Another week gone by

Day 47- Monday April 16^th

After class this morning, I sat in the café for a while with Susan and Caitlyn and then by myself because I was actually being really productive with our online homework for once. J That doesn’t always happen here! I lost track of time and grabbed one of the cheap hot dogs across the street and some snacks to take along to meet a group for mate in the park. We sat for a few hours and had a nice time and spent most of the time speaking in Spanish and it went well. There were two Argentines there and probably 6 or 7 students from our Simpson group. I walked home later on before it got too dark and two of the grandkids were over to eat pasta for dinner while their parents were busy and I stayed in doing some other homework for the night.

Tuesday April 17^th- Day 48

I woke up today feeling a little congested, major bummer. Who wants to get a cold while in Argentina. I had a really terrible cold in the fall that took over a month and two round of antibiotics to get over so I really want to get rid of this fast, especially since I leave in a little over a week for my next trip! I was dreading having to sit through my two hour Spanish class and then three hour history class, and about ten minutes before Spanish was over someone came in and told our professor that our history professor was sick and we wouldn’t be having class today! I was relieved for that, so I came home and took a nice three hour nap. After that I went to sit in a park with Maddie and Nathan for a while and then came home. I was kind of debating whether or not I wanted to go to the English class or if I should stay home and go to bed early tonight and shortly after my host mom and I finished our steak and rice around 9pm the lights cut out in our entire neighborhood so that solidified staying home and going to bed.  The lights had cut out for about 30 seconds in the morning when I was eating breakfast, but came right back on and had cut out once the first week I was here. It’s unusual for them to cut out this time of year when it’s a little chillier because the air conditioning isn’t running anymore. My host mom said that during the summer here they will cut out quite often. I stayed up a little longer and played games on my iPod and the lights still weren’t back on when I went to bed.

Wednesday April 18^th- Day 49

I still feel like I have a cold coming on, but its worse in the morning than the rest of the day. I got to sleep in a little today before my classes. The group of us that is going to Ushuaia next week stayed for a little while after our reflection class to talk to Dr. Wolf about what all to do and get some specifics on the guide she used when she was there that we are also using when we go. I spent most of the afternoon working on homework, for some reason I had a lot due on Friday for this week. My host dad made chicken and rice stuffed zucchini for dinner tonight. It was really good! For dessert I tried another typical Argentine dish called dulce de batata. It’s a sweet marmalade made from sweet potato, but it has a consistency more like Jell-O so it all stays together and you serve it on top of a piece of some kind of cheese to offset the sweetness. With my sweet tooth, I would have no problem eating it without the cheese, but it was still good. It was a little different with the cheese, but not too bad. After dinner I just did some more homework and went to bed.

Day 50- Thursday April 19^th

Wow, I’ve been in Argentina for 50 days! That is truly a hard fact to believe. April has been going a little bit slower than March, but 50 days, still feels like this trip is going a little too fast! Susan and I had our early UCEL class this morning and then we met up with a couple other girls to do a project for our class tomorrow. I had my laptop for the project so I stuck around a while to do homework and stuff for a little while before coming home. A little later in the afternoon I got to go to La Escuelita and volunteer with the under privileged kids for the second time. I spent an hour and a half playing soccer with the boys and I got a good workout from that. They are really good here! I wish I could come volunteer every week, but our Simpson group has to take turns and only send 5 people every week or we’d outnumber the kids a bit much. After volunteering I came home and did a little more homework before dinner. We had chicken and rice tonight and it was pretty good. My host dad was gone, so my host mom did the cooking tonight. J The English professor was sick today so we also didn’t have English class to go to, so Nathan and I went and got ice cream. I was needing a break from girls, our Simpson group consists of 14 girls and Nathan. Poor guy. Either way, it’s about like being in my sorority house only none of us know too many other people around here (other than ambassadors), we have all our classes together, and we see each other way too much. Yep, just need a break from girls sometimes. After that I came home… and I still had homework left for Spanish. Ugh.

