drinks before they came to our table, and they didn’t stop after joining us. My favorite line of the night came from when she decided to ask Emma [one of my traveling companions] if it was raining outside… forget the fact that it had only been raining since we got there, and that we were sitting on the deck surrounded by clear plastic that clearly displayed downpour. No, no… our friend from “Spain” needed clarification that it was, in fact, raining outside. Props to Emma for keeping a straight face and replying, “Um… yes, ladies… it’s raining…” because I, for sure, would not have been able to keep my composure had they asked me. We stayed there for a bit longer, and then decided to call it a night. Tomorrow we had to rise and shine a bit early so that we could go to Iguazu Falls. I had heard about them from people who had traveled to Argentina before, and had seen pictures. They looked beautiful, but I wanted to see them for myself. I couldn’t wait until tomorrow!

End Part 1

Don't let the complexities of life distract you... but seriously...

It was definitely a good week! Friday found me having nothing to do and loving every second of it. After I rolled out of bed, I had a quick breakfast and then just fooled around on my computer for a bit. For lunch, my host mom made the best tasting ravioli I have ever tasted! I don’t know what it was exactly that I loved about it; all I know is that I didn’t want to stop eating it no matter how full I felt! After a siesta, I headed over to the park because a group of people had all said that they wanted to meet up to play some Frisbee. However, the girl who was supposed to bring the Frisbee had forgotten that she had class at the agreed to time. What’s more, is that when I got there, there was only one other person there. It appeared that everybody else had decided that, since we didn’t have a Frisbee, there was no reason to go to the park at all. We stayed there for a little bit to see if anybody else would show up. A few more people did, and, after waiting 30 min. we all decided to call it a day and go do something else. While waiting we had come upon the topic of the McDonald’s that we had seen in central. During this conversation we talked about the Milka McFlurrys that they had there (Milka is like the Hershey’s down here). The second that we brought those up, they were all that we could think about… so naturally we decided that walking to a McDonald’s needed to become a priority. And it makes sense… getting a McFlurry is kind of like playing ultimate Frisbee for an hour, right? We trekked to the McDonald’s in the city and were not disappointed! They were so good! The vanilla ice cream was delicious and they added the chocolate Milka bar and topped it off with warm dulce de leche. It was a religious experience.

We stayed there for a good hour just savoring our McFlurrys and fries while we talked about the most random things. It was great! When we were done, no one wanted to move because we were all so satisfied with where we were. Eventually, we did get up and went shopping for a bit before ultimately calling it a day. I made my way home, made myself dinner from the left over ravioli that we had had for lunch (which I was more than fine with) and then went out with some friends to a bar. We stayed there for a few hours talking and only when the cell phone clock struck 2am did I decided that it was probably time for me to go home. I had made plans to go see my friend, James, in a basketball game at 10am the next day with Elizabeth, so I figured if there was any chance at all of me dragging myself out of bed to make it there, I had better get to sleep.

My alarm woke me up and my first thought was actually, “I don’t like James this much.” Seriously. But I sucked it up, made my breakfast, and headed out to meet up with Elizabeth. The basketball game was actually enjoyable and, though he didn’t get to play, James appreciated us showing up. That night, I went out to a bar with a bunch of friends once again, and then we headed to Taco Tabasco for dinner. It had been a long, but good weekend so I was really disappointed when I had to head home to get ready for the new week. Most of the week passed by without any major events worth describing… until Thursday in Argentine Lit class. As you’ve read in my past posts, the North American students have become accustomed to never having to pay attention in class, due to the fact that we never know what they’re saying. It would soon be discovered that this day would be the one to slap us back into reality. As I was sitting there, minding my own business and daydreaming about the complexities of life, I notice that my friend Emma, who was sitting next to me, started tentatively raising her hand. She began looking at the rest of us nervously and whispered “raise your hand!” At this moment, I’ve noticed that ALL of the Argentine students are turned in their seats looking at us, along with the professor, who was looking at us expectantly… “shit” was my first thought. We had just been asked a question, and none of us knew what it was! The conversation continued as follows:

Prof: “So, what is it like?”

Amurrikans: “………”

Prof: “Do you understand what I am saying?”

Eloquent US representatives: “Yes…”

Prof: “……..”

North Americans w/out a clue: “………”

Prof: “You’re national anthem?”

Children w/proud parents paying thousands for education: “Oh! Yeah, we have one…”

Argentine Students: “Are these fools for realzzzz?!?!?!?”

It. Was. PAINFUL!!! Luckily, we managed to gather what we saw on the board and what was being said by the professor and make an educated leap. It took a while, but finally we were all on the same page, and managed to make it through the conversation and even helped some of the Argentine students understand certain parts of our anthem and the days that we play it on (like holidays, before sports games, etc.). We were doing real well until the professor just had to go and ask us the year it was written. Now we had to deal with freaking NUMBERS!!!! [this prof. hates us, there’s no other explanation] For those who don’t know, in Spanish they say the year as one long number (like 1,775) instead of two individual numbers (17 [space] 75) like we do. Now, the entire class was treated to five dumbass North American kids trying to remember what comes after ‘veinte’. The teacher actually thought we didn’t know the date, but the Argentine students could see that we were trying and actually told the professor that we did, just didn’t know how to say it. It was nice for them to speak up like that. Maybe we might make friends after all!!!

After that horrific episode of I’m proud to be and American, I wanted to flee the country in shame, but I didn’t out of pride (I didn’t have a car to get me to the airport) and strength (the tickets are too expensive). Thankfully Friday was merciful, and the only thing I did was finalize plans for our week long break that we get in September. I spent the weekend relaxing and hanging out with friends. Now, I have to brace myself for the new week. God only knows what this one will bring!

He's BAAAAAAACK!

