I am dead tired.
Really, I don't even know why I'm about to post right now instead of sleep, hahaha.
The past few days have been CRAZY. I don't even know where to begin.
I guess you all should just know that I am having an awesome time, and the longer I spend in Buenos Aires, the more chill of a birthday party I want. Hahaha.
Yesterday I went to a hip hop dance club! Holy smokes, BsAs [and the rest of Latin America, I've heard], knows how to party. We went to a friends' house, then out to the club around 12 or 1 AM.
It was actually kind of weird because they we having a dance crew competition or something there before the dancing happened.
After watching that for a few minutes, they had a female rapper doing her thing. It was actually God awful. I'm pretty sure my dog could rap better than she did... :/
Anyway, after a few badly rapped songs, the actual dancing began. It was awesome! Too crowded to move and you couldn't really hear anyone outside of a foot radius of your face, but the music was amazing!
They mixed bassnectar with "teach me how to dougie", played booty work by T-pain and Hot Toddy by usher. I was really feeling this place!!!
There was a downside, though. For one, our group seemed to never be in the same place at the same time, so there was mass confusion. :/
We all went off looking for missing people and things like that, so that was funny/bad.
Also, the guys here are VERY pushy. I didn't like that at all... But everyone was alright, and that's what matters.
Side note: it seems as though every foreigner knew that the hip hop club is the place to be! We ran into some friends we met a night or two before, and then I saw another guy that I thought left for another country [whom I've had classes with, hahaa]... it was a LOT of coincidences.
Oh my goodness, I forgot that I went to go see the Flower! I honestly don't know what day that was or anything... but after going to see it, we ran into some people our age playing a strange sport called "slacklining", and I dared a friend to try it. He did and it seemed REALLY fun, so pretty much everyone else in the group decided to try it as well. :)
I didn't bring my camera, but I think I took some pretty nice photos on my friends' cameras. :)
Man, I can't believe that I dont know what day I went to the flower on....
Part of me thinks it was yesterday... but I dont know, because it feels like it was already a week ago or something. blegh.
The whole "going-to-bed-at-6AM" thing is really tiring and drainging.
Alright, time for some shut eye.
Buenas Noches!
<33Regina
Friday, July 22, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Harry Potter: All good things come to an end, I guess.
I need to get all of my feelings out about Harry Potter ending, and since the only memorable thing about yesterday was seeing the final movie, this blogpost will be dedicated to the boy who lived. :)
Don't read this if you don't like Harry Potter. Hahaha, you've all been warned.
Yesterday I saw the last Harry Potter movie. The moment was so entirely sad for me. I know everyone has been saying the same thing, but I really feel as though my childhood is over.
Reading books has always been a positive experience for me, and I feel that I've found friends in all the characters in the Harry Potter series. I remember the first time I heard about the Harry Potter series... I was at a school book fair in elementary school, and I remember thinking "What's so cool about this??? It seems dumb.".
But I read the first book and knew that this series would hold a special place in my heart.
I have so many memories attached to this book series.
I remember my Mom reading the books to Daniel and I as bedtime stories... eagerly waiting for the book to come out... going to a midnight premier...
Honestly, I'm so happy that they ended the series during the summer. If you know me, you know that I share the same birth date with my favorite character, Neville Longbottom. Our birth date [July 30th] is the day before Harry's, and perhaps you all remember... or maybe not... but I've had several Harry Potter themed birthday parties and cakes. Hell, I had one of my cakes say "Happy Birthday Neville & Harry!".
I'm pretty sure I will always associate the Harry Potter series with my birthday. :)
I also remember reading the books during summer breaks, while I was at math camp [oh goodness, I'm living up to every nerdy stereotype right now. oops.], or while I was on vacation. It's actually pretty funny... while my mom drove my brother, grandmother and I around the Swiss Alps in 2001, I listened to the cd of the fourth book because I get motion sick when I read in cars. I also remember waiting to read the last book until I got it for my birthday. My mom actually purchased me my own book, so we wouldn't have to fight for the chance to read it. As in, my house has two copies of the final book, hahahaha. My summers have always been loosely defined by Harry Potter, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I guess since HP has been with me since I was eleven, the same age that Harry was in the first book, I feel as though the characters have grown and matured at the same time that I have. I am already thinking about different ways that I can share Harry Potter with my future children, and I hope that they love the series as much as I do.
Going through so much of my life with Harry Potter [and everyone in the books!!!!] right by my side really makes me feel as though my childhood is over, now that the series is completely over. Yes, I wished I got an owl when I was 11, that Hogwarts was real, that one day I'll get to experience the magic... [This really sounds creepy as hell, hahahaha] but I am so glad that it's ending on a high note. :)
I don't know if J.K. Rowling knew how much her book series would mean to millions of people, but I'm so thankful for her creation of it.
I know this wasn't the most eloquent read, but I hope I captured just how much my life has been affected by Harry Potter, and what the final movie meant to me.
Being able to see the final movie in Buenos Aires only made my trip that much more memorable.
Side note: the only reason I did NOT want to go to Argentina this summer was because the final Harry Potter movie was coming out. Is that dedication or what?!?!?!?!? Hahahaha
Alright, this blog has taken me entirely too long to write.
I hope everyone has a great day, and that you check out the last Harry Potter movie if you haven't already!!!!
:)
<33Regina
Don't read this if you don't like Harry Potter. Hahaha, you've all been warned.
Yesterday I saw the last Harry Potter movie. The moment was so entirely sad for me. I know everyone has been saying the same thing, but I really feel as though my childhood is over.
Reading books has always been a positive experience for me, and I feel that I've found friends in all the characters in the Harry Potter series. I remember the first time I heard about the Harry Potter series... I was at a school book fair in elementary school, and I remember thinking "What's so cool about this??? It seems dumb.".
But I read the first book and knew that this series would hold a special place in my heart.
I have so many memories attached to this book series.
I remember my Mom reading the books to Daniel and I as bedtime stories... eagerly waiting for the book to come out... going to a midnight premier...
Honestly, I'm so happy that they ended the series during the summer. If you know me, you know that I share the same birth date with my favorite character, Neville Longbottom. Our birth date [July 30th] is the day before Harry's, and perhaps you all remember... or maybe not... but I've had several Harry Potter themed birthday parties and cakes. Hell, I had one of my cakes say "Happy Birthday Neville & Harry!".
I'm pretty sure I will always associate the Harry Potter series with my birthday. :)
I also remember reading the books during summer breaks, while I was at math camp [oh goodness, I'm living up to every nerdy stereotype right now. oops.], or while I was on vacation. It's actually pretty funny... while my mom drove my brother, grandmother and I around the Swiss Alps in 2001, I listened to the cd of the fourth book because I get motion sick when I read in cars. I also remember waiting to read the last book until I got it for my birthday. My mom actually purchased me my own book, so we wouldn't have to fight for the chance to read it. As in, my house has two copies of the final book, hahahaha. My summers have always been loosely defined by Harry Potter, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
I guess since HP has been with me since I was eleven, the same age that Harry was in the first book, I feel as though the characters have grown and matured at the same time that I have. I am already thinking about different ways that I can share Harry Potter with my future children, and I hope that they love the series as much as I do.
Going through so much of my life with Harry Potter [and everyone in the books!!!!] right by my side really makes me feel as though my childhood is over, now that the series is completely over. Yes, I wished I got an owl when I was 11, that Hogwarts was real, that one day I'll get to experience the magic... [This really sounds creepy as hell, hahahaha] but I am so glad that it's ending on a high note. :)
I don't know if J.K. Rowling knew how much her book series would mean to millions of people, but I'm so thankful for her creation of it.
I know this wasn't the most eloquent read, but I hope I captured just how much my life has been affected by Harry Potter, and what the final movie meant to me.
Being able to see the final movie in Buenos Aires only made my trip that much more memorable.
Side note: the only reason I did NOT want to go to Argentina this summer was because the final Harry Potter movie was coming out. Is that dedication or what?!?!?!?!? Hahahaha
Alright, this blog has taken me entirely too long to write.
I hope everyone has a great day, and that you check out the last Harry Potter movie if you haven't already!!!!
:)
<33Regina
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
I'm guessing you've realized that I've been having an awesome time, right? ;)
Yea, the past few days have been sooo much fun! It's so difficult to describe something that's super fun, you know? But I'll try. :D
Side note: Sorry my blog has been sucking so much lately!!! hahahahaaha
Sunday: El Tigre
-bus and train ride
-shopping!
Monday:
-Class
-Bomba de tiempo
Tuesday:
-Class
-Going to Pallermo Hollywood
Sunday was very enjoyable, but it was a lot like last weekend, just at a different place. We went to a nearby city to go shopping... everything was so cheap!!!! I had a blast, mainly because I loveee to shop! Typical girl, right?
The most challenging part of the day was waking up suuuper early and catching a bus. I don't really care for buses [although I love the idea of public transportation lol], and we've come to an agreement that mornings just aren't my thing... so yea, not the most ideal morning for me, you know? Hahaha :)
Anyway, we took the bus to a train station, then took a train to the actual town. We decided to go this route because the train travels by the ocean and is more scenic in general. This was a bit of a fail because by the time we got on the train, there were no more seats... so my view was out of a window COVERED in graffiti. Normally I like graffiti, but because it messed up my view, I wasn't too happy about it. Haha.
I didn't really see anything in the town besides the INSANE market. I was in heaven without even seeing half of the market! Oh well. I had fun. :)
Here's something interesting/gross: I was actually charged to use toilette paper at one bathroom in El Tigre. What?!?!? And it was gross. ugh. Thank goodness I brought my travel lysol.
Monday:
I was placed in a new class on Monday, which I'm not too entirely crazy about. It's a lot more difficult than my other class because the teacher actually doesn't know English... so it's a curtousy to speak in Spanish around her, and we're not allowed to speak English more than 4-5 times a day. She keeps track. Ugh.
At least I will learn more Spanish in a less amount of time, right? :)
The best part about Monday was going to a concert called Bomba de Tiempo!!!!! It was seriously INSANE! <3
Basically there were 15 percussionists lined up onstage playing various beats for 2 hours. We were only there for about an hour, but I can't wait to go again! I had sooo much fun!!!! There was a guy conducting the percussionist, which was pretty darn amazing. I don't know, if you have any musical background or appreciation for percussion, THIS is where you'd want to be. It was phenomenal. It was a lot like a huuuge drum circle. :D
I had a really hard time not dancing hahaha.
Oh, they also brought out the funkiest trumpet!!! I wanted to buy a cd soooo bad, but they didn't sell any at the concert. Booo!
Gosh, my description doesn't do the concert justice at all. I wish I could bring the experience back to the US with me. :/
Great news: their music it on itunes!!! :D
After the concert, my group of friends and I went to an after party with a live band. It was a reggae cover band, which was a-okay with me! :D
It wasn't the best quality, especially when the singer was attempting to sing in English without really knowing the words in English... Trust me, I laughed a LOT over it, hahaha. Oh well, at least she has a cool enough band to actually be in a club and get people hyped! So yea, that was a great night. :))))
Tuesday:
Class was super nondescript, so I will just skip that... hahaha.
In the evening, I hung out with a lot of my friends from the program. We started off just socializing at a friends' apartment, then we went to a barrio [section of the city] called "Pallermo Hollywood" and went to a bar.
I've never really seen the appeal of a bar, but I finally understand: tourists and creepy old men congregate to socialize. Just kidding. A bit.
But yea, it was really super fun and I made friends with the bartender, which was very interesting considering the massive language barrier. :)
I enjoyed hanging out with so many of the ECELA program students. :D
It's finally hitting me that this is basically the only time we'll ever be together, and that thought it making me quite sad. I've made so excellent friendships on this trip, and although I've only been here for 2.5 weeks, I definitely feel like I've been through a LOT with these kiddos. :)
I know I will be more than ready to go home [when the time comes], but it will be rather sad to leave such a cool group of people.
Alright, enough Debbie Downer moments, hahaha.
I knowwww I need to blog about today, but I watched the last Harry Potter movie tonight, and I feel like that needs it's own post at the very least.
And I am sleepy... so yea, I'm skipping blogging... again! So horrible!
Buenas noches!!!!
<333333Regina [to make up for all the love you guys haven't been getting on my blog. sorry!]
:)
Side note: Sorry my blog has been sucking so much lately!!! hahahahaaha
Sunday: El Tigre
-bus and train ride
-shopping!
Monday:
-Class
-Bomba de tiempo
Tuesday:
-Class
-Going to Pallermo Hollywood
Sunday was very enjoyable, but it was a lot like last weekend, just at a different place. We went to a nearby city to go shopping... everything was so cheap!!!! I had a blast, mainly because I loveee to shop! Typical girl, right?
The most challenging part of the day was waking up suuuper early and catching a bus. I don't really care for buses [although I love the idea of public transportation lol], and we've come to an agreement that mornings just aren't my thing... so yea, not the most ideal morning for me, you know? Hahaha :)
Anyway, we took the bus to a train station, then took a train to the actual town. We decided to go this route because the train travels by the ocean and is more scenic in general. This was a bit of a fail because by the time we got on the train, there were no more seats... so my view was out of a window COVERED in graffiti. Normally I like graffiti, but because it messed up my view, I wasn't too happy about it. Haha.
I didn't really see anything in the town besides the INSANE market. I was in heaven without even seeing half of the market! Oh well. I had fun. :)
Here's something interesting/gross: I was actually charged to use toilette paper at one bathroom in El Tigre. What?!?!? And it was gross. ugh. Thank goodness I brought my travel lysol.
Monday:
I was placed in a new class on Monday, which I'm not too entirely crazy about. It's a lot more difficult than my other class because the teacher actually doesn't know English... so it's a curtousy to speak in Spanish around her, and we're not allowed to speak English more than 4-5 times a day. She keeps track. Ugh.
At least I will learn more Spanish in a less amount of time, right? :)
The best part about Monday was going to a concert called Bomba de Tiempo!!!!! It was seriously INSANE! <3
Basically there were 15 percussionists lined up onstage playing various beats for 2 hours. We were only there for about an hour, but I can't wait to go again! I had sooo much fun!!!! There was a guy conducting the percussionist, which was pretty darn amazing. I don't know, if you have any musical background or appreciation for percussion, THIS is where you'd want to be. It was phenomenal. It was a lot like a huuuge drum circle. :D
I had a really hard time not dancing hahaha.
Oh, they also brought out the funkiest trumpet!!! I wanted to buy a cd soooo bad, but they didn't sell any at the concert. Booo!
Gosh, my description doesn't do the concert justice at all. I wish I could bring the experience back to the US with me. :/
Great news: their music it on itunes!!! :D
After the concert, my group of friends and I went to an after party with a live band. It was a reggae cover band, which was a-okay with me! :D
It wasn't the best quality, especially when the singer was attempting to sing in English without really knowing the words in English... Trust me, I laughed a LOT over it, hahaha. Oh well, at least she has a cool enough band to actually be in a club and get people hyped! So yea, that was a great night. :))))
Tuesday:
Class was super nondescript, so I will just skip that... hahaha.
