Another beautiful day has gone by in Buenos Aires, I swear it's always sunny here! It got quite warm too, about 60 degrees and it felt even warmer in the sun. Yesterday morning Jessie, Lizzy, Niki and I decided to check out the rural exposition in on of the neighborhoods. It was really cool because it was like a country fair right in the middle of the city. We sat down in the stadium part of the fair to watch the caballeros (cowboys) show their cows and horses. One thing that I loved was seeing them in their traditional clothing! They wore really cool boots, and vests, and hats, different than our western cowboys anyways.

Some other funny things I've noticed while being here are the mullets, movies, and music. It's not uncommon to see guys with mullets walking around, wearing skinny jeans and converse or keds. They fit in perfectly with all the 80's music that plays everywhere! I don't know why, but in most public places, it's all music from the United States, 30 years ago. I've also hear Jason Mraz and other newer artists, but it's Celine Dion and Michael Jackson galore (and yes he's all over the news here too). Also a lot of the movies that play on the TV are in English with Spanish subtitles, or they're actual voices are dubbed in Spanish. For instance, last night I watched Cheaper by the Dozen 2, but in Spanish haha. Today a few friends and I went to see The Proposal, which I was so exited about because I really wanted to see it in the sates, but got to see here!

Today I found out that I got placed in the advanced II for my Spanish level, and I get to figure out what classes I get to take tomorrow during more orientation stuff. Classes won't start for a little while yet, but it's been really nice being able to explore the city. I feel like I already know my way around a lot of places and how the whole transportation system works.

Love you all back home and thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Country Girl Gone City

So I was thinking today; in west Michigan, I live on a dirt road. I have to drive 15 minutes if I want to get groceries or go shopping. Life for me here is so different that anything that I've been accustomed to! Right now there is loud traffic on the road down below with a siren zooming pass. When I walk out my front door, I jump right onto a sidewalk that's on one of the main roads in BsAs. It's lined with shops, cafes, banks, gyms, little supermarkets, kioskos, and even a McDonalds :), basically anything I could ever need. Life is so different here, so I thought I would make a little list of all the things I do/see/notice on a daily basis:

Water: Portenos (that's what the people from BsAs. call themselves) don't drink much water. I find myself coming home to my room and filling up a huge water bottle from the sink and chugging it as fast as I can. I get so thirsty! Water costs just as much as a coke in a restaurant, and you can order it with or without gas. I know that sounds funny but it just means that you can order carbonated water. Sometimes if you order a coffee or tea in a cafe they bring you a tiny shot-sized glass of water with gas haha. It makes me laugh

Transportation: I know this isn't really that big of a deal to some people reading this, but I have never had to take public transportation before except like 3 times in my life. This past Friday, I successfully completed trips on all four main means of transporation in BsAs: the colectivos - the crazy buses whose system I haven't completely figured out yet (there's probably about 200 different bus lines with different routes coming and going), the subte - short for subterraneos which means underground. There's one that runs right under my street, radiotaxis - a taxi with a meter inside so they don't jip you. They start at only 3.8 pesos and then add a little bit per mile, walking - of course there is a lot a lot a lot of walking around to get from place to place in a city.

Night life: I think I've explained this to a couple people already, but the night life here in the city is insane. Generally people don't eat dinner until 10 or even 10:30. My family eats a little bit earlier than most because we have a little girl and an old couple, so we eat supper at 9pm haha. Also, my host grandma asks if we're going out every night because it's pretty much just expected. I got home at 3 in the morning on Saturday night and that's considered early for most Porenos!

Money: Everything is so much cheaper here it's great! It's about 3.8 pesos per US dollar. If anyone needs to start their life over because of money, Argentina would be the place to do it!

Food: It's very good, I ate steak twice in one day. And my host grandma is a very good cook. Also, every morning waiting for me on the table is a bowl of cereal, a loaf of bread, jelly, coffee, tea, sugar, milk, and a basket of fruit (mom please take note of this). Ah life is good :)

Language: Castellano is what the call their language, they don't like to call it Spanish for some reason. And to everyone back home who I've told I am kind of fluent in Spanish, I take it back. They talk so fast! I can't understand very well yet haha. I'm hoping I'll improve soon!

Arquitecture: The buildings here are absolutely beautiful. A lot of it was built in the 1800's and has French and other European influence. Sorry these pictures aren't very good, I wish I had a better camera.

