Lions & Tigers & Bears... OH MY!

Some of the most amazing animals ever...


We went to one of the most amazing zoos ever today.... Luján Zoo... Where you get to pet the animals. Like the tiger that I am petting above. Such amazing animals. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Never again will I be able to pet a tiger or play with lion cubs. Or bunnies? Ok, those maybe again. But they were adorable as well! We also rode a camel and an elephant!!! :)

Long time, no blog...

It's been awhile since my last blog. I haven't had anything new or exciting to talk about, except now it's getting down there.
My last week of school is tomorrow, I could not be happier! I wish I was learning. I'm not though. Classes here are made for international students and are therefore easy, and only two hours a week. Which I love and hate. I wish I enjoyed going to my classes, but I don't. However one more time to each class then finals! Which are kind of worrying me. Two of my finals are oral. Which means I get to sit there and answer my teachers questions on the spot, in Spanish! Both of which I am not looking forward to. Hopefully I do well though.
The day after I finish my finals, next Friday, my program has our final dinner, a farewell meal for everyone. The next Saturday off to Ushuaia, then end of the World! From there my roommate, two friends and I will backpack up to Calafate, and hike a glacier and drink brandy with glacier ice. Then to Puerto Madryn where we will ride a into the ocean to watch the whales, and take a trip to see thousands of penguins in their natural habitat. Then to Mar del Plata and BEACH! I am extremely excited to get away from the city and enjoy a different part of Argentina.
This last Sunday we ventured to Feria de Mataderos. Which is a big market in Buenos Aires, that sells different things from the cowboys and areas in the South and North. It's a great place to sink into the culture. Music is being blared as people dance in the streets, and gallop on horses down the street in attempts to hook a little ring on a piece of metal. Plus the food is amazing!After that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of my time here. The program I volunteer with goes to the jungle in Northern Argentina to volunteer for three days, if the dates work out I might join them. Or go up to the Northeastern part, or just stay in the city.
I am definitely going to miss my volunteering. It's been the most amazing part of my trip so far, and thinking of leaving those adorable kids is saddening. They are such bright lights in a dreary area. We did face painting today, it worked out in the beginning, then before we knew it everyone was painting everyone and it was a mess. They enjoyed themselves though, and that's what matters!

Mendoza

Thursday night we went to the provence of Mendoza, wine country. We left on a private bus for everyone from my program to go stay in a cabin on river surrounded my mountains, aka one of the most beautiful places ever. I did not want to leave once we got there, I am definitely sick of the concrete jungle that I've been living in and will be excited to venture out in November and go see some more nature.

We got there Friday morning after a little over twelve hours on a bus, we immediately had some free time to just sit by the water. I read my book for my literature class, Estrella Distante. Then we had a humongous lunch, we all though it was just a tarta and salad, then we got milanesa and french fries, plus some amazing cake for dessert. Then we went on a hike through the mountains, it was a ton of fun, and just so great to be outside in the sun, away from smog and concrete. We then had the most amazing and elaborate snack ever, with medialunas, cake and tea, it was sooooo good! There will never be a better snack.

The next day we went on a hike in the morning, and wandered through the mountain, and that afternoon we toured a couple of wineries. We saw a cute little small winery. They had farm animals and for some reason I was taking pictures of the pigs. Not really sure why. Afterwards I kept saying "what am I doing? I'm from Iowa?" Kind of hysterical. We also went to the biggest winery in Argentina, Bianchi. You can easily buy wine in the states from this winery, so look for it while buying your next bottle.

The last day we were there we went white water rafting in the beginning. It was only class 2, but it was fun. The four guides were a ton of fun, they kept pulling people into the water and just generally enjoying ourselves. At one point the water was calm and they said we could jump in if we wanted. I did and immediately regretted it. It was a bit chilly. Even though we were wearing these huge suites it was still chilly.

We left later that day and I did not want to leave. Almost all of us suggested to CEA that they do a program with half being in Buenos Aires and the other half out by Mendoza.

Other then that I don't ahve much time left with classes, thankfully. Two midterms this week, then three more weeks of class, followed by finals, and then flying to the end of the world and backpacking back up to Buenos Aires. Definitely excited for that!!

Whoa...

Whoa it's been a long time since I have updated my ever so boring blog! But it is better then writing in my journal... which has not been updated in an even longer amount of time...


The parentals were here for 18 days. They left
yesterday. And I am now back to my lonely boring lifestyle of not knowing what to do with my life most days. However while they were here we did some very memorable things, including
stuff that I had not even done yet. We ventured to the MALBA (Museo de Arte Latinoamericano
Buenos Aires), La Feria de Mataderos, which is all about the campos or countryside and the cowboys who live there. It was very entertaining, I got a cow horn ring! Woot! How many people have those in the states? And we went to Uruguay.

Uruguay was great, we went to Colonia de Sacramento, I have officially been to ten other countries outside the U.S., and it was a great escape from the city. If you started to cross the street cars actually stopped for you as opposed to honking or simply running you over. We had a great time, it wasn't too bad out. Mom and I went on a little shopping spree, oops. But I did get an amazing coat, backpack and a hoof mate. Haha, that one is a little funny. And then we rented a go kart! Woo-hoo! I hadn't driven for three months so that was rather interesting... Kept forgetting what a turn signal is, yet somehow we made it out alive and mom didn't have a heart attack from my horrible driving skills. Yay for going back to Iowa when there is snow on the ground and not having driven in over six months..... Uh-oh! Watch out!