Friday April 20^th- Day 51

I had my Spanish class this morning and the project class that goes with Spanish today. Both of those felt longer than usual, I thought I was never going to get out of class today! After classes, Maddie and I walked for a while and eventually sat down for a little lunch. While we walking we stopped at a pharmacy so I could finally pick something up to work on kicking the sinus infection I diagnosed myself with. It’s pretty cool here, you don’t need to go to a doctor to get prescriptions, the pharmacists here take much more of a prescribing role. You can just go to the pharmacy, explain your symptoms and tell them if you’re allergic to any medications (if you’re allergic to a lot or the common stuff, they’ll make you go to the doctor), and they give you something. I got my meds from the pharmacy for 20 pesos (about 5 dollars) and it only took about 3 minutes and didn’t require a doctor visit. Heaven. After lunch I came home and took a nap again. I am determined to be rid of this thing before I leave for Ushuaia. My host parents and I had fish and mashed potatoes later for dinner and then some of us were meeting up to hang out for a while.

Saturday April 21^st- Day 52

I woke up early today… only to take my medication and then I set my alarm for 3 more hours to sleep. I’m so committed to nipping this sinus infection in the butt to get up at 8am just to take the meds at the right time haha! When I really woke up later I saw a post in our Facebook group to take the opportunity to go out on a boat and to the beach with a few Simpson people and one of the guys, Nicolas, that volunteers at La Escuelita that has been really nice to our group. Susan, Nathan, and I went with Nicolas and Tunna, another Escuelita volunteer. It’s starting to get chilly here, but we had a nice time on the beach in the afternoon and crossing part of the river to get there and back in the boat. It was sunset when we were on the river heading back to the docks and I captured a pretty nice picture of the sun setting behind the Victoria Bridge. My host dad made carne a la criolla for dinner. It was kind of like we make roast with potatoes, carrots, and onions in with it, but he cut all the meat up instead of leaving it in a big chunk. It was good, and really similar to the kind of things we eat in Iowa. After dinner A small group went and hung out with a couple of the ambassadors for the rest of the night.

Puente Rosario-Victoria. Can't get this photo from land!

Sunday April 22, 2012- Day 53

I got up at a decent time to get going today because I was supposed to meet Nathan and one of the ambassadors at one of the malls to get lunch at California Burrito Co. The ambassador ended up not coming, but Nathan and I went anyway because we wanted some Mexican food. There were also plans to meet in the park with the group and some other ambassadors, but those plans fell through because it is gross and rainy today and no one is in the park so I just hung out in my house and got caught up on blogging and journaling and uploaded pictures. I also did my homework for Monday. I’m great at procrastinating in my second language just as well as my first. My favorite project for the night was finally making the Funfetti cake my mom sent me for my birthday. I frosted and sprinkled it when it was cooled and my host parents and I dug in after our typical Sunday fare of empanadas. I think my host dad really liked it, he cut himself another piece about an hour after we finished the first ones!

The weekend

Saturday, April 15^th- Day 45

I met up with a group of students and Jay to eat lunch together and talk so Jay could learn more about what we wish we would have know before we got here and things like that and then we walked to the river where the whole group was going on a touristic boat ride up and down the river together. We could have had better weather for it, but it thankfully didn’t rain on us so it was a nice ride. Afterwards I headed home and took a nap before dinner. We had ‘pollo a la portugues’ which was pretty much chicken stewed in with a sauce and potato with some onion and red pepper. I really liked it. The oldest granddaughter was over for dinner and to stay the night so I talked to her some, she is probably the most interested in talking to me and she was sitting by me at the computer for a little bit and she thinks I can type really fast. After dinner Maddie, Caitlyn and I met up for a while just to do something together and then I headed home to go to bed.

