October 24

My weekend, was well, interesting. On Friday, we went to school and really didn’t do much else. We went shopping for clothes to go clubbing. I got this really sexy red dress. And I was so excited to go to the club. We didn’t end up going on Friday.

That day we went to the gym and then later we 3 girls went over to Nube’s house to watch tv. It was really nice just being able to hang out like I did in the united states. I feel like I really have friends now.

So that night, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to take a ride on his motorcycle with him, and even though I reallllllly want to ride a moto, I had to turn him down on the account that it was 3 in the morning and my friend Angie really likes this guy. So, I finally went to bed.

Then Saturday came and I was excited the whole day to go to Cuba! I was supposed to meet so many people there and have a great time! And I did! But, I’ll tell you about that in a bit. We went and found accessories for our outfits for the night, and this is when I noticed that Nube is quite absent-minded. We would be driving around for no reason and I’d be like “Nube, where are we going?” and she would say “oh yeahhhhh, the bank, I forgot!” this happened twice. And she’s easily distracted. We went to find accessories and she ended up buying probably 1000 pesos worth of clothing at 4 different stores. It was funnn except that I’m sick again. I seem to always be sick here. I know that I’ve said that before, but it’s true.

So, that night we went to Nube’s house to get all ready. Nube, Angie, Jane, Maguii and I. We looked soooo good! I was so excited! We were gonna dance and have so much fun. And we did! I saw Josee there and he said that he was going to bring his twin brother manuu there, but he never ended up coming. Poor Jane was heart-broken. I felt really bad for her. And then afterwards, she was crying and I felt bad too. It just kinda put a big damper on my whole night which was really fun. So, eventually, we went back to Nube’s house and had some jamoncitos and talked about how much fun we had and what had happened and everyone was laughing again which was great. I got home around 8 this morning and slept until 11.

We had lunch with the family and Nacho and Laura were here too. Laura is almost always here at my house, but it was nice that her brother was here too. We had chicken and rice for lunch and then afterwards, Nacho and I went to the ice cream store and bought popsicles for everyone. We went for a little vuelta afterwards and it was nice to kinda bond with my host cousin.

I tried sewing some more today, but lucky me, I broke the needle in the machine, so I’ll have to go and buy one tomorrow since everything is closed today. Other than that, I have a volleyball game at 7, which I probably won’t play in. Well, at least I’ll go and cheer on the team. OH! I forgot to tell you that on Wednesday, we (jane and I) played volleyball with these men who play after us. It was really intense and really tiring but really good practice. So, they said that they might come to watch our game today which would be cool. I mean, I guess. I don’t want them to see me not playing though. Anyways, I’ll let you know how that goes. Chao.

October 21

Well, I am really exhausted but really happy. I think I’m getting sick again. No, I know that I’m getting sick again. I can’t go like a day here without either being on my period or sick. I hate it, but I’m having a good time. Today was exhausting.

I didn’t go to school today. I had a “headache.” And afterwards I sat outside and watched all the san Lucas kids go home from school and I got to see my friends, which was really nice. And then I had dance class from 2-4:30. That was physically draining. Arabe is such a work out and so is ballet because we just do the same thing non-stop over and over for over an hour. When I got home, I sat down to eat, and I could barely get back out of my chair. I was so sore!

I slept until I was going to meet everyone at the gym but they had gone to meet me, so Nube and I drove around until we found them. Then we went back to 2 more hours of dance class. It was so exhausting.

When Jane and I were walking home, we investigated this party looking this at this brand new building. There was free food everywhere! There was cake, and drinks, and lots of boys. We watched this cool drum line and then walked around and all these people (guys) kept trying to come up and talk to us. At first it was these two guys from the gym and then it was these two old guys that work at the Sheraton that invited us to go to the pool there whenever we wanted. That’s pretty sweet. They were really nice, and not creepy. Then, all the boys came up and like surrounded us and were talking to us and asking where we were from; where we went to school; if we were going to Cuba tonight. I felt like an animal in the zoo! They all wanted to talk to us and get kisses, it was soooo funny. We had to make an escape. But it was a really good and it made me genuinely happy to see all those people be together and celebrating. It was really nice.

That was it for my day.

It's been a while

I know I’ve missed like alotttt of time, but I’ve been busy and when I’m not busy, I’m depressed. I’m gonna make this short and sweet and get back to my daily blogging again.

Recap:

So I don’t think that I told you that Jane and I went to a waterfall that’s right in town. Right on the tres fronteras. It was so beautiful! We could stand at the top and let the water run over our feet and then we went down below and there were hundreds and hundreds of butterflies! I’m assuming that if you’re reading this because I posted it on facebook, that you will have already seen the photos. We got to actually stand in the waterfall and it was soooo fun! It was so sweet and I’ve never donw anything like that before in my life. Well, let’s see, I loathe my school. Don’t get me wrong, I love my classmates, they’re great, but the school and the teachers are the worst ever. I have the worst time of my life there. I honestly dread going there everyday. I get sick in my stomach when I think about it. Honestly. I spent two days in a row crying in school. And the teachers don’t even try to help at all! They just let you sit there and cry! Went out to Cuba again both Friday and Saturday. It was an interesting weekend at Cuba. Um, Friday night just ended really badly with angie and I crying and Saturday was just completely wild! It was really a good time, but sooo crazy! Other than that, nothing else important to tell except that we started taking 2 more dance classes and going to the gym too.