While Mom and Skip were here we had some amazing meals!! I have never had such good steak in my entire life, and that's saying a lot, I am from Iowa. My favorite was Las Doritas which is a little place in Palermo. It is so popular that they built the same restaraunt kitty corner from the original. We ate in the original though, of course. And now I know to order entrana, or skirt steak. It's darn good, and problematic! I have eaten far too much meat, bread and dessert in the last few weeks.

This weekend CEA my study abroad program is taking us all to Mendoza, wine country! It should be a good time! We get to go there and drink some wine, tour some vineyards and go white water rafting!! Yay! Then the following weekend off to Cordoba with the roommates, then back for a weekend, then finals week, then down south, then I'm almost home. It's crazy. I'm on the downward slope of things. However no matter how much I love it here, I think I will be excited to go home!! Just not excited for the 12 hour plane ride to Atlanta then the plane ride to Chicago to get me there...

Parents

My parents are here!! Yay!! It's been a very tiring week... We haven't done all that much, but for some reason are always dead tired afterwards. Although we went to a River Plate futbol game. That was a blast! The fans are ridiculously crazy there!! We always think football games at home the fans are nuts, but they literally sang the entire game! It was a blast! I unfortunately failed at learning the songs prior to going to the game... but I know that if I go again I will study first!!



We ventured to Recoleta Cemetery and the Feria, which are amazing. I love eating stuffed bread at the feria and the cemetery is well amazing. There isn't another one like it in the world. Plus buying some wonderful things!!

Other then that just been enjoying the boho-hippie area of Palermo Soho and eating some good food!!! Uruguay sometime this week or next and who knows what else!!

This is what happens when....

So, now after salt being put in Fran's food and Jose's bed being moved into the bathroom, none of us can leave our rooms or the kitchen table without fully expecting something has been done to them... I will probably carry my plate and drink with me if I have to go get something else out of the kitchen... However I did wander home Monday after a long day of volunteering to find Karen in my room.... Karen, sometimes Carlos. Since we live about 10 blocks from the red-light district for transvestites Carlos will magically become Karen and go to work from about 6:30 at night till about 6:30 in the morning. You really have to love her for all the hard work she is doing. However opening your door and seeing her requires a "HOLLLYYYY SHIIIITTTT!" response. Which is what she got from me!!


Katie and I then wandered to the grocery store to grab some birthday presents for Fran and on the way back I told her to remind me that Karen is in my room, she forgot and screamed like a little girl!! That was hysterical! We then made Sarah go and "grab" something from my room, she also screamed like a little girl, so in the end Fran scared the crap out of all of us.....

We then put Karen in his room a long with a lot of balloons for his birthday which was yesterday! And about 50 balloons! Except we had to distract him for awhile and played the most entertaining game of Uno ever! Everyone we are playing this when I get back! Basically you play uno, except that once you get out you just come back in with seven more cards and you make up a rule. But you don't tell anyone what the rule is. You just give them a card when they break the rule. The first one we had was that you can't ask questions or you got a card! It was hilarious!! So I officially live in the house of pranks and crazy things...

Dwight

Thursday night instead of having frisbee practice we had a get together to get our new jerseys!! Our moto for the team is "Ceveza and Choripan!" (Beer and these really good sausage sandwiches). So we got together to drink and eat. It was a good time, one of the guys on my team is an amazing chef and I therefore ate the best Choripan I've had yet!!





We also got our amazing jerseys! VAMOS CADILLACS! CERVEZA, CERVEZA, CERVEZA, CERVEZA, CHORI, CHORI, CHORI, CHORI, PAN, PAN, PAN, PAN, PAN, PAN, PAN, PAN.... CAAAAAAAADDDDDDDILLLLLLLACCCSSS!






Friday was Sarah (my roommates) first day of work, she got a job as a promoter, so a few of us girls went out, because now we get in free! Woot! It was a new club in Recoleta and they have a black and white party. We decided to take a picture of the three of us girls living here, with our family dog, Watson. He's quite white, so we figured he would fit in perfectly with our outfits. Pagana was a cute little club, smaller then most of the others that we had been to, but it was a good time. It became a girls night out!! We came back kind of early, about 5 a.m., because Sarah had a soccer game the next morning and I had frisbee. We did not do so well. We played one of the better teams down here, and definitely got our asses handed to us, I only played one point and I told them that was a bad idea. But oh well... It was a good time anyway!!



Last night began as a rather uneventful night. Then we decided to pull a lovely prank on our host brother, Jose, who was gone for the weekend with friends. After going through lists and lists of things to do with nothing working, I started to watch clips from The Office on youtube and found the one where Jim moves Dwight's desk into the bathroom....

And then this happened...

Where the bed was...




Where the bed is...

IN THE BATHROOM!!

Pranks become way too much fun!! When Jose came back today we set up a camera in the bathroom to see his reaction, he walked into his room, then when he wandered in front of the bathroom he just stopped and stood there for about ten seconds just staring at his bed with computer and phone and everything sitting in the bathroom!! It was hilarious!



We got up this morning, with a lot of protesting from Sarah and me, to go do a "maraton" which was only a 10k. And we were going to walk the entire thing, but people here either can run the 10k and do it, which I can't... or they run or walk the 4k. Sarah and I eventually talked Katie into only doing the 4k and then walking home... Proves how lazy we are!!
However when we got up to go this morning Jose's bed had been moved back into his room. It turned out that our older brother Paul needed to shower and moved the bed back. So we had to move the bed back again...... but it was well worth it!