Sunday
June 3rd- Day 95
Today I
had an asado with my family to celebrate Cesar, his wife Maricel, and their son
Balti’s birthdays. We went to a town near Rosario called Arroyo Seco to a
private park sort of place with shelter areas for parties and grills for the
asados. We were there from midday until it was getting dark at around 6 or
6:30pm so pretty much the whole day. I could tell my Spanish is a lot better
than the last time we had an asado at Easter, so this one was a lot more fun. I
talked a lot with Valentina, the oldest granddaughter and one of Maricel’s
nieces from her side of the family during the afternoon. I was completely
stuffed by the end of the day, the amount of food there was ridiculous! We
started off with the picadas (appetizers- mainly meat & cheese trays), then
salad and then the meat (chorizo, chinchulin, and then the regular carne- we
didn’t have a full asado with the organ meats this time). We took a break for a
while and then came the cake and champagne and after that when the mate and
coffee started pouring they set out plates with different kind of breads,
tortas (coffee cakes more or less), and another little kind of dessert bar. No
dinner was necessary when we got home to Rosario! I finally got pictures with
my host family (you’re welcome, mom) and we had a great day!
Monday
June 4th- Day 96
Today
was windy and COLD! The walk to school was a bit on the chilly side, but I
managed. I just had my morning class and then I spent the majority of the
afternoon doing the homework for my online class, uploading pictures to Facebook
and the blog, and updating my blog. I had to meet with Dr. Wolf later in the
afternoon (just to let her know that yes, I’m having an awesome time and no,
I’m not having any problems) so I just stuck around at UCEL until then since we
always meet at the Yomo (our favorite ice cream shop) across the street from school.
For the evening, I just headed home and ate dinner with my parents, and stayed
in to study. Tomorrow I have a Spanish test in addition to the weekly history
quiz.
Tuesday
June 5th- Day 97
I took
my Spanish test this morning and didn’t think it was too bad, I suppose I will
see next week. After that I had my history class, I will probably not miss
having a 3 hour long history class every week after this, but I do really like
the professor. After class I headed home and finished up the homework for
tomorrow’s communications class and packed my bags to leave for Iguazu tomorrow
as well. Eleo was over again in the afternoon so I talked to her some while I
was packing and getting my things ready. I skipped dinner with my host parents
tonight and went out for sushi with Susan and Hannah. I had been missing sushi!
Not the price so much, though. It was a nice dinner and it was good to hang out
with just a small group and enjoy some of our remaining time.
Wednesday
June 6th- Day 98
This
morning I got the rest of my things together and headed for class with all by
bags. When class was over, Maddie and I camped out in the café for a bit to
have a snack, change into comfortable clothes and waste the bit of time we had
before we needed to head to the bus station. We got on our bus and left right
away at 2:30pm on an approximately 20 hour bus ride. We happened to have an
outlet by our seats so we got our laptops out to work on different homework
both from UCEL and our online classes back in the states (lucky us…) and we
knitted, watched the movies they showed, talked, napped, and so forth. We were
served a hot dinner and good drinks and then we did some more movie watching
and knitting and whatever we could find to do and actually went to bed around
midnight without ever really feeling bored during the day.
Thursday
June 7th- Day 99
We woke
up in Misiones province at around 8 or 8:30am and we got another movie in and
worked on some more homework before we arrived in Puerto Iguazu around 10am. We
were not even really ready to get off the bus, surprisingly enough. I think we
could have done with another hour kind of lounging and waking up, but then
again, there were waterfalls to see! Our hostel was only 4 blocks from the bus
station so we walked down and checked in. It was a rather unusually chilly day
there so we took our time at the hostel and ate some lunch before we headed to
catch a bus to the national park. We got to the park shortly after noon and
took the train to La Garganta del Diablo (The Devil’s Throat) right away. It.
Was. HUGE! The waterfalls were absolutely amazing. I might have enjoyed it a little
more if we would have had better weather, but it was absolutely breathtaking. The
park was pretty empty compared to what it sounded like the other’s in our group
experienced, probably because it was fairly chilly, but it made it easier for
us to get around quickly and get good pictures without a bunch of people in
them. After that we walked around the upper circuit of the park, and by 4:30 it
was getting pretty cold so we started heading for the exit with pretty much
everyone else in the park. We stopped at the supermarket on the way home and
bought things to make for dinner and then came back to the hostel to try to
warm up. We ran into 4 Australians in our hostel that had been staying in the
same hostel as us in Mendoza two weeks ago, so that was pretty crazy and we
spent the evening talking to a couple guys from the US that were staying there
too that were also braving the cold in the common areas… which since it’s not
usually cold in Iguazu, were pretty much open air with just a couple walls and
a roof.
