Hola friends and family!
Well, we all thought I was a bad blogger before but now its been almost a month and I haven´t written to update! Where shall I begin!?
Well lets just say that classes are in full swing and here´s a bummer: I´m actually doing homework! Not too much, so don´t get worried. Still relaxing and enjoying Argentina. I have midterms soon, which is crazy to admit. I think someone told me that this week, we will have been here for 60 days! Crazy! In some ways, I feel like I have developed a new life down here in two months. But in other ways, I feel like I just got here!
We went to a farm about two weeks ago and saw some amazing animals! Turkeys don´t seem that exciting, but when you haven´t actually seen one standing up walking around, with it´s feathers all puffed out, it is very interesting! We also saw some cows, emus, geese... And we rode horses! Plus I did this mini zip line thing, which was pretty cool!! (If you want to see pictures, a lot of them are on facebook. I´m not sure exactly how to put pictures on here!)
We also went to the Tigre River. The first time we went, it was kind of dreary, and the weather wasn´t so great. Another day, Sarah and I went back to the river with Adam and his family. I even saw Adam and his brother waterski, which was pretty cool!
I miss everyone a lot, though. It´s also been weird not having a job down here. Well, I am giving a friend´s Mom English lessons, which is really fun! I actually love teaching. I usually see her for an hour a day, three to five times a week. I´ve been giving lessons for almost three weeks and she has already made a lot of progress, which is really neat to see!
So a few of my friends decided that they were going to do one crazy thing while they were in Argentina. We went to a casino last week (Sarah´s crazy thing was gambling) and I lost 10 pesos. Oh well, only $3... She said she needs to find something new thats crazy because gambling was very anti climatic.
Alex and Katherine decided their crazy things would occur on a day called "Body Mutilation Day." (Deemed that by Alex himself!) Alex got his septum pierces, and Katherine got her ears pierced, an industrial piercing and a small tattoo. Erika got her ears pierced and her friend from another program got her eyebrow pierced. I was there for "apoyo moral" (moral support) but I didn´t get anything done. I still need to figure out what my crazy Argentina thing will be! Perhaps skydiving!? Bungeejumping!? HANG GLIDING!?!? (Mom, breathe... I´m kidding!)
We´re going to a tango show soon, which I am really excited for. We are also in the process of planning a trip to Mendoza, a 12 hour bus ride from here. (Yay for Comso magazine en español!) It´s wine country, so we are hoping to do a wine tasting. We also found a program that does bike riding, horseback riding, repelling and some other activities. We´re really hoping to also go to the hot springs and white water rafting! Vamos a ver... (We´ll see...)
Anyway, I hope all of you at home are well and I miss you a ton!
Love, Becca
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
And what a bad blogger I´ve been!!!
Hola everyone!
Its been crazy here... Like I said, classes are in full swing and that means going to them... Not an excuse for not blogging in 9 days but ehh cest la vie!
So the class update is this: We had to finalize our schedules by Friday. I am taking...
Monday: Español (3-5), Lit 1 (5-7), Argentine Art (7:30-9:30)
Tuesday: Tango (1-3), Keystone (3-5)
Wednesday: Español (3-5), Traditions and Culture (5-7)
I was going to take this history class but let me just tell you... We talk about history so much in Lit and Keystones that I was like, I CANT STAY IN THIS CLASS! Its crazy that I only have class 3 days a week. But I think Thursday is going to be a homework/ study day. This week, we are meeting up to go over some verbs (ser, ester, ir, haber, y tener, in case anyone is interested) and hopefully some expressions. I think itll really help a lot.
Last week, I went to 2 musuems. One was dedicated to Sarmiento and the other just had some different Argentine art and history displays. The second musuem had this amazing garden, and we took a bunch of picutres. Speaking of pictures, Im not quite sure how to upload them here, but they are all of facebook. Ill be adding the pictures from the past week hopefully soon.
I had a really great weekend! Thursday night we went out (surprise surprise) and it was SOO much fun. We keep winding up at the same club, because it has 3 names. One night its Arroz, another its Lost and another its Mod. So we keep thinking we are going to a new place and always wind up there...
On Friday, Sarah and I went to Mar del Plata with Agustín, Adam, their friend Maxi (I hope I spelled that right...) and Adams family. It was so much fun!! We got there on Friday a little late and ate dinner (Adams mom is an amazing cook... I ate postes, which are like cake and pastries, with every meal of the day!) and then went out for a bit. On Saturday, we got up and played tennis. Now, those of you who know me are probably shocked by this. TENNIS!? But thats a sport! Well yes, but its rather similar to ice skating and all of those other activities... Im just as bad at it here as I was at home. I will say that I had a great time, and if I had to pick a sport to play, tennis is actually kind of fun! And I will say it brought back some rather fond memories of gym class. HA! Sara and I took their ATV to the beach (yes I rode on an ATV! Can you believe it? But I was too scared to drive, so I left that up to her...) and then I took a MILLION beach pictures and did a mini photo shoot on the big rocks leading out to the ocean. The weather was pretty cool, but it was a gorgeous day :)
After that, we had lunch and then went back to the beach. It was soo cold at this point but still great. I got some pictures of Agustín and Adam skim boarding. I would have tried it but I was so cold, there was no CHANCE I was even going to get in the water! We went and got churros after that, which was great. Because this is Argentina and they put dulce de leche in and on EVERYTHING, they also put it in the churros. (I could hear the Hallelujah choir when I ate them!)
We drove back to his house and I noticed something crazy... They were running red lights all the time! When I asked about it, I found out that during the winter (because its a beach town) there arent as many people there and it is illegal to run red lights!! We also passed a cop on a solid line and the cop.... MOVED OVER! Can you believe that?! Only in Argentina...
We went back and had dinner, ohh...
I should also mention that Adams family has a parrot named Pedro, who in all seriousness, speaks better Spanish than I do. At one point this weekend, I was like, ¨Crap! I cant believe this bird can use reflexive verbs and direct object pronouns!!!!¨ Of course he repeats everything, but still... Its funny to hear a bird speak Spanish!
So after dinner, we got ourselves together (I got to watch a bit of the Olympics which was neat)
and went out. It was a huge club that had 4 different rooms of different music. They do this thing at clubs where they start out with techno and lead into crappy American music. (And for those of you who dont know, I love crappy American music!!) So, we danced in the salsa/ raeggaton (did I even come close to spelling that right?) and then went to dance to ¨girls just wanna have fun¨and ¨i love rock and roll¨AAANND... ¨youre the one that I want¨(Yes from Grease, they play it EVERYWHERE!)
So on the way home, we got stopped (in a line behind a bunch of other people) for a random sobriety check. I wished I had my camera cause Ive never seen one before. They pulled over the most random people, too. This old lady was behind us, and she must have been 65 or 70! Adam blew a crazy 0.00... So they let us go. (But no photos from that... DARN!)
On Sunday, we came home... But first stopped to see this place near the sea where there were a TON of fisherman and .... SEA LIONS! Now that may not seem exciting, but have you ever seen one?? Its one of those things that you think you might have seen, but I dont know... Ive never seen one in real life before. They are very cute. BUT SMELL AWFUL!!! I got quite a few pictures of them :)
We had lunch at a seafood place where I tried fried seaweed (not bad) and took a picture of Sarah holding an octopus!! Crazy!
I hate to cut this short and leave out the top 5 again, but I have class in about 6 minutes... Next time, I promise.
Tomorrow, we are going to a place in Palermo to find out about doing some volunteering and then pretty much class and homework for the rest of the week.
I miss everyone a lot and hope all is well on the U.S. homefront!!!
Love,
Rebecca
Its been crazy here... Like I said, classes are in full swing and that means going to them... Not an excuse for not blogging in 9 days but ehh cest la vie!
So the class update is this: We had to finalize our schedules by Friday. I am taking...
Monday: Español (3-5), Lit 1 (5-7), Argentine Art (7:30-9:30)
Tuesday: Tango (1-3), Keystone (3-5)
Wednesday: Español (3-5), Traditions and Culture (5-7)
I was going to take this history class but let me just tell you... We talk about history so much in Lit and Keystones that I was like, I CANT STAY IN THIS CLASS! Its crazy that I only have class 3 days a week. But I think Thursday is going to be a homework/ study day. This week, we are meeting up to go over some verbs (ser, ester, ir, haber, y tener, in case anyone is interested) and hopefully some expressions. I think itll really help a lot.
Last week, I went to 2 musuems. One was dedicated to Sarmiento and the other just had some different Argentine art and history displays. The second musuem had this amazing garden, and we took a bunch of picutres. Speaking of pictures, Im not quite sure how to upload them here, but they are all of facebook. Ill be adding the pictures from the past week hopefully soon.