In the evening, I hung out with a lot of my friends from the program. We started off just socializing at a friends' apartment, then we went to a barrio [section of the city] called "Pallermo Hollywood" and went to a bar.
I've never really seen the appeal of a bar, but I finally understand: tourists and creepy old men congregate to socialize. Just kidding. A bit.
But yea, it was really super fun and I made friends with the bartender, which was very interesting considering the massive language barrier. :)
I enjoyed hanging out with so many of the ECELA program students. :D
It's finally hitting me that this is basically the only time we'll ever be together, and that thought it making me quite sad. I've made so excellent friendships on this trip, and although I've only been here for 2.5 weeks, I definitely feel like I've been through a LOT with these kiddos. :)
I know I will be more than ready to go home [when the time comes], but it will be rather sad to leave such a cool group of people.
Alright, enough Debbie Downer moments, hahaha.
I knowwww I need to blog about today, but I watched the last Harry Potter movie tonight, and I feel like that needs it's own post at the very least.
And I am sleepy... so yea, I'm skipping blogging... again! So horrible!
Buenas noches!!!!
<333333Regina [to make up for all the love you guys haven't been getting on my blog. sorry!]
:)
Monday, July 18, 2011
SO much has been going on!
I am so tired though. I need to take a break and give you all an epic update tomorrow.
I need to tell you about Sunday [going to El Tigre] and today as well! Tonight I went to Bomba de tiempo. It was AMAZING. Really, I can't believe I went to something so awesome. :DDD
Just so you know what Bomba de Tiempo is... here's a link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrKm5xUQtNo
As a percussionist and a decently musical person, I was mesmerized by it!!!
More about it tomorrow! Argentina sure knows how to wear a girl out!
Buenas Noches!
<33Regina
I need to tell you about Sunday [going to El Tigre] and today as well! Tonight I went to Bomba de tiempo. It was AMAZING. Really, I can't believe I went to something so awesome. :DDD
Just so you know what Bomba de Tiempo is... here's a link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrKm5xUQtNo
As a percussionist and a decently musical person, I was mesmerized by it!!!
More about it tomorrow! Argentina sure knows how to wear a girl out!
Buenas Noches!
<33Regina
Sunday, July 17, 2011
I totally need to blog about yesterday. Oops!
Yesterday was incredible! If you read my other post [probably not...], then you know that we visited a hospital in the countryside! It used to be a hospital for people who have leprosy, but now it's a hospital that has a lot of clinics in rural areas and also house people that need long term care, palliative and hospice care.
-Woke up entirely too early
-tour
-my goof.
-incredible food!!!!
-play soccer with Argentine kids
-play more games
-go home
Our day started at 7:30 AM. As in, on a Saturday.... of my own free will... I had to wake up at 6:30AM and get ready. Oh my goodness. I was a zombie, hahaha. I really was not a happy camper. Blegh.
But I am SOOO incredibly happy I went to the hospital... It reminded me of working at the Reddix Center in SA. Everyone was so caring and happy! More on that later.
We got there and they gave us a nice overview of what the hospital's history and what they do there now [two very different aspects, haha], then they gave us a tour!
Side note: alright, so I get to the place, and I had eaten breakfast from burger king, so I had a bag of trash.... I ask the first person I see if they could point to the trashcan for me. Instead of pointing, he just said that he wouldn't mind disposing my garbage for me. I was so embarrassed already, because they were sooo hospitable! They gave us more breakfast and everything, and he was going to take my trash!? haha
So after the workers begin talking, I realize that I didn't hand my trash to just anyone... I handed it to the person who oversees the ENTIRE hospital. Oh. My. Gosh. I was so darn embarrassed! I mean, it was beyond amazing that he was that humble about his position, but still! That's incredible!
When I talked to my friend/someone who works for ECELA, she pointed out that a situation like this would never happen in the U.S., and I have to agree. As much as I enjoy the U.S., someone with a job as high up as his wouldn't even have the time of day to speak to us.
Also, the lady who spoke to us before [who is in charge of 5 different hospitals] also came with us. I felt incredibly honored that they would spend their Saturday with us. How amazing is that?!
After touring and seeing their really awesome hospital [alright, it's in the middle of nowhere and is very modern, with surgery rooms and monitors... everything! they've basically made their own community, with schools for children, therapy centers for patients... and everything is absoloutely free and patient based. How incredible.] we were treated to lunch.
So I was fully ready to just eat peanut butter and jellies for my lunch, but they brought the most wonderful food for us! There was cheese and meats, bruchetta, red wine, white wine, traditional northern Argentine soup, champagne and dessert! Everything was so wonderful! They actually made separate side dishes for vegetarians. It was so accommodating, I have no idea how they did it. Seriously, they made us feel like royalty. I hope we lived up to their expectation, especially considering how wonderful they treated us. :)
After they wined and dined us [for real. If you had a glass of wine, they wouldn't wait until you were finished to refill you, hahaha. I normally don't care for wine, but this was delish!] we were ready to tour the school. The children of the patients go to school together just a few feet away from all the hospital part.
As expected, I really liked the school! They teach them very practical and interesting skills like how to host a radio show, build houses, and promote values through futbol callejero and other sports.
Futbol Callejero is basically street soccer. The hospital made their own version of the game, where there are a lot less rules and you play short games that end with both teams discussing what went on during the game and how they felt about it. I really think this is a great teaching strategy for these kids. Not only can the kids let our their frustrations in a positive way, but it promotes exercise and being open about feelings. I was so happy to think about all the different strategies they are employing to help these kids be as positive as possible during a very stressful time in their lives. I wish I could come back and volunteer with them. That would be rad.
These kids were beasts at futbol! I mean, it's kind of a given, but wowwwww. They could headbutt, balance the ball on their faces and overall amazing motor skills. I was blown away. I hope our youth look that skilled while they play little league sports. These kids would have pulverized us in a game if it was just us vs. them!
Luckily, it was not! :D
We were split pretty evenly with the kids, thank goodness. The only downside was that we didn't really know who was on our team and stuff, haha. There was a bit of confusion, but overall it was a really good game! :DDD
Futbol was good, but there were more games to be played!!!!
We went over to a place called Pena La Alegria. This is basically where the patients go to work on fine motor skills in a creative way. They paint, draw, do origami and a lot of other fun things [like dancing!]. This place was a ton of fun! We danced with the doctors and patients, played a bunch of games that involve tossing things? I don't know what theyre called, but it was a blast!
Eventually it was time to calm down and have refreshments and reflect on the day. They served us a lot of hot chocolate and pastries and asked us how we liked their facility. I know it was super cheesy, [I even admitted it as I said it], but I said that you could really tell how hard they've worked to build a program like theirs that fosters a sense of community and has a lot of love. I really liked that about it, because it didn't feel like a hospital. Everyone seemed to know each other and genuinely care about one another. It was a beautiful thing to see. :)
It honestly reminded me of working at the Reddix Center, because it was easy to tell that the staff truly enjoyed their work and the residents enjoy living there as well. I would definitely go back if my allergies would chill out.
Side note: I thought I didn't have any allergies in the woods, so I was incredibly happy!!! Turns out I really did, but I didn't feel them until after a few hours. Then my throat/eyes/nose started hurting, and I haven't felt well ever since.... at least it didn't affect me while I was there. That would have been a bummer, hahaha.
I hope I'll get over it soon though, because I have things to do and places to see! :D :)
That was essentially my day yesterday.
It was, hands down, the best day of my trip thus far. I cannot believe how much fun I had! I felt like I smiled the entire day. What a great experience. :)
I hope I accurately described everything and how much I enjoyed it. :D
Peace out!
<33Regina
-Woke up entirely too early
-tour
-my goof.
-incredible food!!!!
-play soccer with Argentine kids
-play more games
-go home
Our day started at 7:30 AM. As in, on a Saturday.... of my own free will... I had to wake up at 6:30AM and get ready. Oh my goodness. I was a zombie, hahaha. I really was not a happy camper. Blegh.
But I am SOOO incredibly happy I went to the hospital... It reminded me of working at the Reddix Center in SA. Everyone was so caring and happy! More on that later.
We got there and they gave us a nice overview of what the hospital's history and what they do there now [two very different aspects, haha], then they gave us a tour!
Side note: alright, so I get to the place, and I had eaten breakfast from burger king, so I had a bag of trash.... I ask the first person I see if they could point to the trashcan for me. Instead of pointing, he just said that he wouldn't mind disposing my garbage for me. I was so embarrassed already, because they were sooo hospitable! They gave us more breakfast and everything, and he was going to take my trash!? haha
So after the workers begin talking, I realize that I didn't hand my trash to just anyone... I handed it to the person who oversees the ENTIRE hospital. Oh. My. Gosh. I was so darn embarrassed! I mean, it was beyond amazing that he was that humble about his position, but still! That's incredible!
When I talked to my friend/someone who works for ECELA, she pointed out that a situation like this would never happen in the U.S., and I have to agree. As much as I enjoy the U.S., someone with a job as high up as his wouldn't even have the time of day to speak to us.
Also, the lady who spoke to us before [who is in charge of 5 different hospitals] also came with us. I felt incredibly honored that they would spend their Saturday with us. How amazing is that?!
After touring and seeing their really awesome hospital [alright, it's in the middle of nowhere and is very modern, with surgery rooms and monitors... everything! they've basically made their own community, with schools for children, therapy centers for patients... and everything is absoloutely free and patient based. How incredible.] we were treated to lunch.
So I was fully ready to just eat peanut butter and jellies for my lunch, but they brought the most wonderful food for us! There was cheese and meats, bruchetta, red wine, white wine, traditional northern Argentine soup, champagne and dessert! Everything was so wonderful! They actually made separate side dishes for vegetarians. It was so accommodating, I have no idea how they did it. Seriously, they made us feel like royalty. I hope we lived up to their expectation, especially considering how wonderful they treated us. :)
After they wined and dined us [for real. If you had a glass of wine, they wouldn't wait until you were finished to refill you, hahaha. I normally don't care for wine, but this was delish!] we were ready to tour the school. The children of the patients go to school together just a few feet away from all the hospital part.
As expected, I really liked the school! They teach them very practical and interesting skills like how to host a radio show, build houses, and promote values through futbol callejero and other sports.
Futbol Callejero is basically street soccer. The hospital made their own version of the game, where there are a lot less rules and you play short games that end with both teams discussing what went on during the game and how they felt about it. I really think this is a great teaching strategy for these kids. Not only can the kids let our their frustrations in a positive way, but it promotes exercise and being open about feelings. I was so happy to think about all the different strategies they are employing to help these kids be as positive as possible during a very stressful time in their lives. I wish I could come back and volunteer with them. That would be rad.
These kids were beasts at futbol! I mean, it's kind of a given, but wowwwww. They could headbutt, balance the ball on their faces and overall amazing motor skills. I was blown away. I hope our youth look that skilled while they play little league sports. These kids would have pulverized us in a game if it was just us vs. them!
Luckily, it was not! :D
We were split pretty evenly with the kids, thank goodness. The only downside was that we didn't really know who was on our team and stuff, haha. There was a bit of confusion, but overall it was a really good game! :DDD
Futbol was good, but there were more games to be played!!!!
We went over to a place called Pena La Alegria. This is basically where the patients go to work on fine motor skills in a creative way. They paint, draw, do origami and a lot of other fun things [like dancing!]. This place was a ton of fun! We danced with the doctors and patients, played a bunch of games that involve tossing things? I don't know what theyre called, but it was a blast!
Eventually it was time to calm down and have refreshments and reflect on the day. They served us a lot of hot chocolate and pastries and asked us how we liked their facility. I know it was super cheesy, [I even admitted it as I said it], but I said that you could really tell how hard they've worked to build a program like theirs that fosters a sense of community and has a lot of love. I really liked that about it, because it didn't feel like a hospital. Everyone seemed to know each other and genuinely care about one another. It was a beautiful thing to see. :)
It honestly reminded me of working at the Reddix Center, because it was easy to tell that the staff truly enjoyed their work and the residents enjoy living there as well. I would definitely go back if my allergies would chill out.
Side note: I thought I didn't have any allergies in the woods, so I was incredibly happy!!! Turns out I really did, but I didn't feel them until after a few hours. Then my throat/eyes/nose started hurting, and I haven't felt well ever since.... at least it didn't affect me while I was there. That would have been a bummer, hahaha.
I hope I'll get over it soon though, because I have things to do and places to see! :D :)
That was essentially my day yesterday.
It was, hands down, the best day of my trip thus far. I cannot believe how much fun I had! I felt like I smiled the entire day. What a great experience. :)
I hope I accurately described everything and how much I enjoyed it. :D
Peace out!
<33Regina
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Today was the best day of my trip so far!
However, I am much too tired to blog about it right now. I'm sorry. :/
I will tell you what I did, though!
We went to a hospital in the countryside, that used to be for people with leprosy. The staff was absolutely AMAZING. I wish I could work in an environment so nice and caring. :)
We were there the entire day, which I honestly thought would be wayyyy too long to spend anywhere... but actually, it was the best experience I have had in Argentina. :)
I will blog in depth tomorrow, because this deserves the best blog post ever! :)
Buenas noches y tener suenos dulces!
<33Regina
I will tell you what I did, though!
We went to a hospital in the countryside, that used to be for people with leprosy. The staff was absolutely AMAZING. I wish I could work in an environment so nice and caring. :)
We were there the entire day, which I honestly thought would be wayyyy too long to spend anywhere... but actually, it was the best experience I have had in Argentina. :)
I will blog in depth tomorrow, because this deserves the best blog post ever! :)
Buenas noches y tener suenos dulces!
<33Regina
Friday, July 15, 2011
I found peanut butter!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, that's a lie. My friend Katie took me to a store that sells peanut butter, and I purchased 2 containers of it!!!!
That is seriously the highlight of my day. Honest. :D
-Shadowing [really? was that today? feels like it was 10 days ago!]
-Tacos!?
-Class [test! Ahhh!!!!]
-dinner mix up
-O Peanut Butter, how I love thee
-Hanging out with friends/youtube party
This is gonna be a quickie, guys. lol
Today was the final day of shadowing, which meant waking up entirely too early for humanity. Especially here. Everyone wakes up SUPER late here... so yea, I fit right in. ;)
The hospital was great! Only 2 of us showed up [as opposed to the 4 on previous days], but it was alright, because we got to shadow with some awesome doctors! :). They were all so nice and concerned with how much we were learning and everything. I was very glad to shadow them again. I feel like they are so personable, even though I don't know enough spanish to carry on a conversation, hahaha.
After shadowing, my friend Lauren and I went to a restaurant across the street from the hospital. I had the most glorious salmon tacos with avocado. I dont know if it's that I am missing home or what, but I have never appreciated a taco more than today. If I would have known how delicious it would taste, I would have visited Mexico instead. Just kidding. Argentina is awesome! <3 :D
Side note: Lauren and I left the hospital a bit early to study for our exam, but instead went to lunch. While we were in the restaurant [which has a HUGE picture window... with us sitting almost directly in front] the head doctor that we had been following walked riiiight past us! It was so darn nerve wrecking and funny. I don't know what I would have done if he had noticed us! I felt pretty horrible about leaving early after seeing him, but I really did need to study for my test.
