Wow, lots and lots to do. So I just recently heard a rumor, that the Buenos Aires program I chose is the hardest CIEE study abroad program.... I believe it. There's just work, work, work that keeps piling up! And I mean, I'm studying abroad! I wasn't expecting to actually have to do work!!...;) Just kiddin. But I am definitely learning a lot from all my classes, and having such tough classes is really helping the language skills too. Everything is starting to wind down here, final parciales and trabajos are due soon. I'll pretty much be done with everything by December 10! Which means I get a whole week just to enjoy my time here and relax, maybe do a little bit of last chance traveling. Greg gets here in T minus 10 days!!! I can't wait! We'll go around the city and do all the touristy things that I haven't gotten the chance to do yet, and maybe even take a day trip to our neighbor Uruguay.
I've been thinkin about home a lot more lately, now that I realize my time is almost up here. I know it sounds cliche, and I've said it so many times already, but I canNOT believe how fast it has gone. I will be home in 34 days! It's weird though, I can't wait for Christmas, it still seems like it's eons away. It just keeps getting warmer and warmer here, and there's palm trees for cryin out loud! You can't REALLY celebrate Christmas with palm trees and 80 degree weather, I mean, come one. But nevertheless, it is coming up fast! I walked past a store the other day and was a bit shocked to see it full of Christmas decorations. Can't wait to be home to celebrate the holidays with all of you guys back home! But don't get me wrong, I'm definitely still enjoying my time here! I can surely say that it's going a bittersweet ending.
Alright...back to work. I'm going to get two more pages done on my paper, then reward myself at the ice cream shop across the street :) See you soon!
I can't wait to write a paper in English!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Sights, Sounds, Smells
Los Parques
The dog walkers
Amorous couples lounge around
The super pancho vendor
Pigeons that fight over crumbs
The distant noises of a city
The cute outfit of the girl passing through
Beautiful arquitecture of the Facultad de Medicina building
Little kids with sticky faces from their dripping popsicles
A jack hammer rattles in the distance
The crazy homeless man feeding the birds next to me
Laughs and hoots of the hooligans under the tree
Cigarette fumes rising into the air
Students diligently studying
Mate drinkers
Girl singing along with her ipod
The florescent color my hi-lighter leaves on the page
A man playing his guitar
Little boy playing catch with his dad
Colectivo linea 132 coming to a screeching halt
Street performers juggling
Colorful playground in the trees
Boy tricking on his skateboard
The man with two young children asking for a few moneditas,
Complementing me on the color of my eyes
I come here to do homework,
But
Watching all these things is a lot more interesting,
Than my stack of papers to be read for class tomorrow
Monday, October 26, 2009
Where Kerri Adventures
I thought I'd post a map with all the different cities I've visited in Argentina, just so you get an idea of where all the places are that I talk about. There's so much more that I want to see, but unfortunately time and money are not unlimited :) Enjoy!
Friday, October 23, 2009
My life as of late
So, my most recent adventure: Iguazu Falls. I don't even know how to sum up this trip into words, whatever I say won't do it justice, but it was absolutely incredible! Thursday, October 8, a few friends and I hopped on a double decker bus, and rode 20 hours to Puerto Iguazu which is located on the border of Brazil and Argentina. When we arrived the first thing we did was just soak in the heat! Although we've had a few really nice hot days in Buenos Aires, it's still not quite warm all the time. So it felt great to be surrounded by tons of palm trees with the hot sun shining down. We stayed at Hostel Inn, which is by far the most amazing hostel ever. Huge gorgous pool, a bed, private bath, air conditioning, restaurant, internet, poolside bar, good location, and all this for, wait for it...13 USD! Crazy right?