Sunday April 16^th- Day 46

I slept in a little bit and ate breakfast and then got ready to meet up with Maddie to walk to one of the parks to meet up with a group of Simpson and UCEL students we were going to our first fútbol (soccer) game with! We got to the field fairly early and grabbed our spots. It was pretty hot and the stands were painted black and definitely attracted the heat, but the game was great! Almost everyone here loves soccer and at the games they are very enthusiastic about it so it was a lot of fun. The team from Rosario (Newell’s Old Boys) won 3-0 so we got to yell “GOOOOOOLLLLLLL” and jump up and down with all the fans. Afterwards, Maddie, Nathan, and I got some ice cream to cool down and then we walked home.

Easter & the following week

Easter Sunday April 8^th- Day 39

Today I didn’t get up too early. My host parents went to church early and left me to sleep. It was definitely strange not to go to church on Easter, but I wasn’t necessarily invited to church with my host parents so I just stuck it out at home. Shortly after noon, we headed to the home of my host parents’ oldest son, Ricky. All three kids & their spouses, the five grandkids, my host dad’s cousin and her granddaughter, my host parents, and I were at the Easter asado. An asado is typically was Argentines do when they get together for any reason and it’s more or less a grill out, but they don’t do hamburgers. We started off with a lettuce salad and a potato salad and then the meat started coming off the parilla (grill). At Ricky’s house the parilla is on the roof; they live in a single family home further outside the city center and not in an apartment, but they are still crammed on the blocks like everywhere else with no yards to speak of. The first things off the grill were chorizo (basically sausage, I like it), morcilla (blood sausage, mushier and made with more blood, I do NOT like it), and chinchulines (small intestine, it’s not horrible, but not that great either). Shortly after the riñon (kidney, couldn’t tell you what it tastes like because I couldn’t get past the texture) and molleja (thymus or pancreas, actually good, I would eat it again) came out. After all these achuras (organ meats) came the actual asado meats like ribs and smaller pieces of steak pretty much, things we would eat in the US. My host dad told me I could be a criollo (creole/native) or porteño (native to Buenos Aires) judging by what I liked and that I even tried everything. There were also two cake type dishes for dessert later on, we were there for a good amount of time while everyone was just chatting and the kids were playing. Other than eating different food, the biggest difference between here and the US is that here they talk very loudly! All the siblings were talking over top of each other and at the same time. Today I had the hardest time hearing and understanding people because there were so many conversations and everyone was talking loud and fast, I couldn’t really pick up as much as usual so I was pretty quiet, but it was still interesting to be there and see what it was like. My host mom and the cousin of my host dad sat on either side of my and had their own conversation a little slower so I could keep up and understand something for the afternoon. After we got home I went straight to the park to meet a couple Simpson students and a couple ambassadors for mate in the park near my house for an hour or so and then I came home. I was pretty tired after trying to keep up with the Spanish all day so I didn’t do a whole lot after that, just made sure all my homework for Monday was finished.

Monday April 9- Day 40

Going back to school today was kind of a bummer after four days off and getting on the internet was absolute torture. Everyone on Facebook was talking about eating all their Easter candy and I was pretty jealous. They have some Easter candy here, mostly just chocolate, so it’s not at all the same. I sent an e-mail to my mom telling her to go find some and hide it away until I’m home, who knew I’d end up missing Easter candy?! I hung out in the café for a while after class in the morning to get caught up on a few emails and some homework and things and then a few of us were meeting to talk about our next trip. After I went to get some empanadas with two other students and then walked home. I hung out at my house for the afternoon and met Maddie later to go check out a gym we want to join because it is ridiculously cheap and later my host parents and I had pasta for dinner. After dinner, I walked with Nathan, the lone boy in our Simpson group, to the other end of the central district to meet a small group for ice cream. We stayed kind of late and I walked part way home with the group afterwards and then grabbed a taxi because I have early class the next morning and really wanted to get to bed!