Ok, so apparently my lack of blog activity has been unacceptable as I have received harassment (*cough, MOM cough*), so this is me resuming my blogging. In my defense, bathrooms and I have called a truce while I took on my new enemy ‘the head-cold’. This new alliance/enemy means that Brendan is not as full of witty, albeit slightly bitchy, commentaries as he usually is. But, without any further ado, lets recap the week, shall we? So the weather has been a bit off-and-on down here. It snowed, which sucked because if I wanted to deal with those kinds of shenanigans I would have just stayed in Colorado. Show me something I haven’t seen Argentina! I arrived home Friday night and told my host mom that I wasn’t feeling well and she was about ready to drive me to the hospital. Only after she got ready to call a doctor to come and make a house-call did I have to explain to her that I really was ok and that, I swear, I was not knocking at deaths door. Well, at least she cares right? The following Saturday everyone just stayed in the house. My host mom told me I didn’t even have to leave the room, and she and Sylvia would bring me tea (which was really just lemon juice with a leaf tossed in there for flair… really, that stuff was strong!) and food. I had bought some nasal drops from the pharmacy in the city, but my friend and I thought that they probably wouldn’t work for my head-cold since the bottle said “for allergies”. We were wrong. Now, I have chronic sinus problems, so I’m used to expecting a certain ‘wait-time’ with nasal medication, but not with this one! The second I popped those suckers in it bitch-slapped the nasal congestion right out of me. Seriously, I’ve never had anything work that quickly, which has lead me to two theories. A) there is cocaine in them and I am actually becoming an unsuspecting addict or B) if not cocaine there is some other form of drug not legal in the United States, which is why I’ve never seen it before. Either way, I can breathe now, so yeah for unknown nasal drugs!

Sunday passed without much action as well. I went shopping with my host mom for some lunch foods, and then later went with her to her sister’s house, where I spent the day with the IFSA student who lives there, and my host cousin Mia (who is 4). Some more of my host aunts and cousins came over, and it was just another fun family get together. After I returned home, I just relaxed on my computer and went to bed. Monday was a holiday so, once again, I had nothing to do but sit in my room and try to recuperate, though to be honest, I was getting really tired with that. Most of the students in the program had left the city during this holiday weekend for other cities, like San Juan or Cordoba, for hiking. I was invited before I came down with my head-cold, but I elected not to go because they would all be staying in hostels and I wasn’t down for that idea quite yet. I know that when I do some of the other traveling that I have planned a hostel is going to be necessary, but a month in (when I can’t even take the right micro consistently) just seems a bit too soon. In the afternoon, I met up with a few friends who had stayed behind as well, and we lounged in the park for two hours, just laying in the sun and talking. A few had brought mate and cookies, so it was a true Argentine day in the park.

All too soon, Tuesday came, which signaled the beginning of the real world once again. While I didn’t have Spanish, I did have literature, which as we all know, I always excitedly look forward to. This time, there was only one professor and zero slideshows. This means, that instead of being able copy whatever was shown up on the board, I had to sit there and just listen to this woman lecture me about something I did not know or understand. Looking around at my fellow gringos let me know that I was not alone in my ‘Holy God, I have even less of an idea of what is going on than usual’ mindset. After class, we decided to take matters into our own hands and ask the professor exactly what was going on and what we needed in order to be fully up to date. We thought it would be best if only a few approached her so as not to overwhelm her with five panicked North American faces. We expected to get a list of things that we needed to prepare and read. Instead, we got a “No, you’re not behind. You’re fine. You don’t need anything. Have a nice day!” … so then what the hell have we been talking about for the past two and a half weeks!? (granted, the professors just didn’t show up for at least 3 classes… so maybe they don’t know what they’re doing either?) That night, I had a ton of homework. Yes, I did have a four day weekend. Yes, I barely left my house. No, I still wasn’t going to do it. There was also a International Exchange party at a bar near my house. I scrambled to write my two page paper analyzing two very odd Spanish short-stories and then headed out to mix and mingle internationally. It was nice to talk to other young people in the city in a relaxed environment. I don’t get to talk to many Argentine people in class, so it was nice to be given the opportunity. I met a Mendocina, Peruvian, Mexican, and Frenchman and we discussed school, work, life, so on so forth. When in these relaxed settings, I can tell that my speaking is getting a lot better, but in a classroom setting, I think I get in my own way (surprise, surprise) because I always sound like an idiot. I told myself I was only going to stay for an hour, but I ended up staying for almost two. After I got home, I showered and prepared myself for the next day.

Wednesday = Spanish, but most importantly, Tango! Our professor for Spanish was sick that day (which means I didn’t even need to write that paper!) so we had class with another group, and went over verb tenses, which I actually found helpful. After a two hour break, I headed to tango. I think I’m getting the hang of it! It was getting easier to follow her and get the movements down. She even gave me a thumbs-up, not once but three times! Can you say Argentine G! No big deal…

And finally we’ve come to today. I had no obligation until 2pm when I had to turn in a bunch of paperwork for my visa. They took my fingerprints, took passport copies, and had me fill out important forms, which I guess mean I can’t get away with any crimes here as I have officially been put into the system… oh darn. I headed to literature once again and this time, I found another teacher lecturing on a reading assignment. We had been given this assignment previously, so I read along and tried to keep up with what she was discussing. We read a short story and a poem. I feel like I got the most and the least out of that class. The most, because I was following the reading and knew what she was talking about when she referenced it, but also the least, because I still felt so lost. Again, we went up to the teacher after class and, again, we were told that we had nothing to do to prepare. If only North American schools could be like this. I walked home and just relaxed for the day. Tomorrow is Friday and I don’t have class so that, combined with my Monday off, means I only had three days of class this week… life is rough J

Tomorrow, a group of us are planning to go and play some ultimate Frisbee in the park. Who knows what other mayhem we’ll find along the way…

So, it's been a while...

Hey all! Sorry I've been M.I.A for the past couple days. A head cold swooped in and beat the hell out of me. I'm all good, but still recovering. That, combined with the fact that not a whole lot of excitement has happend has lead to a slow day for the blogosphere. I'll try to have a new post up by tomorrow as it will mark my month anniversary in Argentina. See you then!

My computer is a tricky little bastard

Short days, long days, they’re all beginning to look the same to me. Today, after my usual morning routine, I headed off to Spanish class where all four classes spent an hour together looking at a Power Point about Gauchos and their significance to Argentina. An hour. An HOUR!!! I could have found a YouTube clip that would have covered the same material in a quarter of the time. But seriously people! While sitting in our misery, Elizabeth and I began plotting ways to make a scene in an effort to liven things up. I was all for “falling out of my chair” but at the last minute I decided that the second hour of class was going to be a ‘talent show’ outside so I should just shut the hell up and deal with it. For the talent show, many people sang, two danced, a guy rapped, some karate was done, we had a harmonica player, and I did a little tumbling (no big deal). Afterwards, I went home for lunch for once, and then relaxed on my computer while I waited until my next class, tango.

