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!