Today:

I went to school. Hated it. I took a test in Culture and Communications and I think I did alright for not knowing the language or studying at all. At least I gave it a shot. But yeah, I’ve been trying to get sent home from school by not wearing the uniform. I even wore the uniform of another school yesterday, but they never say anything to me! They yell at everyone else but me! Ugh. I really just want to find some way to get out of that school. I’m desperate. I can feel my brain rotting as I spend time there.

Okay, so afterwards, I went home and took a little nap, but I was woken up by someone yelling “SHE CAN’T BREATHE!” I leaped out of bed and ran out to the living room to find my mom choking and my dad giving her the Heimlich. Luckily, everything turned out alright, but it sure was a scare. Everyone was running around and Coni was in the shower, so she ran out naked hiding behind me to see if everything was okay. It was a scary experience. Then I had lunch and then Jane messaged me to rescue her from her little “date” with some guy from a market by her house. I was supposed to go with her, but then didn’t have to but then she got scared, so I walked all the way to her house and she wasn’t there, so I walked about and couldn’t find her so walked the 30 min back home. I then met Angie to tomar some sol, and Jane came too eventually.

Later, we all went to the gym and I did some ab workouts. Felt good. Then Jane and I went to Belen’s house cause it is her birthday. It was kinda awkward and it ended up that Jane and I were upset about the fact that we have no idea why everyone is in love with Angie. We can’t figure out what it is, but everyone that looks at her immediately falls in love. What on earth is it???

Anyways, that was the extent of my day.  

I can cook!

So yesterday, was pretty great! It was the day that I made my favorite food for my family: tacos.

I made the tortillas with Jane, Laura, and Chabelli yesterday and it took forever! They turned out okay, but really hard. Like, physically, they were really hard. So, when it came time to assemble the tacos I had to figure out how to make them soft again. Wait, but first, I have to tell you that this lunch had me sooooo nervous. I couldn’t sleep the night before because I was worrying about this lunch. I was playing in my head over and over what I would need to buy and do and at what time and in what order. I wanted everything to be perfect for them. I wanted them to really like it too.

Okay, like I was saying, I had the problem with the tortillas that I wasn’t totally expecting to be that difficult. But I know that I had to do something. I tried putting them in hot oil. Too fatty and didn’t work well. Then I tried Jane’s idea of making a steaming device with a large bowl and a strainer. It worked, eventually, but that took too long. So eventually, I found that if you put the stack in the microwave with a glass of water for a long time, it works quite well. So, that was one problem.

I first made the Chi Chi’s corn cake. Yes, I looked up the recipe because it is my favoriteeeee! (and daniel’s too. Lol) It was interesting to make and when I was making it, it looked pretty watery, so I kept adding more cornmeal, I should have left it alone because it came out a bit too solid than what I was used to, but it still tasted AMAZING! The best thing that I’ve ever made! I’m so proud of it. Then, I mixed my spices for the taco meat. (oh yeah, during school, I made this nice little list of everything I would need to buy at the store, and I went right after school and bought way too much stuff because we already had half of the stuff. Haha oh well.) My mom helped me cook the meat and it turned out pretty good. I would prefer it spicier, but she said that the little girls don’t like spicy things, so I left it as is. I cut up onions and lettuce and tomatoes and put them on a platter and served everything up and hoped for the best. They loved it! I was so happy! Everyone ate a lot of tacos. They were really messy tacos because of the homemade shells, but everyone said that they were so good. I hope that they weren’t just saying that. Only myself and my mom ate the corn cake, but that’s okay with me. That means more for me later. It really was a good lunch and I was really pleased.

After, there was no time to take a siesta. Jane and I had to finish they choreography for our gym class. Well, we didn’t finish it, but we got enough done to get us through class. I’m really pleased with it. And I’m kinda excited that they are actually letting us do this whole choreography thing; especially since Jane told me that someone showed he the tape of the last year’s class and she said that they had to perform it in front of a bunch of people and it was awful. I want to have a really good dance if we have to do it in front of other people.

Then, I really needed my siesta, so I slept, well not really slept just laid there. But apparently, I laid there for too long because Jane came into my room at around 8:15 and was like, ready for dance? Shoot. I had forgotten. She did also and didn’t remember that it started at 8 tonight. So, we didn’t end up going.

We went to a rotary meeting and I don’t think I’ve ever been so bored. That was basically the end to that day. I talked to Daniel and watched South Park with him. It’s not the same as before, but it was nice.