Today was our test! I didn't do so well, but I passed! Onto the next .... section... of a level.... :/ Blegh.
I made a 72, which isn't too bad considering I was learning the grammar [my weakness] for the first time, when a few students have learned it another time. I had a really strong listening and oral portion, but I don't write very well, which is a bummer. I'm still trying my hardest though, so I'll get it soon. Hopefully. :)
After class I told a group of my friends that we should/could go get tacos at the same restaurant... but when we got there, we realized that it was not in any of our budgets! We opted for pizza instead. Again with the pizza. My friend, Katie, ordered a large Fuzzagetta pizza or something. Hahaha. There was very little crust/dough, with a layer of cheese about 1 inch thick... and onions on top.
I was not digging it as much as I thought I would.
Right after we ordered dinner, Katie showed me a local health foods store, where they sold peanut butter! I was SO overjoyed. Really, it seems like everyone in Argentina eats steak, pastries and drinks coffee, and that's all. Peanut butter is only sold at select stores, and it's very different from the peanut butter in the US. It's kind of grey in color, and a lot less thick.... but it's peanut butter!
Wahooooo!!!! I can't wait to eat PB&Js to my heart's content! :)
This was merely the beginning of a nice night!
We ended up going back to Katie's apartment and just hanging out. We talked and looked at youtube videos... Sadly, for a moment or two... I felt like I was actually back at home. Really. I think it was the youtube vids that did it. It was a really nice friday night. :)
P.S.: the owner of the ipod did contact me. I will be seeing if they can supply me any information about the ipod before giving it back to them. I hope I will have good Karma for a while! :)
That is seriously the highlight of my day. Honest. :D
-Shadowing [really? was that today? feels like it was 10 days ago!]
-Tacos!?
-Class [test! Ahhh!!!!]
-dinner mix up
-O Peanut Butter, how I love thee
-Hanging out with friends/youtube party
This is gonna be a quickie, guys. lol
Today was the final day of shadowing, which meant waking up entirely too early for humanity. Especially here. Everyone wakes up SUPER late here... so yea, I fit right in. ;)
The hospital was great! Only 2 of us showed up [as opposed to the 4 on previous days], but it was alright, because we got to shadow with some awesome doctors! :). They were all so nice and concerned with how much we were learning and everything. I was very glad to shadow them again. I feel like they are so personable, even though I don't know enough spanish to carry on a conversation, hahaha.
After shadowing, my friend Lauren and I went to a restaurant across the street from the hospital. I had the most glorious salmon tacos with avocado. I dont know if it's that I am missing home or what, but I have never appreciated a taco more than today. If I would have known how delicious it would taste, I would have visited Mexico instead. Just kidding. Argentina is awesome! <3 :D
Side note: Lauren and I left the hospital a bit early to study for our exam, but instead went to lunch. While we were in the restaurant [which has a HUGE picture window... with us sitting almost directly in front] the head doctor that we had been following walked riiiight past us! It was so darn nerve wrecking and funny. I don't know what I would have done if he had noticed us! I felt pretty horrible about leaving early after seeing him, but I really did need to study for my test.
Today was our test! I didn't do so well, but I passed! Onto the next .... section... of a level.... :/ Blegh.
I made a 72, which isn't too bad considering I was learning the grammar [my weakness] for the first time, when a few students have learned it another time. I had a really strong listening and oral portion, but I don't write very well, which is a bummer. I'm still trying my hardest though, so I'll get it soon. Hopefully. :)
After class I told a group of my friends that we should/could go get tacos at the same restaurant... but when we got there, we realized that it was not in any of our budgets! We opted for pizza instead. Again with the pizza. My friend, Katie, ordered a large Fuzzagetta pizza or something. Hahaha. There was very little crust/dough, with a layer of cheese about 1 inch thick... and onions on top.
I was not digging it as much as I thought I would.
Right after we ordered dinner, Katie showed me a local health foods store, where they sold peanut butter! I was SO overjoyed. Really, it seems like everyone in Argentina eats steak, pastries and drinks coffee, and that's all. Peanut butter is only sold at select stores, and it's very different from the peanut butter in the US. It's kind of grey in color, and a lot less thick.... but it's peanut butter!
Wahooooo!!!! I can't wait to eat PB&Js to my heart's content! :)
This was merely the beginning of a nice night!
We ended up going back to Katie's apartment and just hanging out. We talked and looked at youtube videos... Sadly, for a moment or two... I felt like I was actually back at home. Really. I think it was the youtube vids that did it. It was a really nice friday night. :)
P.S.: the owner of the ipod did contact me. I will be seeing if they can supply me any information about the ipod before giving it back to them. I hope I will have good Karma for a while! :)
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Slow day...
I definitely have a routine now. Blegh.
I actually wish I just came here to go on vacation, hahaha. The medical program is taking a LOT of time out of my schedule! :/
However, the Spanish is great. I just wish it was a bit earlier... however, as long as I keep learning, it's all good. :)
-Volunteering at the hospital
-Class
-Attempting to see the last Harry Potter movie
-Dinner
Today was wayyy less stressful at the hospital! I was extremely thankful for that. We were only able to talk to one patient, but it was a really good conversation. He was really nice and spoke slowly and clearly to us since he knew that our Spanish needs some work.
I am very happy that I was able to have a very positive experience at the hospital. I am more than a little traumatized about the incident yesterday, so today was much needed!
Class was pretty fun. I am so sad that I will have to go into a different teacher's class next week! My teacher is SUCH a sweetheart! I will miss her sooo much. :(
We are now able to write stories in the past tense and use words to put the actions in order. Awesomeee!!! :DDDD
I was so tired after class [not sure why, but in Argentina I've been needing so much more sleep than usual. It's very strange considering how little sleep I am able to function on in TX. I think it's because I am 98239823x less stressed? I don't know :/] so I went back to the apartment and took a bit of a nap.
The buzzing sound of our doorbell woke me up. My friends were trying to wake me up to go see the Harry Potter movie!
FYI- the movie came out a day earlier here. So strange! They're in English with Spanish subtitles here.
Because we went so late, we weren't able to get tickets for today, which was a bummer, but pretty expected. Instead we went to a restaurant a few doors down from the theater. I ate cooked vegetables. It was pretty delicious, but like most of the food here, it was rather bland. I added salt and pepper to it, which is pretty huge for me. I wish they had spicy food here! I don't care for spicy food every day, but I really miss it right now, hahaha.
We then took a taxi home, and I am going to go to sleep super soon because I have to be at the hospital by 7:45 tomorrow for my final day of shadowing. Wish me luck!
Buenas Noches!
<33Regina
P.S.: So yesterday when we went out to dinner, one of my friends from the program found an ipod on the way to the bar... she gave it to me since it's going to be my birthday soon. Although I appreciate the gesture, I've emailed the owner about it, since I would hate to lose something as valuable as an ipod.
However, if he doesn't contact me before my flight back, I don't think there's really anything I can do about it, you know? :/
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Best Night in Argentina!
Wow. I'm still so pumped from this evening that I need to calm down. Hahaha. I am also very, very tired, so I will keep this post pretty short.
-Hospital volunteering
-Class
-Dulce making class
-Ice cream at Freddo's
-Going out!
alright, i know i should type properly, but i will type faster if i dont worry about capitalizing my words. sorry, but i need to go to sleep as soon as humanly possible.
i volunteered for the first time today! i was looking forward to it at first, but became VERY discouraged and distraught after seeing a man have a heart attack. i dont know if he was able to live or not, but the situation looked pretty grave. the girls in my group and myself were asked to move to the lobby of the floor, and while we were there an bed was being rolled to the patient's room. it was extremely difficult to watch. maybe im just too gosh darn sensitive, but it killed my mood for a while.
it killed my mood so much that i accidentally started crying in class. oops.
i felt bad, because i hate making a scene when i cry, but i just couldn't take it. that was a very intense situation, and i saw all of it. i am REALLY hoping he didn't die, because i dont want to have seen someone die. ugh. :'((((
anyway. better/happier subject!
as a result of seeing something so sad [i used your list courtney! sorry again im not capitalizing any words on here!], i was in the mood for sweets all day. luckily, there was a sweets making class where we were able to make our own deserts. i actually didnt want any of those, though... so a friend and i went to this place called "Freddo's" where they serve phenomenal ice cream! yummmmm.
i got Swiss chocolate and vanilla ice cream. delish! the swiss was like regular chocolate with chocolate chunks and dulce de leche in it. mmmmmm.
there ice cream is a lot more "sticky" than ours. It seems to be a lot less runny and stuff. i loveeeeeeeeeeee it. :D
alright. i am so tired now. i think i need to stop.
ttyl! buenas noches!
<33Regina
------------------------EDIT-----------------------------------
After ice cream, a group of friends came to our apartment and we hung out/did homework, then we went out!!! It was super fun! :D
We went to a bar to watch the game [brazil and edcuador? i dont remember at all, haha], but yea it was a REALLY fun time! Afterwards we went to another bar and was supposed to turn into a dance club... I didn't stay long enough for the dance floor part, but i did have fun.
I wish I could accurately describe how much fun I had, hahaha. :)
-Hospital volunteering
-Class
-Dulce making class
-Ice cream at Freddo's
-Going out!
alright, i know i should type properly, but i will type faster if i dont worry about capitalizing my words. sorry, but i need to go to sleep as soon as humanly possible.
i volunteered for the first time today! i was looking forward to it at first, but became VERY discouraged and distraught after seeing a man have a heart attack. i dont know if he was able to live or not, but the situation looked pretty grave. the girls in my group and myself were asked to move to the lobby of the floor, and while we were there an bed was being rolled to the patient's room. it was extremely difficult to watch. maybe im just too gosh darn sensitive, but it killed my mood for a while.
it killed my mood so much that i accidentally started crying in class. oops.
i felt bad, because i hate making a scene when i cry, but i just couldn't take it. that was a very intense situation, and i saw all of it. i am REALLY hoping he didn't die, because i dont want to have seen someone die. ugh. :'((((
anyway. better/happier subject!
as a result of seeing something so sad [i used your list courtney! sorry again im not capitalizing any words on here!], i was in the mood for sweets all day. luckily, there was a sweets making class where we were able to make our own deserts. i actually didnt want any of those, though... so a friend and i went to this place called "Freddo's" where they serve phenomenal ice cream! yummmmm.
i got Swiss chocolate and vanilla ice cream. delish! the swiss was like regular chocolate with chocolate chunks and dulce de leche in it. mmmmmm.
there ice cream is a lot more "sticky" than ours. It seems to be a lot less runny and stuff. i loveeeeeeeeeeee it. :D
alright. i am so tired now. i think i need to stop.
ttyl! buenas noches!
<33Regina
------------------------EDIT-----------------------------------
After ice cream, a group of friends came to our apartment and we hung out/did homework, then we went out!!! It was super fun! :D
We went to a bar to watch the game [brazil and edcuador? i dont remember at all, haha], but yea it was a REALLY fun time! Afterwards we went to another bar and was supposed to turn into a dance club... I didn't stay long enough for the dance floor part, but i did have fun.
I wish I could accurately describe how much fun I had, hahaha. :)
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Argentina: where the buffets are "different" +First day at hospital!
I'm using the word "different" in the way that my mom taught me when we went to Germany for the first time. It was something along the lines of "don't say something is 'weird', say it's 'different'."
So yes, Argentina has different buffets. So different.
-Went to the hospital today for the first time. It was a lot more old/dirty than I imagined.
-Classes. Same 'ole
-Finally tried Havana
-Super hilarious speaker
-Dinner disaster!
First of all I had to wake up SOOOO early! 6:05AM! UGH.
I'm sure you all know by now that I loooove to sleep in. It's probably my biggest guilty pleasure. :)
Anyway, the hospital was alright. Sadly, I don't know near enough Spanish to take very much from the experience. :(((
The doctors and residence spoke a LOT of crazyyyy medical spanish, and quite quickly. :/
I tried sooo hard to keep up..... but really I could only decipher a few words in their entire conversation. ugh. :/
It was also pretty dirty [more on that later, though.]
On the plus side I could understand everything the paitients would say! Even though they have the Argentinian accent. :)
Omg. Everyone was SO nice to my friend and I! They offered us cookies and coffee, hahaha. The attending physician (the doctor in charge... which Brad says is actually just called an "attending" lol) was very sweet. He asked us on several occaisions if we could understand what was going on [no], and told us to get closer so we could see what was going on. I was very impressed with how genuine everyone was! :)
Also, the hospital is only 2-3 blocks away from where my apartment is! Yay! :D
I was able to have a pretty awesome talk with a friend from class after shadowing, which was awesome. I'm so glad that it's easy to make friends here! Hahaha :)
I feel like I use the word "after" soooo often when I blog that I'm trying to think of different transitions... They're all awkward. Sorry, hahaha. :)
Anyway, My classes were alright. We're still doing the past tense, but we're doing irregular verbs or something, lol. I don't really know. Upon [constant] reflection, I've realized that my English isn't the best... so I don't even know how I will master all of these Spanish grammar rules.
"Por ejemplo" ("for example"... but my professor says it in such a cute way!) today we learned the difference between 'por' and 'para', and I can honestly say I have retained nothing. It's so frustrating. :/
I think I will try studying when I'm less tired to see if that's possibly the problem.
[I can't think of a better word than "after"... :/] After classes, I went to a local coffee shop called "Havana" with a classmate, Harry. I tried a capucino, and a special kind of cookie that my teacher recommended. The cookie is called "Alfrejores" or something, and it seemed to be a wafers that are filled with dulce de leche and either covered in chocolate or powdered sugar? I don't know. It was too darn sweet for me. Blegh. I even had them with my coffee!
The coffee was pretty good, though! :)
I swear, you really can't go wrong with coffee down here. :)))))
I had to go back to school after going to Havana because we had a speaker scheduled. Being up since 6AM really makes you sleepy! Needless to say, I was not too excited for this speaker.
It was actually super interesting and funny! He is in charge of the clinicals at the hospital I will be shadowing/volunteering at, and his lecture was about the entire process of medical school in Argentina. I think the biggest reason why I liked him so much is because he is very humble.
He asked us what the main difference is between his hospital and the hospitals in the U.S., and I mentioned that the sanitation rules were different. First the doctors were making their rounds, and touching the patients with bare hands without washing their hands [or even using hand sanitizer] before moving to another patient. I also saw a wad of bloody tissue on the floor, and I must admit that I was a bit horrified. I just couldn't believe that it was left on the floor! It was crazy!
Another girl mentioned that she also found that it was different, because she and the girl she was partnered with were following a resident that carried a urine sample from the 10th to the 1st floor... in a water bottle.
*sigh*
I need to accept the fact that I have been VERY blessed to have been born in the U.S. and raised there. I know that I sound like a horrible person right now, but I have lived a very privileged life and I need to be grateful. Visiting this hospital was really an eye opener.
I don't know about any of you, but I really feel that I take many small things for granted, when I really shouldn't. Take for instance the fact that San Antonio has so many wonderful hospitals. Sure, it might not be cheap, but at least you know you will not be turned away and you will receive excellent care. I hope I can remember this feeling for a long, long time.