I had a really great weekend! Thursday night we went out (surprise surprise) and it was SOO much fun. We keep winding up at the same club, because it has 3 names. One night its Arroz, another its Lost and another its Mod. So we keep thinking we are going to a new place and always wind up there...
On Friday, Sarah and I went to Mar del Plata with Agustín, Adam, their friend Maxi (I hope I spelled that right...) and Adams family. It was so much fun!! We got there on Friday a little late and ate dinner (Adams mom is an amazing cook... I ate postes, which are like cake and pastries, with every meal of the day!) and then went out for a bit. On Saturday, we got up and played tennis. Now, those of you who know me are probably shocked by this. TENNIS!? But thats a sport! Well yes, but its rather similar to ice skating and all of those other activities... Im just as bad at it here as I was at home. I will say that I had a great time, and if I had to pick a sport to play, tennis is actually kind of fun! And I will say it brought back some rather fond memories of gym class. HA! Sara and I took their ATV to the beach (yes I rode on an ATV! Can you believe it? But I was too scared to drive, so I left that up to her...) and then I took a MILLION beach pictures and did a mini photo shoot on the big rocks leading out to the ocean. The weather was pretty cool, but it was a gorgeous day :)
After that, we had lunch and then went back to the beach. It was soo cold at this point but still great. I got some pictures of Agustín and Adam skim boarding. I would have tried it but I was so cold, there was no CHANCE I was even going to get in the water! We went and got churros after that, which was great. Because this is Argentina and they put dulce de leche in and on EVERYTHING, they also put it in the churros. (I could hear the Hallelujah choir when I ate them!)
We drove back to his house and I noticed something crazy... They were running red lights all the time! When I asked about it, I found out that during the winter (because its a beach town) there arent as many people there and it is illegal to run red lights!! We also passed a cop on a solid line and the cop.... MOVED OVER! Can you believe that?! Only in Argentina...
We went back and had dinner, ohh...
I should also mention that Adams family has a parrot named Pedro, who in all seriousness, speaks better Spanish than I do. At one point this weekend, I was like, ¨Crap! I cant believe this bird can use reflexive verbs and direct object pronouns!!!!¨ Of course he repeats everything, but still... Its funny to hear a bird speak Spanish!
So after dinner, we got ourselves together (I got to watch a bit of the Olympics which was neat)
and went out. It was a huge club that had 4 different rooms of different music. They do this thing at clubs where they start out with techno and lead into crappy American music. (And for those of you who dont know, I love crappy American music!!) So, we danced in the salsa/ raeggaton (did I even come close to spelling that right?) and then went to dance to ¨girls just wanna have fun¨and ¨i love rock and roll¨AAANND... ¨youre the one that I want¨(Yes from Grease, they play it EVERYWHERE!)
So on the way home, we got stopped (in a line behind a bunch of other people) for a random sobriety check. I wished I had my camera cause Ive never seen one before. They pulled over the most random people, too. This old lady was behind us, and she must have been 65 or 70! Adam blew a crazy 0.00... So they let us go. (But no photos from that... DARN!)
On Sunday, we came home... But first stopped to see this place near the sea where there were a TON of fisherman and .... SEA LIONS! Now that may not seem exciting, but have you ever seen one?? Its one of those things that you think you might have seen, but I dont know... Ive never seen one in real life before. They are very cute. BUT SMELL AWFUL!!! I got quite a few pictures of them :)
We had lunch at a seafood place where I tried fried seaweed (not bad) and took a picture of Sarah holding an octopus!! Crazy!
I hate to cut this short and leave out the top 5 again, but I have class in about 6 minutes... Next time, I promise.
Tomorrow, we are going to a place in Palermo to find out about doing some volunteering and then pretty much class and homework for the rest of the week.
I miss everyone a lot and hope all is well on the U.S. homefront!!!
Love,
Rebecca
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Sabado
Oh my goodness, is it Saturday already?! I cant believe I havent updated since Tuesday!
Ok, lets see. Well Wednesday, I went to the gym in the morning and had my Spanish grammar class in the afternoon. In the evening, I went to an after-work bar with Sarah, Anne, Adam and Agustin. FUN FUN! Free food never hurts anyone. Plus, I had my first experience with dolce de leche helado from Freddos! (Translation: Caramel ice cream from the best place EVER!) It was a ton of fun!
Thursday I went to the gym and went to my history class. Oh, school. Its really putting a damper on my style. LOL. I wound up getting a notebook to put together my notes which was really useful. I highlighted all of the dates, people, events and places I know nothing about so I can look it all up. I highlighted A LOT.
Yesterday I got up and went to the gym. (Sense a pattern? Although I like going cause it is close, plus I already paid for it, so its FREE! Who doesnt love stuff that you dont have to pay for?) I went to the movies yesterday and had my first experience with someone who was less than pleasant due to my language difficulties. In my defense though, we were seeing Kung Fu Panda. Even if I spoke no Spanish, I could still say ¨Kung Fu Panda¨and he could have given me a ticket. This older gentleman (he was pretty old, actually) was just waiting and waiting and then he looked at me and asked which movie. So I said, ¨Kung Fu Panda.¨He turned to the younger guy next to him, handed him his headset and told him to talk to me because I speak english. So I looked at the younger guy and said, ¨No no, I speak Spanish too. And I just want a ticket for the goddamn PANDA MOVIE!¨Ok, I made that last part up. Id never yell. But I did tell him I spoke Spanish and then asked for a ticket. And then the young guy said, ¨You know its in Spanish, right?¨Wait a second!? YOU MEAN IM IN SOUTH AMERICA AND ITS IN SPANISH!? So I smiled politely and said, ¨Yes I know.¨And then we went to the movie. REALLY. LOL. It was funny. But Kung Fu Panda was really cute, plus it was on our level of espanol.
After Panda, we went home and then met up at midnight. I went to Club Mod with Sarah, Katherine, Mike and Alex. It was a lot of fun. We ran into some people from out program there. Lots of Americans there last night. But it was great. They had this band up there for a little while and I kid you not when I say the lead singer was wearing a leopard print shirt, unbuttoned. And at one point, we was laying on the stage doing pelvic thrusting motions. I WAS DYING. It was like a train wreck. You didnt want to look at the 40 year old man sweating in leather pants while he humped the air, but you just couldnt help it. Friday maybe just made me crazy lol.
Today, we were going to go to some agriculture thing but didnt want to spend 13 pesos to see cows. Sooo, we went to get lunch and then walked around for a bit. I went to a book store today and got some books. YAY! Now, I can just relax and read for a bit.
Im kind of tired so I dont think I am going to go out tonight. Id also like to study a little vocab cause it helps so much with day to day things.
There is no top-5 today but the next top 5 will be my top 5 favorite quote from my friends on this trip so far. (THEY´RE FUNNY!)
Miss everyone lots.
Happy August!
Rebecca
Ok, lets see. Well Wednesday, I went to the gym in the morning and had my Spanish grammar class in the afternoon. In the evening, I went to an after-work bar with Sarah, Anne, Adam and Agustin. FUN FUN! Free food never hurts anyone. Plus, I had my first experience with dolce de leche helado from Freddos! (Translation: Caramel ice cream from the best place EVER!) It was a ton of fun!
Thursday I went to the gym and went to my history class. Oh, school. Its really putting a damper on my style. LOL. I wound up getting a notebook to put together my notes which was really useful. I highlighted all of the dates, people, events and places I know nothing about so I can look it all up. I highlighted A LOT.
Yesterday I got up and went to the gym. (Sense a pattern? Although I like going cause it is close, plus I already paid for it, so its FREE! Who doesnt love stuff that you dont have to pay for?) I went to the movies yesterday and had my first experience with someone who was less than pleasant due to my language difficulties. In my defense though, we were seeing Kung Fu Panda. Even if I spoke no Spanish, I could still say ¨Kung Fu Panda¨and he could have given me a ticket. This older gentleman (he was pretty old, actually) was just waiting and waiting and then he looked at me and asked which movie. So I said, ¨Kung Fu Panda.¨He turned to the younger guy next to him, handed him his headset and told him to talk to me because I speak english. So I looked at the younger guy and said, ¨No no, I speak Spanish too. And I just want a ticket for the goddamn PANDA MOVIE!¨Ok, I made that last part up. Id never yell. But I did tell him I spoke Spanish and then asked for a ticket. And then the young guy said, ¨You know its in Spanish, right?¨Wait a second!? YOU MEAN IM IN SOUTH AMERICA AND ITS IN SPANISH!? So I smiled politely and said, ¨Yes I know.¨And then we went to the movie. REALLY. LOL. It was funny. But Kung Fu Panda was really cute, plus it was on our level of espanol.
