Saturday- Day 10
We had to get up and be at UCEL by 9:30am for a reception
kind of thing for professors. It was pretty boring and we really didn’t have to
do anything but stand up and be recognized that we are here studying from the
US. It lasted a little long for my taste, but after Susan, Caitlyn, Nicole,
Kelsey and I went out for lunch and got empanadas- definitely one of my
favorite Argentine foods! Then I went back home for a long siesta because we were heading to a boliche for the first time
tonight to celebrate Susan’s 21st birthday and the birthday of one
of the UCEL ambassadors. Between my siesta and heading out for the night, the
younger son of my host parents and his wife and three kids came over for dinner
and we had salads, chicken, and hamburgers. Their kids are also very adorable,
and I’ve now met all their children and grandchildren! Nights in Rosario don’t
start until late so a big group of our class from Simpson and ambassadors and
friends from UCEL met up at 11pm at a bar to hang out before getting in the
vans to the boliche. For the boliches here, you do not arrive before 2, so much
later than the US since that’s when the bars close. Once we got to the boliche
we stayed late. It was about 7:30am
before we left and went to find the vans that would take us back. It’s not as
common to stay that late I’m told, leaving at 5 or 6 is the norm, but we were
all traveling as a group so we all left together. I got home at 9am the next
morning. Can’t handle doing that every weekend!
Sunday- Day 11
I slept until 3pm today so I didn’t do much. We met up with
our group, our professor, one of the UCEL professors/international relations
directors, and a few of the ambassadors in the park to try mate. It was HOT HOT
HOT today. 95º F
and with humidity felt like 105º
F. It was kinda gross. The mate was also hot and I didn’t really like it. Mate
is made with yerba mate and you pur the hot water in a little vase thing with
it and drink out of a metal straw with a filter on the bottom so you don’t suck
up all the herb parts. The flavor is very strong and I don’t even really like
tea, but I gave it a shot. Two of the ambassadors brought tereré which uses the yerba mate, but
you add cold juice instead of hot water. I like the tereré a lot more! After I
walked home and ate dinner (more empanadas!) with my host mom. My host dad is
on vacation in Punta del Este, Uruguay with their daughter and her husband
right now so it’s just the two of us.
Day 12-
Monday
Mondays
start off bright and early with Spanish class at 8:30am, we’re still reviewing,
but finally getting to things I do need to review. After I stayed in the café
with a few girls for a while to work on some homework and wait for the other
Spanish class to let out and then Maddie and I got some spinach and mozzarella
pizza for lunch! Then we walked to Cordoba to fix my phone, but then it started
working all of a sudden, so we did a little window shopping and I found a cute
new shirt for 20 pesos- about $5! We also stopped at a supermercado, the first
time for me and then we wanted to try out a frozen yogurt place Maddie walks by
on her way to school. It was good, but not quite like the ones in the US (note:
one of my first stops back in Des Moines will undoubtedly be Menchies!) and we
hung out in the air conditioning for a while before I headed home. I didn’t do
too much again tonight, I’m still tired from the weekend. Dinner with my host
mom was soup, salad, and chicken- I’ve been excited for chicken, I had kind of
missed it the first week when we hadn’t eaten it! After, I spent some time on
the computer and did a bit of homework and now I’m headed to bed.