I met up with Elizabeth and we walked to class together, where we found that there was apparently some confusion about class times. We arrived ten minutes into one class and there was apparently also another class an hour later. Since the class we were in was later than usual, the students in that one went with the later class as well and we all worked together on our fancy footwork. It’s getting easier, but tango is for sure much harder than it looks. After class, we walked into the city and then hopped a trolley home, which was a near hellish experience because it was so crowded that people were waiting on the steps of the entry doors. Not healthy my friends. I finally got home, Skyped with my friend Craig, had dinner and then just got ready for bed.

I think I’m getting sick over here (my host mom and some of my friends are getting sick as well), so it was hard to focus most of the day, which is why this blog post is so short (and probably full of errors). I think the best thing for me now is to just go to bed and hopefully sleep it off. See you all tomorrow.

Birthdays, baking, and other extreme sports

Today was such a good day! It started out like they all do, with me waking up at 11:30am and heading to the IFSA office to go to my development class. Today I had to head in a bit earlier than usual because we had an orientation on obtaining our visas. After that orientation, we had a little break where most of us had our lunch, then we went back into class and discussed developing vs. developed worlds and what were the factors that made them the way they were. We did that for about two hours and when class let out, I went with my friend Emma into the city so that she could buy a few things and then we decided to head to her house because she had a sudden impulse to bake cookies. The only problem is that she didn’t remember how to get back to her house… excuse me? Girl, we have been here for almost a month, what the hell do you mean, “you don’t know how to get back to your house”??? Apparently, she recognized certain signs and restaurants, but couldn’t remember if they were close to where she’s picked up or where she’s dropped off… what!?!? What does that even mean? Eventually we found the right stop and headed in the direction of her house. When we got to where we needed to be, we stopped into the nearest supermarket to buy the necessary materials for cookie making as well as chocolate covered Oreo’s… just because they were there.

We walked to her house and set to work. We weren’t 100% convinced that the recipe that we found online was right, so we decided to just wing it. We began throwing ingredients into the bin based on what we thought looked correct, the entire time laughing about how we didn’t know what we were doing and reassuring ourselves that it did, in fact, look like cookie dough batter. When we tasted it, it tasted fine, so we kept going like that until the batter was done. The next challenge was the oven. We didn’t know how to turn it on and, when we tried turning the knob in different directions, all that came of our efforts was us somehow turning on the gas and not knowing how to turn it back off again. We did eventually figure it out, and decided that we should probably read the directions on the oven door before we blew up the entire house up. The only problem with that was that the directions were in Spanish, so we brought her computer over and sat on the kitchen floor while we Google Translated the direction. It didn’t help. We decided that, for the sake of our lives and the lives of our neighbors, we would just leave the baking for when her host mom got home.

I left her house and took a micro home where I found the house getting ready for Dan’s birthday. Tons of family and friends came over and I found myself meeting more family that I hadn’t met before. I talked with different members of my host family, and I’m beginning to notice that my speaking skills are improving, which is heartening. The food was amazing and the atmosphere was even better. Dan sat on one side of the house with all of his friends and I sat on the other side with the family, listening to conversations and chiming in when I could. After some time passed, I went to see what the little-ones (I have six host nieces and nephews under the age of 10) were up to. Mistake of the night. Upon meeting me, three of them decided that I was to become their personal jungle-gym and proceeded to climb all over me... These children have obviously not been reading my blog. I only had two arms, but that was not a satisfactory situation in their eyes because all three of them wanted me to carry them at once. At one point I had a child in both arms and one jumping on the bed trying to lunge at my chest. I suppose to a kid person, this would be a moment worth living for, but I am not one of those people, and one of the little crumb-snatchers kept trying to bite me (I had to resist the urge to kick her because that is not how you make friends with a host family). Slowly but surely, family began to leave and [mercifully] they took their children with them, but not before two of them ran at me, called me ‘papa’ and tried to cling to my legs (no but seriously kids, read my blog post from August 12^th … I made a list).

Finally I got time to just relax while the rest of the adults filed out. I sat on my computer in the living room and just listened to Dan and his friends on the other side of the house. It sounds like their having a drunken dance party in the garage but, hey, it’s his 21^st… live it up Dan, live it up. Tomorrow looks like a less hectic day, but don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll find something to shake things up… I always do!

It’s been a while since I got awkward looks on public transportation

Today was just a day of difficulties. First, I woke up at 12:04pm. I have never woken up that late in any time zone and I ended up having to scramble around like a maniac in order to get ready for class, so here’s hoping I don’t do that again. Like I said, there was tons of scrambling as I had only an hour to get dressed, pack a lunch, and walk to classes. In my rush, I didn’t have enough time to talk to Sylvia (my host mom’s friend whom I haven’t seen since week one). I really missed her and would have liked to talk to her, but I was too busy shoving an apple (my breakfast) down my throat and my foot in a shoe to really say too much to her. I made it to the building in time to eat my lunch (really breakfast) with everyone else before we headed into class. It was actually a fun class today as we sang (yes, out-loud sang) songs by Shakira, Alejandro Sanz , and Bacilos. Things were going we until a girl (I won’t name names, but she likes to bring a Kindle to class) complicated the directions of a particular work assignment causing everyone to get confused and having us go into the lesson long after the break for clarification (no, but really girl… you’re like 0 and 3).

After class, I waited with some friends in the café because we had a little less than two hours until our next class (Argentine Literature) at Cuyo and none of us wanted to walk home, just to walk back. When time finally came for class, we walked up, found our seats, and prepared ourselves to not understand a damn thing that was going on. We prepared wisely. The entire class flew right on over our heads as the teachers spoke a kilometer a minute over topics in Argentine History that affected their Literature (topics that we were obviously unfamiliar with). We sat the full two hours trying to pick bits and pieces out that we could understand and, after about an hour and a half of this, I ultimately decided to spend the rest of the time translating word for word the Spanish songs that we had sung in class earlier with my Spanish-English dictionary. My rationale was I was probably going to absorb the same amount of the lecture as if I was paying attention, and at least this way I’d be expanding my vocabulary.