Just because I have lived my entire life knowing that no matter what will happen to me, I will receive excellent, sanitary health care doesn't mean everyone has that luxury. I am so thankful.
That's all. :)
The speaker was hilarious because he kept cursing and was very candid about everything. I thoroughly enjoyed that. :) Even though he has a really amazing position, he talked to us in a way that made me [at least] feel very relaxed. I was giggling sooo much every time he would curse. I thought it was the best thing ever.
Afterward I asked him a question related to privacy laws in Argentine health care, and he wanted to know why I was so interested in the laws. Then I had to explain that I'm not even going to be a docter, hahaha. He said he didn't really know the answers to my questions off the top of his head, but that I could email him whenever I [and the class!] would like, with any questions. How cool is that?!?! :D
Alright, now it's the paragraph[s?] you've been waiting for! I had a TERRIBLE dinner tonight. Really, I think I may have been better off not eating.
Brad and I were scouring our neighborhood for possible restaurants to eat at, and I decided on a place about 4-5 blocks away from our apartment. I didn't realize, but it was a buffet! Interesting.
So it took us a while to realize that it was a buffet, and what to do at buffets in Argentina.
............The majority of the food were salads, which I am MORE than fine with... however, in Argentina, several things qualify as salad:
-carrots and mayonnaise
-waldorf salad with mayonnaise
-"potato salad" with something that tasted a LOT like mayonnaise, but looked like mustard? I'm thinking it was cooked egg yolk and mayonnaise or something?
etc.
I think by now you understand what I meant. Does this country have a strange obsession with mayonnaise?!?!?!? Not my thing... :/
There was one entree that I enjoyed: a potato filled empanada-shaped pasta? It was pretty decent. Nothing to get excited about, but at the very least edible and lacking mayonnaise. Thank goodness.
I also had some cheese. If you read my last post, you'll know that I was starving at this point, hahaha.
They did have crepes, though, so that was a pretty good redeeming quality. I didn't know how to make my own crepe, so it ended up looking like a a strange grilled cheese, which is a pretty intense feat given the shape/texture of crepes. I'm so talented. hah. ;P
So yes, this was my tuesday. Interesting to say the least. :)
Again, sorry for such long posts... I've given up on my personal journal, and this is the next best thing! :D
Buenas noches mis amores!!!!
<33Regina
P.S.: I feel absolutely stupid. I thought El Tigre was a rain forest. No. Not at all. Not even close. I apologize, it's a town on a river... kind of. Ugh. I wishhhh it were a rain forest..... :(
So yes, Argentina has different buffets. So different.
-Went to the hospital today for the first time. It was a lot more old/dirty than I imagined.
-Classes. Same 'ole
-Finally tried Havana
-Super hilarious speaker
-Dinner disaster!
First of all I had to wake up SOOOO early! 6:05AM! UGH.
I'm sure you all know by now that I loooove to sleep in. It's probably my biggest guilty pleasure. :)
Anyway, the hospital was alright. Sadly, I don't know near enough Spanish to take very much from the experience. :(((
The doctors and residence spoke a LOT of crazyyyy medical spanish, and quite quickly. :/
I tried sooo hard to keep up..... but really I could only decipher a few words in their entire conversation. ugh. :/
It was also pretty dirty [more on that later, though.]
On the plus side I could understand everything the paitients would say! Even though they have the Argentinian accent. :)
Omg. Everyone was SO nice to my friend and I! They offered us cookies and coffee, hahaha. The attending physician (the doctor in charge... which Brad says is actually just called an "attending" lol) was very sweet. He asked us on several occaisions if we could understand what was going on [no], and told us to get closer so we could see what was going on. I was very impressed with how genuine everyone was! :)
Also, the hospital is only 2-3 blocks away from where my apartment is! Yay! :D
I was able to have a pretty awesome talk with a friend from class after shadowing, which was awesome. I'm so glad that it's easy to make friends here! Hahaha :)
I feel like I use the word "after" soooo often when I blog that I'm trying to think of different transitions... They're all awkward. Sorry, hahaha. :)
Anyway, My classes were alright. We're still doing the past tense, but we're doing irregular verbs or something, lol. I don't really know. Upon [constant] reflection, I've realized that my English isn't the best... so I don't even know how I will master all of these Spanish grammar rules.
"Por ejemplo" ("for example"... but my professor says it in such a cute way!) today we learned the difference between 'por' and 'para', and I can honestly say I have retained nothing. It's so frustrating. :/
I think I will try studying when I'm less tired to see if that's possibly the problem.
[I can't think of a better word than "after"... :/] After classes, I went to a local coffee shop called "Havana" with a classmate, Harry. I tried a capucino, and a special kind of cookie that my teacher recommended. The cookie is called "Alfrejores" or something, and it seemed to be a wafers that are filled with dulce de leche and either covered in chocolate or powdered sugar? I don't know. It was too darn sweet for me. Blegh. I even had them with my coffee!
The coffee was pretty good, though! :)
I swear, you really can't go wrong with coffee down here. :)))))
I had to go back to school after going to Havana because we had a speaker scheduled. Being up since 6AM really makes you sleepy! Needless to say, I was not too excited for this speaker.
It was actually super interesting and funny! He is in charge of the clinicals at the hospital I will be shadowing/volunteering at, and his lecture was about the entire process of medical school in Argentina. I think the biggest reason why I liked him so much is because he is very humble.
He asked us what the main difference is between his hospital and the hospitals in the U.S., and I mentioned that the sanitation rules were different. First the doctors were making their rounds, and touching the patients with bare hands without washing their hands [or even using hand sanitizer] before moving to another patient. I also saw a wad of bloody tissue on the floor, and I must admit that I was a bit horrified. I just couldn't believe that it was left on the floor! It was crazy!
Another girl mentioned that she also found that it was different, because she and the girl she was partnered with were following a resident that carried a urine sample from the 10th to the 1st floor... in a water bottle.
*sigh*
I need to accept the fact that I have been VERY blessed to have been born in the U.S. and raised there. I know that I sound like a horrible person right now, but I have lived a very privileged life and I need to be grateful. Visiting this hospital was really an eye opener.
I don't know about any of you, but I really feel that I take many small things for granted, when I really shouldn't. Take for instance the fact that San Antonio has so many wonderful hospitals. Sure, it might not be cheap, but at least you know you will not be turned away and you will receive excellent care. I hope I can remember this feeling for a long, long time.
Just because I have lived my entire life knowing that no matter what will happen to me, I will receive excellent, sanitary health care doesn't mean everyone has that luxury. I am so thankful.
That's all. :)
The speaker was hilarious because he kept cursing and was very candid about everything. I thoroughly enjoyed that. :) Even though he has a really amazing position, he talked to us in a way that made me [at least] feel very relaxed. I was giggling sooo much every time he would curse. I thought it was the best thing ever.
Afterward I asked him a question related to privacy laws in Argentine health care, and he wanted to know why I was so interested in the laws. Then I had to explain that I'm not even going to be a docter, hahaha. He said he didn't really know the answers to my questions off the top of his head, but that I could email him whenever I [and the class!] would like, with any questions. How cool is that?!?! :D
Alright, now it's the paragraph[s?] you've been waiting for! I had a TERRIBLE dinner tonight. Really, I think I may have been better off not eating.
Brad and I were scouring our neighborhood for possible restaurants to eat at, and I decided on a place about 4-5 blocks away from our apartment. I didn't realize, but it was a buffet! Interesting.
So it took us a while to realize that it was a buffet, and what to do at buffets in Argentina.
............The majority of the food were salads, which I am MORE than fine with... however, in Argentina, several things qualify as salad:
-carrots and mayonnaise
-waldorf salad with mayonnaise
-"potato salad" with something that tasted a LOT like mayonnaise, but looked like mustard? I'm thinking it was cooked egg yolk and mayonnaise or something?
etc.
I think by now you understand what I meant. Does this country have a strange obsession with mayonnaise?!?!?!? Not my thing... :/
There was one entree that I enjoyed: a potato filled empanada-shaped pasta? It was pretty decent. Nothing to get excited about, but at the very least edible and lacking mayonnaise. Thank goodness.
I also had some cheese. If you read my last post, you'll know that I was starving at this point, hahaha.
They did have crepes, though, so that was a pretty good redeeming quality. I didn't know how to make my own crepe, so it ended up looking like a a strange grilled cheese, which is a pretty intense feat given the shape/texture of crepes. I'm so talented. hah. ;P
So yes, this was my tuesday. Interesting to say the least. :)
Again, sorry for such long posts... I've given up on my personal journal, and this is the next best thing! :D
Buenas noches mis amores!!!!
<33Regina
P.S.: I feel absolutely stupid. I thought El Tigre was a rain forest. No. Not at all. Not even close. I apologize, it's a town on a river... kind of. Ugh. I wishhhh it were a rain forest..... :(
Monday, July 11, 2011
Big day tomorrow!
However, today was rather boring. Hahahaha.
I mean, as boring as Buenos Aires could possibly be. xD
-went on a rehab hospital tour
-went to class/some confusion
-ate a salad with raw fish in it for dinner
I know touring a rehab hospital in a different country sounds unbelievable/risque/superOMGawesome, right?!?!?!
It was not. I enjoyed the first part, which was actually walking around the hospital and describing all the forms of therapy that the paitients go through... but once we had a lecture, I was donezo. Hahaha.
The speaker would talk for about 10-15 minutes before letting our coordinator translate. I don't know what he was expecting, considering that over half of us struggle understanding menus in Spanish and whatnot... but yea, his lecture was tooooooo long. I feel pretty horrible admitting that I wasn't as into the lecture as I should have been, but at least 3-4 people fell asleep during his talk! Blegh!
On the plus side, I had a nice nap both to and from the hospital! Haha. :)
for lunch I went to Burger King for a soy burger meal... I don't know if I wrote about it before, but it was very interesting. Pretty mushy and stuff, hahaha.
Sidenote: Argentina must have won the game... Someone is singing something outside of my window that sound like "Argentiiiiiiiinaaaaaaaaaa..... Argenttttiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiina. ARgenTIIIIIIIIna!!!!"
It's very entertaining!
There was a bit of confusion when it was time for class, because I will be shadowing at a hospital tomorrow until 2PM... so I can't be in a class that starts at 1PM, haha. The original solution was to place me in a similar class that begins at 2PM. This didn't work out, because it was a bit too basic for me. Yes, my Spanish is improving!!!! :DDD
I know, that's super insensitive to the students in that class, but they all told me that I probably shouldn't be in their class, haha. They were working on how to say what they ate for breakfast, while my original class was talking about how to say what we ate yesterday [past tense], so it was interesting.
Since that didn't work out, I will be back in my original class and I'll just show up an hour late every day this week. No biggie. :)
Dinner was interesting as well. I can safely say that I am Pizza/Cheese/Pastry'd out! Oh my gosh. If I don't eat pizza for another month [impossible here!] it'll be too soon! Hahaha. That's something because my favorite food is pizza, hahaha.
Anyway, Brad and I went on a quest to find a decent salad... We ended up going to TeaConnection, the vegetarian restaurant less than a block away from us. :)
I accidentally ordered a salad with raw salmon. Maybe I'm not cultured enough to enjoy it, but I really don't care for the texture of raw fish. It grosses me out a bit. I must have been making a lot of faces (note to self- don't do that!!!!) because one of our classmates, who was also at the restaurant, asked me if I was alright. Hahaha. Oops. xD
I did order some AWESOME cinnamon tea. It was so delicious. I will probably go back and order the same tea, because it was sooo good. :D
Anyway, that was pretty much all I did for the day. :)
I'm also super tired, and my mom said I should get to bed! ;)
So it's past my bed time, Chicos! [This is said in the same voice as Natasha, our program leader, hahaha]
Buenas Noches!
<33Regina
P.S.: Did I mention I had pumpkin ravioli for dinner last night?!?!?! hahahaha
I mean, as boring as Buenos Aires could possibly be. xD
-went on a rehab hospital tour
-went to class/some confusion
-ate a salad with raw fish in it for dinner
I know touring a rehab hospital in a different country sounds unbelievable/risque/superOMGawesome, right?!?!?!
It was not. I enjoyed the first part, which was actually walking around the hospital and describing all the forms of therapy that the paitients go through... but once we had a lecture, I was donezo. Hahaha.
The speaker would talk for about 10-15 minutes before letting our coordinator translate. I don't know what he was expecting, considering that over half of us struggle understanding menus in Spanish and whatnot... but yea, his lecture was tooooooo long. I feel pretty horrible admitting that I wasn't as into the lecture as I should have been, but at least 3-4 people fell asleep during his talk! Blegh!
On the plus side, I had a nice nap both to and from the hospital! Haha. :)
for lunch I went to Burger King for a soy burger meal... I don't know if I wrote about it before, but it was very interesting. Pretty mushy and stuff, hahaha.
Sidenote: Argentina must have won the game... Someone is singing something outside of my window that sound like "Argentiiiiiiiinaaaaaaaaaa..... Argenttttiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiina. ARgenTIIIIIIIIna!!!!"
It's very entertaining!
There was a bit of confusion when it was time for class, because I will be shadowing at a hospital tomorrow until 2PM... so I can't be in a class that starts at 1PM, haha. The original solution was to place me in a similar class that begins at 2PM. This didn't work out, because it was a bit too basic for me. Yes, my Spanish is improving!!!! :DDD
I know, that's super insensitive to the students in that class, but they all told me that I probably shouldn't be in their class, haha. They were working on how to say what they ate for breakfast, while my original class was talking about how to say what we ate yesterday [past tense], so it was interesting.
Since that didn't work out, I will be back in my original class and I'll just show up an hour late every day this week. No biggie. :)
Dinner was interesting as well. I can safely say that I am Pizza/Cheese/Pastry'd out! Oh my gosh. If I don't eat pizza for another month [impossible here!] it'll be too soon! Hahaha. That's something because my favorite food is pizza, hahaha.
Anyway, Brad and I went on a quest to find a decent salad... We ended up going to TeaConnection, the vegetarian restaurant less than a block away from us. :)
I accidentally ordered a salad with raw salmon. Maybe I'm not cultured enough to enjoy it, but I really don't care for the texture of raw fish. It grosses me out a bit. I must have been making a lot of faces (note to self- don't do that!!!!) because one of our classmates, who was also at the restaurant, asked me if I was alright. Hahaha. Oops. xD
I did order some AWESOME cinnamon tea. It was so delicious. I will probably go back and order the same tea, because it was sooo good. :D
Anyway, that was pretty much all I did for the day. :)
I'm also super tired, and my mom said I should get to bed! ;)
So it's past my bed time, Chicos! [This is said in the same voice as Natasha, our program leader, hahaha]
Buenas Noches!
<33Regina
P.S.: Did I mention I had pumpkin ravioli for dinner last night?!?!?! hahahaha
Sunday, July 10, 2011
"The name of your dog in the moment"
Hahahahaa, that was a sign from one of the vendors in San Telmo.
I'm going to give your peepers a rest today, because [as my dad says] "[I] must think [I'm] writing a dissertation or something!", plus it's late and I still need to finish some homework. Haha.