Today was a good day at school despite the fact that it was raining and we didn’t have electric and there was like no one in school. Yeah, we still had school even though there wasn’t electric. My host dad was like when there’s no electric at our school, we don’t have classes. Yeah, we’ll apparently we’re little troopers at my school and we sat in the dark. It was pretty fun though. We joked around and we had to do this thing for Economy or Law, I’m not sure which, but we had to copy notes off of a photocopied packet. (because we don’t have books or the money to make photocopies) So, we copied down 6 pages of notes by having someone read them from the paper and everyone else wrote them down. It helped me to learn how they say things and how to spell words. That was good. And another fun thing is that Jane has this book with all kinds of slang words in it and some of the definitions are hilarious! Nico was asking up what everything meant and how we say all this bad stuff and it was just so so funny. I was laughing so hard I was crying. So, that was school.

We had a good lunch and then I helped Cony die her hair back to its original color because she didn’t like having such light hair. Oye. It was fun to spend time with my sister. I took my nap and tonight I have ballet. It’s my first time with point shoes, so I’m gonna go practice that. Chao!

District Conference Part 2

Okay, like I was. Surprisingly, Perez Montalvo let us go out to the boliche that night. So, we all went to Cuba and had a good time and then Octavio wanted to go to La Baranca, but I didn’t want to go there because it’s all old Brazilians and I’d have to pay to get in whereas I can get in free at Cuba and I’m VIP. So, yeah, Jane, Angie, Jim, Eli, and I went back to Cuba. It was really fun. It was Camile’s birthday and I got to hang with Nube too. It wasn’t as fun as last week, but it was still a good time for free. So, I got in at 6 and had to be at the hotel at 7. I showered and left basically. So we went to the waterfalls again with the whole group and it was a lot of fun. I don’t know how, but I managed to get more bug bites. And I was wearing long sleeves and pants the whole time! Those things are killer! We took lots of pictures and I made more friends. It was a really good time. The only thing I didn’t like was that the chaperones yelling at us to hurry up all the time just so we could wait somewhere else. It really got on my nerves and that’s what I envision the Patagonia trip would be like. Alll the timeeee. For 17 daysss. No thank you.

So we had to wait like forever for everyone to leave, but it was okay, I guess because we got to bond some more with the other exchange students. Then we took Angie downtown. And then, I went to bed I was sooooo tired.

The next day, I didn’t go to school because it was raining. Yes, that is a legitimate excuse here. I have to walk 10 minutes to school, and I don’t want to do that in the pouring rain. It slept all morning and then had lunch and then went back to sleep til 6. It was soooo boring. It finally stopped raining right before we had volleyball, so I went to Janes house and we walked to the park, but no one was there! So we went and bought fish sticks and watched a really funny show that was called “I survived a Japanese game show!” you can imagine the rest. It was so random and so amusing. I came home and finally got to talk to my boyfriend and went to bed.

Today was really good. I went to school and myself and the other students in my class had some bonding time in English class where they helped us with our Spanish and we helped them with their English. We had to tell funny stories. I told the one about Alex slapping the butt of Mr. Pod. HAHA! Oh, and I turned in my collage of things that represent me and the teacher really liked it. That made me feel good.

After, I tomared some sol with Cony and then had lunch. Hot dogs. Ick. But then Jane came over and we sun bathed some more. I got sorta burnt, but it will turn into a beautiful tan. I love the weather here. It’s spring and still so warm. Then we did our Portuguese homework and bought things to make tacos. Then for a while, we played around with Chabelli and Laura. They are so cute sometimes.

My next project was making tortillas. It took foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr but I think that they turned out alright. They’re hard, but if I put them in some oil tomorrow they should soften up, I think. I really hope that my family likes the tacos I make tomorrow. I need to go to the store tomorrow right after school and buy some ground meat. I think that I can do that right by my house. Well, that’s all that’s happened today. Chao!

District Conference part 1

The Rotary Conference was good and bad. The first day was long and boring. We just had talks about the rules mainly. Some of the rules I think are so dumb! Like, my family cannot visit until after the 8th month. and no one else is allowed to visit me besides my immediate family. Not that anyone else would, but how can you say to someone, no you cannot come here to see your loved one? It really upset me. And I have a feeling that people will say to me that I shouldn’t have put stuff like that in my blog, but I don’t care. It’s how I feel.

We also are not supposed to have boyfriends/girlfriends in our home countries. In some ways I can see why that would be a good idea. I know that it has put a lot of stress on Angie, but for me it’s been what gets me through sometimes. I don’t get to talk to Daniel often, but having someone loving me and trusting me at home really makes me feel good.