After Panda, we went home and then met up at midnight. I went to Club Mod with Sarah, Katherine, Mike and Alex. It was a lot of fun. We ran into some people from out program there. Lots of Americans there last night. But it was great. They had this band up there for a little while and I kid you not when I say the lead singer was wearing a leopard print shirt, unbuttoned. And at one point, we was laying on the stage doing pelvic thrusting motions. I WAS DYING. It was like a train wreck. You didnt want to look at the 40 year old man sweating in leather pants while he humped the air, but you just couldnt help it. Friday maybe just made me crazy lol.
Today, we were going to go to some agriculture thing but didnt want to spend 13 pesos to see cows. Sooo, we went to get lunch and then walked around for a bit. I went to a book store today and got some books. YAY! Now, I can just relax and read for a bit.
Im kind of tired so I dont think I am going to go out tonight. Id also like to study a little vocab cause it helps so much with day to day things.
There is no top-5 today but the next top 5 will be my top 5 favorite quote from my friends on this trip so far. (THEY´RE FUNNY!)
Miss everyone lots.
Happy August!
Rebecca
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Escuela
Oh my goodness!!
So, yesterday I had my very first class. It was the journalism one with other international students. GOOD LORD. They were all talking about what kind of journalists they wanted to be and I can barely speak their language. I feel like Im selling out but I think I am going to drop it. It is really difficult to understand, plus, I dont really know anything about journalism.
The next class was grammar and conversation which went really well. The professor is really sweet and we had a good first day. She introduced herself and we did one of the stupid but pretty helpful icebreaker exercises...
And then I went to my literature class. This man is LOCO!! He just randomly started talking about various points in HISTORY (not relating it to lit at ALL) and we were jumping from century to century like CRAZY!! 1492, 1917, 1776.... He was insane. And then hed be talking in Spanish really quickly and hed stop, point to some random person in class and yell, ¨YOU! COMMUNIST!¨And then he started yelling ¨MANZANA!¨(apple) and ¨VACA!¨(cow) and started making this crazy stabbing motion. INSANE...
(THE HONEYMOON IS OVER!!!)
We went out last night. Sarah, Anne and I went to a pub. We met up with a bunch of people from school and guess what?! Three of the seven people at our table were from Maryland! Can you believe it?? (I think were the only three on this trip who are from Maryland!!)
Today I got up and went to the gym and went grocery shopping. Grocery shopping here was crazy. They were SOOO busy! I wasnt sure that I even wanted to go, but its so much cheaper to buy stuff there and make your own lunch. (Especially cause we were out all weekend and last night... Not to mention were going out tonight... and tomorrow.... and Thursday.) So the deli counter was a bit scary. There was a dried pig leg just sort of chillin´out... So I was trying to figure out how much turkey I wanted... But I didnt really even see turkey. So I asked for tuna salad and he pointed at this mushy white stuff with peas. NO THANKS! I wound up getting (what I think was) chicken, egg and potato. I also got some bread to make some sandwiches and yogurt shakes, granola bars and cereal. You would not even imagine how my eyes lit up when I saw Frosted Flakes... I mean, Im not a huge fan of them at home, but here.... They are some good, normal comfort food.
So I had class at 3 today... I walk in and it´s... You guessed it!! The communist professor. And I made the mistake of telling him (he went around the room and asked) that I study Spanish and theatre. So at one point, he pulled me in front of the entire class and made me act out the part of some sailor on the way to South America... It was RIDICULOUS. lol
Then I went to a Culture and Tradition class. It seems like its going to be pretty interesting. I have one class tomorrow, which is grammar. And Thursday I have history. I am going to try to switch my schedule up and add tango dance.
I have to be honest, I have been kind of disappointed in my classes so far. In the U.S., you get a syllabus on the first day of class so you know what youre going to learn for the semester and the professor introduces themselves. Here, they just start talking about random historical dates and yelling ¨communist¨!!! Im really hoping things will get better in the next few weeks.
Sarah´s housemate, Jeff, was studying abroad last semester and is leaving on Saturday. He just got back from traveling around Bolivia for three weeks and I think we are going out with him tonight. Tomorrow we are going out, too... It is so crazy here!!!
Thats pretty much all that is new and exciting here. I hope everyone is doing well at home.
besos!
Rebecca
So, yesterday I had my very first class. It was the journalism one with other international students. GOOD LORD. They were all talking about what kind of journalists they wanted to be and I can barely speak their language. I feel like Im selling out but I think I am going to drop it. It is really difficult to understand, plus, I dont really know anything about journalism.
The next class was grammar and conversation which went really well. The professor is really sweet and we had a good first day. She introduced herself and we did one of the stupid but pretty helpful icebreaker exercises...
And then I went to my literature class. This man is LOCO!! He just randomly started talking about various points in HISTORY (not relating it to lit at ALL) and we were jumping from century to century like CRAZY!! 1492, 1917, 1776.... He was insane. And then hed be talking in Spanish really quickly and hed stop, point to some random person in class and yell, ¨YOU! COMMUNIST!¨And then he started yelling ¨MANZANA!¨(apple) and ¨VACA!¨(cow) and started making this crazy stabbing motion. INSANE...
(THE HONEYMOON IS OVER!!!)
We went out last night. Sarah, Anne and I went to a pub. We met up with a bunch of people from school and guess what?! Three of the seven people at our table were from Maryland! Can you believe it?? (I think were the only three on this trip who are from Maryland!!)
Today I got up and went to the gym and went grocery shopping. Grocery shopping here was crazy. They were SOOO busy! I wasnt sure that I even wanted to go, but its so much cheaper to buy stuff there and make your own lunch. (Especially cause we were out all weekend and last night... Not to mention were going out tonight... and tomorrow.... and Thursday.) So the deli counter was a bit scary. There was a dried pig leg just sort of chillin´out... So I was trying to figure out how much turkey I wanted... But I didnt really even see turkey. So I asked for tuna salad and he pointed at this mushy white stuff with peas. NO THANKS! I wound up getting (what I think was) chicken, egg and potato. I also got some bread to make some sandwiches and yogurt shakes, granola bars and cereal. You would not even imagine how my eyes lit up when I saw Frosted Flakes... I mean, Im not a huge fan of them at home, but here.... They are some good, normal comfort food.
So I had class at 3 today... I walk in and it´s... You guessed it!! The communist professor. And I made the mistake of telling him (he went around the room and asked) that I study Spanish and theatre. So at one point, he pulled me in front of the entire class and made me act out the part of some sailor on the way to South America... It was RIDICULOUS. lol
Then I went to a Culture and Tradition class. It seems like its going to be pretty interesting. I have one class tomorrow, which is grammar. And Thursday I have history. I am going to try to switch my schedule up and add tango dance.
I have to be honest, I have been kind of disappointed in my classes so far. In the U.S., you get a syllabus on the first day of class so you know what youre going to learn for the semester and the professor introduces themselves. Here, they just start talking about random historical dates and yelling ¨communist¨!!! Im really hoping things will get better in the next few weeks.
Sarah´s housemate, Jeff, was studying abroad last semester and is leaving on Saturday. He just got back from traveling around Bolivia for three weeks and I think we are going out with him tonight. Tomorrow we are going out, too... It is so crazy here!!!
Thats pretty much all that is new and exciting here. I hope everyone is doing well at home.
besos!
Rebecca
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Fin de Semana
Hola everyone!!
Wow! What a crazy few days it has been!! Let me just inform you of a little place I have found that I think resembles heaven. LOL. They are called the clubs of Buenos Aires. I went out on Friday night for Sarah´s birthday. We went to a club in Palermo with Anne, Katherine, Adam and Agustin. It was so much fun! I was dancing at 1 Am and I was still dancing at 6 Am. Things are so different here than there. And the clubs are way better than the bars cause you can dance and you dont have to drink. (Its EASY to stay up late.)
So this is funny because this was something I learned in Baltimore that I tried to use here. Sara, Trevor and Darius use this method when they are at the bars or clubs. If you are talking to someone who is weird or creepy and you need someone to help you out, you do step 1, which is discreetly tapping your fingers together. If no one sees that, or they ignore you, you form your hands into a turtle swimming and they know they better come rescue you. If you get to step 3, which is the turtle swimming backwards at a rapid-fire pace, your friends better come rescue you IMMEDIATELY or they´re not your friends anymore. I tried this system but it didnt work. The guys here are a bit more, lets say forward. So if you´re dancing with someone and you dont want to anymore, you make eye contact and someone comes to rescue you. If you snap, it means, ¨Get your ass over here right now so I dont have to dance with this creepster anymore!!¨ LOL, we dont get 3 steps in Buenos Aires. Its a bit easier also when you go out with guys cause if a guy talks to you, you just point to your friend and say, ¨Es mi novio.¨and they back off. Its nice having a pretend novio at the clubs. But the good thing here is that the guys dance so youre not forced to look for people. They just dance with you.