All I did today:
-Shopping [in San Telmo]
-MORE Shopping [in Recoleta]
So yea, I think I may have purchased all of Buenos Aires today. Whoops. ;)
The plan was to go to El Tigre today, which is a rainforest. That didn't happen. Want to know why? Because it rained. Can you imagine that?!?! The rain forest RAINED. During it's rainy season, even. What nerve.
Oh, well. We'll go next week. We'll stick it to the man if it rains and show them that we're tough and can handle that gosh darn rain!!! ;)
Instead, we went shopping... which is always an acceptable alternative in my book! :D
We started off in San Telmo, which made Palermo's market look small, and eventually made our way to Recoleta's market. Recoleta, in turn, made San Telmo seem small. Seriously, I think I'm going to stick with San Telmo and Recoleta's markets. :)
I could go into a LOT of detail about the market, but I think if you've been to a flea market you'll get the basic gist of everything. Just think of it as an outdoor craft fair. :)
So yes, I shopped all day. It was great! I took a BUNCH of pictures today! [Over 100], so check some of them out on my facebook. I hope everyone had a great Sunday!!!
Buenas Noches! :)
<33Regina
I'm going to give your peepers a rest today, because [as my dad says] "[I] must think [I'm] writing a dissertation or something!", plus it's late and I still need to finish some homework. Haha.
All I did today:
-Shopping [in San Telmo]
-MORE Shopping [in Recoleta]
So yea, I think I may have purchased all of Buenos Aires today. Whoops. ;)
The plan was to go to El Tigre today, which is a rainforest. That didn't happen. Want to know why? Because it rained. Can you imagine that?!?! The rain forest RAINED. During it's rainy season, even. What nerve.
Oh, well. We'll go next week. We'll stick it to the man if it rains and show them that we're tough and can handle that gosh darn rain!!! ;)
Instead, we went shopping... which is always an acceptable alternative in my book! :D
We started off in San Telmo, which made Palermo's market look small, and eventually made our way to Recoleta's market. Recoleta, in turn, made San Telmo seem small. Seriously, I think I'm going to stick with San Telmo and Recoleta's markets. :)
I could go into a LOT of detail about the market, but I think if you've been to a flea market you'll get the basic gist of everything. Just think of it as an outdoor craft fair. :)
So yes, I shopped all day. It was great! I took a BUNCH of pictures today! [Over 100], so check some of them out on my facebook. I hope everyone had a great Sunday!!!
Buenas Noches! :)
<33Regina
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Crazy day! Shopping in Palermo!
Palermo is seriously awesome. I just need to start off saying that. :)
-Shopping in Palermo
-Getting semi-lost around Recoleta
-SUSHI FOR DINNER!!!!
So today we were given the option of going to a talk from a psychiatric hospital or just doing things on our own. If you know me, it's rather easy to guess that I decided to sleep in and do my own thing today. ;)
The plan for today was to visit a "Hippie Fair", which sounds like a big flea market, but better. It DEFINITELY lived up to any expectations I had. I was pretty much in heaven. I'm sure you all know how much I love shopping and crafts... combine the two and I'm on cloud nine. :)
I'm going to try to integrate pictures into my blog from now on, if I take enough pics. I get really nervous about taking my camera out in public, especially here because theft is very common....
.....Just kidding. the internet is SUPER slow here, so pictures on my blog with have to wait. :/
I'll try again some other time. :)
Anyway, I kind of overdid it on the shopping, haha. I purchased another purse [I regret nothing!!!!] some necklaces and a cup for Mate [a type of South American tea, which I am hoping to bring back lotsss of. :DDD. it's so darn delicious. :) ]. I can't decide if I like the cup or the bag more, haha.
We actually spent a lot of time in Palermo today! Our plan was to walk around the entire flea market-ish area, then go back around and purchase things after we saw all there was to buy. It was super fun. :)
After shopping to my heart's content, we went to a coffee shop to chill for a bit. I ordered a honey dew milkshake and french fries with cheese. It was delicious. :)
I need to point out, if I haven't already, what it is like to dine in Buenos Aires. It. Takes. Forever. I understand that I am on vacation, and I should attempt to enjoy every aspect of my trip... but this is borderline ridiculous for me, haha. First you sit down, and wait for the waiter to acknowledge your presence, then they bring you menus. After 10-15 mins they come back and take your order... then you wait for your food to come out. After you are done eating, they will take at least 30 mins to come back and ask if you are ready for the check. Yes, 30 mins after you've taken your last bite of food, I am more than positive it is time for you to go. The check will arrive in probably 10-15 minutes, then you will pay. The waiter or waitress might wait for you to pay, then take another 10-15 minutes getting you your card/change back.
It's honestly a pain. I don't really care to go out to eat here... but seeing as I am pretty skittish about using our gas stove, I might have to be content with eating out or horrible microwaved food, hahaha. Lizette explained it to me this way: "Only in the U.S. is everything fast!", well, call my typical, but I think I like that about the U.S.
I can still savor my food in about an hour, instead of 3. ;)
Alright, I'm done with that rant. Haha. :)
After Palermo, we went back to the apartment, because I somehow forgot to take my allergy medicine and was feeling horrible. There was something in my milkshake that I was allergic to... Oh well, it still tasted delicious! But yea, we had to go back to the apartment so I could sleep for a bit. I didn't feel well at all. :/
Once I woke up we decided to get more food. Hahaha, our trip has basically been revolving around food a lot. Brad, Lizette and I came to the general consensus that we really didn't want to eat pizza again, so we began our quest for a different type of cuisine. After walking a few blocks away from the apartment, we ran into a Japones Sushi place!!! [Japanese]. It looked sooo cute, but it wouldn't open for another 20 minutes.
In the meantime, we decided to walk to Lizette's homestay so she could tell her homestay family that she would be out for a while. We were alright on the way there, but on the way back? Oh my gosh. We were a bit lost, haha.
*Side note: Lizette's homestay is SUPER cute! Everything is teenie tiny compared to the U.S. Rather than being a house, it's kind of like a bunch of townhomes connected together, but not really? I don't know how to explain it. Here are some cute things about her homestay: the doorways were all perfectly sized for me! I didn't have to duck or anything. I feel like it was a house made just for me!!!! [I'm 5"1 or 5"2 in case anyone forgot...], the stairs seemed to be an after thought of the house, so they were tucked into the corners of rooms and stuff. Lizette said it reminds her of a tree house, and I can totally see it. :))
Oh! We also tried the most delicious dulce de leche at her homestay. It was soooo good. I want to know the brand so I can bring some back! :D
I also saw that her homestay had a veryyyyy old UNL Husker ornament! I took a picture with it to show my mom. :)
Anyway, back to being lost. :/ We ended up walking soooo much, asking for directions, then getting a bit lost again. it wasn't the most fun part of the day, but I definitely think it's a necessary part of being someplace new. :)
The sushi place was sooo nice! I bought a hot Philadelphia roll, and some other roll. It was seriously good. Brad also bought two rolls [avocado and something else?], and Lizette had a hot passion roll and some salmon rolls. Ugh, I've missed sushi. So delicious. Mmmm. :)
After repeating the process of waiting and everything for the waiter to give us our check and pay and all, we just haled a cab and went home. I insisted on the cab, because I didn't want to walk all the way to Lizette's apartment again [lazy, I know... but it was 1.2 miles one way, and we'd have to walk back to our apartment afterward. Noooo thank you!]
So yes, today was a very fun and crazy day! Tomorrow we're going to try to go to El Tigre, a rain forest. I am soooo excited! However, I'm still not feeling very well, so please hope for me to feel better in time for me to get some sweet rain forest action!!! :DDD ;)
hahaha
Buenas Noches, mi corazonsitos!!!!
-Shopping in Palermo
-Getting semi-lost around Recoleta
-SUSHI FOR DINNER!!!!
So today we were given the option of going to a talk from a psychiatric hospital or just doing things on our own. If you know me, it's rather easy to guess that I decided to sleep in and do my own thing today. ;)
The plan for today was to visit a "Hippie Fair", which sounds like a big flea market, but better. It DEFINITELY lived up to any expectations I had. I was pretty much in heaven. I'm sure you all know how much I love shopping and crafts... combine the two and I'm on cloud nine. :)
I'm going to try to integrate pictures into my blog from now on, if I take enough pics. I get really nervous about taking my camera out in public, especially here because theft is very common....
.....Just kidding. the internet is SUPER slow here, so pictures on my blog with have to wait. :/
I'll try again some other time. :)
Anyway, I kind of overdid it on the shopping, haha. I purchased another purse [I regret nothing!!!!] some necklaces and a cup for Mate [a type of South American tea, which I am hoping to bring back lotsss of. :DDD. it's so darn delicious. :) ]. I can't decide if I like the cup or the bag more, haha.
We actually spent a lot of time in Palermo today! Our plan was to walk around the entire flea market-ish area, then go back around and purchase things after we saw all there was to buy. It was super fun. :)
After shopping to my heart's content, we went to a coffee shop to chill for a bit. I ordered a honey dew milkshake and french fries with cheese. It was delicious. :)
I need to point out, if I haven't already, what it is like to dine in Buenos Aires. It. Takes. Forever. I understand that I am on vacation, and I should attempt to enjoy every aspect of my trip... but this is borderline ridiculous for me, haha. First you sit down, and wait for the waiter to acknowledge your presence, then they bring you menus. After 10-15 mins they come back and take your order... then you wait for your food to come out. After you are done eating, they will take at least 30 mins to come back and ask if you are ready for the check. Yes, 30 mins after you've taken your last bite of food, I am more than positive it is time for you to go. The check will arrive in probably 10-15 minutes, then you will pay. The waiter or waitress might wait for you to pay, then take another 10-15 minutes getting you your card/change back.
It's honestly a pain. I don't really care to go out to eat here... but seeing as I am pretty skittish about using our gas stove, I might have to be content with eating out or horrible microwaved food, hahaha. Lizette explained it to me this way: "Only in the U.S. is everything fast!", well, call my typical, but I think I like that about the U.S.
I can still savor my food in about an hour, instead of 3. ;)
Alright, I'm done with that rant. Haha. :)
After Palermo, we went back to the apartment, because I somehow forgot to take my allergy medicine and was feeling horrible. There was something in my milkshake that I was allergic to... Oh well, it still tasted delicious! But yea, we had to go back to the apartment so I could sleep for a bit. I didn't feel well at all. :/
Once I woke up we decided to get more food. Hahaha, our trip has basically been revolving around food a lot. Brad, Lizette and I came to the general consensus that we really didn't want to eat pizza again, so we began our quest for a different type of cuisine. After walking a few blocks away from the apartment, we ran into a Japones Sushi place!!! [Japanese]. It looked sooo cute, but it wouldn't open for another 20 minutes.
In the meantime, we decided to walk to Lizette's homestay so she could tell her homestay family that she would be out for a while. We were alright on the way there, but on the way back? Oh my gosh. We were a bit lost, haha.
*Side note: Lizette's homestay is SUPER cute! Everything is teenie tiny compared to the U.S. Rather than being a house, it's kind of like a bunch of townhomes connected together, but not really? I don't know how to explain it. Here are some cute things about her homestay: the doorways were all perfectly sized for me! I didn't have to duck or anything. I feel like it was a house made just for me!!!! [I'm 5"1 or 5"2 in case anyone forgot...], the stairs seemed to be an after thought of the house, so they were tucked into the corners of rooms and stuff. Lizette said it reminds her of a tree house, and I can totally see it. :))
Oh! We also tried the most delicious dulce de leche at her homestay. It was soooo good. I want to know the brand so I can bring some back! :D
I also saw that her homestay had a veryyyyy old UNL Husker ornament! I took a picture with it to show my mom. :)
Anyway, back to being lost. :/ We ended up walking soooo much, asking for directions, then getting a bit lost again. it wasn't the most fun part of the day, but I definitely think it's a necessary part of being someplace new. :)
The sushi place was sooo nice! I bought a hot Philadelphia roll, and some other roll. It was seriously good. Brad also bought two rolls [avocado and something else?], and Lizette had a hot passion roll and some salmon rolls. Ugh, I've missed sushi. So delicious. Mmmm. :)
After repeating the process of waiting and everything for the waiter to give us our check and pay and all, we just haled a cab and went home. I insisted on the cab, because I didn't want to walk all the way to Lizette's apartment again [lazy, I know... but it was 1.2 miles one way, and we'd have to walk back to our apartment afterward. Noooo thank you!]
So yes, today was a very fun and crazy day! Tomorrow we're going to try to go to El Tigre, a rain forest. I am soooo excited! However, I'm still not feeling very well, so please hope for me to feel better in time for me to get some sweet rain forest action!!! :DDD ;)
hahaha
Buenas Noches, mi corazonsitos!!!!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Friday, Friday!
Looking forward to the weekend! :)
-Class
-dinner with friends
-Palermo on a Friday night!
So, today started off like most of my days here. I just went to class at 2. It was pretty good. We conjugated irregular verbs in past tense. :)
I really think I am getting better! For the first time I didn't get ANYTHING wrong on my homework!!!! This pretty much never happens to me, haha. :). My speaking still isn't the best, and I only like to speak if someone asks me a question [rather than initiating anything, lol], but it's coming along. :DDD
Side note: my teacher mentioned in class today that this weekend is the election weekend. This means that a lot of stores will be closed this weekend, and pretty much EVERYTHING will shut down on Sunday in order to encourage people to vote this weekend. It's very interesting... rather than partying on their free day, it seems like they will just chill. Hmm.
After class, I was beginning to skype with my mom and brother, until there was a LOT of noise outside my room. I checked to see what happened, and Brad brought over 4 of our classmates to the apartment. I had to let my family go to see what all the commotion was.
After talking to them, I found out that they were all going to go out to eat, then "go out". I had actually purchased a ticket to go to Cafe Tortoni, to see some tango, so I was unsure if going out to eat was a good idea. We talked about everything, and I decided against going to Cafe Tortoni, mainly because I already paid 100 pesos, and that was only for the ticket. It didn't include food or drink.
So we walked to a place called Kentucky's Pizzeria. It was delicious!!!! It was the most "U.S." tasting pizza I have had here. I was sooo glad that it wasn't strange tasting, hahaha. I also had a glass of Moscato with my pizza, but I completely forgot that I don't drink wine like normal people. I take very, veryyyy small sips of the wine... just enough to actually taste the wine. Because of my wine drinking technique, I basically didn't drink any of my wine, because I only went through 1/4 of a class, hahaha. I wish I liked wine. It seems like a very classy drink, lol.
After dinner I needed to get to a bank ASAP. We went to Banco Frances, and took some money out, then we went back to the apartment. We mainly listed to music and got ready to "go out:".... which wasn't much. I think I changed my shirt and put on makeup, and was ready to go!
Once we arrived in Palermo, we waiting for a few people from our medical group. they didn't actually show up, so we just went to a bar instead. At the bar I ordered a submarion, which is basically a bar of chocolate and a cup/mug full of milk... The bar of chocolate is placed into the mug of hot milk, and hot chocolate is mad! It was pretty good, just not very sweet.