Thirdly, our travel regulations are kinda ridiculous. Like we aren’t allowed to go anywhere if not accompanied by a Rotarian. So, my parents wanted to take me to Buenos Aires to see Cony’s school, but I’m not allowed to go because I’m not going with a rotary function. And the students are not allowed to travel together. If we wanted to get together for our own reunion, we wouldn’t be allowed unless it was a planned Rotary event. And Sr. Montalvo said that he really doesn’t want us leaving the district. So that would mean no Chile for me either. This is really such a bummer. I could go see beautiful places for free with my family, but Rotary is like forcing me to have to pay a lot of money to go on Rotary trips to these places.
Oh, so that reminds me, also, when our parents visit, we are not allowed to go to any other cities with them. So, I couldn’t take them to Foz or anything because once again, it’s not a Rotary function.

The other thing that we did the first day of the conference was talk about the trips that we are able to go on. There are the Brasil trips and the Southern Argentina trip. To be honest, the southern argentina trip doesn’t interest me at all. It is 17 of going around Patagonia and going to all the national parks and trekking all through the wilderness. That really doesn’t appeal to me. All I want to see is 1 penguin and that’s all. I don’t need 17 days of wilderness. The other trip is to the North beaches of Brasil. It looked absolutely amazing. You spend a day in the world largest water park. Go to remote beaces. Go snorkeling. So amazing. And it’s for a whole month. I want to go on it so so so so badly, but I don’t know that I have the money to do that. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do. I know my parents said that they would help with a trip, but it really so so expensive. It’s like 3000 dollars. I mean, it is for a whole months, but still. I need to talk to my parents about it, but they haven’t been online in forever. I honestly haven’t talked to them recently and I really need to.
Well, honestly, I am exhausted and need to sleep. I will finish this tomorrow.

October 1

I know that I haven’t blogged in awhile but I haven’t felt good at all. I’ve had the worst cramps everrrrr. Ughhhh. And I guess that they don’t have pain relievers readily available here in argentina. It’s so awful. I spend the nights in such pain. And I just sleep half the day away. It’s so terrible.

Today was a great day though. Last night, I got a message telling me not to go to school. Sa-weet! So, I didn’t have school this morning and I could spend the whole morning making myself look pretty which I don’t get to do any other day because we aren’t allowed to look pretty at school. Stupid. Anyways, I had a great morning and a great lunch. Pollo con pasta. Chicken with pasta. Thennnn I went to Foz do Iguacu with Agostina and Jane. It’s in Brazil. I finally got to go to brazil!

There we had a good time together. I learned some more Portuguese and I finally got to buy dance shoes. It took us forever to find them though! Jane was all like, oh yeah, I know where the place is! And I doubted this because Foz is a big city, but I went with it and she had no clue how to get there. We ended up walking all over downtown trying to find a sports store. Finally we found a place that sold them but wasn’t the place that Jane had gotten them, so she went to look around the corner and there was the store that we had been looking for for the past hour! So, I’m really excited about my shoes.

It was also really nice to hang out with someone. I had been feeling so bad and lonely recently since I was home alone most of the time, so spending time with Agos was great. Then when we came home, they stayed to visit for a while and Nube and Maguii came to visit us. How sweet is that! They are honestly my best friends here. They are such sweethearts. And so we talked to them for a bit and then Jane and I went downtown for a while. It was honestly an amazing day.

Well, this weekend I have a rotary orientation… all weekend. Woo. Hoo. The only ONLY thing that I’m looking forward to is the fact that I get to see my german friends again. They were really fun. So, I hope that they have fun in my “hometown.” I think that they have a trip to the falls planned and I zip lining trip, but I don’t think that I’m going to go on that because if I wait, my friend Belen can get us in for free. And I really need to start saving money wherever I can. It’s really hard to live on your own and not have a job to make money. I seem to have gone through so much money. I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Just not do anything that costs money I guess. But that’s so not fun. (frownie face)
Well, signing off!

BEST TIME EVER

Well, I just had the best night of my life. Jane, Angie, and I went to Cuba. We were thinking that we might not go, but then I wouldn’t have had that much fun ever! We met up with Yennifer and Cristaan and Dii. And then we met up with Nuve and her friend. Then the amazing happened. This guy asked me if me and my friends wanted to go up to VIP. Heck yeah we did! So we went up and it was so sweet. It was like a whole area above all the rest of the crowd and there were couches to sit on and a less people. And we could dance all crazy and have an amazing time. And then we went exploring and found a room with a big red motorcycle and white leather couches. It was so amazing. They had their own private bathroom which always had toilet paper! Haha and I went exploring behind this little door and I found this office space which had its own bathroom and couch and there was like this midget girl making out with some old guy in there. Anyways, while I was in there I met the general manager of Cuba and he was really interested in me. (if you know what I mean.) I made sure that he knew I was taken. And he gave me his card and was like call me tomorrow or the next day. Haha I don’t know what on earth he could possibly want, but I think I’m gonna email him. Sounds safe enough. And hey, we might get some perks from it or something. But we had so so so much fun there. It was the most fun I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to do it again. So so great.