Saturday we spent most of the day at the falls. First we walked on the paseo superior - the higher path. So we got a great view of all the falls and got to see how big the range actually is. Then we got into jungle safari mode, hopped into the back of a touristy, uncovered truck thing, and had a tour through the forest on our way down to the river. From there we got on a boat, warterproofed up all our stuff in bags, and set out down the river to the foot of the falls. Being right there was almost overwhelming, looking up at alllll that water pouring over the cliff. we even got to go into all the mist that was billowing everywhere. It was basically like I had taken a shower we got so soaked. After eating our sack lunches on a rock right on the river by the falls and pretending to be mermaids, we walked around the paseo inferior (lower path), saw some crazy wildlife including a huge black snake and coati (crazy little buggers that steal your food, some cousin or something of a racoon), and then..... headed to El Garganta de Diablo! Dun dun dunnnn. That means devil's throat btw. To get there we had to walk on this super long boardwalk over what seemed to be endless water. I don't understand where it all comes from, it was like one endlessly wide river, but had trees and plants and little chunks of land everywhere. Garganta del Diablo is basically all this water, cascading down one huge u-shaped cliff. It was sooo loud! And every once in a while a huge cloud of water would come up and wash over us all on the boardwalk. Looking down into the middle you couldn't even see the bottom, it was all mist, and there was an awesome rainbow too!
So I think I said in my last post that Iguazu Falls were one of the seven wonders, well it's one of the seven forgotten natural wonders of the world. How many seven wonders of the world lists can there be anyways? But anywho I think I'm done traveling for a while now. Have to concentrate on school (yes study abroad students do actually do some homework sometimes) and save a little money. I had three exams recently and a paper due last week, sooo we'll see how those turn out. I'm pretty nervous actually :/ It's crazy we really only have a couple weeks of class left, the majority of my classes finish the last week in November, so I just get to chill here for a little while before coming home. And Greg comes to visit, in 32 days!!! I haven't been keeping track or anything...;)
Hope all is well back home, in the cold, hehe. It's been gorgeous here, reaching 80's a few times and sun sun sun! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!
un abrazo grandisimo!
Kerri
Saturday we spent most of the day at the falls. First we walked on the paseo superior - the higher path. So we got a great view of all the falls and got to see how big the range actually is. Then we got into jungle safari mode, hopped into the back of a touristy, uncovered truck thing, and had a tour through the forest on our way down to the river. From there we got on a boat, warterproofed up all our stuff in bags, and set out down the river to the foot of the falls. Being right there was almost overwhelming, looking up at alllll that water pouring over the cliff. we even got to go into all the mist that was billowing everywhere. It was basically like I had taken a shower we got so soaked. After eating our sack lunches on a rock right on the river by the falls and pretending to be mermaids, we walked around the paseo inferior (lower path), saw some crazy wildlife including a huge black snake and coati (crazy little buggers that steal your food, some cousin or something of a racoon), and then..... headed to El Garganta de Diablo! Dun dun dunnnn. That means devil's throat btw. To get there we had to walk on this super long boardwalk over what seemed to be endless water. I don't understand where it all comes from, it was like one endlessly wide river, but had trees and plants and little chunks of land everywhere. Garganta del Diablo is basically all this water, cascading down one huge u-shaped cliff. It was sooo loud! And every once in a while a huge cloud of water would come up and wash over us all on the boardwalk. Looking down into the middle you couldn't even see the bottom, it was all mist, and there was an awesome rainbow too!
So I think I said in my last post that Iguazu Falls were one of the seven wonders, well it's one of the seven forgotten natural wonders of the world. How many seven wonders of the world lists can there be anyways? But anywho I think I'm done traveling for a while now. Have to concentrate on school (yes study abroad students do actually do some homework sometimes) and save a little money. I had three exams recently and a paper due last week, sooo we'll see how those turn out. I'm pretty nervous actually :/ It's crazy we really only have a couple weeks of class left, the majority of my classes finish the last week in November, so I just get to chill here for a little while before coming home. And Greg comes to visit, in 32 days!!! I haven't been keeping track or anything...;)
Hope all is well back home, in the cold, hehe. It's been gorgeous here, reaching 80's a few times and sun sun sun! Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers!
un abrazo grandisimo!