To be honest, I think I may like Palermo better than Recoleta at this point. Palermo seems to be prettier than Recoleta to me. Hahaha.
Alright, it's suuuper late over here.... I am going to try to write the rest of in the morning, if possible.]
Buenas Noches! <3 :)
-Regina
-Class
-dinner with friends
-Palermo on a Friday night!
So, today started off like most of my days here. I just went to class at 2. It was pretty good. We conjugated irregular verbs in past tense. :)
I really think I am getting better! For the first time I didn't get ANYTHING wrong on my homework!!!! This pretty much never happens to me, haha. :). My speaking still isn't the best, and I only like to speak if someone asks me a question [rather than initiating anything, lol], but it's coming along. :DDD
Side note: my teacher mentioned in class today that this weekend is the election weekend. This means that a lot of stores will be closed this weekend, and pretty much EVERYTHING will shut down on Sunday in order to encourage people to vote this weekend. It's very interesting... rather than partying on their free day, it seems like they will just chill. Hmm.
After class, I was beginning to skype with my mom and brother, until there was a LOT of noise outside my room. I checked to see what happened, and Brad brought over 4 of our classmates to the apartment. I had to let my family go to see what all the commotion was.
After talking to them, I found out that they were all going to go out to eat, then "go out". I had actually purchased a ticket to go to Cafe Tortoni, to see some tango, so I was unsure if going out to eat was a good idea. We talked about everything, and I decided against going to Cafe Tortoni, mainly because I already paid 100 pesos, and that was only for the ticket. It didn't include food or drink.
So we walked to a place called Kentucky's Pizzeria. It was delicious!!!! It was the most "U.S." tasting pizza I have had here. I was sooo glad that it wasn't strange tasting, hahaha. I also had a glass of Moscato with my pizza, but I completely forgot that I don't drink wine like normal people. I take very, veryyyy small sips of the wine... just enough to actually taste the wine. Because of my wine drinking technique, I basically didn't drink any of my wine, because I only went through 1/4 of a class, hahaha. I wish I liked wine. It seems like a very classy drink, lol.
After dinner I needed to get to a bank ASAP. We went to Banco Frances, and took some money out, then we went back to the apartment. We mainly listed to music and got ready to "go out:".... which wasn't much. I think I changed my shirt and put on makeup, and was ready to go!
Once we arrived in Palermo, we waiting for a few people from our medical group. they didn't actually show up, so we just went to a bar instead. At the bar I ordered a submarion, which is basically a bar of chocolate and a cup/mug full of milk... The bar of chocolate is placed into the mug of hot milk, and hot chocolate is mad! It was pretty good, just not very sweet.
To be honest, I think I may like Palermo better than Recoleta at this point. Palermo seems to be prettier than Recoleta to me. Hahaha.
Alright, it's suuuper late over here.... I am going to try to write the rest of in the morning, if possible.]
Buenas Noches! <3 :)
-Regina
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Settling into a routine.
Definitely getting into a routine, haha.
-School
-Shopping
-Speaker part 2
-Dinner with friends!
Classes were alright today. Nothing really special or anything at this point. Just a lot of conjugating. We conjugated irregular verbs in the past tense... :/ I wish I was better at conjugating! Hopefully that will come with time, though. :)
After school Brad and I went shopping for about 30-45 minutes. It was pretty fast. All I got were a pair of gloves [much, much needed], earrings and a necklace. I'm really excited for when I can actually wear this stuff in the US! I won't chance wearing any of it here, because a girl from my program had her necklace yanked off of her neck, even though it was from forever 21. :/
I also tried getting a pair of boots, but that didn't turn out well. My shoe size is apparently not common down here [go figure], so I am going to have to realllly search for some boots if I want them.
Tonight was also the second part of the speaker. It was interesting, but we didn't really have a lot of questions since she spoke in so much depth last time. It actually turned a bit awkward. I did learn some things, though. I asked if they had a system similar to the US's system for people who have disabilities [it is] and if they have state schools [they do].
When the speaker was finished, we talked a bit about hospital shadowing [which will be next week for me!], and what all we have to do for that. I am pretty nervous, because everyone is saying that your spanish level needs to be a but more than beginner in order to work with the patients.
The final activity of the night was going out to a traditional Argentinean restaurant and eating!!! I ended up ordering a bowl of what looked like cheese for fondue. It was actually corn, pumpkin and cheese, and suuuper delicious. :)))
I actually saw a few people eating the same dish, so I feel like that was a really good
experiences [even though i passed up the beef, which is what Argentina is known for.]. I've actually been toying with the idea of trying meat during this trip, because Argentina is really proud of their beef. I don't know if I can pass up such a great opportunity... :/
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! :)
Okay, the same thing is happening... I am suuuper tired and about to fall asleep. Plus, the amount of spelling/grammar errors I am making right now is ridiculous. blegh.
night time.
Buenas Noches!
<33Regina
-School
-Shopping
-Speaker part 2
-Dinner with friends!
Classes were alright today. Nothing really special or anything at this point. Just a lot of conjugating. We conjugated irregular verbs in the past tense... :/ I wish I was better at conjugating! Hopefully that will come with time, though. :)
After school Brad and I went shopping for about 30-45 minutes. It was pretty fast. All I got were a pair of gloves [much, much needed], earrings and a necklace. I'm really excited for when I can actually wear this stuff in the US! I won't chance wearing any of it here, because a girl from my program had her necklace yanked off of her neck, even though it was from forever 21. :/
I also tried getting a pair of boots, but that didn't turn out well. My shoe size is apparently not common down here [go figure], so I am going to have to realllly search for some boots if I want them.
Tonight was also the second part of the speaker. It was interesting, but we didn't really have a lot of questions since she spoke in so much depth last time. It actually turned a bit awkward. I did learn some things, though. I asked if they had a system similar to the US's system for people who have disabilities [it is] and if they have state schools [they do].
When the speaker was finished, we talked a bit about hospital shadowing [which will be next week for me!], and what all we have to do for that. I am pretty nervous, because everyone is saying that your spanish level needs to be a but more than beginner in order to work with the patients.
The final activity of the night was going out to a traditional Argentinean restaurant and eating!!! I ended up ordering a bowl of what looked like cheese for fondue. It was actually corn, pumpkin and cheese, and suuuper delicious. :)))
I actually saw a few people eating the same dish, so I feel like that was a really good
experiences [even though i passed up the beef, which is what Argentina is known for.]. I've actually been toying with the idea of trying meat during this trip, because Argentina is really proud of their beef. I don't know if I can pass up such a great opportunity... :/
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! :)
Okay, the same thing is happening... I am suuuper tired and about to fall asleep. Plus, the amount of spelling/grammar errors I am making right now is ridiculous. blegh.
night time.
Buenas Noches!
<33Regina
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Fun, fun, fun!
Wow. Today was crazy. I didn't even do too much, but man oh man was it draining/fun!
Overview:
-Shopping in Recoleta
-Clase
-Accidental Tango lessons?
-Dinner
I woke up late-ish and wrote the blog from this morning, which actually took a while. After blogging and eating breakfast in the apartment, Brad and I went on a mini shopping adventure! :D
I really, REALLY want to buy some boots, so I set out to get a pair. Although I didn't end up getting a pair of boots, I did get some suuuper cute earrings and a wonderful red purse. [I will be the very first to admit that I have a purse problem... but a RED purse?!?! come on! I can't pass that up! ;) ].
I did have a slight issue in one of the stores. They wouldn't allow me to use my card to pay for anything unless i carried a picture ID with me, which i was not. Luckily, I had enough cash to pay for my beautiful purse.
I know I didn't really even scratch the surface of shopping in Argentina, but I am trying to save that for the weekends. San Telmo and Palermo are supposed to have some AWESOME flea market-ish shopping places. I am really excited for that, haha.
Class was good. Nothing too special. We talked about past tense some more... and as usual, I am having some difficulties conjugating everything, haha. I hope I'll eventually get it. :/
I wish I would have more time here, so I could have a lottt of time to practice everything. I know my Spanish is improving a LOT, but it's still quite horrible lol.
After class Brad told me that he was going to a tango class or something. I was definitely under the impression that it was going to be us watching people tango. It was not. We basically paid $30 pesos to learn how to dance, which was very uncomfortabel for me. I took a LOT of pictures instead. At one point I was holding 3 or 4 cameras other than my own, taking pictures for everyone. It was a lot of fun for me. A lot more fun than learning how to tango. I know I may have "missed an incredible opportunity" to take pictures of everyone, but that's definitely a more fun role to play at things like that, haha.
---EDIT---
Wow. I actually fell asleep while attempting to write that. xD
It's actually pretty darn late here [11 AM] and I just woke up, so this is going to have to be very quick/short, hahaha.
After the crazy tango lessons [where I just took pics], we walked around attempting to find a place to eat for an ETERNITY!!!! I was sooo hungy!!! Okay, it was probably only 20-30 mins, but I was so gosh darn hungry that it felt like an eternity.
We were trying to find a reasonably priced place with a TV so we could watch the futbol game if we felt like it. We walked to a bar, no TV. Walked to a restaurant, too expensive. Finally we got to a pretty convenient part of Palermo that had a lot of restaurants and ate there.
It looked just like a sports bar, which was cool. At this point I was getting a bit cranky because I was so hungry [I had been hungry since 2PM, hahaha]. I ended up getting vegetable stirfry with rice. It was alright. I was pretty happy to be eating so many vegetables. :)
The best part of the evening was hanging out with all the students in our program! There were a lot of us at the restaurant, and we all sat together to eat. The conversation topics ranged from where we're from and our family life to composting toilets! Needless to say, I was thoroughly entertained. Hahaha. It was great. :DDD
Since there were so many of us, there was no way to split the bill. It ended up being a pretty big ordeal, getting the money out and making sure we had enough plus tip and everything. It turned out well though, haha.
After dinner, 3 of us shared a cab home, which is a LOT cheaper than back home. I had no idea. The total was a little over $4 US Dollars. And the cab driver was actually very nice. :)
Alright, that's all I can write for now! I need to finish my homework! AHH! hahaha
Overview:
-Shopping in Recoleta
-Clase
-Accidental Tango lessons?
-Dinner
I woke up late-ish and wrote the blog from this morning, which actually took a while. After blogging and eating breakfast in the apartment, Brad and I went on a mini shopping adventure! :D
I really, REALLY want to buy some boots, so I set out to get a pair. Although I didn't end up getting a pair of boots, I did get some suuuper cute earrings and a wonderful red purse. [I will be the very first to admit that I have a purse problem... but a RED purse?!?! come on! I can't pass that up! ;) ].
I did have a slight issue in one of the stores. They wouldn't allow me to use my card to pay for anything unless i carried a picture ID with me, which i was not. Luckily, I had enough cash to pay for my beautiful purse.
I know I didn't really even scratch the surface of shopping in Argentina, but I am trying to save that for the weekends. San Telmo and Palermo are supposed to have some AWESOME flea market-ish shopping places. I am really excited for that, haha.
Class was good. Nothing too special. We talked about past tense some more... and as usual, I am having some difficulties conjugating everything, haha. I hope I'll eventually get it. :/
I wish I would have more time here, so I could have a lottt of time to practice everything. I know my Spanish is improving a LOT, but it's still quite horrible lol.
After class Brad told me that he was going to a tango class or something. I was definitely under the impression that it was going to be us watching people tango. It was not. We basically paid $30 pesos to learn how to dance, which was very uncomfortabel for me. I took a LOT of pictures instead. At one point I was holding 3 or 4 cameras other than my own, taking pictures for everyone. It was a lot of fun for me. A lot more fun than learning how to tango. I know I may have "missed an incredible opportunity" to take pictures of everyone, but that's definitely a more fun role to play at things like that, haha.
---EDIT---
Wow. I actually fell asleep while attempting to write that. xD
It's actually pretty darn late here [11 AM] and I just woke up, so this is going to have to be very quick/short, hahaha.
After the crazy tango lessons [where I just took pics], we walked around attempting to find a place to eat for an ETERNITY!!!! I was sooo hungy!!! Okay, it was probably only 20-30 mins, but I was so gosh darn hungry that it felt like an eternity.
We were trying to find a reasonably priced place with a TV so we could watch the futbol game if we felt like it. We walked to a bar, no TV. Walked to a restaurant, too expensive. Finally we got to a pretty convenient part of Palermo that had a lot of restaurants and ate there.
It looked just like a sports bar, which was cool. At this point I was getting a bit cranky because I was so hungry [I had been hungry since 2PM, hahaha]. I ended up getting vegetable stirfry with rice. It was alright. I was pretty happy to be eating so many vegetables. :)
The best part of the evening was hanging out with all the students in our program! There were a lot of us at the restaurant, and we all sat together to eat. The conversation topics ranged from where we're from and our family life to composting toilets! Needless to say, I was thoroughly entertained. Hahaha. It was great. :DDD
Since there were so many of us, there was no way to split the bill. It ended up being a pretty big ordeal, getting the money out and making sure we had enough plus tip and everything. It turned out well though, haha.
After dinner, 3 of us shared a cab home, which is a LOT cheaper than back home. I had no idea. The total was a little over $4 US Dollars. And the cab driver was actually very nice. :)
Alright, that's all I can write for now! I need to finish my homework! AHH! hahaha
Sorry for not posting last night!
As I'm sure you all can imagine, I had a pretty busy day yesterday... by the time I usually blog, I was working on homework and quite tired. I'll try to make up for my blog right now, but this is going to be pretty quick.
Activities of the day if you don't want to read:
-Bank
-Brunch
-Class
-Speaker
-Dinner
So, Brad and I woke up yesterday and immediately headed over to a place with ATMs. Although this is a normal occurrence, it was slightly different in BsAs than back home. First, there is a room with several ATMs, and although there are several ATMs, there was a HUUUUGE line. We walked in and didn't even see the line. Ugh. So we were standing behind someone at an ATM, when someone says something to Brad en espanol... and points behind him. There was a line of about 5-7 people... even though there were at least 3 ATMs, hahaha.
So yea, that was interesting.
After that, I was hungry, so we decided to just go back to Pertutti for lunch/breakfast. We didn't try any new places because we thought we were running late... which is how you feel when you don't have a watch or working phone. Blegh.
For lunch I ordered a spinach and cheese... thing... hahahaha. They looked like huge meatballs, but they were made with spinach and ricotta cheese. It also had a piece of cheese melted over the top, and was surrounded by a cream sauce. It was decent. No where near as healthy as I thought it would be, haha. Oh! I learned something new: when they put a basket of bead/crackers on the table, it's not that it is for your meal or anything, but if you decide to eat it they will charge you. Yep, I learned it from experience at brunch, haha. Oh well. Everything is a learning experience, right?
Brad was pretty nervous about being late to class, so he kept saying "I hope we're not late to class...." throughout our meal. Maybe I'm a slacker, but I have the attitude that if I am late for class, it's not really a big deal. I'm in Argentina!!! Why would I worry about being late for a class that doesn't count for credit?! Haha. :)
Either way, we were actually 30 minutes early to class. :)
Class was interesting. I really AM learning a lot and quickly!!!! Despite constantly speaking Spanish with Brad (our Spanish levels are too beginner to carry a meaningful conversation, haha), I am picking up quickly. I am learning enough to journal en espanol!!! This makes me suuuper happy. :DDD
In class we learned how to say things in the past, which is awesome. However, if on the second day we are conjugating in the past tense, it really makes me question the curriculum in the U.S. because I don't remember conjugating Spanish in the past tense until Spanish 2. I could be wrong, seeing as I took Spanish 2 in my sophomore year, haha.