Anyways, not much else has happened. I obviously got over my cold and have been doing not too much. we went to dance class on Friday which, once again, we did nothing. I’m just gonna not pay for those classes next month then and not even go. And another disappointment was that we had another volleyball game that I had to go to and pay 4 pesos to play and I didn’t even play! We played 3 games and I didn’t play at all. These women that never even come to practice got to play. Whatever. I just won’t come anymore. Jane can go by herself.

That’s really all that’s happened. Well, my host grandfather is really not doing well. They don’t know how much time he has left. I can tell that it’s stressing out my family. The one day, coni told Fer that her grandpa had gone to the hospital and that made her really upset and she couldn’t stop crying and so her host mom had no idea what was wrong and Fernanda couldn’t communicate, so Coni told me what was wrong and I had to translate to her host mom. And I had to tell her that she needs to make sure that Fer stays calm because she has heart problems and can’t get too worked up or she’ll pass out. I felt so bad and it made me miss my grandparents too. I made sure to tell my mom to tell them I miss them and love them.

Well, we don’t have school tomorrow so Jane, Angie and I are gonna do some choreography for gym class. Adios!

Short story

Missed a day again. I think it’s because I’m sick. Yeah, yesterday at school was so extremely boring. I slept until gym class. Then I came home and helped Juanmi inquire about English classes. He wants to take the TOEFL. And then I went to dance which was a workout and then I came home and slept.

Today, I woke up not feeling well at all, so I stayed home from school. And slept all morning. I am feeling a lot better now, just really bored. I watched Across the Universe and two South Park episodes. I’m still really bored. No dance tonight and no school tomorrow. Looks like I’m in for a really boring time.

Dia de estudiantes and Iguazu Falls

Sorry for missing a day again. I actually had an eventful pass two days. Yesterday was our día del estudiante. Yes, we only have one day unlike all the other schools in Iguazu that have a whole semana. (which is a week) our one day of games was really fun though. I took a ton of pictures. The senior class, my class, were the ones who have to put on the games for the other kids. We had music and microphones. It was pretty legit for our little tiny miniscule courtyard. I brought my computer so that they could use my music because everyone else brought all their music on flash drives. So, I copied all their music to my computer and I tried to make some sort of a folder with all the music and with some of mine. You could tell which was my music, not only because most of it was in English, but because my music is always properly labeled with a name, artist, genre, album, and year. Their music, on the other hand, was all the like frost wire downloaded crap like 02enrique_igelSias_i_like_it6785 with no artist and genre and stuff. So, my project that I’ve been busy with now is renaming all of their music that is now on my computer. If it doesn’t have an artist, I’m too lazy to get that info from the internet, so I just delete it. Anyways, I’m sure you don’t care about my OCD with my music…

So, some of the games were a giant candy-land looking board with a giant die. It was cool. And then we had the default game of stick your face in a bowl of flour and dig out (with your mouth) 15 pieces of candy. So amusing to watch! And to do too. We also had this game that was probably the most amusing game I’ve ever seen. You line up two teams which consist of 5 boys and 5 girls (boy girl boy girl). Then, you give the first person in the line a quarter piece of paper. Hehe. And this person has to suck in on the paper so that it’s suspended to their face without holding it. Then, they have to pass it to the person next to them who has to take the paper with their mouth also. So so FUNNY!!!! This one kid looked really young and he kept running away from the line! He looked terrified! I was dying. We also played do you know the lyrics. (I, of course, knew none of the lyrics because they were all songs I’ve never heard before.) We also played a really disgusting game. Earlier that morning we had made up 4 sandwiches. These were not normal sandwiches. They were like half cup of mustard with peppers and tomatoes and crackers. One had like pureed beef and peanuts and a ton of sugar. They were the most disgusting thing ever. And so we had our four victims blind folded and they had to eat these sandwiches and the first person who could name all what was in it, won. My friend Cristiaan played and I felt so bad for him. It looked so gross. Finally, we had this game where we had apples covered in dulce de leche hanging on a string and two kids had to eat the apple the fastest. I feel bad that they got covered in dulce de leche. And of course you know that there had to be a flour fight at some point. I looked like a mess.
I got my Brazilian visa yesterday! So, I’m good to go to Brazil for 10 years now. It was funny, my host mom asked me if was 18 and I said yes. She then said that I could basically go to brazil whenever I wanted now. That’s sweet because Foz do Iguazu looks amazing. I can see the sky scrapers all the time and I really would like to go there.

Anyways, I had gym class that afternoon which was really unproductive again. Ara has this thing for making dance moves that are exercise movements. It’s really quite silly and we don’t get anything done anyways. Jane, Angie, and I said that we’re going to just pick a song and choreograph a dance for it. It’s really quite dumb that we can’t ever get anything done. We could have a really sweet dance. So, I think that I’ll work on that tonight. Maybe. I have to do that music stuff too. Ugh, that can wait. I have dance class tomorrow. well, gym class which is dance unit. And I have dance class too.