Well By now your eyes probably hurt from reading all this! But if you want to send me a love from the US via mail, send it to:
Kerri Terpstra CIEE-FLACSO Program Ayacucho 555 Buenos Aires, 1026 Argentina
(no packages please, supposedly it's really costly and takes forever to go through customs)

Un beso enorme para todos!

"El amor de una familia es lo bendición más grande de vida"

"The love of a family is life's greatest blessing," and now I have two!! Sorry I haven't updated the past couple days, a lot has happened, so here goes...

As you can probably tell, I moved in with my family! We all moved in with our families on Friday night. I was nervous and exited and didn't know what to expect before I met them, but then my host mom came to pick me up from the hotel where we were staying and all my fears melted away because she is so sweet! My host mom came to the hotel with her mother, who also hosts a student from CIEE (sorry this might get a little confusing). We all live in the same building together! My mom's parents and their host student live on the 2nd floor (we live in an apartment building that's above a whole bunch of shops on the first floor). There names are Marta and Adolfo and they are such a sweet old couple! They're hosting Anneke, one of the girls from my program so it's really nice to have someone right in the same building as me that also speaks English :) My family lives on the third floor. There's Maria Victoria (Mavi), her husband Diego, there adorable 4-year-old daughter Federica, and a new kitten Bon Bon! I don't really call them mom and dad like some students do because they are quite young haha. I can't wait to get to know them better!

The cool part about where Anneka and I live is that we're basically all one big happy family! We all eat together and hang out together in Marta and Adolfo's part of the building. It's such a beautiful old building that was built about 75 years ago (mom and dad you would love it)! Our family pretty much owns the whole building, I think there are officially 4 units, and then my room (I'll expalin that later), and one of them is taken by a man who lives across from Marta and Adolfo. Across from my parent's apartment is their business. They own a business that delivers like special diet meals (or something like that) to people who need to watch their cholesterol, are overweight, etc. My room is all by itself on the 4th floor, and I absolutely love it! It's quite big, and I have my own tiny little bathroom right there too. There's a random bar in my room and I don't know why it's there, but it looks pretty cool and sometimes I sit at it with my computer haha. I have a ton of natural light which is beautiful. There's a door from my room that opens up onto a HUGE patio because I'm basically on the roof. The whole house has access to it from the staircase too. I can't wait till it warms up a little bit so I can sit out there and enjoy the sun.

I don't have time to write more right now but I'll update again soon! Thanks so much for keeping me in your prayers everyone! So far everything has been wonderful and I love Buenos Aires!

Les Quiero a Todos!
Kerri


p.s. My pictures aren't working so I'll post the link to my facebook album once I get all the pictures uploaded.

Safe and Sound

Yes mom and dad, you heard it: safe and sound :) So adventure has officially begun, and I can't believe how fast it came! Yesterday there was a tearful goodbye at the Detroit airport, and now I'm on the other side of the world! The flights went very smoothly, it was so nice traveling with two friends. We even met a girl at the Detroit airport that was in the exact same program as us, so it was kind of cool getting to know her a bit.

I am now in a foreign country where I don't speak the language well, I don't really know the customs, and well, I'm a tall dutch girl. So let's just say I stick out a little bit haha. I'm totally out of my comfort zone, but I love it!!! A few of us girls took a walk around a couple blocks in town, and it's kind of what I expected, but different too. The city is alive with hustling and bustling, and the streets are pretty narrow with crazy scooter drivers that practically go onto the sidewalk. I loved looking in all the shops and am especially looking forward to stopping in one of the little panaderias (bakery) with all the pastries and dulce de leche I can devour! This is my forewarning to you all... I might come back home 30 lbs heavier than you remember me, but hopefully not ;)

I'm really tired now since I wasn't able to sleep well on the plane last night, so I'm off to a real bed now. I'll add some pics soon hopefully!

The Departure, dun dun dun...

Hello everyone! Right now I'm finishing up the last minute packing details and procrastinating as usual. I leave for Detroit in about 2 hours, and then at 3:20 the plane takes off Argentina bound! I'm a little nervous I'll admit, but exited beyond words! I'm going to keep this blog to kind of keep track of all my adventures, and that way all you guys can follow along too! So visit me every once in a while, feel free to shoot me an email: kerri.terpstra@hope.edu, and post your email addresses for me! See ya'll in a couple months! Hasta Luego :)