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!”