Well, I talked to Dan yesterday. He also sang to me which was hysterical. I have no idea why (other for the fact that he’s just a goofball) but he started singing that Enrique Iglesias song. Well, his version of “singing.” It was so funny. And it was late so only Coni and I were up. She was on the couch behind me but you could see her and when she hear him “singing” he just busted up laughing. It really was adorable and hilarious.

Today, Jane, Angie, and I went to the waterfalls. They were the most beautiful sights ever! Like, you people at home think that Niagra Falls are cool, I really wish you could have been here. It’s tons of waterfalls in the middle of the jungle. It was so amazing. It was raining today and I’m sure that they look even more awesome in the sun, but they were still great. And Angie got us onto this boat ride. Okay, it wasn’t like a boat ride that you’re thinking of. This was no Maid of the Mist. This was like a speed raft that took you INTO the waterfalls. The one, we were almost directly under. It was CRAZY! And then we went into like the BIG fall, I don’t know the name, but it felt like someone was pouring buckets of water on me. It was so sweet. We would never do that in the States. After that, I was sooooooo cold. It was a rainy day and there was no sun or heat, and I didn’t have another change of clothes. I was so cold. But overall, it was a great experience.

After I came home, I was so exhausted. I ate and then slept for seriously 5 hours. I’m still tired for whatever reason. So, now I’m working on pictures and blogging and eventually dance moves. Oh, for pictures, I did this sweet thing that I completely got rid of two huge palm trees that were in the middle of this really nice picture. I love picasa. Well, I’ll be back tomorrow. Or the next day at the latest.

september 18 and 19

Well, I missed a day, but it was quite fun. I don’t really remember what all I did yesterday. Oh yes, I do remember now. I had to wake up realllllly early. I had a volleyball tournament at 7 in the morning, so I needed to be there at 6:30 to warm up and then leave my house at 6. So, I woke up at 5. And after I couldn’t find Jane and walked to the park and found out that it was closed, I waited around until Jane finally showed up and told me that she ran into one of our fellow teammates and she said that it is at 7 in the evening! So we decided that we would go out for some chipas (cheese filled bread balls) and then we went shopping in town for a bit.

So I spent the afternoon resting and then later we went back to the park to play out tournament but the thing was that no one was there, AGAIN! We waited around for a while. And then we thought that maybe the tournament was held in this big sports complex nearby. So, we walked there and we fortunately found our team. I’m glad that they told us the right time and place for all this. Anyways, the two games that we played went well. We won them. So, yeah, not that fun of a tournament.
Oh yes, before this, I forgot to tell you, I packed up all my things for the night and walked all the way to Janes house which is about a 40 minute walk. My shoulders killed by the time I got there. So, Angie, Jane and I went back to her house and hung out and made some popcorn and hung out for a while. Then we got all ready to go to Cuba.

Cuba was really fun last night! We actually knew people there! We met up with Nube right away and danced with her and her friend most of the time. Then I saw some friends from school and we hung with them for a while. We learned some dances and just had a great time. We were all in much more comfortable shoes which I think helped. Nube drove us home and we showered and crashed for a few hours.

Today, I went to camp with my family for San Lucas’ celebration. It was okay. It really made me miss my friends. I was having a hard time understanding when they spoke to me and Pilar and her friends weren’t there so I didn’t really have anyone that I really knew. Cony hung out with her friend from out of town, so I played volleyball for a bit and then fell asleep and then played some more. Had some food and not much else. I thought about how much fun that would have been if it would have been with my friends from home or even the friends from my school here. It made me really sad. The camp was beautiful though. It was on a lake and gorgeous. I took some great pictures that are on facebook for those who look at facebook.

Anyways, we came home and I played on my computer and then Jane and I decided that we were going to see what church was like. So we went late but there was people crowded out the door. It was packed! I guess it was because the bishop was there that day. I understood nothing of what was going on because one, I don’t know Spanish, two, because I’m not catholic. Anyways, it was different. Not good or bad. So, I went home and prepared for our dia del estudiante tomorrow. I’m excited for that. Well, I’m super tired. Night!

half of September 17

Well, I plan to be busy tonight, so I’ll blog about the day while I can. I had a really fun day so far. I was only in class half of the day, but it was alright. My mom came and got me out of class. And she said that we were going to get my Brazilian visa. That took all of like 20 minutes, then the real fun started. I went to San Lucas for the rest of the day and I got to meet all of Pilar’s friends and play in their games. It was the last day of their semana de los estudiantes and it was really fun and crazy.

I played this game that you put your face into a bowl of flour and have to race to dig out a piece of candy with your mouth. Asco! It tasted so gross, but it was pretty fun. And then they gave us all water balloons. We of course made a mess of things with those. It was so nice to get to know all of the students there and have fun with them. I had such a good time.

We had a good lunch of millanesa and rice. And of course for dessert, popscicles. I really love those things. It’s a good thing that I don’t know where they are located in this house because they would all be gone.