Once class let out, I walked with a group of friends to the micro stop, chose the correct one, and encountered my biggest difficulty. I could not stand upright on the damn micro for the life of me. I kept lurching and swaying as though I was on the dock of an unsteady ship. No one else on the micro seemed to be having any difficulty which made me feel even more like an uncoordinated schmuck. Then, after about 10 min. I noticed that the bus had both reached, and was about to pull away from, the stop I needed to get off at. I pushed my way through agitated looking Argentine students and pushed the button at the back of the bus, hoping that the driver would stop the bus and let me off. He did stop, and as the bus slowed, everyone standing up turned their head to see who the dipstick was that failed to get off on time. Thank you, Argentina, I’ll be here till December!

After this day of rushing and complications, I just wanted to relax and do some work quietly. In my house, I found Sylvia again and we talked and I made a little after school snack. Then, I worked on my computer, talked to my host mom when she got home and just relaxed. My host mom and Sylvia spent most of the evening cooking for my host brother’s birthday tomorrow. They took a break, ate dinner with me, and then I took my leave and remained in my room for the rest of the night while the rest of the family did their own thing. Tomorrow Universidad Nacional de Cuyo is closed so I don’t have classes, but I do still have classes in the IFSA office until about five. Also, I’m assuming my host family will be doing something for Dan’s birthday (I think? I don’t know if he’s just going to go out with friends or not). See you all tomorrow!

Vamos a Shopping!... wait, where'd everybody go?

Today started out quietly enough, but it most definitely did not stay that way! After waking up, I made myself a quick breakfast and then just relaxed on my computer. Everything was tranquil and peaceful for about an hour while my family went to vote and I stayed home. However, once my host mom got home, it was like a bomb exploded in the house. The entire family was having lunch all together at our house, and so once family member started to arrive, things got crazy! Two of my host aunts, two host siblings, four host cousins, a host niece and nephew, host in-laws and half of Mendoza (or so it seemed in our small house) arrived with food and drink for our big dinner. The little kids went crazy running around the house, and everyone was talking loudly and at one another all at the same time. It was madness, but I kind of loved it! All of the talking and sharing that was going on was great, and luckily the IFSA student who lives with my host mom’s sister was there to so that I had someone with whom I could easily talk and share with too.

Lunch was a heartily filling meal of pasta, chicken, and French fries. There were always at least two conversations going on at one time, which was crazy overwhelming because I never knew exactly what one person was talking about, but I was able to chime in every now and then and just enjoy the overall listening as I ate my food. After lunch, the group of us went to “Shopping” which is what they call their mall here. It was a really pretty place which reminded me of Park Meadows and Southglenn Mall put together…except better because they had what looked like a mini-amusement park on the inside for children to ride rides and play games. It was so cute! We stayed in there for a little while whilst the youngsters entertained themselves, then we walked around the entire mall, window shopping, and looking at various bags and shoes. The family has a funny, albeit slightly annoying habit, of just ‘up-and-leaving’ without much warning. The other IFSA kid and I had to laugh about it was one minute the family was looking at a store and then, in the time it took for us to turn our backs for a split second, they were gone, usually leaving one of their own behind as well. I know it sounds dangerous on paper (or computer screen) but it’s actually really funny when you’re there.

After our time in “Shopping” we went to my host cousins apartment, which is literally right across the street from the mall, where we had strawberry smoothies, mate (I was once more educated on proper mate technique and etiquette), and pastries (sooo many pastries). We spent the rest of the day there with the family just talking and having a grand ol’ time. It was actually more overwhelming than lunch because there were four or five conversations at one time and it was impossible to keep up with any one! When the time finally came to leave, we said our goodbyes and then headed home. I had eaten so much today that I decided not to go out with friends for dinner (I wasn’t all that hungry). Instead, I stayed in and prepared myself for the coming week. There appears to be some confusion as to whether I have classes tomorrow, and if I end up not having them that would make a four-day-weekend for Brendan. Can we say, “yes, please!”

The bike gang with training wheels

Oh Saturdays, what makes you so great? Is it the complete lack of responsibility? Or the care-free attitude that is present in the air? Either way, you are amazing, please never change. Today, I woke up and found my host mom’s brother here. He must have arrived last night, because I heard a lot of moving and talking in the middle of the night that had woken me up. He was visiting my host mom from Chile and so while I ate my breakfast, they went for a walk around Parque San Martin. While they were gone, the phone here rang off the hook! I felt like my host mom’s secretary, telling people that Lucy was not here, but she should be back in about an hour and that they could call back at that time. I was really hoping that it would only take an hour and that she wasn’t giving her brother the grand tour of the park, because I would have to change my script to, “Yeah, I don’t know where she is either, wish I could help you” and I’m not quite conversational enough to conduct that kind of business. When they did come back (thankfully within an hour) I gave the messages and then waited around for lunch, which consisted of grilled chicken, potatoes, and salad.

Afterwards, I elected to not take a siesta (what!?!?!) and went into town to buy minutes for my phone and lotion (because it’s dryer than Denver here and my skin is really beginning to feel it). Most of my friends were taking a cooking class that I didn’t want to take, or were participating in a mock-UN type of thing that was being put on by one of the classes that I wasn’t in, so there wasn’t anybody to go with, which was fine by me as it allowed me to get my errands done without diversion. On the way to the store, I was nearly mowed down by a bike gang! No seriously, an entire mob of children on bikes had taken to the streets with chaperones dispersed throughout the mass! (Reason #5 I don’t like kids: they travel in packs like wolves on the hunt) Apparently, it’s some kind of ‘Kids Week’ over here and bike riding through the city was one of the activities. The rest of my journey into town passed without incident and when I got back, I just relaxed in the living room. I Skyped with my parents and tried to Skype with my friend Maria (hollah) but it wasn’t working on her Smartphone (oh the problems of the world) and we had to reschedule for later that day. I think my host mom thinks that I’m some kind of pathetic recluse because whenever I’m working on my computer in my room, she asks my why I’m not in the living room. She then gives me a solution to whatever my reason may be and tells me to go sit in the living room. I’m going to look at it optimistically and say that she just doesn’t want me holed up in my room all day, and wants to see me make the most of my time here, even if it’s in the living room.

