Week Eleven- Semana Santa

I can't believe week eleven is over all ready. Time is flying. This week was an exciting week, because we had Thursday and Friday off for Semana Santa (Holy Week).

Sunday- I went with some friends to La Feria de Mataderos which is normally a huge street market in the barrio Mataderos which is known for their beef, but it rained on Sunday morning, so not as many people set booths up. We took a bus about 40 minutes from where we live to Mataderos around 11. After getting there to find nothing set up, we went to the museum there which had a bunch of cool stuff about the gauchos and the cattle. After the museum we saw that people were starting to set stuff up, so we went to get lunch and then headed back to the feria. There wasn't nearly as much as there normally is (so we were told), but it was still really cool to see some different things at a street fair. I love the street fairs, but they tend to get repetitive after a while.


Monday and Tuesday were just normal days of class and then on Wednesday I packed and met up with my friends at 7:45 to head over to the bus station. Our bus left at 9:15 and we were woken up around 1 am to get our passports stamped at the border. After trying to get a few more hours of sleep, we arrived in the capital, Montevideo at 5:49 in the morning. Since we couldn't check into our hostel until 1, we decided to change some money over and then we walked around, found a city guide with the bus routes and a map and found a place to eat breakfast. Then we decided to walk around to see some of Montevideo's sights and came upon a map with a suggested walking tour of La Ciudad Vieja (Old City), so we walked over there and saw some of the old buildings and ended up at a street fair. Montevideo was great, because it was a big city, but didn't feel like it. I felt very safe there and the people were very helpful and nice. After grabbing some lunch, we headed over to our hostel. We checked in, paid and were on our way once again. We went to the beach (which was really close to our hostel) and just walked around and enjoyed the city. We opted for an early dinner as we were very tired and then headed back to the hostel after some ice cream.

Me in Montevideo at the beach.

Montevideo, Uruguay

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early to go to Punta del Este which is kind of a beach town about 2 hours from Montevideo. The weather could not have been more perfect. It was sunny and warm! We went to the beach right away to walk around a bit and to see the hand sculpture. Then we found a spot for lunch that was supposed to be very good. It lived up to our expectations! We had some very good fresh fish! Luckily we wanted fish, because they couldn't serve anything else as it was Friday during lent and Uruguay is a Catholic country just like Argentina. They told us that people barely work during Holy Week and that they didn't have a lot of ingredients. After lunch we headed back to the bus terminal to get a ticket to go see Casapueblo, which was about 40 minutes outside of town. It was a really distinct and cool building. The architect is primarily an artist, so the building is essentially a work of art and it was filled with his art and sculptures. After seeing all that we could we asked how to get back to Punta del Este. We were told that we would have to walk back to Punta del Este (approximately 6 miles). That wasn't go to happen. Luckily we asked someone else and found out that we could take a bus. After a few failed attempts and a bit of walking, we got a bus to take us back to the city. We finished up our day in Punta del Este with some ice cream, a little more walking, some souvenir shops and a quick dinner in the terminal. On they way back, I started to feel sick. I thought it was some sort of stomach bug, but it probably had more to do with the lack of sleep. We got back to the hostel around midnight and went right to bed.

Me in front of the hand in Punta del Este

Casapueblo

Saturday was much less rushed as we didn't have any concrete plans. We got up, ate breakfast and packed everything up for the day. After finding out where the closet supermarket was, we checked out of the hostel right at 11 and were on our way. We found another street fair a few blocks from our hostel, so we decided to check it out. It was very different from the ones we are used to. They were selling a lot of clothes and video games along with the typical street fair stuff. After browsing for a while, we headed to the supermarket, bought some food for lunch and headed back to the beach/park area. We decided to have a picnic instead of going out to lunch, because Uruguay was way more expensive than we were expecting. We just hung out by the beach for a good chunk of the day and then decided to walk around a bit before getting dinner and ice cream. We eat a lot of ice cream in South America. They have the best ice cream. I will always prefer Moomers, but this stuff is good. Before heading back to the bus terminal, we headed to another supermarket to pick up a few jars of dulce de crema de leche, which is similar to dulce to leche (basically caramel, but better), but is thicker and better and you can only get it in Uruguay. We had a bit of trouble finding a bus to take us to the terminal, but we ended up figuring it out and making it to the terminal with plenty of time to check in for our bus (we had to check in since it was international). We boarded our bus at 10, had to get our passports stamped at 3 and arrived in Buenos Aires at 7. Luckily I was able to take the train home. We weren't sure how the public transportation was going to work, because of Easter, but I only had to wait a few minutes and was home by 8.