Kerri
Monday, September 14, 2009
La Edad de Pavo
We were sitting around the dinner table the other night and I heard my host dad keep saying something about "pavo" - turkey. I was wondering what he was talking about, and upon seeing my confused look, asked me, "do you know what the 'edad de pavo' is?" I knew that it translated as 'the age of the turkey,' but I didn't know what that meant. He explained that he was at his sister's house, and his nephew is at that age, about 11 years old. It clicked and I realized he was talking about the awkward stage of life! You know, when you were in middle school, had braces, and all the girls were taller than the boys. I just thought that was a funny translation/fun fact. Edad de pavo = awkward stage :)
Every once in a while, I'll be home for lunch time and so I'll cook myself up a little something. My host-grandpa thinks I'm an idiot. I don't know, maybe I've been cooking eggs wrong my whole life or something, but do you guys put oil in the pan before making scrambled eggs? I cracked a few eggs and threw them on the pan, and my grandpa was like, "Que estas haciendo!?" "What are you doing?" He's like no it's going to stick! And I replied stupidly, "Well, I never use oil at home" or something like that, and just explained that I scrape out the pan afterward. A different time I was frying up a burger on the stove, and apparently I was using the wrong utensils because he quickly picked off the pan I was using to swap it with another one, burning his hand in the process. Needless to say, the pan he gave me did work better, but I swear, they use different things here. So now I never like going in to the kitchen to make something because my grandpa is always there, smoking a cigarette by the radio... But don't get me wrong, he's so great and a ton of fun too!
Still continuing with classes, which I hate to say are quite difficult. It's mostly a ton of reading, we're not really graded on much so when we do have something to be graded, ya better work pretty hard. The more pictures of Hope College I see on the internet, the more I miss it, but I'm still having the absolute time of my life here in Argentina, and I'm growing in so many different ways.
Escaping the city for a while is always a blessing. One Sunday a few friends and I took a train from Retiro train station to a city called Tigre. It's on a delta so it has tons of rivers flowing through. A Catamaran ride, Puerto de Frutas, chocolate covered strawberries and cotton candy can really do wonders for a soul :) Two weekends ago of us Flacsitos flew 2.5 hours north to the province of Salta for an excursion. We stayed in a small pueblo called Tilcara which we all like to call llama land. It was really high altitude, and extremely desert-like. The sun was really intense during the day, but dropped down pretty chilly at night. I wouldn't usually describe a desert as pretty, but the mountains that we saw were absolutely breathtaking! There were literally blue, pink, purple, yellow, and green mountains. Then there would be a mountain that had like a whole bunch of colorful stripes! It was really humbling looking at the huge, majestic mountains and thinking about whose powerful hands created those, and decided to make little old me as well. We also got to see Las Salinas, or the big salt flats. It was so weird! A huge, vast, desert of salt right in the mountains. It was really beautiful. Here are just a few pics, I'll post some more to an album soon - enjoy!
So until next time,
Kerri
Every once in a while, I'll be home for lunch time and so I'll cook myself up a little something. My host-grandpa thinks I'm an idiot. I don't know, maybe I've been cooking eggs wrong my whole life or something, but do you guys put oil in the pan before making scrambled eggs? I cracked a few eggs and threw them on the pan, and my grandpa was like, "Que estas haciendo!?" "What are you doing?" He's like no it's going to stick! And I replied stupidly, "Well, I never use oil at home" or something like that, and just explained that I scrape out the pan afterward. A different time I was frying up a burger on the stove, and apparently I was using the wrong utensils because he quickly picked off the pan I was using to swap it with another one, burning his hand in the process. Needless to say, the pan he gave me did work better, but I swear, they use different things here. So now I never like going in to the kitchen to make something because my grandpa is always there, smoking a cigarette by the radio... But don't get me wrong, he's so great and a ton of fun too!
Still continuing with classes, which I hate to say are quite difficult. It's mostly a ton of reading, we're not really graded on much so when we do have something to be graded, ya better work pretty hard. The more pictures of Hope College I see on the internet, the more I miss it, but I'm still having the absolute time of my life here in Argentina, and I'm growing in so many different ways.