Day 13-
Tuesday
8:30
Spanish again today followed directly by Argentine History & Culture until
1:30pm with just 2 short breaks. I was extremely tired today and was not loving
sitting in class. It thunderstormed all night and I didn’t sleep too well
because it was loud. The weather this morning after the rain stopped was a lot
cooler and comfortable though. After classes, some of the girls and I went to
lunch next door at a cute restaurant called Fellinis, they have pretty good
lunch specials (we love the sorrentinos!) and started planning the trips we
want to take while we’re here. This took up a good chunk of the afternoon and
made me very excited to start traveling and see more of Argentina! After,
Maddie and I went back to the UCEL café to do some homework, send e-mails and
all that kind of stuff before going home for the day. When I got home I did a
little more homework and then ate dinner with my mom. We had soup, salad, and a
tarta with ham, cheese, eggs, and tomatoes and it’s baked in bread. They use a
lot of eggs in cooking here, good thing I like them! Now I’m just blogging,
getting ready for bed, and reading some more into guide books. I also spent
some of the afternoon looking into details for The Hunger Games movie that
comes out next week!!! Very excited that I get to see it about 12 hours before
all my friends back at Simpson- I’ll let you guys know how it is as soon as
it’s over for me next Thursday!!!! ;)
Day 14-
Wednesday
My
favorite day, I get to sleep in. Typical morning/afternoon in class, but we had
an extra long break due to our afternoon reflection class being pushed back a
little. I used the afternoon to do some homework and get some helado across the
street from UCEL and after class I rushed home to sign up for my fall classes
at Simpson. I can’t believe I just registered for my first semester classes of
my senior year of college!!! I feel
like just last week I was waiting and waiting and waiting for high school to
get the heck over with so I could leave for college, and here I am approaching
the last year… that’s kind of scary, good thing I have more school waiting
ahead of me so I don’t entirely have to grow up yet! I spent the evening at
home and had dinner with my host mom. We had hamburgers (without a bun) and a
fried egg on top. It was called something caballo (horse) because it’s like the
egg is riding on the hamburger, it was kind of funny!
Day 15-
Thursday
Susan
and I started a new adventure today- sitting in on an UCEL course. We are
taking a public health class since the nutrition class we wanted didn’t fit
with our schedule so we were up at UCEL bright and early at 8am. We were
pleasantly surprised that we pretty much understood everything, it would help
if the professor’s handwriting was a little clearer though! Maddie, Caitlyn and
I went to the bus station later to start checking out prices for our trips and
then we met one of the ambassadors to help us shoe shop. We weren’t very
successful, Maddie and my feet are too big for the cute sandals here :( I came
home and started packing my bags for our whole group’s weekend trip to Buenos
Aires and for dinner my host mom and I had spaghetti and later several of the
Simpson students and ambassadors met at one of the ambassadors apartments for
pizza and to hang out. I had to keep checking basketball scores on my ipod so I
have to add- way to go Cyclones!!!
Day 16-
Friday
I got
all my things together before class in the morning and headed to UCEL, right
after class we had a quick snack and grabbed some taxis to the bus station. The
ride to Buenos Aires is supposed to take about 4 hours, ours was unfortunately
about 5. We randomly pulled off of the highway and sat for a while because
something in the engine wasn’t functioning correctly, apparently a “busted
hose,” but eventually I guess they decided we were okay and we took back off.
Unfortunately for me, I was sitting next to the seat mate from hell and had
zero chance of sleep or comfort, but this isn’t surprising as I generally just
get the cream of the crop *sarcasm* next to me when traveling or anywhere with
assigned seating. At the bus station we then took taxis to our hotel. We got
divvied up into our rooms and then went to go find food because we were
starving! We found some pizza close by and brought it to our room and just had
a fun night in.
Day 17-
Saturday March 17th
Breakfast.
Oh my, breakfast! Our hotel had a nice continental breakfast. All kinds of different
breads, rolls, pastries, and fruits that aren’t typical to eat in homes in
Argentina where breakfast is very light. They even had some eggs and
Argentinean style sausage (chorizo)! We were all completely ready to eat all
the breakfast food we’re used to. After breakfast we headed off to see Buenos
Aires. We did a hop on, hop off kind of bus tour so we walked some and rode
some during the day. When we came back to the hotel we spent some time in the
[not-so] hot tub and then got ready to find somewhere to get dinner. We found a
restaurant, and had a not so great experience… I think we’d all like to forget
that one and then it was already late and we weren’t in much of a St. Patrick’s
Day mood so we just headed to bed.