Other funny thing. They play a TON of Raeggaton (I think I butchered the spelling of that) which is great to dance to and a bit of American music too. But this weekend, they played the YMCA, the Twist and Material Girl.
Last night, just the girls went out and the music was even BETTER! I heard Man I feel like a Woman, Come on Over and (sit down... brace yourself) Wannabe. I was almost crying... AHHH! Spice Girls in a club in BsAs!? Life CLEARLY does not get better than this!!
We went to the mall today, but it was SOOO expensive so we left and went to this cool street market in Recoleta. Lots of fun.
School starts tomorrow so well see how that goes!!
Miss everyone lots,
Love,
Rebecca
P.S. I didnt get a ton of questions so here are the ones I have gotten...
Q: What time is it there?
A: We are one hour ahead of Eastern Time. So if you live on the East Coast and its 8am, its 9am here.
Q: Do you understand everything that they´re saying?
A: Absolutely not. Not even close. Maybe 30%. Sometimes my house Mom will talk to me and Ill say ¨Si¨and smile but will not understand one bit. It gets better every day but right now, it still takes some time to get used to.
Q: Are the Argentinian guys as good looking as you heard?
A: To be honest, there are about the same ratio of good looking guys here as at home. (So guys from the US, no worries... LOL)
Q: Does your host Mom have a car?
A: No, I walk A LOT. But thats a good thing cause its a great city. Plus, they have a million buses and the subte. (Subway)
Wow! What a crazy few days it has been!! Let me just inform you of a little place I have found that I think resembles heaven. LOL. They are called the clubs of Buenos Aires. I went out on Friday night for Sarah´s birthday. We went to a club in Palermo with Anne, Katherine, Adam and Agustin. It was so much fun! I was dancing at 1 Am and I was still dancing at 6 Am. Things are so different here than there. And the clubs are way better than the bars cause you can dance and you dont have to drink. (Its EASY to stay up late.)
So this is funny because this was something I learned in Baltimore that I tried to use here. Sara, Trevor and Darius use this method when they are at the bars or clubs. If you are talking to someone who is weird or creepy and you need someone to help you out, you do step 1, which is discreetly tapping your fingers together. If no one sees that, or they ignore you, you form your hands into a turtle swimming and they know they better come rescue you. If you get to step 3, which is the turtle swimming backwards at a rapid-fire pace, your friends better come rescue you IMMEDIATELY or they´re not your friends anymore. I tried this system but it didnt work. The guys here are a bit more, lets say forward. So if you´re dancing with someone and you dont want to anymore, you make eye contact and someone comes to rescue you. If you snap, it means, ¨Get your ass over here right now so I dont have to dance with this creepster anymore!!¨ LOL, we dont get 3 steps in Buenos Aires. Its a bit easier also when you go out with guys cause if a guy talks to you, you just point to your friend and say, ¨Es mi novio.¨and they back off. Its nice having a pretend novio at the clubs. But the good thing here is that the guys dance so youre not forced to look for people. They just dance with you.
Other funny thing. They play a TON of Raeggaton (I think I butchered the spelling of that) which is great to dance to and a bit of American music too. But this weekend, they played the YMCA, the Twist and Material Girl.
Last night, just the girls went out and the music was even BETTER! I heard Man I feel like a Woman, Come on Over and (sit down... brace yourself) Wannabe. I was almost crying... AHHH! Spice Girls in a club in BsAs!? Life CLEARLY does not get better than this!!
We went to the mall today, but it was SOOO expensive so we left and went to this cool street market in Recoleta. Lots of fun.
School starts tomorrow so well see how that goes!!
Miss everyone lots,
Love,
Rebecca
P.S. I didnt get a ton of questions so here are the ones I have gotten...
Q: What time is it there?
A: We are one hour ahead of Eastern Time. So if you live on the East Coast and its 8am, its 9am here.
Q: Do you understand everything that they´re saying?
A: Absolutely not. Not even close. Maybe 30%. Sometimes my house Mom will talk to me and Ill say ¨Si¨and smile but will not understand one bit. It gets better every day but right now, it still takes some time to get used to.
Q: Are the Argentinian guys as good looking as you heard?
A: To be honest, there are about the same ratio of good looking guys here as at home. (So guys from the US, no worries... LOL)
Q: Does your host Mom have a car?
A: No, I walk A LOT. But thats a good thing cause its a great city. Plus, they have a million buses and the subte. (Subway)
Friday, July 25, 2008
Las Clases
Hola hola!
Well, yesterday, I had my meeting with my advisor, which was pretty miserable. I am a very organized person and I need my schedule to be exactly what I want it to be. This is a little more difficult when you are discussing everything at a rapid-fire pace en español. Let me explain:
The program that I am doing is a month longer than the regular program. So, I am taking 4 classes with other international students and 1 class with Argentinian students. That class had to be carefully selected because I need to understand what is going on. I also needed to get approval from Towson University to make sure that my credits transfer back. In Argentina, their semesters are the opposite of ours. (They start at the beginning of the year.) SO, if they offer psych 1 and 2, they offered 1 last semester and are now offering 2 this semester. Also, at some point (and I am not trying to pass blame) but someone somewhere didnt mention that all of the classes that I got approved to take were NOT beginner classes. That being said, I picked a random writing class and am hoping that I do ok. That is my class with the Argentine students. I only need to take 5 classes but I am in 6 right now so I can drop whichever one I dont want to take. (A lot of people did this... Some people have 8 classes right now and are dropping 3 of them.)
That being said, I still managed to make out with a killer schedule.
- History of Latin America
- Spanish Grammar
- Literature of Latin America (17th-19th c.)
- Argentina Cultures and Traditions
- Keystone class (About Argentina)
- Writing Class
Right now I have class 4 days a week, no Friday classes. When I drop one, I may only have class M, T, W. Class doesnt start before 11AM, except on Thursdays. (It starts at 10:30.) Most of the days, I have a break or only one class so I can even squeeze in a nap. Thats the most impressive schedule Ive ever been able to create!! I just hope there are no problems getting everything to transfer back because I am going to be one unhappy chica if I dont graduate a tiempo!!
Enough of the boring stuff! We got up super early today to get a criminal check (Isnt that funny? I swear I havent done anything illegal in the 6 days Ive been here!) and then well get our student visas in a few weeks. After we did that, I went with a few amigas for some breakfast and then took care of some scheduling stuff. I took a nap. Not too terribly exciting today. I think I am going out tonight with Sarah, Katherine, Jessica, Anne and maybe some other people... Who knows? Buenos Aires becomes party city and some people dont go to bed until 7 or 8 AM. (They were saying the reason for that is because its safer to walk home when its light out than at 4 or 5 AM.)
Ok, top 5 for today. (**Also, next blog post will not include top 5, but will be replaced with a Q & A. If you have a question, feel free to ask and Ill answer it as best as I can!!)
Before the top 5 though, I need to preface this by saying that they are OBSESSED with American music down here!!
Top 5 Funniest Artists to hear out of context on the radio:
5. ABBA (Ok, I know they arent American, BUT, its still funny!)
4. Madonna
3. Spandau Ballet
2. AC/DC
1. Cyndi Lauper
Well, yesterday, I had my meeting with my advisor, which was pretty miserable. I am a very organized person and I need my schedule to be exactly what I want it to be. This is a little more difficult when you are discussing everything at a rapid-fire pace en español. Let me explain:
The program that I am doing is a month longer than the regular program. So, I am taking 4 classes with other international students and 1 class with Argentinian students. That class had to be carefully selected because I need to understand what is going on. I also needed to get approval from Towson University to make sure that my credits transfer back. In Argentina, their semesters are the opposite of ours. (They start at the beginning of the year.) SO, if they offer psych 1 and 2, they offered 1 last semester and are now offering 2 this semester. Also, at some point (and I am not trying to pass blame) but someone somewhere didnt mention that all of the classes that I got approved to take were NOT beginner classes. That being said, I picked a random writing class and am hoping that I do ok. That is my class with the Argentine students. I only need to take 5 classes but I am in 6 right now so I can drop whichever one I dont want to take. (A lot of people did this... Some people have 8 classes right now and are dropping 3 of them.)
That being said, I still managed to make out with a killer schedule.
- History of Latin America
- Spanish Grammar
- Literature of Latin America (17th-19th c.)
- Argentina Cultures and Traditions
- Keystone class (About Argentina)
- Writing Class
Right now I have class 4 days a week, no Friday classes. When I drop one, I may only have class M, T, W. Class doesnt start before 11AM, except on Thursdays. (It starts at 10:30.) Most of the days, I have a break or only one class so I can even squeeze in a nap. Thats the most impressive schedule Ive ever been able to create!! I just hope there are no problems getting everything to transfer back because I am going to be one unhappy chica if I dont graduate a tiempo!!