Day 41- Tuesday April 10

Classes went by decently fast today, which for history is kind of surprising. After class, Maddie, Susan, Annaleah, and I went to a travel agent and booked flights to the end of the world! We are headed to Ushuaia on our next long weekend. Ushuaia is considered the southernmost city in the world and is where people go to Antarctica from. It’s located in Tierra del Fuego province, which is also the only island province in Argentina. We’re really excited to go, but I feel like it’s going to be a bit chilly! There are four other Simpson students going the same weekend as well, but they have different flights and agendas. We got a lot of information on what to do and names of good guides and places from our Simpson professor here, as she has already visited Ushuaia since we’ve been here. After that I came home and took a nice long nap before dinner. Ricky and his two sons, Rickito and Ramiro were here for mileanesa and mashed potatoes tonight. His wife is studying to be a teacher or professor in addition to working right now so they come over for dinner about once a week when she needs to study and get things done. After that I headed off to the English class for a while at night.

Day 42- Wednesday April 11

Before class today I took some clothes to the lavanderia and then walked to UCEL. I had two classes and then I stayed in the café to use the wifi because we needed to be back to meet at the ice cream store across from UCEL two hours after class anyway. Jay, our director of international relations at Simpson, arrived in Rosario today and so we all met him for ice cream and to talk. He brought us some Easter candy and he had us all won over with M&M’s, Snickers, Skittles, and Starburst, it was a great surprise as far as we were concerned. I gave myself a small stomachache eating that candy right after a bunch of ice cream and I stashed the rest of my candy away for the rest of the week. Eventually I walked home with a couple of the students that live close to me and turned in for the night. Tonight’s dinner was baked eggplant with cheese and tomato slices and one half was “a caballo” meaning it has a fried egg on it, this is really common option to have on a variety of foods and literally translates more or less to “on a horse” because the egg on top is like sitting on a horse. It wasn’t too bad, but I can’t say that it was my favorite meal.

Thursday April 12- Day 43

Susan and I had our public health class this morning. Our regular professor is apparently in Barcelona for a bit so we had a different prof today and for two more weeks and we want to keep her for the rest of the time! She was a much better professor and we both felt like we learned more today than in all the other classes with the regular prof. This professor also spoke loudly unlike our regular prof and that made a huge difference for me to actually comprehend and apply the concepts instead of sitting in class just straining to hear. After we went and got coffee and factures (assortment of pastries, I will miss these back home!) in the UCEL café and just chatted for about an hour before we walked home. Our class is from 8-9:30am so we are always up and going on Thursdays. We’d been talking about school stuff and while I was talking about my schedule for next year I actually realized something that I hadn’t before to fit everything in better next year so the first thing I did when I got back to my house was get on the Simpson website and rearrange a little bit so I am pretty happy with that, not so much with the fact I have 8am classes Monday-Friday in the fall. Ughhhh. After that I got a bunch of homework and journaling for class done and had a quick interview on Skype for a position in Greek Life in the fall. We had a spinach tarta and salad for dinner and I had a banana with a little dulce de leche for dessert and then I was off to UCEL for the English class. After class, we met some of the ambassadors to hang out and give them money because they are getting tickets for us to go to a soccer game here in Rosario this weekend. I am really excited to experience a game here, soccer is insanely popular!