The rest of the day passed the way I believe every Saturday should. I relaxed on my computer watching YouTube videos and read a book in Spanish. After Skyping with some more friends, I went with my host mom to her sister’s house for a family dinner. My host mom is 1 of 12 siblings (yes, that’s right, 12, as in 2/3 of my staff last year!) so there were plenty of people there, including a huge Rottweiler who was there to greet us at the door. And when I say huge, I mean huge! Her neck alone was bigger than my head! There was also another kid from the IFSA program who was staying with one of my host mom’s sisters. Being with the whole family was kind of an overwhelming experience. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly and I felt both lost and like I understood what was going on all at the same time. When I wasn’t talking to one of my many host aunt/uncles/cousins, I was playing with my little host cousin Mia, who speaks both English and Spanish fluently (she lives in Miami with her mom, my host aunt Caroline). We drew pictures and jumped around and played some kind of imaginary game (which I didn’t really understand completely because she only spoke to me in Spanish, but asking for money was involved). She was actually pretty adorable for a child, and made me realize I can’t paint them all with the same annoying-rude-whiney brush that I usually do. The food was AMAZING!!! We had ‘asada’ which is like bar-b-cue only better, with chorizo and blood sausage. The food was so rich and I was so full by the end of dinner. I couldn’t believe I had eaten so much meat, thank god there was a salad and bread to go with it or I feel like I would be having a meat overdose. Mia, her mom Caroline, my host mom and I all left for our house as Mia and Caroline are going to be staying with us for a while.

Tomorrow is Election Day (for the primaries) here in Argentina and everything will be closed because voting is obligatory. Also, there is apparently going to be another family get-together at my house (of which I was apparently the last to know) so it looks like I’ll be seeing the family again tomorrow. A group of friends wanted to go hiking again, but, seeing as it’s 2am already and I’m still awake, I’m not down for waking up at 6am to go climb a freaking rock… I enjoyed it… but not that much

Jazz Ballet and the reasons I don't like kids

Last night ended up being later than I anticipated it would be which is why I didn't post anything. Y'all didn't miss out on too much, but I'll get you up to speed. Yesterday started with a quick breakfast and then I was off to Spanish. There, we discussed Michelle Obama, compared her to Hillary Clinton, and discussed conspiracy theories (like the ones surrounding JFK). Kindle-Girl started talking about an episode of Bones that apparently pertained to JFK, which would have been fine (I guess) had she not broken down the entire premise of the story and described the key characters before getting to her point. Most of the class past around 'WTF' looks (which she apparently missed) and I had to avoid making direct eye-contact with many of my fellow classmates for fear of lol-ing. Kindle-Girl: 0, Awkward moments in class: 2.

After Spanish, I headed to Literature with my friends Mariah and Emma. This class wasn't any better than the last one. I only wrote down names, dates, and literature works just so that I could research them later on my own time. It's so overwhelming being in a class and not having any idea if what the teacher is talking about at the time is really important and should be known, or is just some history that she is throwing in as a filler. Thankfully there are 5 of us in that class so we aren't floundering alone. After class, I walked home and hung out there for a while before needing to get out of my house. I called Elizabeth and, she, Kathy, and I went out for hot-dogs before going to a Jazz Ballet performance in the city. We walked into the city before realizing that we would probably have to take a micro (it was pretty far away). While waiting for the micro, they were talking about how Elizabeth got lost on the micro the last time she was on it and how the whole system confuses Kathy. So, why exactly am I about to get on one of these with people again? We got on the micro, and it began taking us back the way we had already came. Good call team! We were going in the right direction so we just chilled out and waited to arrive at a stop close to where we needed to be. After a few minutes, a few more of the Mendoza Crew got onto our bus. They had class from 9:30pm to 10:45pm. Talk about brutal! There is no way I'd be able to do that, but they said that they really enjoyed the class so I guess to each their own.

We got off the bus and walked to the theatre (through a weird part of town that had both a populous park and a sketchy neighborhood). We bought our tickets and waited for the event to start (and we are operating on Argentine time here folks so we were a good 15min behind). The performance over-all wasn't bad. It was about this particular dance troupe's 10yr. journey. Their highs, their lows, and everything in between. They had some really good dancers... and some not so good dancers. A lot of the music that they were dancing to were songs in English and by well known artists like Liza Minnelli Frank Sinatra, Evanescence, and M.I.A. At times it was actually really funny because the words in English did not match what the dancers were doing. I think they were just dancing based on the music, which sort of came into conflict when they were doing a really bouncy hip-hop dance to a song about a woman who couldn’t be everything for her man... awkward. After the performance was over, we caught a micro home and I made it back at about 12:15am making blogging not too high on my list of priorities.

I don't have classes on Friday, so I slept in and then had breakfast, followed by lunch a half-an-hour later. Some of the Mendoza Crew had made plans via Facebook to meet up in El Parque San Martin to play some Ultimate Frisbee so, after my brief siesta (yeah, I know I just woke up, back off) I headed out a bit early so that I could find the rendezvous point. As I said, I was a bit early, so when I got to where I needed to be 15min. in advance I decided that it would be nice to just relax under a tree. I’m pretty sure that during my meditation session with nature, I put my hand in some bird poop. Brendan: 0 Wildlife of Mendoza: 3.

I saw a few of my friends who were going to play Frisbee waiting on the other side of the street so I met up with them while everyone else arrived. Once we had a pretty significant number, we began to search for a place to play. We found a nice field by the building that we have Spanish in and we began warming up by throwing the three Frisbees that we had around. There was a school soccer team playing the next field over and they began doing warm up laps, at one point almost running through our group of 12. They were probably doing it just to be stupid jocks, but a few of us got a little unnerved having a swarm of Argentine soccer players running at us. The highlight of the experience was that Elizabeth threw the Frisbee and it hit one of the soccer players running by. Both South and North American alike got a kick out of that and Elizabeth decided that she should switch positions so that she didn’t hit “the foreigners” again… We then had to point out to her that we, the gringos, were in fact the foreigners, not the native Argentines... (#Whitegirlfail). After warming up and assaulting the natives, we began to play for real. I don’t know who the hell I think I am, but I was running and playing and sweating like I was David-freaking-Beckham! I don’t do the whole “athletic” thing, so 10min. into the game I had to pump my breaks and remind myself that you can’t go from a lazy, barely mobile sloth to a running fiend and still expect to be able to breathe. It doesn’t work that way. However, I did still play with all that I had and it was actually some of the most fun that I’ve had here. I got to know some people in the program better than just the surface-level stuff, and the main point was that I just had a great time! We played for about 2 hours and then decided to call it a day.