Enough of the boring stuff! We got up super early today to get a criminal check (Isnt that funny? I swear I havent done anything illegal in the 6 days Ive been here!) and then well get our student visas in a few weeks. After we did that, I went with a few amigas for some breakfast and then took care of some scheduling stuff. I took a nap. Not too terribly exciting today. I think I am going out tonight with Sarah, Katherine, Jessica, Anne and maybe some other people... Who knows? Buenos Aires becomes party city and some people dont go to bed until 7 or 8 AM. (They were saying the reason for that is because its safer to walk home when its light out than at 4 or 5 AM.)
Ok, top 5 for today. (**Also, next blog post will not include top 5, but will be replaced with a Q & A. If you have a question, feel free to ask and Ill answer it as best as I can!!)
Before the top 5 though, I need to preface this by saying that they are OBSESSED with American music down here!!
Top 5 Funniest Artists to hear out of context on the radio:
5. ABBA (Ok, I know they arent American, BUT, its still funny!)
4. Madonna
3. Spandau Ballet
2. AC/DC
1. Cyndi Lauper
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Jueves
Hola hola!
Its Thursday and things are going just swimmingly! Well lets see. Yesterday, I rolled out of bed at the crack of 10:30 Am to go get my massage. (Isnt this an awesome vacation!?) I decided to live like a queen before classes start on Monday. (Ill find out what classes I have tonight.) After my massage, Sarah and I went to yoga. It was the CRAZIEST yoga I have ever done. You know when you exercise and wake up the next day saying, ¨I didnt even know I HAD muscles there!¨ Thats what it was like!! I mean, there are apparently muscles near my ribcage cause that hurt this morning... Who knew!? LOL.
Anyway, we worked off our yoga by going to a local cafe and getting leche chocolatada (hot chocolate) and we shared this amazing chocolate cake pastry thing. Life is good :-) Sarah´s roomie, Brent (who is leaving tomorrow), invited us to dinner with a woman who owns a cafe next to school. It was awesome! We literally had dinner for 4 hours. There were 5 students who spoke english and spanish and then the owner, Mierta, and her brother, Miguel and their amigo Guillermo and their niece and nephew. Lets talk about aquiring a language. When you sit with people for that long and just talk, the language barrier gets better. Although, let us also discuss another set of words you DON´T want to get mixed up: Exitoso (sucessful) and Exitada (horny). Yeah. Make sure you don´t tell someone your exitada. OY... LOL.
So this morning, I got up and went to the gym. I used their dance studio upstairs, which is amazing. The floor is made of wood, I guess and it makes doing turns really easy. For those of you who have taken dance with me or just know about my obsession with turns, I was able to do doubles on each side AND six fouettes in a ROW!! (That´ll probably NEVER happen again but oh well. It felt awesome.)
Also, this is for those of you who study Espanol and wonder how going to a country helps your skill with speaking. I have been here for 5 days but its already easier to use direct and indirect object pronouns. Also, you kind of get more of an idea of when you should be using preterite and imperfect. On top of that, you learn a million new words a day when you just ask someone what something means. When you´ve only been here for a few days, the learning curve is quite good!
My sister Rachael sent me a message that helped me with the top 5 Most annoying conversions. I found it funny so here it is:
So I do read your blog, and here is some sisterly help on the top 5 most annoying conversations you will never understand!! It is probably not easy for you to get because it is math. (I also explained in english!) :-) Well love you lots and miss you! I hope you are beiong safe and smart.
5) So 1 Kilogram equals approximately 2 pounds! So to figure it out, take the amount of kilograms and MULTIPLY by 2.2. Here is another website. http://www.manuelsweb.com/kg_lbs.htm
4) So in one mile there are 1.609644 km. So if you are going 100 km you are going 60 mph :-) Here is a good website for conversion!! http://www.convertunits.com/from/km/to/miles
3) Kilojoules to calories: Seriously Becca do not worry about that! It is not that important. You are a member of the gym! LOL! No worries about that!
2) One meter is approximately 3 feet or 36 inches!! Here is another converter website that should help. Just type in the amount of meters :-)http://www.qsl.net/w4sat/feetconv.htm
1) To convert from Celius to Fahrenheit all you do it MULTIPLY the amount of degrees by 1.8 and then ADD 32. So if it was 20 degrees Celsius, it would be 68 degrees fahrenheit
How funny she is!
I got a cell phone! If youd like to call, Id love to hear from you. I recommend getting a calling card.
The country code is 54 and my number is 1131082938.
Last but not least, today´s top 5...
Top 5 things I have had/seen in Argentina that I love:
5. Empanadas (jamon y queso)
4. An entire dance studio to myself
3. People who laugh at my espanol but help me so I dont sound like an idiot twice
2. Massages for $20
1. I saw a guy on the street walking NINE dogs (and three of them were golden retrievers..aww :)
Its Thursday and things are going just swimmingly! Well lets see. Yesterday, I rolled out of bed at the crack of 10:30 Am to go get my massage. (Isnt this an awesome vacation!?) I decided to live like a queen before classes start on Monday. (Ill find out what classes I have tonight.) After my massage, Sarah and I went to yoga. It was the CRAZIEST yoga I have ever done. You know when you exercise and wake up the next day saying, ¨I didnt even know I HAD muscles there!¨ Thats what it was like!! I mean, there are apparently muscles near my ribcage cause that hurt this morning... Who knew!? LOL.
Anyway, we worked off our yoga by going to a local cafe and getting leche chocolatada (hot chocolate) and we shared this amazing chocolate cake pastry thing. Life is good :-) Sarah´s roomie, Brent (who is leaving tomorrow), invited us to dinner with a woman who owns a cafe next to school. It was awesome! We literally had dinner for 4 hours. There were 5 students who spoke english and spanish and then the owner, Mierta, and her brother, Miguel and their amigo Guillermo and their niece and nephew. Lets talk about aquiring a language. When you sit with people for that long and just talk, the language barrier gets better. Although, let us also discuss another set of words you DON´T want to get mixed up: Exitoso (sucessful) and Exitada (horny). Yeah. Make sure you don´t tell someone your exitada. OY... LOL.
So this morning, I got up and went to the gym. I used their dance studio upstairs, which is amazing. The floor is made of wood, I guess and it makes doing turns really easy. For those of you who have taken dance with me or just know about my obsession with turns, I was able to do doubles on each side AND six fouettes in a ROW!! (That´ll probably NEVER happen again but oh well. It felt awesome.)
Also, this is for those of you who study Espanol and wonder how going to a country helps your skill with speaking. I have been here for 5 days but its already easier to use direct and indirect object pronouns. Also, you kind of get more of an idea of when you should be using preterite and imperfect. On top of that, you learn a million new words a day when you just ask someone what something means. When you´ve only been here for a few days, the learning curve is quite good!
My sister Rachael sent me a message that helped me with the top 5 Most annoying conversions. I found it funny so here it is:
So I do read your blog, and here is some sisterly help on the top 5 most annoying conversations you will never understand!! It is probably not easy for you to get because it is math. (I also explained in english!) :-) Well love you lots and miss you! I hope you are beiong safe and smart.
5) So 1 Kilogram equals approximately 2 pounds! So to figure it out, take the amount of kilograms and MULTIPLY by 2.2. Here is another website. http://www.manuelsweb.com/kg_lbs.htm
4) So in one mile there are 1.609644 km. So if you are going 100 km you are going 60 mph :-) Here is a good website for conversion!! http://www.convertunits.com/from/km/to/miles
3) Kilojoules to calories: Seriously Becca do not worry about that! It is not that important. You are a member of the gym! LOL! No worries about that!
2) One meter is approximately 3 feet or 36 inches!! Here is another converter website that should help. Just type in the amount of meters :-)http://www.qsl.net/w4sat/feetconv.htm
1) To convert from Celius to Fahrenheit all you do it MULTIPLY the amount of degrees by 1.8 and then ADD 32. So if it was 20 degrees Celsius, it would be 68 degrees fahrenheit
How funny she is!
I got a cell phone! If youd like to call, Id love to hear from you. I recommend getting a calling card.
The country code is 54 and my number is 1131082938.
Last but not least, today´s top 5...
Top 5 things I have had/seen in Argentina that I love:
5. Empanadas (jamon y queso)
4. An entire dance studio to myself
3. People who laugh at my espanol but help me so I dont sound like an idiot twice
2. Massages for $20
1. I saw a guy on the street walking NINE dogs (and three of them were golden retrievers..aww :)
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
One more thing. I forgot to type WHERE they were snowboarding. I think its a place called Bariloche... Google it, the pictures are AMAZING!
And I also forgot the top 5...