Friday April 13, 2012- Day 44

I got up early for my two classes today and afterwards Susan, Maddie, Caitlyn, and I went out for lunch together. We decided to try something new so we went to a restaurant that I see all the time because it’s across from my bus stop called Club de la Mileanesa. We heard they had a lot of different types of mileanesa and that it was good, so we were up to try it, especially because lunch menus are always cheaper. I finally got to try a chicken mileanesa, at my house it’s always beef. Mileanesa is basically meat cooked like a chicken fried steak, but better, not high school cafeteria style. It came with a side and I got one where you get some mashed potatoes and some mashed pumpkin. It was SO good. I miss eating sweet potatoes, and pumpkin has a similar taste. We’ve had a little bit of pumpkin at my house, but not a lot. The lunch also came with dessert or fruit salad or coffee and the drink. We really love the lunch specials when we feel like going out to eat! It had been a dreary day and as we were leaving it started to rain so that solidified my decision to take the bus home. After a little nap and some homework I met Maddie at a café so we could Skype our mothers, respond to emails, and do some homework. I went home for dinner and then Maddie and I met up at the movie theater and saw Espejito, Espejito (Mirror, Mirror) in Spanish. We were happy with how much we understood! There were another group of girls from our group that were meeting there as well so we all ended up watching it together. On my bus ride home I got my taste of Friday the 13^th. I was on the bus for literally two blocks and then the driver stopped and got out to look at something and then came back in to look at the motor and said something was wrong. He asked where I was headed to and told me other buses that would go close to my house, but I was not about to get on a bus I didn’t know that late at night so I said I’d just wait for the next one and just chatted with him while he was waiting for a guy to bring tools and I waited for the next bus. He gave me what I consider a great compliment to start off our conversation. One of the first things he asked was “Sos de Brasil?” (are you from Brazil?). I just laughed and said no, I’m from the United States, but hey, someone thinking I’m from Brazil is a step up from a stupid American! He has a friend that’s studying somewhere in the US right now so we had enough to talk about for a while. The next bus that came was the guy with the tools, so that guy got off with the tools and the bus driver I’d been talking to took me straight to my apartment in the other bus, so it didn’t turn out to be so unlucky that the bus broke.

Pictures!



National Flag Monument- Rosario

Officially 21! Celebrated with cheeseballs (blocks) with salsa golf and a peach daiquiri.

First views of Mar del Plata

Playa Grande- Mar del Plata

Sea lion reserve- Mar del Plata

The following are pictures from our adventures in seafood...

Little fried fish, a bit crunchy

One of the platters we got

My happy plate

Squid legs. These honstely weren't bad!

And there's the squid legs going in- mom, you'd be impressed with all the things I've eaten in the last week or so!

The last two weeks of Argentine life

I'm finally caught up for the most part so here is what has been going on in Rosario lately:

Wednesday- Day 21

I had later class today so I got to sleep in a little bit. After class I got lunch with Caitlyn, Nicole, and Kelsey and then I went back to the UCEL café for a while to do my homework and then about half our group met up for helado near the school. We stuck around for a while talking and then I walked home before it got too dark. We had steak again for dinner and a spinach tarta. I didn’t do anything too interesting today and I’m going to bed early knowing I have a lot to do tomorrow.

Thursday- Day 22

Susan and I went to our UCEL class this morning. Last week we scoped out some seats in the back and tried to blend in and we did the same today. The group of girls in front of us heard us talking to each other in English and all of a sudden we heard, “chicas, de donde son?” (Girls, where are you from?) So then we talked to them a little before class. During class the professor put the class into groups for a project that’s due in May and Susan and I weren’t on the list so we weren’t in groups, the girls asked the professor about it and he said “oh yeah, the Americans” (we talked to him after class last week so he knew that we were foreign students) so now the entire class is in the know with that, we were a little embarrassed with about 40 students just staring at us. Then the girls were all over asking him to put us in their group, I think they are excited, and Susan and I are looking forward to making friends. I headed home for the rest of the morning after class and then met up with Maddie and Susan at noon to hop on a bus back to the mall. We got our Mexican fix at California Burrito Co (chicken, black beans, rice, salsa, corn- everything we’d been missing!) and then headed to the theater to see The Hunger Games! It was AWESOME! Best part was the movie was in English with Spanish subtitles so we could really just watch and enjoy for a couple hours and there were literally less than 10 people in the theater, I can only imagine how full the theaters in Indianola and Des Moines were! After we walked around a bit we got on a bus back to the center of Rosario and I walked home from there. I took a little siesta and then my host parents and I had salad, fish, and mashed potatoes for dinner. After dinner I headed back to UCEL to go to the English class again. Before the class started, I asked some of the students a few questions for a project for one of my classes and then they invited us to drink mate with them tomorrow so I’m looking forward to that and hopefully making more friends so we have more people to hang out and experience Argentinean life with. After English, several of us were going out with some of the UCEL ambassadors for a while before going home.

