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!

School, Spanish, and Skiing

I knew it wouldn't be fun and games forever, class had to start sometime...:) Just kidding, like I said I was exited for class to start. However, I don't know what I was expecting, but the first and second day was really hard!!! On Monday, we got to UCA (Universidad Catolica de Argentina) about a half hour early in order to get to the right building and find our classroom on time. The schedules on the wall were so confusing, and different than the ones we had received online, so we ended up in some economics class, and had to get up and walk out during introductions - so embarassing! Tuesday's class went a lot better, we went to the class that we meant to go to on Monday. It went smoothly and the professor is awesome! She's very sweet and seems willing to help us with whatever we need. It's a 6 credit literature class...about Aristotle, Shakespeare, and other authors that I don't even understand in English. Culture shock began to seep in a little. I'm realizing that I have a lot of work to do on my Spanish-speaking-abilities and culture immersion. Needless to say it's going to be very tough, but I have my Esperancitas (little hopes - that's also what us four Hope girlies call each other) with me! :)

Currently, I am in Bariloche, Argentina. It was kind of a last minute deal. On Sunday a group of 12 CIEE students decided to travel, Monday I booked my bus ticket, and we left Tuesday afternoon. After a 20+ hour bus ride, we arrived in the province of Patagonia, right at the foot of the Andes Mountains. 20 hours on a bus seems bad, but it was actually pretty fun, and it was super nice, a lot more comfortable than a plane. The food wasn't too bad either.

It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL here. We're staying in a really neat hostel called Patanuk Lake Hostel. The owner is awesome and everyone here is really cool, it's so chill! Here's the website if you want to check it out: www.patanuk.com. It's right on Lake Nahuel Huapi, and part of the mountain range is directly across. We woke up this morning at 8am to a pink and purple sunrise over the lake with the mountains and fog in the background. It was breathtaking! God is the greatest artist there is. A delicious breakfast is included in our 13 dollar a night fee in our hostel, and it was delish! Homemade bread, cereal, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and of course.... dulce de leche :) If I haven't explained what that is yet, it's pretty much a caramel-y type spread that Argentines put on EVERYTHING! Dulce de leche flavored ice cream, oreos, toast, medialunas, alfajores, you name it...

After breakfast, the owner of the hostel personally drove us to Catedral, a ski resort here in Bariloche. I have to say that skiing in the Andes Mountains is just not the same as skiing in Michigan :) The mountains were gorgeous! It was weird seeing snow when I am still in the Michigan summer mode. It's actually going to be warming up soon in Buenos Aires, next week will be in the 60's and by the end of September it will be summer!

I'll update soon with pics :) abrazos y besos! (XOXO)

Wow where to begin? Sorry it's been so long in between posts, a lot has happened and I've been super busy!

For orientation this week, all of us students have been figuring out our class schedules. It was kind of stressful figuring out what would transfer back to Hope, but the classes I came up with should work out great! I'm really ready to start - as weird as that sounds, but I would like to get a routine going instead of just mosy-ing along and spending money. Don't get me wrong, it's been great so far though! Like I said earlier it has been really nice getting to know the city!

Monday night a few of us students went to this club/old warehouse type thing called Konex. Apparently every Monday night there's a percussionist group called La Bomba de Tiempo that play. They were phenomenal! And dad you would have loved it :)

So far I've done a few "touristy" type things in the city. I've seen the Plaza de Mayo, which is in the center of the city and is where most of the government buildings are. The Casa Rosada, "The Pink House," is the White house of Buenos Aires. It's beautiful! After that, us Hope girls (Niki, Jessie, Lizzy, and I) went to the oldest cafe in the city. I love going to cafes and this one was so cute! It was built in the 1800's and had a lot of the original woodwork/tables/wallpaper/bar/etc.

Thursday night, Anneke (one of the girls from my program who lives in the same building as me) went dancing! We went to a culture center called La Viruta and for 16 pesos - about 4.2 US dollars - we got to take a salsa, milonga, and tango lesson, and then there was a an open floor. Even though Buenos Aires is famous for the tango, salsa is definitely my favorite! I can't wait to start my salsa classes that I'm taking through a different culture center!

This weekend, all 106 of us CIEE students got to go on an overnight field trip to a province outside of the city called San Antonio de Areca. It was beautiful and so much fun! It made me miss home a little bit because I saw dirt roads again for the first time, and smelled beautiful fresh air!! I always took that for granted back home. On another note, I don't think I've ever eaten so much food in my entire life. It was SO GOOD! For dinner Friday night we had like a 4 course meal with tortilla papas, salami, breads, cheezes, ham, empenadas, salad, and flan for dessert. Saturday's lunch was pretty much the same thing - deliciousness. I'm going to have to get some recipies while I'm down here that's for sure. We spent the whole day saturday at La Bomba Chica, which is kind of like a ranch. We went horseback riding, played games, ate good food, and watched a cool show! We got to watch some gauchos (cowboys) do some cool horsetricks, and we also learned a traditional dance, kind of like flamenco.

All in all it was a great week, and I'm looking forward to what else God has in store for my adventures in Argentina. One of my classes starts this week at La Universidad Catolica Argentina, and the rest start next week. Hasta Lugeo! *muah

FOOD! Dinner our first night in San AntoniWatching lunch cook at the La bomba ChicaGauchos!