Day
100- Friday June 8th
100
days without being in the US. Definitely sounds like a long time, but I don’t
feel like I’ve been gone that long- or maybe I do feel like I’ve been gone that
long, but not that I’ve been in Argentina that long? Either way, I don’t like
it, because that means I’m coming home soon and I don’t feel ready for that.
Maddie and I got up and ate breakfast and then decided we needed to brave the
shower. It was still pretty cold in the morning and the water at this hostel
doesn’t exactly get hot… or even warm for that matter. BRRRRRRRR is about all I
have to say to cover that. We stuck around the hostel again for a while to let
it warm up (and let our hair dry so it wouldn’t freeze and cause headaches
haha) and we did some homework again. We’re trying to stay caught up and ahead,
since we have to leave for almost a full week with our class in a couple weeks.
We finally made our way to the park and were delighted that it was quite a bit
warmer today. We walked the lower circuit that takes you closer to the falls
and walked on the trails instead of taking the train today. We got lucky on our
walk back to the entrance and saw monkeys! We were both pretty excited and we
watched them for probably 15 minutes. It reminded me some of the rainforest in
Ecuador at that point, because watching the monkeys jump from tree to tree was
just insane. We ran out of time (see: daylight) to walk a dirt path we wanted
to, so we headed for the exit again in the evening and headed back for the
hostel. We spent the late afternoon talking to different people in the hostel
and eventually ordered some pizza for dinner that was actually pretty cheap and
then I had my laptop up to follow the national gymnastics meet and see how the
girl from Chow’s was doing while Maddie probably did more productive things. A
guy we hadn’t really met yet came to the kitchen while we were in there and
asked us where we were from. I said Iowa and it turns out, he’s from Des
Moines! We have a lot of these random coincidences here. Not only that, but he
actually helped sandbag at Chow’s during the flood in 2008 and since 2009,
that’s where I’ve worked. Small, small world!
Saturday
June 9th- Day 101
We took
our time getting ready and packed in the morning, ate breakfast, checked out
and moved our bags to the luggage storage room. We took a walk through part of
town to Las Tres Fonteras (3 borders) where Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina all
come together at the convergence of the Iguazu and Parana Rivers. It was really
pretty and there was a garden type thing there and some artisans that we looked
at for a while. Eventually we walked back to the hostel and had lunch and we
broke up the day a little with some homework since we didn’t have a lot of
things to do that wouldn’t cost a lot of money. While we were on that walk, we
stopped at the supermarket to get food for dinner and the guy behind us looked
kind of familiar. You know, just happened to be the Austrian guy that shared
the boat ride through the Beagle Canal with our group in Ushuaia a month and a
half ago. These coincidences are really starting to freak us out! Later on we
went for another walk and checked out some of the shops and different things
around town and eventually headed back to the hostel again around dusk before
it got too dark. We made our dinner and started talking to a couple girls that
had come to the hostel that day and were asking us what all we’d done. We
talked to them through making and eating our dinner and eventually in the
conversation, we find out that one of them is a Kappa in New York! That’s the
second time there has been a Kappa at one of our hostels (there were 2 with the
2 of us in Ushuaia). Eventually we had to leave for the bus station and we
hopped on our 9pm ride back to Rosario and said goodbye to the (finally) warm
weather and the amazing waterfalls. We got dinner and a couple movies and then
I was OUT for the night!
Sunday
June 10th- Day 102
I woke
up around 9am and ate the little breakfast they gave us. Eventually we got a
movie going and I knitted for a while till I finished my first ball of yarn and
was ticked at myself for leaving the second ball in my bag that went under the
bus. We got a lunch eventually, and we were pretty unimpressed with our
attendant lady on this trip. They switched people at about 2am, the guy we had
before was fun and talkative and this lady didn’t say a word to us. After
lunch, we didn’t start another movie and I was bored and didn’t really have any
homework to do that wasn’t on a computer so I took a nap. After that we still didn’t have a movie and our
attendant lady was sleep in the back. We know they’re allowed to sleep some,
because they all have on our buses, but this lady had been sleeping almost the
whole day other than serving us lunch. She briefly woke up for about 5 minutes
and we asked her to start another movie… denied. We were not happy with her at
all. This trip we were bored and ready to get off the bus. We finally pulled
into Rosario around 5pm and I caught the bus home. When I got home, I was all
ready to get on the computer and see how day two of the national gymnastics
meet was going, but just my luck, the lights in my neighborhood were out! I
chatted with my host mom about the trip for a while and the lights finally came
back on so I pulled up the live stream of the meet and for good luck, the first
thing I saw was Gabby’s (the girl from Chow’s) vault! I missed half the meet,
but it was pretty cool to be able to watch it even though I wasn’t in the US.
Gabby did great and placed 2nd, so she’s headed for Olympic Trials
(and most likely the Olympics!) I get home the second day of trials when they
announce the team, so that will be a pretty exciting day! I had dinner with my
host parents after that and then I showered and went to bed early after the
long weekend traveling.