Tonight I have two hours of hip-hop and jazz class. I’m sure that it was be a fun class. And then afterwards, I’m going with one of Pilar’s friends to a dinner with a bunch of people. It should be a good time again. I can’t stay up too late because I have a volleyball tournament tomorrow at 7. I’m excited for that. (not for waking up though.) And tomorrow is also my mom’s birthday. I know she’s miss me. I hope that I get to skype with her, I’m not sure that I will though. All the san Lucas kids, and my host parents are going on a 3 day camping trip, and I think that Cony and I were going to join them. I’m not sure though. So, If you see my mom tomorrow wish her happy birthday and tell her I love her. Well, not much else to tell. Hasta manana.

september 15 & 16

I am so excited to write this and I’m sorry that I didn’t blog this earlier! I HAVE FRIENDS!!!!! Yesterday was like a turning point in my stay here so far. I don’t know why or how, but everything changed for me. In a good way. We were at school and we didn’t have math class, so we were all hanging out in the courtyard and for some reason everyone was so nice to us. We started taking pictures together and playing games and talking and joking. And I don’t know what it was, but I could understand when they spoke to me. I COULD UNDERSTAND! When they told jokes, I could laugh along because I knew what they were saying. And they were patient with my speaking and my Spanish. I was so unbelievably happy. I feel like I have friends now. We were hugging and taking pictures and just have a good time. I know that I sound like such a loser when I say it, but I’m really glad that I have friends.
Diana said to us that she hopes to see us at Cuba this weekend. She wants to meet up with us. And, today, Yennifer asked me to come hang out and drink some tetere. So excited! Later that day, we had gym class and I felt like I had made friends with the girls in the grade below me too. They are so nice and I feel that I can finally get comfortable and be silly around them.

Of course I saw almost everyone later that day at dance class. We had flamenco that day and it was a lot of fun. The first part of the class, we (jane, angie, and i) followed along with their dance in the back. Well, we tried to anyways. Then, they started their second flamenco dance and they included us in it. It was so cool to actually learn a dance! I feel like a part of the class now. I couldn’t do the dance on my own, but I know that if we practice it some more, I’ll get it down. So, that was another great part of the day.

Then Jane and I went to volleyball. That was also fun. It always is and is a great workout. My arms were so exhausted afterwards. I guess that this weekend, probably on Saturday, we have a tournament that we’re in. I guess that it’s early in the morning too. That kinda sucks. I’ll have to come straight home from dance class and go straight to be because dance is until at least 10:30 tomorrow. Oh well, I plan to go out to Cuba Libre on Saturday night. Anyways, that was the end to my wonderful, no, my best day so far.

Then today was also really good. School was just as good. We are becoming closer, I think. We got yelled at though for I’m not sure what. I think it was because we were standing outside of the room when the teacher came up, but I think that he was just in a bad mood because we didn’t do anything during that class anyways and we had gotten all our work done in the first place. I’m not really sure what his problem was because he was talking so fast. Anyways, I don’t care much. Tomorrow, I need to take in 20 pesos for our dia de los estudiantes. That should be fun. A day of games! I don’t know where they plan to have this at though because our school is about the size of our gymnasium in PA. possibly smaller. Definitely smaller. Anyways, I don’t care. As long as I get to see my new friends.

We had ballet dance class today. That, of course, was a workout and now my legs are really sore. My poor torn hamstring is really in a lot of pain these days. I need to make sure I’m careful not to damage it again. Like today, one exercise we did was to do splits across the dance floor. I was so scared to do that because that’s how I tore my hamstring in the first place, but I was all stretched out and warmed up, so I was okay and it was a good stretch. We were supposed to have Arabe class today too, but the whole time that we could have been dancing, the owner of the studio and all the girls were arguing about something. I don’t know what it was really about. There was a lot of talk about how all the girls should be in point shoes and not flat shoes and that for the recital if they want to be in it, they need to be able to wear point shoes. There was also something about a trip to Buenos Aires to compete. I wish I could do that. I would so go just to do makeup or hair or something. It sounds like a lot of fun. Anyways, we didn’t get to dance arabe which was disappointing, but I was tired. I did however practice when I got home. I really love that jingle scarf.

I’m ready for tomorrow, my last day of classes this week. It seems like this week has gone pretty quickly actually. I guess that happens when you stay busy. Hasta manana.

September 14

Today was a most uneventful day. I very much dislike Tuesdays. Well, in good news, my presentation in economics went quite well. They didn’t make fun of me for my horrible pronunciation or anything. Jane wasn’t in school today so I was flying solo on this one. It wasn’t so bad. I sat with Yennifer (pronounced like Jennifer) all day and she is really nice to me. She is extremely hard to understand but she tries to help me out. And she knows some English too. She says that she likes talking to me so that she can improve her English too. I feel bad because she also doesn’t get along with most of the kids in school. She said that they aren’t friendly to her at all. I guess that it’s just the way people are here in Iguazú. The people in Resistencia we so friendly and so helpful but here it is like the polar opposite. Anyways, Yennifer wanted to talk to Wandi about something. I really dislike that woman.