Top 5 Most Annoying Conversions that I still haven´t figured out:
5. Kilos to pounds
4. KMs to Miles
3. Kilojoules to calories
2. Meters to feet
1. Celcius to farenheit
And I also forgot the top 5...
Top 5 Most Annoying Conversions that I still haven´t figured out:
5. Kilos to pounds
4. KMs to Miles
3. Kilojoules to calories
2. Meters to feet
1. Celcius to farenheit
Ten cuidado!
Hola hola!
Things are going really well here :) I have good news for everyone... The Argentine guys (at least the ones from yesterday) were nothing like what I heard. Sara (from Texas) had met some people when they studied abroad in the U.S. from Bueno Aires so we hung out with them last night. And guess what we did...? (Brace yourself)...
We went ice skating! Now I know you´re thinking, Rebecca! You can´t skate in English, it must be so much more difficult in Spanish! But the good news is, I´m equally bad at skating in every country. It was a lot of fun though! Sara and I went with Adam and Agustin (who are from Buenos Aires) and Jasper (from the Netherlands, who studied in the US and was visiting Buenos Aires) and Rochi (I hope I spelled that right, she´s also from Buenos Aires) We went ice skating and then went back to Rochi´s apartment. We all looked at pictures for a while... They had gone snowboarding in and had AMAZING pictures. They also had pictures from Iguazu Fall (Where I´ll be going in October) and from this AWESOME zoo that has lions and tigers and pumas and elepahnts... So cool!
And then we went out for a drink... I didnt get in until 4:30.... DIOS MIO!! I slept late today but had an awesome time.
The reason my blog is titled ¨Ten Cuidado¨(Be careful) is because you should be very careful about making up your own spanish verbs. See, I am EXTREMELY fluent in Spanglish and often make up words. Well, the Spanish word for party is fiesta, so I thought my new spanglish verb of the day would be fiestarse. (Meaning, to party.) Well, that´s actually very close to enfiestarse, which means to party but with a, ahem, very specific connotation... (If you know where I´m going.) It sure gave everyone a good laugh, though.
Today I got up and ran some errands. I also was able to put my pictures on a disk so I am trying to upload them. (Im a little confused) Sarah and I (she´s actually Sarah with an ¨h¨) made appointments to get massages tomorrow... Oh, and we also signed up for the gym thats like, 2 minutes from where we live. (We´re neighbors) Its so nice :) Three levels. The first two have machines and stuff and the top floor is just a HUGE dance studio. (When i got up there, I took off my boots and started prancing around... it looked like heaven.) They also offer salsa dance there on Saturdays. (So if you need a latin lover, I might be ready by December.)
All is good here. Lots of love,
Rebecca
Things are going really well here :) I have good news for everyone... The Argentine guys (at least the ones from yesterday) were nothing like what I heard. Sara (from Texas) had met some people when they studied abroad in the U.S. from Bueno Aires so we hung out with them last night. And guess what we did...? (Brace yourself)...
We went ice skating! Now I know you´re thinking, Rebecca! You can´t skate in English, it must be so much more difficult in Spanish! But the good news is, I´m equally bad at skating in every country. It was a lot of fun though! Sara and I went with Adam and Agustin (who are from Buenos Aires) and Jasper (from the Netherlands, who studied in the US and was visiting Buenos Aires) and Rochi (I hope I spelled that right, she´s also from Buenos Aires) We went ice skating and then went back to Rochi´s apartment. We all looked at pictures for a while... They had gone snowboarding in and had AMAZING pictures. They also had pictures from Iguazu Fall (Where I´ll be going in October) and from this AWESOME zoo that has lions and tigers and pumas and elepahnts... So cool!
And then we went out for a drink... I didnt get in until 4:30.... DIOS MIO!! I slept late today but had an awesome time.
The reason my blog is titled ¨Ten Cuidado¨(Be careful) is because you should be very careful about making up your own spanish verbs. See, I am EXTREMELY fluent in Spanglish and often make up words. Well, the Spanish word for party is fiesta, so I thought my new spanglish verb of the day would be fiestarse. (Meaning, to party.) Well, that´s actually very close to enfiestarse, which means to party but with a, ahem, very specific connotation... (If you know where I´m going.) It sure gave everyone a good laugh, though.
Today I got up and ran some errands. I also was able to put my pictures on a disk so I am trying to upload them. (Im a little confused) Sarah and I (she´s actually Sarah with an ¨h¨) made appointments to get massages tomorrow... Oh, and we also signed up for the gym thats like, 2 minutes from where we live. (We´re neighbors) Its so nice :) Three levels. The first two have machines and stuff and the top floor is just a HUGE dance studio. (When i got up there, I took off my boots and started prancing around... it looked like heaven.) They also offer salsa dance there on Saturdays. (So if you need a latin lover, I might be ready by December.)
All is good here. Lots of love,
Rebecca
Monday, July 21, 2008
Dios Mio...
Hola everyone!
Ok, things are going pretty well. First things first. It rained ALL day. Not regular rain, but mean rain. And you know EXACTLY what I am talking about. That rain that not even an umbrella can help you with.
We had to be at school at 9:45 AM.. For orientation... And I kid you not, it was the most boring 3 hours of my whole life!!! I could have done orientation in 2 minutes. (Hola, bienvenido! Go to class. You need be in class 75% of the time to take the test, enjoy your stay, love the culture, meet your advisor. El fin!!) Three hours... And you think rambling in english is bad... LOL!!! Anyway, we finished and I went with a few people to buy cells phones. In the rain. At one point, I told someone I felt like we were on the Amazing Race. We have to run all over the city in the middle of a downpour and try not to get killed by the taxi drivers and buy a phone in not our native language. Its one of those moments in life that is so ridiculous, you cant help but laugh. I laugh a lot here!!
So, there were 4 girls I was walking with to a non-mandatory meeting today and all of a suddent, SHEETS of rain were coming down. It was CRAZY! So we ditched the meeting and went to a cafe! Tea and all. It was great :)
I took my placement test at 5 PM... WHAT A DISASTER! You know its bad when you go, Hmm, do I need a noun, pronoun or verb in that blank? So yeah, we will have to see how that goes!!
There is a guy here named Brent. He is living with Sara and is going home on Thursday. I think hes going to sell me his cell phone for $30... YES!! Ill let you know how that goes... Someone figured out how to text her friend at home. (Its not expensive for us, but may be for you. I need to find out...)
So some humor here.... In Buenos Aires, a cell phone is cheaper than a hair dryer. And beer is cheaper than milk. OH LORD!!
I went out last night with Sara, Melissa, Joe and Anne. (Melissa and Joe are from Central New Jersey... Heres a shout out to my Mom-- Melissa even knows where the circle and Jersey Freeze is! LOL)
We went to this tiny little pub... Very cute and quiet. We dont know how to say SHOT en espanol, so that should keep everyone happy to know Im not walking around the city drunk. (LOL, just kidding.)
So tonight, I think I might go out with Sara and some Argentine friends she met while they studied in the US. OR, I may go out with other people from school. (Vamos a ver.)
On another funny note (youll love this), I asked our program director if there is a studio where I can take a ballet or jazz class. His response was, Hmm, well. I dont know about those dances but there is a pole dancing studio.
My response?
That sounds great! My Mom will LOVE that! (Although maybe Ill take just one class for the sheer humor of it all!)
Another thing that Ive noticed... Theyre are dogs on the streets EVERYWHERE. Youd think it would be sad, but it isnt. Theyre smart dogs... They know how to use the crosswalks and none of them look unhealthy... Someone must be feeding them.
Ok, enough blabbing for now.
AMOR Y BESOS,
Rebecca
TOP 5 Things I have consumed the most in the past 72 hours:
5. Fruit salad
4. Pastries
3. Empanadas
2. Water
Take a guess.....
....
....
....
1. Tums :) (Dont worry, Im not sick. Theyre preventative!!)
Ok, things are going pretty well. First things first. It rained ALL day. Not regular rain, but mean rain. And you know EXACTLY what I am talking about. That rain that not even an umbrella can help you with.
We had to be at school at 9:45 AM.. For orientation... And I kid you not, it was the most boring 3 hours of my whole life!!! I could have done orientation in 2 minutes. (Hola, bienvenido! Go to class. You need be in class 75% of the time to take the test, enjoy your stay, love the culture, meet your advisor. El fin!!) Three hours... And you think rambling in english is bad... LOL!!! Anyway, we finished and I went with a few people to buy cells phones. In the rain. At one point, I told someone I felt like we were on the Amazing Race. We have to run all over the city in the middle of a downpour and try not to get killed by the taxi drivers and buy a phone in not our native language. Its one of those moments in life that is so ridiculous, you cant help but laugh. I laugh a lot here!!