Friday- March 23, Day 23

I had a double dose of class this morning with Spanish and our project class. Usually we have project class every other week (intermediate class one week, advanced class the next), but Susan, Caitlyn, and I had to go both this week and last week since we won’t be there next week because our bus leaves for Mar del Plata before our class would be over. After class I just went home and got some lunch and then took a nap and had dinner (chicken and rice) and later we met up with other Simpson students and the UCEL ambassadors at one of their apartments to hang out for the night.

Saturday- Day 24

I slept in this morning and later in the afternoon a bunch of Simpson students, an ambassador, and a girl from Brazil who is studying at UCEL met up in the park for mate and to chat. We were there for a while then split up to our homes for dinner (milonesa and salad) and met back up with less Simpson students and more ambassadors and other people for the night.

Sunday March 25^th- Day 25

Slept in again and now I’m just sitting in an ice cream shop for the wifi and uploading pictures to Facebook. This weekend was fun and I liked having more to do and meeting and talking to more people. Later on I ate dinner with my host parents. We had empanadas, I’m going to have to learn how to make them because I love them!

Monday- Day 26

Birthday week! I had class in the morning and then sat with a couple girls and one of the ambassadors in the café until the other group got done with their class. Susan, Maddie, Caitlyn, and I went and got some empanadas and then we went our separate ways. I walked home quick (well, as quickly as it possible), changed clothes, and went to Maddie’s apartment to lay out on the roof of her building with whatever sun was left. When it got too cold we went and got some coffee and pretended to attempt to do homework. After that I went home for the night to do homework and eat dinner with my host parents, soup and pasta!

Tuesday March 27^th- Day 27

Shoot I am behind on blogging… writing these about a week late, guess I got busy! Tuesdays are my longer day of classes so I had Spanish for 2 hours and then Argentine History and Culture for a little less than 3 hours. I think our professor for the history course is astonished by how little we remember of US history when she asks us questions, makes me so confident to try and memorize the Argentine stuff! (sarcasm) I really don’t recall what I did in the afternoon after that, but after dinner I went to the English class again with the UCEL students to help out when they’re in small groups.

Wednesday- Day 28

Wednesdays are quickly becoming my favorite since I get to sleep in! In between classes Nicole, Kelsey, Caitlyn, Susan and I went and got our 6 peso ($1.50) footlong panchos (hot dogs) for our traditional Wednesday lunch. During our reflection class with our professor from Simpson, she told us about her trip to Ushuaia with her husband and kids the week before and it definitely made us want to go. Ushuaia is the southernmost city in the world and is in the Tierra del Fuego province of Argentina. After class we made plans to talk to her more about it and Maddie and I spent a little time doing homework (see: planning trips) in the café before meeting up with Susan to visit travel agents regarding a different trip we are planning to take that we are thinking would be less stressful if someone else kind of planned it for us. That was a good experience for us, the travel agent was really nice and funny and we all understood her and conversed with her well. After, Susan and I headed to a heladeria to meet up with some other students and our professor to talk about Ushuaia. Caitlyn and I ate dinner at Fellini’s on 50% off miercoles (Wednesday) and then I finally went back home for the day. My host parents were going to be gone at a birthday party, so it worked well that I had other plans for dinner. Caitlyn and I both got wok, which is basically like a stir-fry and it was delicious! I had made plans to watch a movie with Maddie and a couple of our friends so by the time I got home from dinner I had just enough time to change and get to Maddie’s. We never actually watched a movie, but we had a good time just sitting and talking and practicing Spanish until entirely too late for my 8am class.