Monday
June 11th- Day 103
I
walked to class this morning and everything was business as usual. After class,
like most Mondays, I stayed in the café and did my homework for my online class
and then I headed home. I dropped my things off and then I headed out for a
stroll around the city to take a few pictures and things. I guess I am sort of
starting to say goodbye to Rosario, so it’s pretty sad, but I just walked on my
own for a couple hours. I finally found a copy of The Hunger Games in Spanish to
read, maybe for the flight home. When I headed back to my house and I worked on
my homework for school a bit and got caught up on blogging and journaling. My
host parents and I had chicken and rice for dinner and then I finished up my
homework and headed for bed.
Tuesday
June 12th- Day 104
I had
Spanish and history today as usual and headed home right after class in the
early afternoon. I’m just a little under the weather, so I opted to stay
indoors today and get ahead on homework and work on our final project for our
reflection class. We had a lentil soup for dinner and my host dad kept telling
me it would be a perfect dinner for the Iowa winters with lots of snow. It was
pretty good, but I don’t think it quite beats some good ‘ol chilli! I may have
to try to make it at least once though, he said it’s easy, but we’ll see about
that.
Wednesday
June 13th- Day 105
My
communications class is done so I got to sleep in a little extra today before I
walked to my reflection class. I was a bit surprised when I went outside
because it is ridiculously humid for being almost winter here in Argentina.
Class was shortened because Dr. Wolf had to go give a lecture on ethics, so
Maddie and I went and got ice cream for lunch. After that I walked back home
and worked on homework and projects again. It feels like it is never ending
because I work so much slower in Spanish than in English. For dinner tonight we
had soup, potatoes, and eggplant tart. I must say that yes, they use eggplant
in different ways, and no, it’s not awful, but I am really not going to miss it
much when I am back in Iowa and picking out my own food.
Thursday
June 14th- Day 106
I slept
in late today because I had a headache, but on the upside I didn’t have any
classes! I spent my time getting ahead on my online class so I will hopefully
not have to take my computer on the group trip to Salta when we leave in a week
and I finally remembered to take my clothes to the lavanderia… probably for the
last time. L Susan and I went to one of the
malls I wanted to see before we left, Susan had already been there. It was nice
and I found a couple things at good prices. One for me, one to share with Bev J I came back home and my host mom and I had pasta for dinner
and I stayed in for the night.
Friday
June 15th- Day 107
I had
Spanish and the project class this morning and then started my final weekend in
Rosario. Next weekend we are all traveling to Salta in the north and the next
Saturday, we board a flight to Texas. We are not all sure how to feel about
this last weekend in “our city.” Maddie and I had lunch at Club de la Milanesa
one last time. I finally tried the pumpkin milanesa; it was good, but I think I
prefer chicken! We went and walked around a few shops with Nicole and Kelsey
after that and then I finally headed home. I got a little bit of homework done
and started to study for our history final and then my host parents and I had
dinner. After dinner I got ready and headed out with the girls. We are still
not wanting to believe that this is the last weekend here, we don’t really want
to go to Salta for a week!
Saturday
June 16th- Day 108
I slept
in and then ate breakfast, picked up my clothes from the lavanderia and got
them all put away and then started in on homework. I have to get these projects
done and keep ahead on my online class! I can’t believe this next week is our
last week of classes for the semester here. I stayed in working on projects and
things most of the day since it was very nice out. We had empanadas for dinner
and I went to bed fairly early because tomorrow will be an early day.
Sunday
June 17th- Day 109
Happy
father’s day, Dad! I was up bright and early for a Sunday to meet up with a big
group from Simpson and the other group currently here from the US to go to an
estancia (ranch) for an asado, folklore show, tango show, and horseback riding.
It was a gross, rainy day, but we still had fun. The food was good and the show
was alright. It definitely wasn’t the highest class tango show and things, but
I got the idea. Some people went horseback riding, I might have if it was nicer
out, but hey, I’m from Iowa, it’s not like I’ve never ridden a horse before, so
I wasn’t too worried about that. It’s father’s day here in Argentina too, so I
missed all the family being over for dinner. I signed up for the estancia
excursion before I knew my host parents were having everyone over and before I
realized that day was father’s day and then I felt bad because my mom told me
at night that that was when the kids were all going to start saying their
goodbyes to me because I’m only really here for another week. I’m glad I got to
see the ranch and tango show, but now I really wish I would have stuck around.
The rest of this week is our finals in class and presentation of final projects. Next week we are all traveling as a group to Northern Argentina and right now I'm on track to have all of my homework for my online class done beforehand so I won't be bringing my laptop to provide updates while there. Right after that... I come home. Less than two week left now.