So, there were 4 girls I was walking with to a non-mandatory meeting today and all of a suddent, SHEETS of rain were coming down. It was CRAZY! So we ditched the meeting and went to a cafe! Tea and all. It was great :)
I took my placement test at 5 PM... WHAT A DISASTER! You know its bad when you go, Hmm, do I need a noun, pronoun or verb in that blank? So yeah, we will have to see how that goes!!
There is a guy here named Brent. He is living with Sara and is going home on Thursday. I think hes going to sell me his cell phone for $30... YES!! Ill let you know how that goes... Someone figured out how to text her friend at home. (Its not expensive for us, but may be for you. I need to find out...)
So some humor here.... In Buenos Aires, a cell phone is cheaper than a hair dryer. And beer is cheaper than milk. OH LORD!!
I went out last night with Sara, Melissa, Joe and Anne. (Melissa and Joe are from Central New Jersey... Heres a shout out to my Mom-- Melissa even knows where the circle and Jersey Freeze is! LOL)
We went to this tiny little pub... Very cute and quiet. We dont know how to say SHOT en espanol, so that should keep everyone happy to know Im not walking around the city drunk. (LOL, just kidding.)
So tonight, I think I might go out with Sara and some Argentine friends she met while they studied in the US. OR, I may go out with other people from school. (Vamos a ver.)
On another funny note (youll love this), I asked our program director if there is a studio where I can take a ballet or jazz class. His response was, Hmm, well. I dont know about those dances but there is a pole dancing studio.
My response?
That sounds great! My Mom will LOVE that! (Although maybe Ill take just one class for the sheer humor of it all!)
Another thing that Ive noticed... Theyre are dogs on the streets EVERYWHERE. Youd think it would be sad, but it isnt. Theyre smart dogs... They know how to use the crosswalks and none of them look unhealthy... Someone must be feeding them.
Ok, enough blabbing for now.
AMOR Y BESOS,
Rebecca
TOP 5 Things I have consumed the most in the past 72 hours:
5. Fruit salad
4. Pastries
3. Empanadas
2. Water
Take a guess.....
....
....
....
1. Tums :) (Dont worry, Im not sick. Theyre preventative!!)
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Dia de los Amigos
Hola everyone!
Well today is dia de los amigos. It translates to friends day... Kind of like we have Mothers day and Fathers day, they have friends day. Rub it in Argentina, that all of my friends are 5000 miles away! Actually, lol, thats not entirely true. Ive been meeting a lot of great people so I have a couple of friends. There are a couple of girls that I am going to go out with tonight. Sara from Texas and a girl named Anne, but I forget where she is from and a couple other people... All really nice!! We´re going out at 11 PM... Which is actually early for Argentina. But we have meetings and scheduling and placement exams tomorrow so we´re going to behave. Actually, I will ALWAYS be behaving after the speech we got at orientation today... But I´ll get to that in a second.
First, I decided that every post should include a top 5 list. This was from a few days ago...
Top 5 most random things found in the SkyMall Magazine on a Plane:
5. A dog agility course
4. A marshmallow shooter
3. Dog porthole so he can see into the neighbors yard
2. A branding iron so your initials can be put on your chickens and steaks
Areyou ready for number one?!
1. Shoes with spikes that aerate your lawn while you walk!!
Interesting, right?
Today, we had orientation in the morning for a few hours and we went over rules and stuff to make everything a little smoother. I am happy to report that I am not the only person hand washing my underwear. Our leader said that some host families have had very bad experiences with laundry so they may ask you to clean your own underwear. (Does that mean that the person that lived there before me had.... Ugh, never mind.)
After that, we had lunch. All you eat here is empanadas and beef so a few of us have already decided to be gym buddies. Every orientation person has said, ¨You will gain weight, the food is so good!!¨We get a discount to the gym once we get out Belgrano University cards... So tomorrow, we´re gonna sign up!!
Then we went on a city tour... It was INCREDIBLE! Every doubt about anything I ever had about travel was ended when we did this. We went to Plaza del Mayo and this big street market. We also went to Recoleto and La Boca... I´ll post pictures later but it was AMAZING! I even saw people tango dancing in the streets.
Right now, I am with a few other gals from school at a place called a locutorio. They are little places in the city that have computers and internet for (get readY!!) 60 cents US per hour. Isn´t that AWESOME?! You can tell we´re a technological culture cause when we got here, everyone was like, ¨I need to check facebook and email my Mom and Dad and boyfriend and check my myspace and email...¨Well, maybe I´m exaggerating a LITTLE but that´s what it seemed like.
Anyway, don´t forget to write. And also, don´t send packages. We got a whole speech about it today and how they´re hard to receive and how they´re expensive. Letters though, I wouldn´t mind :)
I´ll update next time I can but I miss everyone a lot!!
xoxo
Rebecca
Well today is dia de los amigos. It translates to friends day... Kind of like we have Mothers day and Fathers day, they have friends day. Rub it in Argentina, that all of my friends are 5000 miles away! Actually, lol, thats not entirely true. Ive been meeting a lot of great people so I have a couple of friends. There are a couple of girls that I am going to go out with tonight. Sara from Texas and a girl named Anne, but I forget where she is from and a couple other people... All really nice!! We´re going out at 11 PM... Which is actually early for Argentina. But we have meetings and scheduling and placement exams tomorrow so we´re going to behave. Actually, I will ALWAYS be behaving after the speech we got at orientation today... But I´ll get to that in a second.
First, I decided that every post should include a top 5 list. This was from a few days ago...
Top 5 most random things found in the SkyMall Magazine on a Plane:
5. A dog agility course
4. A marshmallow shooter
3. Dog porthole so he can see into the neighbors yard
2. A branding iron so your initials can be put on your chickens and steaks
Areyou ready for number one?!
1. Shoes with spikes that aerate your lawn while you walk!!
Interesting, right?
Today, we had orientation in the morning for a few hours and we went over rules and stuff to make everything a little smoother. I am happy to report that I am not the only person hand washing my underwear. Our leader said that some host families have had very bad experiences with laundry so they may ask you to clean your own underwear. (Does that mean that the person that lived there before me had.... Ugh, never mind.)
After that, we had lunch. All you eat here is empanadas and beef so a few of us have already decided to be gym buddies. Every orientation person has said, ¨You will gain weight, the food is so good!!¨We get a discount to the gym once we get out Belgrano University cards... So tomorrow, we´re gonna sign up!!
Then we went on a city tour... It was INCREDIBLE! Every doubt about anything I ever had about travel was ended when we did this. We went to Plaza del Mayo and this big street market. We also went to Recoleto and La Boca... I´ll post pictures later but it was AMAZING! I even saw people tango dancing in the streets.
Right now, I am with a few other gals from school at a place called a locutorio. They are little places in the city that have computers and internet for (get readY!!) 60 cents US per hour. Isn´t that AWESOME?! You can tell we´re a technological culture cause when we got here, everyone was like, ¨I need to check facebook and email my Mom and Dad and boyfriend and check my myspace and email...¨Well, maybe I´m exaggerating a LITTLE but that´s what it seemed like.
Anyway, don´t forget to write. And also, don´t send packages. We got a whole speech about it today and how they´re hard to receive and how they´re expensive. Letters though, I wouldn´t mind :)
I´ll update next time I can but I miss everyone a lot!!
xoxo
Rebecca
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Estoy aqui!
Hola everyone! Im here... I have to be quick so the grammar isnt going to be great, plus these keyboards have funky accents so I cant really use punctuation...
Things are going well =) The flight was fine... Who wants to hear a SERIOUS miracle? One suitcase was 42 lbs. and another was 49 lbs... SOOO CLOSE to paying an arm and a leg.
After a slightly tearful goodbye (My mom and I were crying in line at the security gate) I got through and flew to Atlanta. I then flew out of Atlanta and 10 hours later, I landed in the airport in Buenos Aires.
WHY, oh WHY did I think I needed that luggage? Now that I am here, I am happy I have everything but lugging it around, I was like, REBECCA FAYE SHORR! DID YOU REALLY NEED 5 PURSES, 11 PAIRS OF SHOES... And oh god, I cant even tell you all how many sweaters. But its more than shoes! We can have a little contest. Closest without going over wins a prize... Its a lot of sweaters.
Anyway, I met Nelly today. She is AWESOME!!! So cute... the language barrier is a little rough but I know the house rules and that I have to ask permission before I ask people over, I try to keep lights off when Im out of the room and ok, get this... (Please dont laugh... Actually youre gonna die) She asked me to wash my own underwear... in the sink. Is that weird? I guess the strange part is when she explained why, I nodded my head and said Si but I had NO IDEA why I have to do this!! LMAO, its soooo funny though. No one can EVER call me high maintanence.
