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)