 I was starving, so all I wanted to do was go home and eat some of the pasta that we had for lunch. When I got home, I found my host niece and nephew were there. My four(-ish) host niece stood in the door way and wouldn’t move to let me in even after my host mom told her like three times to move (Reason #1 I don’t like kids: that’s not cute girl, move the hell out of my way, I’m hungry). After I finally made it through my 3 foot barricade, my host mom told me that we were all going to go to the market to buy food and such for the house, but my host nephew didn’t want to go, so I stayed home with him. After everyone left, I told him that if he needed anything, just to ask me. He looked at me for a good 10 seconds then turned around and told me that he didn’t need anything. (Reason #2 I don’t like kids: don’t get uppity kid; I was just trying to be nice). After Skype-ing with my family, my host family came home and I’m not sure if there was a mini family episode or not. All I do know is that at one point, my host niece came into my room and kept trying to grasp/close my computer (Reason #3 I don’t like kids: no, really girl, that’s not cute!). She even tried to pry/hit my fingers off my own computer. During this host-uncle-host-niece bonding experience, my host nephew came in with a juice box and just watched the whole thing happen (Reason #4 I don’t like kids: yeah, that’s right kid, keep sucking down apple juice while I struggle with your handsy sister). Finally, everybody left my room and headed to the kitchen while I stayed put and let whatever was going on amongst the adults work itself out. Eventually everybody left and I went to the living room to watch the television. I found this show on Nickelodeon in Spanish about these kids who live in a boarding house and are trying to solve a mystery. It’s terrible, the acting sucks, and I have no idea what’s going on… I love it! A bit later, my host mom told me that she was going to have dinner at one of her daughters’ houses. There was food in the house, so I made myself something to eat and watched some more American television in Spanish.

Tomorrow is Saturday which means another free day for me! No plans as of yet so we’ll see what Mendoza has to offer!

Surely they wouldn't hit a woman of God...

I'm beginning to worry that, as I fall into a routine, I will encounter less and less of the unfamiliar. This is sad for two reasons; 1. is that I never want to stop being surprised by this country. I love constantly being exposed to new things and experiencing different ways of life. 2. is because I know you all only enjoy it when I have some misadventure (be it in a bathroom or otherwise) and share it with you. Seeing as I am such a people pleaser, I try and deliver, but, as I've said, things are beginning to fall into a routine here so I will have to find the comedy elsewhere.

I woke up today knowing that I had nowhere to be until 1:00pm, which is not exactly a motivator. Eventually, I got up and walked to the kitchen. Looking through the window, I could see a woman that I've never seen before working in the back. I've come to realize that random people in the house is a normal occurrence here and to not ask questions, just accept it. I also realize that this is a dangerous mindset to be in and am going to make a conscious effort to not let this transfer back home to the States. After eating breakfast, I prepared my lunch and left for Spanish class. We had a new addition to the class (one of the students re-took the placement test and ended up in our class). It was cool having a new addition to the class, until she whipped out her Kindle on which she downloaded a Spanish-English dictionary. Now every time the professor didn't know how to explain a word to us in Spanish she'd whip that sucker out and punch keys like it was her reason for being. Look girl, no offense, but we were doing just fine before you road in on your Kindle of Knowledge, ok? Maybe she's just excited? Either way, that's got to stop.

It was so hard to concentrate in Spanish today. He kept asking, "Understand?" to which I would respond "Yes, (no) of course (not at all)." After class, I had a good 2 hours to kill before tango. My friends, Mariah and Emily, and I decided that we didn't want to go home so we went to a cafe and had some noms while we waited for time to pass. We discussed politics, perceptions of Americans, and travelling in what was one of the most stimulating conversations I've had. I'm having intellectual conversations over coffee and pastries [¡el gasp!] I feel so grown-up! Once enough time had passed, we walked to our meeting spot at Universidad de Congresso where we met up with a few more of the Mendoza crew who were taking tango as well. I was originally going to wait for my friend Elizabeth, but she accidentally took the wrong micro and was unable to make the class. Not to worry, because this guy here (pointing to myself) is going to teach her everything that we learned (run Elizabeth, run!). Tango is surprisingly difficult to learn! I thought it was going to be easy to be 'the guy' in the pair because all they do is decide where they go... but that's exactly the hard part! I didn't realize that I had to actually decide, communicate, and then execute the moves all at once! I may, or may not, have run my partners into other couples... multiple times. Oh well, I'm learning, I'll get it.

While walking home, Mariah almost walked headlong into a group of cars but, thanks to yours truly, she lives to see another day. Memo to Mendoza Crew- No seriously... look! It's bordering on dangerous now! Once safely home, I relaxed on my computer and ate dinner. I've been arriving home around 9-9:30pm so it doesn't really leave a lot of time to do much. Tomorrow I have Spanish and Literature again so we'll see how those go!

You know it's a dull day when nearly getting hit by a car is the most exciting thing that happens

Today started in true Mendocinian fashion with me waking up at 9:30am, looking at the clock, saying "Screw that" and going back to sleep for another hour. Then, nature called and told me to get my lazy butt out of bed so I obeyed. I relaxed on my computer for a bit trying to finalize course credits and the like and saw that I got an email from the IFSA office saying that I had a package waiting for me. I already knew that it was my retainers (yes, ladies and gentlemen, I forgot the only important piece of orthodontic care that I own. That would be the sound of no one being surprised). After receiving those, I made lunch, talked to my host mom about my plans for the day, and then went to my first Regional Development class. This class is put on by the program and we look at development within nations and as the question, "What really is development?" using multiple countries as examples. It's actually really interesting and the best part is it's close to my house. No 15 minute walks for this one! After class, I did some homework for my literature class which seemed impossible because I was looking for a poem that I had never heard of on Latin American databases that I could barely understand. I was also trying to email some professors about other class credits so this combination was not only lethal, but explosive. Finally, when I felt like I had done all that I could, I elected to go to a cafe with some friends. I told them I'd meet them back in the office because I just wanted to drop off a few things in my back pack so that I wasn't carrying them all over town. On my way back, I guess I looked right, but not left, as I was crossing the street because one minute I'm just sauntering through life, taking my sweet time while crossing the street, and the next I notice a car to my left careening towards me! Something to the effect of  "Oh sh*t" came out of my mouth as I jumped onto the curb. Note to self - don't do that again.