I miss everyone a lot. Ill keep in touch. We had a brief orientation tonight but our big one is tomorrow. And guess what.... TANGO lessons this week!!!! Waahooooo =) I hope I can make friends though, lol, a lot of people are going out tonight and Im like, Ill go tomorrow night. They gave us a WHOLE speech about going out and being careful and pushing boys off of you.
LOL.
Oh and one more thing... my house mom said, I am worse than a Jewish mother, watch out for the boys!!! (So there ya go Mom, you know someone is watching over me!) (And ladies from Cousins Week.... NO CHERRIES, I cant even make eye contact with anyone.)
Adios y amor!!!!!! More tomorrow =)
Love, Rebecca
Things are going well =) The flight was fine... Who wants to hear a SERIOUS miracle? One suitcase was 42 lbs. and another was 49 lbs... SOOO CLOSE to paying an arm and a leg.
After a slightly tearful goodbye (My mom and I were crying in line at the security gate) I got through and flew to Atlanta. I then flew out of Atlanta and 10 hours later, I landed in the airport in Buenos Aires.
WHY, oh WHY did I think I needed that luggage? Now that I am here, I am happy I have everything but lugging it around, I was like, REBECCA FAYE SHORR! DID YOU REALLY NEED 5 PURSES, 11 PAIRS OF SHOES... And oh god, I cant even tell you all how many sweaters. But its more than shoes! We can have a little contest. Closest without going over wins a prize... Its a lot of sweaters.
Anyway, I met Nelly today. She is AWESOME!!! So cute... the language barrier is a little rough but I know the house rules and that I have to ask permission before I ask people over, I try to keep lights off when Im out of the room and ok, get this... (Please dont laugh... Actually youre gonna die) She asked me to wash my own underwear... in the sink. Is that weird? I guess the strange part is when she explained why, I nodded my head and said Si but I had NO IDEA why I have to do this!! LMAO, its soooo funny though. No one can EVER call me high maintanence.
I miss everyone a lot. Ill keep in touch. We had a brief orientation tonight but our big one is tomorrow. And guess what.... TANGO lessons this week!!!! Waahooooo =) I hope I can make friends though, lol, a lot of people are going out tonight and Im like, Ill go tomorrow night. They gave us a WHOLE speech about going out and being careful and pushing boys off of you.
LOL.
Oh and one more thing... my house mom said, I am worse than a Jewish mother, watch out for the boys!!! (So there ya go Mom, you know someone is watching over me!) (And ladies from Cousins Week.... NO CHERRIES, I cant even make eye contact with anyone.)
Adios y amor!!!!!! More tomorrow =)
Love, Rebecca
Friday, July 18, 2008
Today!!
¡Hola!
Well, after turning papers and applications and essays and a million forms in, the day to leave is finally here! It's such a crazy thing because I have so many feelings about going-- talk about being overwhelmed.
EXCITED!!... Think of the culture and people I'll meet down there!
NOT SO HAPPY... Lugging a total of 95 pounds of luggage around the airport because, dammit, I'm taking all of those shoes!
EXCITED!!... My Spanish is going to get so much better!
NOT SO HAPPY... But I have to say goodbye to everyone here first.
You know, it's really back and forth like that. But for the most part, I'm super excited to finally be there!
Bonnie sent me an e-mail and put in part of this wonderful book. (I'm sure most of you will recognize it-- Thanks, Bonnie!!) It's always been meaningful because I got the book for graduation. Plus, if you're ever nervous about a huge life decision, you know that...
a) Dr. Suess thinks you'll succeed
b) Even if he didn't, he could make up an entire book that rhymes!
So here goes:
CONGRATULATIONS!
Today is your day!
You're off to great places
You're off and away!
You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself any direction you choose
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the "gal" who'll decide where to go.
-Oh The Places You'll Go, Dr. Suess
Well, after turning papers and applications and essays and a million forms in, the day to leave is finally here! It's such a crazy thing because I have so many feelings about going-- talk about being overwhelmed.
EXCITED!!... Think of the culture and people I'll meet down there!
NOT SO HAPPY... Lugging a total of 95 pounds of luggage around the airport because, dammit, I'm taking all of those shoes!
EXCITED!!... My Spanish is going to get so much better!
NOT SO HAPPY... But I have to say goodbye to everyone here first.
You know, it's really back and forth like that. But for the most part, I'm super excited to finally be there!
Bonnie sent me an e-mail and put in part of this wonderful book. (I'm sure most of you will recognize it-- Thanks, Bonnie!!) It's always been meaningful because I got the book for graduation. Plus, if you're ever nervous about a huge life decision, you know that...
a) Dr. Suess thinks you'll succeed
b) Even if he didn't, he could make up an entire book that rhymes!
So here goes:
CONGRATULATIONS!
Today is your day!
You're off to great places
You're off and away!
You have brains in your head
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself any direction you choose
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the "gal" who'll decide where to go.
-Oh The Places You'll Go, Dr. Suess
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
T-minus 53 hours!!
Hi everyone!
I am almost finished packing and as I go through my assortment of papers, I figured I'd post my info up:
ADDRESS:
Rebecca Shorr
Cabildo 875 1er. Piso
Buenos Aires Argentina
ZIP: C1426AAI
E-MAIL ADDRESS:
rshorr1@towson.edu
I'm not sure what the rules are with the phone so when I have more info about receiving calls, I'll let everyone know.
Adios!
Rebecca
I am almost finished packing and as I go through my assortment of papers, I figured I'd post my info up:
ADDRESS:
Rebecca Shorr
Cabildo 875 1er. Piso
Buenos Aires Argentina
ZIP: C1426AAI
E-MAIL ADDRESS:
rshorr1@towson.edu
I'm not sure what the rules are with the phone so when I have more info about receiving calls, I'll let everyone know.
Adios!
Rebecca
Monday, July 14, 2008
4 days left!
Hi everyone! I am on a countdown: Just four days until I am officially on my way to South America! (In exactly 104 hours and 49 minutes, my flight will be leaving, provided no delays, but who's counting?!)
I got my housing info the other day... I will be living with a woman named Nelly and her dog! (Which is great for me because I LOVE dogs, let's just hope that it's not a yappy little chihuahua! I do better with bigger dogs lol) They sent out info with every students name, home school, address in Argentina, host family, and flight info. I didn't see anyone else on the list with the same host mom as me so I am assuming that I don't have a roommate. That could change at any minute, of course.
Anyway, I'll post later and put up what my actual address will be in Argentina. Oh, and my phone number. (Aren't you all dying to call me long distance?!)
Hope all is well!!
Abrazos y besos (hugs and kisses)
Rebecca
I got my housing info the other day... I will be living with a woman named Nelly and her dog! (Which is great for me because I LOVE dogs, let's just hope that it's not a yappy little chihuahua! I do better with bigger dogs lol) They sent out info with every students name, home school, address in Argentina, host family, and flight info. I didn't see anyone else on the list with the same host mom as me so I am assuming that I don't have a roommate. That could change at any minute, of course.
Anyway, I'll post later and put up what my actual address will be in Argentina. Oh, and my phone number. (Aren't you all dying to call me long distance?!)
Hope all is well!!
Abrazos y besos (hugs and kisses)
Rebecca
Saturday, July 12, 2008
¡Hola!
Hey everyone! I am officially leaving for Buenos Aires, Argentina in 6 days! On Friday, July 18th, I will make my 14 hour journey (that's right... 14 hours round trip from BWI to EZE) to the country of steak, wine, the tango and of course, español!
Currently, I have one suitcase packed, which is nothing short of a miracle. For those of you who know me, packing isn't my best area. Ok, well I downright suck at it, but oh well. It's almost done. I know many people who were asking about what I was bringing and I would like to say (in my defense) that 8 pairs of shoes for 5 months really isn't bad. I mean, the book suggests 2-3 pairs of shoes but anyone who thinks that's even an option is probably crazy. Thank goodness that I work at Kohl's. I got a ton of winter stuff on clearance (YAY!) and am bringing it all with me.
Ok, that's pretty much all for now. I'd love to hear from everyone so if you'd like, shoot me an e-mail at rshorr1@towson.edu.
xoxo
Rebecca
Currently, I have one suitcase packed, which is nothing short of a miracle. For those of you who know me, packing isn't my best area. Ok, well I downright suck at it, but oh well. It's almost done. I know many people who were asking about what I was bringing and I would like to say (in my defense) that 8 pairs of shoes for 5 months really isn't bad. I mean, the book suggests 2-3 pairs of shoes but anyone who thinks that's even an option is probably crazy. Thank goodness that I work at Kohl's. I got a ton of winter stuff on clearance (YAY!) and am bringing it all with me.
Ok, that's pretty much all for now. I'd love to hear from everyone so if you'd like, shoot me an e-mail at rshorr1@towson.edu.
xoxo
Rebecca
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