Busy week this week! Next week I will for sure be taking it easy as I seem to have developed a cold.

Week Ten

I'm starting to get used to my routine. The classes are becoming pretty routine, but are going well. I'm finally getting to a point where I'm confident enough with my Spanish to actively participate in class. I really like Buenos Aires, but I find myself missing small things on a daily basis. Besides my family, friends and cats, I miss familiarity. It's kind of exciting here, because you never know what to expect every morning on your way to school, but I also miss being able to hop in my car and drive when I need to get somewhere. I always have a seat, I don't have to wait several minutes every time I want to go anywhere and I don't have to scrounge for monedas (coins) that basically don't exist here. That's a lie. There are monedas, but it seems like I'm always close to running out.

This last week was pretty normal. I planned a sort of last minute trip for the long weekend that's coming up. (We get Thursday/Friday off this week for Easter). We're going to Montevideo, Uruguay and we're going to make a pit stop in Punta del Este and Casapueblo, Uruguay as well. Uruguay is so much smaller than Buenos Aires, so it will be nice to be somewhere a little calmer.

Friday night was International Night at my school. Kids from different countries had booths with traditional food from their country. There was also a lot of music and people. It was fun, but I didn't stay too long as I was pretty tired from having class at 8am the same day. Before International Night, I hung out with some Argentine friends from my Psychology Class. We just got coffee and talked. It's great practice for me and they are all really nice!

(Left-Right) Some girl I don't know, Luci, Emir (back), Valentina, Isabel, Travis (back), Mora and I!

Only have two days of class next week, which will be a nice break! Will fill you in after I get back from Uruguay! Chao!

Week Nine

Another normal week this week. Classes are going really well and I like them all for the most part. The reading is still a lot, but it's getting easier. I'm also figuring out how much I actually need to read for each class. A lot of classes assign a ton of reading, but we can get by without reading all of it. Friday night I went out with some Argentines from my psychology class to celebrate our friend's birthday. It was a lot of fun and I got to hang out with some locals for a while! Saturday I went with some friends to see The Sound of Music (La Novicia Rebelde) in Spanish! It was really good and was pretty easy to follow. Some of the translations didn't work too well, but it was a great show!

 

This is a video of the production I saw. This is Do Re Mi! 

Week Eight

A pretty normal week this week. Finally confirmed my classes on Monday. After two weeks of running around getting signatures and e-mailing back and forth between advisers, this process has been completed. All of my classes have been going well. There is a lot of assigned readings, but they aren't really necessary for the class. The classes seem to be designed so that everyone can do well even without doing much. Our grades are based mostly on two tests and a couple of papers. For my history class, my prof is going to give us a list of questions we need to know for the exams. He's essentially giving us the answers. Doesn't get much easier than that! The main reasons for taking these classes is for my Spanish to improve and it definitely is! Speaking is getting much easier and faster (my host mom has been complimenting me on my Spanish lately :-D ) and listening is getting a lot easier. Some of the professors speak really fast and the students speak even faster, so I've had to get used to listening quickly and attentively for long periods of time.

My free day during the week is Wednesday and of course I have the weekend. This Wednesday, I went downtown to get some more gifts bought and to just enjoy the beautiful weather. It's fall here now and it's perfect. The weather is about 70-80 everyday and sunny. Not exactly the fall I'm used to, but it's much better than the 90 degrees at the beginning of my trip.

Saturday I went with some friends to Jardín Japonés (Japanese Garden). It was beautiful and they had a special day for Japan. All of the entrance fees and food costs, etc were donated to Japan to help with the tsunami and earthquake relief. They were selling pins that said "Fuerza Japon" (Japanese Force). It was really nice, but was heartbreaking to see some of the pictures of the damage in Japan. After the garden, my friend Karen and I went to see a march for autism, because she works at a special needs camp during the summer and wanted to check it out. It ended up being more handing out flyers and walking in front of cars at the stoplights with signs, so we headed home.

Jardin Japonés

Not a terribly eventful week, but it was good and now we're 1/3 of the way done with Argentina. Crazy how time is flying!