Thursday- Day 29

Susan and I got up bright and early and met at our UCEL class. After class we had to go talk to the professor because we needed the powerpoints and things emailed to us, but we aren’t on the list so we aren’t receiving any emails. He started asking us questions and asked if we wanted to go get a coffee a few buildings down from UCEL so we did. Apparently this is not normal. We were not quite sure what to think of it but we were together and we just figured he was being nice because we’re the stupid Americans that sit in the class and don’t speak Spanish fluently. After that Susan and I were meeting one of our ambassador friends in the UCEL café and we asked him about it and he said that’s really weird, and then started calling our prof the pervert professor, definitely an interesting conversation! I wandered home very briefly to pick up my laundry from the lavanderia and shower and then I was headed out the door to go use the wifi at an ice cream shop to Skype my friends. Skyping ended up failing because the Simpson internet went out (typical) just as we were trying to call each other. I was a little disappointed because I haven’t talked to my friends a lot since I’ve been here, but we’ll find another time. I stuck around for a while to try to catch up on a few things and kill time before the next place I had to go which was have a short meeting with Prof Wolf to make sure everything is fine and dandy for me here, which it is. Then I was off to volunteer for the first time at La Escuelita, a program for street children and poor kids where they come to a church with a grassy area for 2 hours and just get to play and have fun and get a snack once a week. It was a really good experience to see how life is for some less fortunate people. After that I was finally back home for dinner and then I left early to walk with Addi to UCEL at night for the English class because we had to do some prep because we were teaching the class the English alphabet that night. After English a few people and myself went to a restaurant across the street for a drink to celebrate my birthday at midnight! I found cheeseballs (or cheese cubes, rather) on the menu and got some because they sounded really good, but I ate them Argentina style with Salsa Golf, my condiment of choice since they don’t have ranch here. We think it’s basically a blend of ketchup and mayo, which is really strange for me to like because I despise mayo. I officially turned 21 at midnight just enjoying watching a good soccer game on tv with my friends, definitely not the traditional way it may have been in the US.

Friday March 30^th- Day 30

Class was almost unbearable knowing that right after the 6 of us (Maddie, Susan, Kelsey, Caitlyn, Nicole, and myself) would be headed to the bus terminal to grab a bus to Mar del Plata, a city further south in Argentina that is famous for its beaches! After class some of the group went home to grab their bags and go, but I stayed at the school for a few minutes and used the wifi on my ipod while I had a snack because my house is in the complete opposite direction of the bus station from school and I didn’t have time. In other words, I had to lug my bags around with me at school and while I grabbed a bus. A few stops down Caitlyn happened to get on my bus so we traveled to the bus terminal together and then waited for the rest of the group. We got on our bus around noon and off we went to the beach! With all the stops it was a 10 hour ride, I didn’t sleep much, but it wasn’t too bad and I got some homework done. We got to Mar del Plata just fine and grabbed taxis and found our hostel and everything went well. As soon as we got our bags into our room we left to go find a restaurant because we were all starving by then since it was after 11pm and we’d seen a Mexican restaurant down the street. Our waitress was actually German and the restaurant had a pretty chill vibe, but it was kind of a weird mix of Mexican meets Caribbean in Argentina. We all had pretty good food though, and then we just went and hung out in the hostel for the night.

Saturday, Sunday, & Monday March 31-April 2

We spent Saturday and Sunday on the Playa Grande beach. We were very lucky to have awesome weather this weekend. It was the last weekend of the “peak” season and sometimes it’s not so warm. We had plenty of beach time to just lay out and relax. The waters of the Atlantic were pretty chilly, so I didn’t make it in past knee deep. Susan, Maddie, and I kicked a soccer ball around for a while after laying out one day and after it was too cold on the beach we’d all clean up and wander around. Monday was a lot cooler and we were all kind of burnt anyway so it was the perfect day to walk and explore the other parts of Mar del Plata. We went to the pedestrian street and looked in some of the shops and went down to the fish harbors. Those smelled really awesome… We walked out on a long pier that we could see from the beach we were on where they have a sea lion reserve. We checked those out and walked all the way to the end. When we walked back we planned to go out for seafood, so we went to a place recommended by the guys that run the hostel we were at. We were definitely not talking about the same kind of seafood. I put my big girl pants on and tried some of everything, but we were still a little hungry when we left. Kelsey and Nicole made the good choices since they didn’t want fish. The rest of us did want fish (since it’s so good here, unlike Iowa!), but we did not exactly get fish. Some of it was good, others not so great. Pictures can explain more with that. After dinner we got some ice cream and then grabbed our bags from the hostel and headed back for the bus station for our overnight back to Rosario. Today was a holiday so we luckily didn’t have to miss any school.