After my near-death episode, I walked with Elizabeth, Megan, and Leah to Clementine, a cute little corner cafe where they seemed to have run out of everything worth having (like medialunas! how the hell do you run out of medialunas!!!). We just sat and talked about our schools before noticing that the table next to us was also full of North Americans. They were speaking English which was actually weird to hear from someone that didn't have an accent or wasn't in our program. We debated the best way to say hi and introduce ourselves, ultimately deciding on not doing anything at all because none of us felt like getting up and walking over. We truly are becoming Argentines. Anyway, the four of us had our final orientation (thank God, those things are so annoying!) and walked to meet up with the larger group that was heading in that direction. On the way there, Elizabeth and I approached a crosswalk and didn't see the light change from red to green, nor did we notice the line of cars heading our way. Only when heard the rush of cars behind us right as we reached the other side of the street did we realize that we had nearly been run down (where did I but that note to myself... I seem to have misplaced it). I really should knock that off. It's not healthy.

Once we had reunited with the group, we headed of the school. This school is different from the other two that we had been to because this one focuses solely on the arts. I will be taking History of Theatre and Tango there so my attendance at this orientation was encouraged. We walked. And walked. And walked. Took a small train. And walked. Rented a burro. And walked some more. This campus was in a completely different part of town! It could not be any more inconvenient if it tried! Once we finally got to the school (after wandering through neighborhoods) we as a lecture on the art of tango, as well as a  mini tango lesson. It was cool and a kinda fun to learn the basic back, forth, left, right moves from two of the foremost tango instructors in the country. After our mini lesson, we trekked back from whence we came discussing how much it sucked to trek back from whence we came.

After finally arriving at home, I chatted with my host mom, comparing notes on our exhausting days. We ate dinner together and then both retreated to either the television or computer for some relaxing.

Goal for tomorrow: Look both ways. Basic, but necessary!

Oh yeah, I'm here to study too... About that...

Waking up today was ridiculously hard. Not because it was early and not because I wanted to sleep more, but because I was actually dreading going to my first class with Argentine students. For the past two weeks, I had been living it up without any real obligations or work. Today marked the end of all that as I now had to step back into that fickle and cold world that calls itself 'reality'. I hate it there.

I originally had a class at 9:30am (I got out of bed for it and everything), but I didn't go as it was a) too early for a Monday and b) an intro into Politics-type class which my advisor told me wouldn't count for credit anyway. Oh well, bed for two more hours! After getting out of bed (for real this time), I made my breakfast, got ready for the day, had a quick lesson on making empenadas courtesy of my host mom, then headed off to the IFSA office to meet up with Bryan so that we could walk to Spanish together. We filled each other in on our respective weekends. I told him about my domination of the Andes and he told me about how he, Elizabeth, and Kathy had gone off to a barbecue in the mountains with their new Argentine friend. Look at us enjoying all that this country has to offer. Tim Mcgraw would be proud (#livelikeyouweredyingreference). Anyway, in Spanish today, two of the classes were merged together because one of the teachers was sick. We were in a different room and it was so big and had such a loud vent that it was near impossible to hear him so when it came to the rapid-fire exercise everyone was so confused because we couldn't hear the verb that we needed to be conjugating at light-speed. After that bit of fun, all of the classes came together and taught the students how to make mate. You'd think that it's as easy as sticking herbs in a cup, but you would be wrong, you silly gringo you! There are steps and a proper technique so think twice before you try to take on the art that is mate making (this message brought to you by The More You Know).

While the class tried their hand at making mate, a group of us had to leave class early because we had real-people classes at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. We walked up there a bit early so that we could make sure that we went to the right building and could find everything ok. I found my room and could immediately tell who the international students were. They were the only ones who were there on time. There was myself, another kid from my program, a Mexican, and the six French students who sat in the corner together. The class was interesting, but I don't think I'm going to take it. Mostly because it overlaps into a literature class that I really want to take and also I don't like the way that the classroom is set up. There are only chairs and the whiteboard is really inconveniently placed making taking notes a bit difficult. Thankfully the IFSA program gives us a month to try classes out to make sure that they work with our schedules and we can understand/work well in them. At the break (where everyone just goes and lights a cig... in the hallway) I decided to leave and go to my Argentine liturature class early to situate myself.

I found another friend in the program and waited with her and after a few more minutes, we met up with three more students from the program. Just as the class was beginning to start I noticed that we were sitting in the same row and that we essentially made a wall of Americans across the room (what was it that our advisers said about not drawing attention to ourselves again?). I decided that I wanted to kind of separate in the interest of better acclimating to the atmosphere (and because I felt like sitting with the only three blonde girls in the classroom might make only too obvious that I'm not from here). So we separated into a group of three towards the front (the three blondes... way to attempt to blend team!) and me and Shelby in the back. Once the class started Shelby and I looked at each other and could tell that we were both beginning to panic. The teachers (there were three) spoke so quickly, and would say things that would elicit responses from most of the class, but none of us Americans understood. The only words we did understand were 'Group Projects' and 'Oral Final'. This just got real. Holy Crap! I felt like I was at a loss for most of the class and only picked up about every fourth word. What's more is we already have a homework assignment for tomorrow! I am so nervous about the rest of the year/ the rest of my classes if I can't understand the teachers. I know everyone always says, "Your Spanish gets so much better" but I'd really like for that to happen, like, now. One the Double. Overnight. Yesterday. Have I mentioned that I'm beginning to panic!? For now I'm just going to try to take it day by day and hope for the best.