Escaping the city for a while is always a blessing. One Sunday a few friends and I took a train from Retiro train station to a city called Tigre. It's on a delta so it has tons of rivers flowing through. A Catamaran ride, Puerto de Frutas, chocolate covered strawberries and cotton candy can really do wonders for a soul :) Two weekends ago of us Flacsitos flew 2.5 hours north to the province of Salta for an excursion. We stayed in a small pueblo called Tilcara which we all like to call llama land. It was really high altitude, and extremely desert-like. The sun was really intense during the day, but dropped down pretty chilly at night. I wouldn't usually describe a desert as pretty, but the mountains that we saw were absolutely breathtaking! There were literally blue, pink, purple, yellow, and green mountains. Then there would be a mountain that had like a whole bunch of colorful stripes! It was really humbling looking at the huge, majestic mountains and thinking about whose powerful hands created those, and decided to make little old me as well. We also got to see Las Salinas, or the big salt flats. It was so weird! A huge, vast, desert of salt right in the mountains. It was really beautiful. Here are just a few pics, I'll post some more to an album soon - enjoy!
So until next time,
Kerri
Friday, September 4, 2009
Keep it Comin
Apologies, the last post is actually from about three weeks ago, but I guess it went away for a little while? Anyways, lots has been going on since I last wrote. This past Wednesday marked the day exactly 6 weeks since I left the great US, that's the longest I've ever been away from home! Like I've said before, I really can't believe how quickly it's going. It might slow down a little bit more now that I've been getting into a routine. Things are going to get rough with all the literature being piled up onto my back, on top of the constant thought process from English to Spanish. I hope that soon I won't have to be translating in my head as much and the words will just flow... that might take a while though :)
When I'm not in class I find that I usually occupy my time with many different types of things here in BsAs:
Cafe Culture: There are literally cafes or restaurants on every single block. Every time I walk by one I always say, "ooo that looks like a good one I'll have to try it sometime!" But there is literally no way I will be able to try them all, they're EVERYWHERE! It's nice though, you never have to walk far to find something to eat. Even if you just pick up a quick snack at a maxikiosco (please see description below)
Kioscos: These are terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible, but I love them. You can come across these even more frequently than a cafe. Basically it's either a tiny hole in the side of a building or an actual little store where tons of snacks and refreshments are sold. It's so hard to pass up sometimes because there are so many snacks here that I've never had before! In the US, I've probably tried all the different kinds of candy bars, sodas, and crackers. But here, I feel like a kid again, drooling over the vast selection of dulces.
Night Life: I think I've talked a bit about this before, but Buenos Aires has a life that is unlike anything I've ever heard of, but that could be because I've been in a little West Michigan bubble my whole life... Anyways, last week Saturday some friends and I were taking a cab home at like 4:30 in the morning, and there were people on the streets everywhere! Some of the clubs and bars were just beginning to get busy! I don't understand haha. And the thing is that some people do this 3 to 4 times a week and then head to school or work the next morning! I think they're crazy. For me, being out that late is ok once a week for me, and only on the weekend haha.
Tourist traps: Sometimes it's inevitable, I try to blend in as much as possible so I don't look like a gringa too much, but I still gotta see the sights ya know? I love going to the markets with all of the handmade clothing, leather items, food, music, and souvenirs. They are so much fun! I also like going to salsa lessons and watching tango. Going to see the Casa Rosada might be a good idea to see too, and unlike the White House, we can actually walk right into the main government building here.
And of course...Homework: Had a little predicament the other day with course complications, but now it's all sorted out and hopefully things will be a little bit easier. I'm taking two literature courses, and it is a TON of reading, in Spanish, obviously. So it takes a while but I'm getting used to it. My two Spanish classes, grammar and listening/converstaion are great. We're really learning a lot about the language, especially the differences from what I've been taught my whole life, and the Castellano the the Portenos use.
I finally added photos to another snapfish album of our Bariloche trip. Sorry I realize that you have to make an account to view the pictures, if anyone knows of another way to post them publicly let me know! I still don't know much about this whole blogging thing.
When I'm not in class I find that I usually occupy my time with many different types of things here in BsAs:
Cafe Culture: There are literally cafes or restaurants on every single block. Every time I walk by one I always say, "ooo that looks like a good one I'll have to try it sometime!" But there is literally no way I will be able to try them all, they're EVERYWHERE! It's nice though, you never have to walk far to find something to eat. Even if you just pick up a quick snack at a maxikiosco (please see description below)
Kioscos: These are terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible, but I love them. You can come across these even more frequently than a cafe. Basically it's either a tiny hole in the side of a building or an actual little store where tons of snacks and refreshments are sold. It's so hard to pass up sometimes because there are so many snacks here that I've never had before! In the US, I've probably tried all the different kinds of candy bars, sodas, and crackers. But here, I feel like a kid again, drooling over the vast selection of dulces.