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| 9 de Julio- Widest street in the world (only a part of it!) |
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| La Casa Rosado (Pink House)- Government building, kind of like our White House |
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| Behind La Casa Rosada, Argentine flags were everywhere! |
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| Inside the cathedral |
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| Susan, Nicole, Maddie, me, Kelsey, & Caitlyn in front of La Casa Rosada |
Day 18-
Sunday
Got up
and got breakfast again in the hotel and then Maddie, Susan and I ventured out
to see the couple places we still wanted to go. We headed to Teatro Colon,
which is a beautiful theater… according to pictures. It was actually really
close to our hotel and we were excited to see it, but the price for a tour, the
only way you can see the actual theater part, was a bit steep. If you’re from
Argentina, it’s only 30 pesos (less than $10), but if you’re a foreigner, they
charge you 110 pesos (closer to $30) and we decided it wasn’t worth it. Maybe
it is, but I guess we’ll just appreciate the pictures for free. Then we went to
Café Tortoni, the oldest café in Buenos Aires. It is very pretty and we sat
down for a pastry and a submarino. The submarino is the Argentine version of hot
chocolate. You get a mug of hot milk and a chocolate bar (shaped like a
submarine) and you drop it in and let it melt and stir it up. It was really
good! We were glad to see it and be able to say we had a little drink there.
Then we walked back home, most of the stores are closed on Sundays, so
unfortunately we couldn’t shop at all and then we met back up with Caitlyn,
Kelsey, and Nicole to go to the bus station and buy tickets for home. We got
back to Rosario around 6:30 or 7pm and then I took the city bus home and had
pizza and flan with my host parents before going to bed. I was tired!
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| Susan, Maddie, and I in Café Tortoni, too bad about the flash! |
As
usual, I went to class in the morning and then sat in the café to do some
homework. Then our group of 6 got to work on the first trip we have planned. Today
we booked our hostel and bought our bus tickets to Mar del Plata, a popular
beach city in Argentina! We are going on the first 3 day weekend we have, which
also happens to be my birthday weekend! We are all looking forward to relaxing
on the beach for a few days and I’m sure we’ll have a little cabin fever in
Rosario again and be ready to venture out to somewhere new by then. Tonight’s
dinner with my host parents was steak and lots of cooked veggies. We had
pumpkin and I loved it because it pretty much tasted like a sweet potato and I
miss sweet potatoes!
Tuesday-
Day 20
10 days
until my 21st birthday! =] I had class as usual from 8:30-1:30. Tuesday
is definitely my least favorite day of class because it’s my longest and we
have a 3 hour history class. It just makes me want to sleep. After, Maddie and
I took a bus to the mall and bought tickets for the 6 of us girls to see the
Hunger Games on Thursday afternoon. SO excited! And we get to see it about 12
hours before everyone in the US (hahaha!). At the mall I also got to enjoy
Starbucks, YUM! Sometimes it’s just the little things that you miss. They also
had a free sample while we were waiting in line, basically a quesadilla with
ham and cheese in it. Just that little triangle hit the spot and reminded me of
the many quesadillas I’ve made in the Kappa kitchen the last few years at
Simpson! We had a little adventure on the bus trying to get back, turns out not
all city buses exactly go around in a circle… lesson learned! Eventually I got
home and ate gnocchi really quickly with my host parents and got back on the
bus to go back to UCEL. We were invited by one of the international relations
ladies that is kind of in charge of all the students coming and making sure
everything is going well to come to her English class on Tuesday and Thursday
nights (they have late classes here
for students that work during the day and go to school at night- this class is
from 10:10-11:30pm!). It was really interesting to see students that are just
starting to learn English and talk to them. I actually had fun in a class that
I’m not required to go to… weird. After class a few of them were walking the
same direction as me and it didn’t take them two seconds to say “So wait you’re
American too!?” and start a conversation.
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