After class, the five of us went up to the professors to introduce ourselves (we were told it was a good idea to make our presence as exchange students known to our professors to see if they had anything for us specifically) and to clarify a few points that, it turned out, none of us really understood. It was actually quite funny because they were only expecting maybe one US student but five came and (tactfully) rushed them after class. They helped us figure out where to get our reading and even gave us a welcome to the country and class. Once outside, we all merged together and attempted to clarify a million different things at once with one another; "What did she mean by..." "What did that one professor say about..." "Is this what we need to do for..." It was stressful, but we got as much as we could from one another and then split up to leave for home or other classes. Shelby and I caught a bus together (we live, like, right around the corner from one another) and discussed the cold slap across the face that was our Argentine literature class.

At home, my host mom was there with one of her oldest daughters (my host sister) and her two kids (my host niece and nephew). My host mother told me that her daughter needed to go to the doctor and that she was going to go to look after the kids at their house. She invited me, telling me that I was more than welcome to come, but I was exhausted and my head was still reeling from Lit. so I politely declined. I stayed at home, ate dinner, and tried to relax. Tomorrow, I have a development class and Argentine Literature again, so it's looking like it's going to be another day of complete confusion. Wish me suerte!!!

Take on the Andes like a boss? Why, yes, I do believe I did.

Just call me Mr. Mountain Man! Today, was one of the best days I've had in Mendoza. After crawling my way out of bed (I literally had to tell myself "C'mon Brendan, do it. It'll be a good experience. Take advantage of the opportunity.") I made myself a quick breakfast, then packed my bags and headed outside to meet up with Cat, Shelby, and Moriah so that we could walk to the bus terminal together. Along the way, we picked up two more of our party, and we trekked to what felt like the other side of the city to the bus terminal where we met up with four more of the Mendoza Crew who had woken up bright and early for this new adventure. We bought our tickets, but since we were half an hour early, passed the time with a few people buying sandwiches from the shop while others waited by the bus. I decided I should try to go to the bathroom before sitting on the bus for an hour, but when I got to the bathroom, it looked like you had to pay in order to use some of the facilities. I asked the man at the desk (there was a desk in the bathroom) if I needed to pay. He mumbled something in Spanish to which I responded, "Ok, bye." I am going to the mountains... I can use a bush for free.

While the group rallied and walked to where the bus was departing, it looked like the bus that we needed to be on was beginning to pull away. We asked the guy standing at the station and he flagged the bus down and we got on. Someone obviously forgot to tell the driver that this was South America and that everybody is late by half an hour, not early. Big difference. Anyway, once we were finally on the bus and situated, it was just a relaxed bus ride up to the Andes mountains. A few of us slept on the way up, and a few of us just gazed out the window at changing scenery that passed us. After what did not feel like an hour, we arrived at our destination. The driver dropped us off in a parking lot and we took in our surroundings. We were surrounded by mountains (durr), covered in snow to our right, and completely clear on our left. We began to walk together for a little bit, but ultimately decided to split up into two groups. The group I was with headed down towards the lake that was there because we wanted to walk around it and see the mountains on that side. As we were walking a big shaggy dog came out of now where and just followed us wherever we went. The group named him 'Marley' (Balto was already taken) and he set off on our adventure with us. We walked through a bunch of trees and brush and eventually came upon some horses that were just hanging out. We got excited (because we don't have those in America) and took pictures with them.



One began following us!


 Marley must have gotten jealous because he began barking and rushed at one of them. The horse made an angry sound, and Marley ran away. Yes, Marley, good job. Piss off the horse and then run away so that we have to deal with it. Bad dog. So anyway, we kept walking for a bit and eventually, some members of our group saw a side of a mountain that they just had to climb. At first, the rest of the group just watched, but eventually everyone followed suit. I've never really climbed a mountain before (granted it wasn't Everest), but it was both hard and fun! I began to hum the Lord of the Rings theme in my head and got really into the activity. We stopped every now and then once we would reach an even patch of land, but we kept on hiking to the tallest place we could find. One the way up, one of the bands that acted as a lace to one of my shoes broke. Usually, I would have been very upset with nature for breaking my shoe, but I was so involved in what I was doing that I didn't care and I just kept trekking forward. Once we got to the top, it was so exhilarating! The view was beautiful and I felt so accomplished!


Finally making it to the top!




Look at the view!

 We all decided that we had tackled a pretty significant task so we took a little breather. Just taking in the view and everything around us.


Our traveling companion, Marley.

The way down was almost as fun as the way up. We just kept looking for different ways to climb down the mountain, and still head in a direction that would take us around the lake. It took almost longer going down, a lot of the rocks and stones we're not exactly stable, and I actually fell twice (once on a cactus) but never fear, Mountain Brendan was in full form that day and he just sucked it up and kept going. After we made it down the mountain, we blazed a trail for a bit before ultimately deciding to eat lunch on a really big rock that we encountered. It was very relaxing to just sit on that rock, eat our food, and take in the nature some more. After resting for about 30 minutes we saddled up and kept walking. We encountered a kind of resort thing in the middle of all of this and decided to look around it (many of us needed to take a bathroom break). It was situated right next to a perfect looking part of the lake and they had a bunch of recreational activities like zip-lining, kayaking, rock-climbing and much more. We also met up with the other section of the group that had split off from us and we chatted and shared stories of what we had done/encountered. A few people decided to stay at the resort-like place and zip-line, while the rest of us kept moving forward. We went under this tunnel-like thing and on the other side, it was like a movie set. The water was so blue and the mountains were gorgeous. We just passed the time walking around in this paradise looking place for about an hour before deciding to head back.

The walk back felt quite long. I hadn't realized how far we had actually gone in the day. We eventually found ourselves back at the parking lot we arrived in. They had a little shop there and so a bunch of us went in and bought snacks (we were really hungry from all the calories that we had burned) and then we all sat around outside and waited for the bus for an hour. While we were waiting, we saw a bunch of kids on stilts walking the streets asking for money. One of them had a clown wig on. Whatever brings in the money kid. When it finally deigned to show we rushed it and tried to get seats on an already heavily occupied bus. The ride back felt longer than the ride up, and I even slept some of the way back. When we finally got back into the city, I walked back home with some friends and could immediately begin to feel my body start to crash. It had been a long and early-starting day. I just wanted to go to bed, but it was only 7:30pm. I lounged around the house for a few hours and then a friend came over so that we could Skype a friend back in the states. Afterwards, I just stayed in. My head was hurting and I was just exhausted overall. Tomorrow I have my first day of classes and it starts bright and early at 9:30am... We'll see how that goes...