Oh! And today Ara asked the whole class about some sort of camp thing that the school is having. I don’t really know what it’s about but I’m down to try anything. Yennifer told me that it’s in October sometime. That should be fun! I didn’t tell Jane about it yet, but I’m sure that she’ll do it too. I hope that it doesn’t conflict with one of our mandatory rotary meetings.
After school, I came home and went tanning again. It was kinda cloudy today and a bit colder than I’d like, but I still got some sun. Being tan makes me happy. It helps boost my self confidence. (not to mention it helps me blend in here a little more.) I had an okay lunch. It was some kind of Italian recipe but with an Argentinean flare. It was like a corn meal with meat and sauce over top and, of course, with cheese.

I took a long nap and then woke up to go and try to find the embassy of Brazil and the post office. This is my second attempt to find this embassy and I still can’t manage to find it no matter who I ask. I did find the post office. I mailed my mom her birthday present. It won’t be there in time, but I did the best I could.
The rest of the day, I spent it chilling at home and doing random things like writing this blog. Well, I’m gonna go do more random uninteresting things.

September 13 &14

Sorry about the delay. “tomorrow” came and went so quickly. I don’t even know what was considered tomorrow. The last few days have been a complete blur. I met tons of people rode on a bus for an abnormally long amount of time went to a lame dance came home at like 7 this morning slept and then went to gym. My internal clock is all thrown off. It’s now 1:12 and I don’t feel very tired. What day is it? The 14th? No, well, kinda still the 13th. Did I miss 9/11? Dang. I must have. That’s so depressing. I forgot to honor that day. What happened that day? I don’t even remember but I know that there was no mention of the attack on my country. Yes, MY country. I love America so much and I miss it so much. I don’t think that there could ever be a greater place than America. All the stereotypes are true.

Well, like I said, I don’t really remember what happened and when. I think that it was yesterday that we finished up RYLA. We had some weird speaker talk about goodness knows what and then a blind man played the piano for all of us. And people go up and danced tradition Argentine dances which made me really want to learn how to do that. Then there was some sort of weird goodbye ceremony. I have no clue what they were saying but I think it was all like RYLA taught me to be this… and RYLA gave me new friends… and all that corny BS. All I know is that I’m sitting there with my cult-like candle and then the man in charge looks and me and then hands me the microphone and I’m supposed to say something. WTF! I didn’t want to speak in front of everyone! I don’t really recall what I tried to say. Something about the people were friendly and thanks for everything. I of course made it quite short. Then we finally left and this nice man took us to the bus station to get our tickets.

We decided that we didn’t want to stay another night as planned. We were all sorta annoyed with Ben and we were tired. We opted to get the next bus to Iguazú which was still 4 hours away. Then this nice man let us stay at his house until we had to back to the bus station and he drove us there and back. This family was so very kind to us. They let us stay at their house and they took us to the grocery store and gave us food and let us make Jane some soup. (she had gotten sick by this point (don’t know if I mentioned that before.)) And when he took us back to the station, he bought all of us this huge bag of cheesy bread. It was so warm and delicious. I feel bad that I don’t even know their names. I’ll have to ask Nancy so we can send them a thank you card.

Anyways, we got in around 7 this morning and I walked home from the bus terminal. I then slept until like 1 and then had lunch followed by an unproductive gym class. I then worked feverishly on my economics project which I procrastinated until now. Jane and I were supposed to do it together but she got sick and won’t be in class tomorrow, and I didn’t want to have nothing prepared, so I made a slide show. In Spanish. It’s pretty good if I do say so myself. I doubt that they’ve even seen a slide show. Or a laptop in school. Oh well, it’ll go well.

I also talked to Madelyn Duncan today about her exchange experience she was giving me some helpful hints. I know that I’ve heard most of them before, but it was just encouraging to hear from someone else who’s done it before. I know that it will turn out alright. Maybe it’ll take more time than I’m used to, but it’ll work. My host mom asked me today if I knew who my other families are that I’m staying with. I didn’t know but all I do know is that I don’t want to change families. I love my family already. They seem to be the only people who are patient with me and who actually help me to learn. When I was sitting down to do my econ project, my host dad came and sat down with me and explained how some things in Argentina economy work. He was so patient when I didn’t know a word or how to say something or how to describe something. I actually learned so much more than I would in a whole week of school here. Everyone in my family here is like that. They are so nice to me and so helpful that I can’t imagine leaving them. I don’t understand why I have to leave them at all. It’s not like I’m changing cities or anything. I’m just going to rotate families with my friends’ families who I already know anyways. I’ll still be in the same environment, so what does it matter if I stay with this family. My mom wanted to take me to Chile in the summer and to Buenos Aires at the end of the summer to see Cony’s school. I won’t get to do that if I’m not with them. I don’t want to leave.