After class, Brad, a girl from his class and I went to get a quick snack [We're out of class by 5PM] at a cafe. I ordered a basic vegetarian sandwhich, while Brad and the girl ordered medialunas. It was delicious. I'm starting to think they can't go wrong with the coffee here!
Today, the kids in the medical program had a guest speaker! She is a Public Health official in Bs.As. from the Health Ministry, so apparently she is pretty high ranking. She was scheduled to talk for 3 hours! Oh. My. God. That was too long of a time, haha. We didn't get out until soooo late. After 9 PM. :(
Her discussion was really interesting though! [Sidenote, I was incredibly happy because she was lecturing in Spanish and a translator was telling us what she would say in English, and I understood at least 50%! I know she was probably talking like she would to a kindergarten class, but I'm still pretty happy. :)]. She told us all about Argentina's health care, which is very different from the USA's. We were allowed to ask as many questions as we liked, and I asked 3. I asked about MRSA and if it was a common problem in Argentina because so many people self medicate with strong medicines (prescriptions are not needed to obtain most medicines, excluding psychotic meds). She told me that it is a huge problem, but that they are trying to push to preventing illnesses rather than curing illness and disease, but prevention is still a really new concept so it is taking a while to catch on.
I then asked if there were issues with people making illegal drugs from the legal ones, because the legal ones are so easy to obtain. Yea, there's a huge problem with illegal drugs, haha. No kidding, right? :/
My last question was easily my favorite. I backtracked a bit and asked what they are doing for preventating illness and if it spills into other areas of health... specifically air quality. I really wanted to know if there were any laws protecting the environment, because that is a HUGE part of health. There isn't. This actually really surprised me because BsAs is a mammoth city, and I can't even imagine what kinds of pollutants the inhabitants (and visitors!!!!) are breathing in! :O
I followed up the question with another about incidence of respiratory disease and asthma especially. She said that Asthma is a big problem in BsAs, and that they actually ask people to self medicate for acute asthma attacks because they do not have enough beds for everyone. So crazy.
Yea, I thought that was super interesting. I wish I could study the social aspects of the country, rather than the health care system. Even if it were health-related, rather than the system... I don't know. At least everything was super interesting. :). Oh gosh, it did take forever, though! :/
At 9 PM, when the speaker was asked to come back to answer more questions on another day, I was super duper hungry! Lizette, Brad and I went out to eat at a place called Molina's. Lizette and I ordered "pizza", while Brad ordered Milanesa... which was kind of like chicken fried chicken and mashed potatoes, haha. The pizza I ordered was vegetariano, but it still wasn't pizza! Hahahaha. It was bread, spinach and a cream sauce. It was alright, but by this time I was spinached out! :/
Lizette ordered a realllllly delicious pizza, that didn't have meat! It was called neopolitano or something. Just normal pizza with tomatoes. Oh, speaking of tomatoes... I don't know if they use less pesticides or anything here, but their tomatoes taste different! They taste wayyy better than our store-bought ones, in my opinion. Along with that, they also hurt my mouth more. One bite of a raw tomato here and my tongue goes crazyyyy. :/ Oh well. I'll [hopefully ;) ] live. hahaha
We walked Lizette home, so we were able to explore a few blocks in a direction we'd never been in before. it was pretty nice! I can't wait to look in other places around the city!
After that we just went home, studied and hung out hahaha. It was a nice, albeit LONG, day. :)
Activities of the day if you don't want to read:
-Bank
-Brunch
-Class
-Speaker
-Dinner
So, Brad and I woke up yesterday and immediately headed over to a place with ATMs. Although this is a normal occurrence, it was slightly different in BsAs than back home. First, there is a room with several ATMs, and although there are several ATMs, there was a HUUUUGE line. We walked in and didn't even see the line. Ugh. So we were standing behind someone at an ATM, when someone says something to Brad en espanol... and points behind him. There was a line of about 5-7 people... even though there were at least 3 ATMs, hahaha.
So yea, that was interesting.
After that, I was hungry, so we decided to just go back to Pertutti for lunch/breakfast. We didn't try any new places because we thought we were running late... which is how you feel when you don't have a watch or working phone. Blegh.
For lunch I ordered a spinach and cheese... thing... hahahaha. They looked like huge meatballs, but they were made with spinach and ricotta cheese. It also had a piece of cheese melted over the top, and was surrounded by a cream sauce. It was decent. No where near as healthy as I thought it would be, haha. Oh! I learned something new: when they put a basket of bead/crackers on the table, it's not that it is for your meal or anything, but if you decide to eat it they will charge you. Yep, I learned it from experience at brunch, haha. Oh well. Everything is a learning experience, right?
Brad was pretty nervous about being late to class, so he kept saying "I hope we're not late to class...." throughout our meal. Maybe I'm a slacker, but I have the attitude that if I am late for class, it's not really a big deal. I'm in Argentina!!! Why would I worry about being late for a class that doesn't count for credit?! Haha. :)
Either way, we were actually 30 minutes early to class. :)
Class was interesting. I really AM learning a lot and quickly!!!! Despite constantly speaking Spanish with Brad (our Spanish levels are too beginner to carry a meaningful conversation, haha), I am picking up quickly. I am learning enough to journal en espanol!!! This makes me suuuper happy. :DDD
In class we learned how to say things in the past, which is awesome. However, if on the second day we are conjugating in the past tense, it really makes me question the curriculum in the U.S. because I don't remember conjugating Spanish in the past tense until Spanish 2. I could be wrong, seeing as I took Spanish 2 in my sophomore year, haha.
After class, Brad, a girl from his class and I went to get a quick snack [We're out of class by 5PM] at a cafe. I ordered a basic vegetarian sandwhich, while Brad and the girl ordered medialunas. It was delicious. I'm starting to think they can't go wrong with the coffee here!
Today, the kids in the medical program had a guest speaker! She is a Public Health official in Bs.As. from the Health Ministry, so apparently she is pretty high ranking. She was scheduled to talk for 3 hours! Oh. My. God. That was too long of a time, haha. We didn't get out until soooo late. After 9 PM. :(
Her discussion was really interesting though! [Sidenote, I was incredibly happy because she was lecturing in Spanish and a translator was telling us what she would say in English, and I understood at least 50%! I know she was probably talking like she would to a kindergarten class, but I'm still pretty happy. :)]. She told us all about Argentina's health care, which is very different from the USA's. We were allowed to ask as many questions as we liked, and I asked 3. I asked about MRSA and if it was a common problem in Argentina because so many people self medicate with strong medicines (prescriptions are not needed to obtain most medicines, excluding psychotic meds). She told me that it is a huge problem, but that they are trying to push to preventing illnesses rather than curing illness and disease, but prevention is still a really new concept so it is taking a while to catch on.
I then asked if there were issues with people making illegal drugs from the legal ones, because the legal ones are so easy to obtain. Yea, there's a huge problem with illegal drugs, haha. No kidding, right? :/
My last question was easily my favorite. I backtracked a bit and asked what they are doing for preventating illness and if it spills into other areas of health... specifically air quality. I really wanted to know if there were any laws protecting the environment, because that is a HUGE part of health. There isn't. This actually really surprised me because BsAs is a mammoth city, and I can't even imagine what kinds of pollutants the inhabitants (and visitors!!!!) are breathing in! :O
I followed up the question with another about incidence of respiratory disease and asthma especially. She said that Asthma is a big problem in BsAs, and that they actually ask people to self medicate for acute asthma attacks because they do not have enough beds for everyone. So crazy.
Yea, I thought that was super interesting. I wish I could study the social aspects of the country, rather than the health care system. Even if it were health-related, rather than the system... I don't know. At least everything was super interesting. :). Oh gosh, it did take forever, though! :/
At 9 PM, when the speaker was asked to come back to answer more questions on another day, I was super duper hungry! Lizette, Brad and I went out to eat at a place called Molina's. Lizette and I ordered "pizza", while Brad ordered Milanesa... which was kind of like chicken fried chicken and mashed potatoes, haha. The pizza I ordered was vegetariano, but it still wasn't pizza! Hahahaha. It was bread, spinach and a cream sauce. It was alright, but by this time I was spinached out! :/
Lizette ordered a realllllly delicious pizza, that didn't have meat! It was called neopolitano or something. Just normal pizza with tomatoes. Oh, speaking of tomatoes... I don't know if they use less pesticides or anything here, but their tomatoes taste different! They taste wayyy better than our store-bought ones, in my opinion. Along with that, they also hurt my mouth more. One bite of a raw tomato here and my tongue goes crazyyyy. :/ Oh well. I'll [hopefully ;) ] live. hahaha
We walked Lizette home, so we were able to explore a few blocks in a direction we'd never been in before. it was pretty nice! I can't wait to look in other places around the city!
After that we just went home, studied and hung out hahaha. It was a nice, albeit LONG, day. :)
Monday, July 4, 2011
The start of something beautiful!
Overview (for my lazy readers! ;]) :
-First day of classes
-Breakfast at Pertutti's
-Class/Confusion/Testing
-Dinner...aka the weirdest pizza I have ever consumed.
Today was the first official day of our program!!!
Brad and I accidentally overslept until 8:30AM, which was a problem because our roommate told us to be at ECELA [our school] by 8 AM for placement testing. We arrived around 9, which was actually alright, because we weren't supposed to be at ECELA until 11 AM because our program is different than that of the other students at ECELA. We decided to get some breakfast, and one of the girls working at the front desk said we should go to Pertutti's Cafe.
Pertutti's was an experience, to say the least. This was where we decided to "people watch" and learn proper Argentinian Breakfast etiquette... First of all, seat yourself. That was a weird concept, haha. Like, really, you walk into a restaurant, and the workers don't recognize that you've walked in. You just go in, sit down and they'll get to you eventually. Too funny.
So we're there, and we decide to eat 3 medialunas [pastries, kind of like croissants, but heavier... and with a sweet glaze on top, sometimes], and a drink each. I feel like this was a LOT more than most of the Portenos [people from Buenos Aires]. I will try to cut back tomorrow, haha. The drink I ordered was Chocolate Espana, which was basically a really rich hot chocolate... kind of like Mexican hot chocolate, but much stronger. It was sooooo good. I can't even begin. Yum. I couldn't even finish all of it, which is saying something because all of the portions here are much, MUCH smaller here than in the US. For example: we were served breakfast with a "glass" of orange juice... and that glass happened to be a tiny bit bigger than an average shot glass. :O. I guess it was alright, because you could taste that the orange juice was freshly squeezed and wonderful.
After breakfast we went back to ECELA for an intro to the program and placement tests. The intro was cool. We just introduced ourselves and talked about where we're from, the usual. We were also given information about the program, including a breakdown of our daily routine for the remainder of the trip, speakers and activities. The speakers seem really intense! We'll be having a speaker that will tell us all about the Argentinian health care system, and what to expect from hospitals tomorrow. She is a part of the health ministry or something very high up [haha, that makes me think of Harry Potter... nerd alert!]. In order for us to understand what she'll be talking about we have to read a packet of information. Joy. I'll be completing that after I blog, haha.
So... the placement test.... As many of you all know, I am ridiculous. Really. My actions seem to know no boundaries, even metaphorical cultural ones. Gosh. So I completely bombed the written portion of the placement test, mainly because I just didn't feel like guessing the answers anymore... but after the written test we had the spoken one. The teacher asked me what my routine was, and I TOTALLY blanked. After living in college for almost 3 complete years, you would think I knew what the heck my routine was, right?! Ugh. Well, he simplified the question for me, assuming I didn't know the answer... He asked what I do in the morning. So, again, I drew a blank. I was attempting to think about my morning routine, and I accidentally said "uhhh... not much!" out loud, meaning I don't do much in the morning....
He [of course] misinterpreted this as me saying I don't know much Spanish. Awesome.
I was placed in the 2nd lowest Spanish Class.
At first I was pretty upset with myself about my placement, but considering I only took up to Spanish 2, five years ago... I think I'm alright. hahaha. Plus, there were two guys in my class that have been in Argentina for 2 weeks already, and they have only made it up to that class, which makes me feel incredible better [yet a bit horrible for comparing myself to them... oh well. haha].
Class was not as daunting as I thought it would be. Basically two other girls and myself had a 30 minute conversation [en espanol!] with our professor about where we're from, our flight, what we're studying, why Argentina... etc. It was really chill! Eventually 3 other students came in and we started actually learning stuff. It was really nice. I'm glad that there's only 6 people in my class [including me], because it gives us a lot more talking time... which is sorely needed, haha.
I had class from 1-5, which was really nice, instead of the 2-6PM shift. thank goodness! I was sooo hungry by the end of class. Brad and I got out around the same time, so at first we followed one of my classmates to a telephone store. Made fools of ourselves in the store [we couldn't say much... just that we wanted cheap phones, hahahaha], then decided against purchasing anything and went on our merry way to find food!
ALL OF THE FOOD PLACES WERE CLOSED. I don't know if it was time for a siesta or what, but at 6:30ish, there was NOTHING open. Ugh. It was so frustrating. We ended up going to a cafe and ordering empanadas, which are nothing like the Mexican ones. The ones in South America are hot and usually filled with meat, but I got a cheese and onion one... which was just as appetizing as it sounds, which wasn't a lot. It would have been absolutely scrumptious if the cheese weren't goat cheese, haha. I think it'll take me a bit to get used to it, but I can start to enjoy goat cheese if I need to.
After this excursion, we had to go back to our apartment to find out where our actual dinner would be, and take a suuuper short nap. One of Brad's friends has a friend who is in Bs.As. [Buenos Aires] to volunteer and to take tango lessons. So yea, we met up with her and her friend at a bank, then walked down to a restaurant.
The food choice was pretty cool! I ordered a "pizza", which was actually just a flat piece of breadcrust with Brie cheese, a few olives and arugula all over. It was sooo weird. I'm all for trying new things, but I'm not sure if that should be called pizza since there wasn't any sauce... hahaha. It was pretty darn delicious, whatever it was!
Talking with the girls was actually a LOT of fun! We talked about all the cool things to see and do in Bs.As. and what our college experiences have been like so far. Super fun. It also made me feel a bit old, in a way. I kind of feel like that is something you do with people after you're out of college... but I don't know. Either way, I enjoyed dinner. We swapped travelling stories, and all the different ways that we've heard about getting pickpocketed, including the mustard technique! haha. We were also told of a street in Bs.As. that is FILLED with leather goods... I will be stopping there sometime, haha. Oh, I know that may offend a few of you, but I fully intend on getting some leather goods. You can't please 'em all... plus the boots are SO cute! ;)
I ended the day by skyping with my mom, dad, brother and younger cousin Jaelyn. It was pretty hilarious! I am glad I was able to skype with them because it seems like time will be extremely limited from here on out. :/
We made faces at each other, talked about the differences between Buenos Aires and Texas, etc.