Tuesday April 3^rd- Day 34

We woke up on our bus and eventually got to the bus station. When I was ready to fall asleep the night before I took a Dramamine so I could be assured that I would sleep pretty well. I wasn’t disappointed and I slept well; when we got to the bus station in Rosario I grabbed a bus to school since I again didn’t have time to go home. Today was a longer than usual Tuesday unfortunately because we had to watch a movie after our history class for a different class and I was definitely tired by then and ready to go home, sit down, and stop lugging my bags around. I ate the lunch special at Fellini’s with Susan and that was a good break for the useless hour and a half they gave us between class and the movie. After the movie I took the bus home and relaxed for the night. I was tired and didn’t feel like going to the English class so I just stayed home and went to bed a little early.

Wednesday April 4- Day 35

I went to my classes and then hung out in the UCEL café for a few hours to get caught up on some homework and send a few things in to Simpson via e-mail that I’d been needing to get done. I went home a little later on and had spaghetti with my host mom and one of the grandkids while my host dad and another one of the grandkids were out playing tennis. After dinner Susan, Nathan, and I met up with a couple of the ambassadors to hang out for a while and get ice cream later on before coming home for the night.

Day 36- Thursday April 5^th

We started our Easter break today so I got to sleep in instead of get up for an 8am class. I met up at the flag monument with Maddie, Haley, and Melissa and we paid our 3 pesos to go up in it and see the views this afternoon. I realized after I left my house that I forgot my camera so I’ll have to check out the other girls’ pictures on Facebook and I will probably go up again sometime before we leave. After, Maddie and I walked around for a while and went to the supermarket and then split up to head home. Later on after dinner we met up with some of the others in our group and a few ambassadors for the birthday of one of the ambassadors.

Day 37- Friday April 6^th

I slept in and met up with Maddie later on in the park to sit and chat for a little while. When it started getting dark and we started getting eaten alive by bugs as usual, she came over for a bit to watch some tv. Later I had dinner with my host parents. Since it’s Friday during Lent and they’re Catholic they can’t have meat so tonight’s meal was called tarta gallega I believe and my host dad said it’s a typical dish for La Semana Santa (Holy week right before Easter) because it’s made with diced up fish, some red peppers, and I don’t really know what else. It wasn’t bad, but I wasn’t feeling the greatest today so it didn’t really hit the spot. After dinner I found August Rush on tv in Spanish and I decided I found my plans for the night!

Saturday April 7^th- Day 38

I woke up today and just hung around for a bit and everyone in the group that was in Rosario this weekend had plans to meet up at the “beach” with our professor from Simpson and her kids. I literally live about as far away from the beach as possible along the river so it’s about an hour or a little more to get there between the bus and walking to/from the bus stops. My host parents were out this morning so I had to figure out what buses and things to take by myself so I was a little nervous but I made it just fine. It was kind of windy, so the sand blowing in our faces was a little less than pleasant, but we had some nice hot weather again to “tomar el sol” or in English- sunbathe. After a few hours we all started to pack up and get on the buses to take us back to the central district where we all live. I cleaned up and got rid of all the sand and started in on catching up on journaling for class, blogging, and uploading pictures before dinner. Tonight we had soup, mileanesa and potatoes.

Birthday!

I had an awesome long birthday weekend with my friends in Mar del Plata (aka the beach). We took the overnight bus home last night and I went straight to school this morning and got home at 5pm. So glad I don't have to carry my overnight bags around to class anymore! Lots of things on my to-do list, including catching up on the blogs, I will admit I'm behind! We hardly touched any computers this weekend, just to check the weather!