Night Life: I think I've talked a bit about this before, but Buenos Aires has a life that is unlike anything I've ever heard of, but that could be because I've been in a little West Michigan bubble my whole life... Anyways, last week Saturday some friends and I were taking a cab home at like 4:30 in the morning, and there were people on the streets everywhere! Some of the clubs and bars were just beginning to get busy! I don't understand haha. And the thing is that some people do this 3 to 4 times a week and then head to school or work the next morning! I think they're crazy. For me, being out that late is ok once a week for me, and only on the weekend haha.
Tourist traps: Sometimes it's inevitable, I try to blend in as much as possible so I don't look like a gringa too much, but I still gotta see the sights ya know? I love going to the markets with all of the handmade clothing, leather items, food, music, and souvenirs. They are so much fun! I also like going to salsa lessons and watching tango. Going to see the Casa Rosada might be a good idea to see too, and unlike the White House, we can actually walk right into the main government building here.
And of course...Homework: Had a little predicament the other day with course complications, but now it's all sorted out and hopefully things will be a little bit easier. I'm taking two literature courses, and it is a TON of reading, in Spanish, obviously. So it takes a while but I'm getting used to it. My two Spanish classes, grammar and listening/converstaion are great. We're really learning a lot about the language, especially the differences from what I've been taught my whole life, and the Castellano the the Portenos use.
I finally added photos to another snapfish album of our Bariloche trip. Sorry I realize that you have to make an account to view the pictures, if anyone knows of another way to post them publicly let me know! I still don't know much about this whole blogging thing.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
First Real Week
I can't believe that it's been one month. Time sure flies when you're having fun I guess. We got back into Buenos Aires on Monday the 17th after an amazing 5 days in Bariloche. To be honest, I didn't want to leave, none of us did. It was so beautiful there with the mountains, lake, and the cool, fresh air. Our Saturday in Bariloche we really didn't have any plans, so one of the gals pulled out a map, and figured out a bus ride to Lake Gutierrez. We walked around for a while and happened to come upon a hiking trail. It was actually more strenuous than we expected, the snow didn't help out either because it was so slippery. It was all worth it when we got to the top of the "Mirador!" It was a bit cloudy, but the view was still breathtaking with the huge snowflakes falling gently. I hope that someday I get to go back.
Thus began our first official week of school.... I am planning on taking classes at three schools here: FLACSO - this is where CIEE is locate and where my two Spanish classes are, as well as a literature class. UCA - Universidad Catolica Argentina, I'm taking a 6 credit literature class here. It's going to be extremely difficult... And lastly IUNA - Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte. It's an art school where I will be taking a Folklore and Art class. So far this has been my favorite schooling experience. Even though the class isn't super interesting, I just love the atmosphere of the School. As I'm sitting in the classroom I can hear piano music, drumming, and clapping coming from the surrounding dance studios. It makes me want to join them so bad! There are always students milling about in the courtyard with guitars or practicing their dance choreography. I know that it's going to make me miss dancing a lot, so hopefully I can find some type of class to join soon!
Thus began our first official week of school.... I am planning on taking classes at three schools here: FLACSO - this is where CIEE is locate and where my two Spanish classes are, as well as a literature class. UCA - Universidad Catolica Argentina, I'm taking a 6 credit literature class here. It's going to be extremely difficult... And lastly IUNA - Instituto Universitario Nacional del Arte. It's an art school where I will be taking a Folklore and Art class. So far this has been my favorite schooling experience. Even though the class isn't super interesting, I just love the atmosphere of the School. As I'm sitting in the classroom I can hear piano music, drumming, and clapping coming from the surrounding dance studios. It makes me want to join them so bad! There are always students milling about in the courtyard with guitars or practicing their dance choreography. I know that it's going to make me miss dancing a lot, so hopefully I can find some type of class to join soon!
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