Oh, one difference between BsAs and Texas is that the pollution laws here are definitely not as awesome as the US, which really says something... haahaha. I see big black clouds of smoke from a lottt of cars and the air is definitely not as nice as the name implies, haha. It's still gorgeous/awesome/FUN though!!! I can't wait to explore the city more!
But for now, I need sleeeeep.
Buenas noches amigos!!!!
-Regina
-First day of classes
-Breakfast at Pertutti's
-Class/Confusion/Testing
-Dinner...aka the weirdest pizza I have ever consumed.
Today was the first official day of our program!!!
Brad and I accidentally overslept until 8:30AM, which was a problem because our roommate told us to be at ECELA [our school] by 8 AM for placement testing. We arrived around 9, which was actually alright, because we weren't supposed to be at ECELA until 11 AM because our program is different than that of the other students at ECELA. We decided to get some breakfast, and one of the girls working at the front desk said we should go to Pertutti's Cafe.
Pertutti's was an experience, to say the least. This was where we decided to "people watch" and learn proper Argentinian Breakfast etiquette... First of all, seat yourself. That was a weird concept, haha. Like, really, you walk into a restaurant, and the workers don't recognize that you've walked in. You just go in, sit down and they'll get to you eventually. Too funny.
So we're there, and we decide to eat 3 medialunas [pastries, kind of like croissants, but heavier... and with a sweet glaze on top, sometimes], and a drink each. I feel like this was a LOT more than most of the Portenos [people from Buenos Aires]. I will try to cut back tomorrow, haha. The drink I ordered was Chocolate Espana, which was basically a really rich hot chocolate... kind of like Mexican hot chocolate, but much stronger. It was sooooo good. I can't even begin. Yum. I couldn't even finish all of it, which is saying something because all of the portions here are much, MUCH smaller here than in the US. For example: we were served breakfast with a "glass" of orange juice... and that glass happened to be a tiny bit bigger than an average shot glass. :O. I guess it was alright, because you could taste that the orange juice was freshly squeezed and wonderful.
After breakfast we went back to ECELA for an intro to the program and placement tests. The intro was cool. We just introduced ourselves and talked about where we're from, the usual. We were also given information about the program, including a breakdown of our daily routine for the remainder of the trip, speakers and activities. The speakers seem really intense! We'll be having a speaker that will tell us all about the Argentinian health care system, and what to expect from hospitals tomorrow. She is a part of the health ministry or something very high up [haha, that makes me think of Harry Potter... nerd alert!]. In order for us to understand what she'll be talking about we have to read a packet of information. Joy. I'll be completing that after I blog, haha.
So... the placement test.... As many of you all know, I am ridiculous. Really. My actions seem to know no boundaries, even metaphorical cultural ones. Gosh. So I completely bombed the written portion of the placement test, mainly because I just didn't feel like guessing the answers anymore... but after the written test we had the spoken one. The teacher asked me what my routine was, and I TOTALLY blanked. After living in college for almost 3 complete years, you would think I knew what the heck my routine was, right?! Ugh. Well, he simplified the question for me, assuming I didn't know the answer... He asked what I do in the morning. So, again, I drew a blank. I was attempting to think about my morning routine, and I accidentally said "uhhh... not much!" out loud, meaning I don't do much in the morning....
He [of course] misinterpreted this as me saying I don't know much Spanish. Awesome.
I was placed in the 2nd lowest Spanish Class.
At first I was pretty upset with myself about my placement, but considering I only took up to Spanish 2, five years ago... I think I'm alright. hahaha. Plus, there were two guys in my class that have been in Argentina for 2 weeks already, and they have only made it up to that class, which makes me feel incredible better [yet a bit horrible for comparing myself to them... oh well. haha].
Class was not as daunting as I thought it would be. Basically two other girls and myself had a 30 minute conversation [en espanol!] with our professor about where we're from, our flight, what we're studying, why Argentina... etc. It was really chill! Eventually 3 other students came in and we started actually learning stuff. It was really nice. I'm glad that there's only 6 people in my class [including me], because it gives us a lot more talking time... which is sorely needed, haha.
I had class from 1-5, which was really nice, instead of the 2-6PM shift. thank goodness! I was sooo hungry by the end of class. Brad and I got out around the same time, so at first we followed one of my classmates to a telephone store. Made fools of ourselves in the store [we couldn't say much... just that we wanted cheap phones, hahahaha], then decided against purchasing anything and went on our merry way to find food!
ALL OF THE FOOD PLACES WERE CLOSED. I don't know if it was time for a siesta or what, but at 6:30ish, there was NOTHING open. Ugh. It was so frustrating. We ended up going to a cafe and ordering empanadas, which are nothing like the Mexican ones. The ones in South America are hot and usually filled with meat, but I got a cheese and onion one... which was just as appetizing as it sounds, which wasn't a lot. It would have been absolutely scrumptious if the cheese weren't goat cheese, haha. I think it'll take me a bit to get used to it, but I can start to enjoy goat cheese if I need to.
After this excursion, we had to go back to our apartment to find out where our actual dinner would be, and take a suuuper short nap. One of Brad's friends has a friend who is in Bs.As. [Buenos Aires] to volunteer and to take tango lessons. So yea, we met up with her and her friend at a bank, then walked down to a restaurant.
The food choice was pretty cool! I ordered a "pizza", which was actually just a flat piece of breadcrust with Brie cheese, a few olives and arugula all over. It was sooo weird. I'm all for trying new things, but I'm not sure if that should be called pizza since there wasn't any sauce... hahaha. It was pretty darn delicious, whatever it was!
Talking with the girls was actually a LOT of fun! We talked about all the cool things to see and do in Bs.As. and what our college experiences have been like so far. Super fun. It also made me feel a bit old, in a way. I kind of feel like that is something you do with people after you're out of college... but I don't know. Either way, I enjoyed dinner. We swapped travelling stories, and all the different ways that we've heard about getting pickpocketed, including the mustard technique! haha. We were also told of a street in Bs.As. that is FILLED with leather goods... I will be stopping there sometime, haha. Oh, I know that may offend a few of you, but I fully intend on getting some leather goods. You can't please 'em all... plus the boots are SO cute! ;)
I ended the day by skyping with my mom, dad, brother and younger cousin Jaelyn. It was pretty hilarious! I am glad I was able to skype with them because it seems like time will be extremely limited from here on out. :/
We made faces at each other, talked about the differences between Buenos Aires and Texas, etc.
Oh, one difference between BsAs and Texas is that the pollution laws here are definitely not as awesome as the US, which really says something... haahaha. I see big black clouds of smoke from a lottt of cars and the air is definitely not as nice as the name implies, haha. It's still gorgeous/awesome/FUN though!!! I can't wait to explore the city more!
But for now, I need sleeeeep.
Buenas noches amigos!!!!
-Regina
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Where to begin?!
The past 24 hours have been a crazyyyyy blur!
In case you can't/don't want to read it all:
-plane ride was awesome.
-Brad and I are roommates, and our apartment is right next to the school.
-We went grocery shopping.
The flight was nice! :) We met a very nice family who told us about some interesting things to do in BsAs [including the "hippie festival", which sounds a bit like a flea market, hahaha], so that was helpful. :)
I can't speak for Lizette and Brad, but I felt that things were chaotic after we got off of the plane. We had to pay a $140 dollar fee to enter Argentina! Not cool! :(. After we got in, we had to convert our money and find the VIP Car to take us to our apartment. That was interesting. We didn't know where to go, and we had to use our extremely basic Spanish. Too funny.
***I'm going to apologize right now for any spelling/grammatical errors, I am SO tired...***
After finding the right place for our VIP car, we had to trust the driver to take us where we needed to go, because we had absolutely no idea where we were going. xDDD
This city is HUGE! I can't wait to explore!!!! :DDD
When we got to our apartment, we met a lady who was cleaning it... she was really helpful and nice even though she couldn't speak English. Haha, I'm seriously having to rely on hand gestures and pictures to understand a lot, which is disappointing... but whatever. I'm here to learn. :)
We also met our roommate, Fabula. I think that's how you spell her name... She said we could call her "Fab", which works out for me, haha. She's from Brazil, so she knows English, Portuguese, some Italian [I think] and now Spanish! Insane! I need to get on her level, haha.
We talked and she recommends that I eat meat while I'm in Argentina, because it will be very difficult to substitute foods for meat down here. :/ I think I'm going to try to stay Pescatarian, but if it becomes too difficult, I may have to eat some meat every once in a while. Blegh.
She steered us in the direction of a local vegetarian restaurant that was about 2 blocks away... It was pretty good! I know I'm not allowed to have a lot/any fresh fruits and vegetables, but I did... I ate a vegetarian plate: salad, rice patty with cheese on it and pureed carrots. It was really interesting, to say the least, hahaha.
We went back to the apartment after eating.
I forgot to mention this earlier, but Fab told us that all the people she's invited to the apartment always mention how nice of an apartment it is! I'm very happy to hear that. :) It's pretty big! There's a kitchen, two toilets, a living room and a balcony. It also came with a television, where we were able to watch the Disney channel for a bit. Fun stuff. xDDD
Anyway, after eating and going back to the apartment, we went down to the grocery store, which is only a block away... the grocery store played U.S. pop music, it was hilarious! Katy Perry's E.T., Rhianna's S&M, P!nk's Raise Your Glass and Justin Bieber's Never Say Never. It was pretty crazy. Brad and I spent a good amount of time looking for some peanut butter and soy milk, but we couldn't find any. We asked Fab, and she told me "Welcome to South America, where there's no soy milk or peanut butter! You're going to need a whole new diet here..." Oh boy. Sounds like funnnn. Heh.
Oh man, I can't wait to learn more Spanish! This lady in the grocery line was trying to ask us to watch her cart, but we really didn't know what she was talking about... hahahaha. Then the cashier was trying to tell us something, but I was just like "Uhhhh... okay." So yea, that was an adventure, to say the least.
I was soooo tired after the grocery store, that we went back to the apartment and sleeeep. I pretty much passed out for a few hours. When I woke up it was dark out. Boooo. It's alright, though. It's also winter, so the days are a lot shorter. Right now, for instance, it's only 9 PM here, so it's 7 [i think?] back home... but it feels like midnight at least! So, I'm surprisingly tired. [Okay, maybe not surprisingly... considering I was averaging about 4-5 hours of sleep a night for the past week. blegh.]
Well, I'm getting pretty tired, so I think I'm going to take a shower, watch a movie and crash.
Goodnight everyone! Hope everyone's doing well! Don't forget to facebook me or something! ;)
<33Regina
P.S.: The list of forgotten items increases!
-ipod
-paperwork for ECELA
-official transcript
-pocket dictionary
In case you can't/don't want to read it all:
-plane ride was awesome.
-Brad and I are roommates, and our apartment is right next to the school.
-We went grocery shopping.
The flight was nice! :) We met a very nice family who told us about some interesting things to do in BsAs [including the "hippie festival", which sounds a bit like a flea market, hahaha], so that was helpful. :)
I can't speak for Lizette and Brad, but I felt that things were chaotic after we got off of the plane. We had to pay a $140 dollar fee to enter Argentina! Not cool! :(. After we got in, we had to convert our money and find the VIP Car to take us to our apartment. That was interesting. We didn't know where to go, and we had to use our extremely basic Spanish. Too funny.
***I'm going to apologize right now for any spelling/grammatical errors, I am SO tired...***
After finding the right place for our VIP car, we had to trust the driver to take us where we needed to go, because we had absolutely no idea where we were going. xDDD
This city is HUGE! I can't wait to explore!!!! :DDD
When we got to our apartment, we met a lady who was cleaning it... she was really helpful and nice even though she couldn't speak English. Haha, I'm seriously having to rely on hand gestures and pictures to understand a lot, which is disappointing... but whatever. I'm here to learn. :)
We also met our roommate, Fabula. I think that's how you spell her name... She said we could call her "Fab", which works out for me, haha. She's from Brazil, so she knows English, Portuguese, some Italian [I think] and now Spanish! Insane! I need to get on her level, haha.
We talked and she recommends that I eat meat while I'm in Argentina, because it will be very difficult to substitute foods for meat down here. :/ I think I'm going to try to stay Pescatarian, but if it becomes too difficult, I may have to eat some meat every once in a while. Blegh.
She steered us in the direction of a local vegetarian restaurant that was about 2 blocks away... It was pretty good! I know I'm not allowed to have a lot/any fresh fruits and vegetables, but I did... I ate a vegetarian plate: salad, rice patty with cheese on it and pureed carrots. It was really interesting, to say the least, hahaha.
We went back to the apartment after eating.
I forgot to mention this earlier, but Fab told us that all the people she's invited to the apartment always mention how nice of an apartment it is! I'm very happy to hear that. :) It's pretty big! There's a kitchen, two toilets, a living room and a balcony. It also came with a television, where we were able to watch the Disney channel for a bit. Fun stuff. xDDD
Anyway, after eating and going back to the apartment, we went down to the grocery store, which is only a block away... the grocery store played U.S. pop music, it was hilarious! Katy Perry's E.T., Rhianna's S&M, P!nk's Raise Your Glass and Justin Bieber's Never Say Never. It was pretty crazy. Brad and I spent a good amount of time looking for some peanut butter and soy milk, but we couldn't find any. We asked Fab, and she told me "Welcome to South America, where there's no soy milk or peanut butter! You're going to need a whole new diet here..." Oh boy. Sounds like funnnn. Heh.
Oh man, I can't wait to learn more Spanish! This lady in the grocery line was trying to ask us to watch her cart, but we really didn't know what she was talking about... hahahaha. Then the cashier was trying to tell us something, but I was just like "Uhhhh... okay." So yea, that was an adventure, to say the least.
I was soooo tired after the grocery store, that we went back to the apartment and sleeeep. I pretty much passed out for a few hours. When I woke up it was dark out. Boooo. It's alright, though. It's also winter, so the days are a lot shorter. Right now, for instance, it's only 9 PM here, so it's 7 [i think?] back home... but it feels like midnight at least! So, I'm surprisingly tired. [Okay, maybe not surprisingly... considering I was averaging about 4-5 hours of sleep a night for the past week. blegh.]
Well, I'm getting pretty tired, so I think I'm going to take a shower, watch a movie and crash.
Goodnight everyone! Hope everyone's doing well! Don't forget to facebook me or something! ;)
<33Regina
P.S.: The list of forgotten items increases!
-ipod
-paperwork for ECELA
-official transcript
-pocket dictionary
Friday, July 1, 2011
only a few hours until my flight!
I am soooooo sleeeeepy.
but OH SO EXCITED!!!!! yayy!!!! :)
Just spending some time with daniel before going to bed. I'm gonna miss that kid.
P.S.: List of things I've already forgot:
-official transcript
-pocket dictionary
awesome.
but OH SO EXCITED!!!!! yayy!!!! :)
Just spending some time with daniel before going to bed. I'm gonna miss that kid.
P.S.: List of things I've already forgot:
-official transcript
-pocket dictionary
awesome.
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