Brian's Travels - Argentina

Not The End, But The Beginning

2009-01-25T14:28:00.000-08:00

Apparently I just wanted to make all of you wait in suspense for my final blog. Based on popular request, I may or may not continue this blog after this one. I have been back in the United States for over one month now, and let me tell you it has been weird.

I have come to learn the major differences in our culture compared to the one in Argentina. When I left for Argentina, many of you were questioning whether or not I would keep up with my blog. I did for the most part.... until now. The reason for this is probably a result of reentry culture shock. I have been struggling for over a month now figuring out why there ALWAYS has to be something to do. In Argentina, the people value their family time or down time. They do not always have to be going somewhere, or have an assignment to do. Here in the United States, it seems that we always have one event after the other. A meeting today, church after that, then three homework assignments, then shopping, study for an exam, go to work, clean the house etc. I cannot believe how many projects I have had already in three weeks of school. This country overloads its people, so that instead of truly learning tasks well, they just learn enough to get by. It is impossible to do everything well, even more impossible when everybody thinks his or her task is the most important. Sorry, but my family and friends come before writing an encyclopedia like paper on what someone else's view of "Nationalism" is. Especially when it constantly refers to the United States as "America". I have heard the term America be used a thousand times since I have been back. I never noticed it before, but in Argentina, they feel they are Americans too.

Due to our wonderful culture of rushing and overwhelming ourselves with unimportant tasks, I have not been able to keep up with school, life, or this blog. I have so much to say now that I am back, but not enough time to say it. I have moved back to school, but am still not unpacked. I still have not cured my mates, so I cannot bring that to class with me. I have not bought half my books yet. Life is just a mess, and I already feel myself losing touch with some of my close friends from my trip.

As I have told many of you in person, I began treating this blog more like a journal for my benefit. Therefore, I am sorry for any dull spots, but I figured you could read if you wanted, and if not who cares.

For my spanish.... oh boy!! My spanish is fading incredibly fast. I just do not get to use it enough here. I try to use it, but I do not want to annoy the heck out of other people. I am okay with my spanish fading though. What I am not okay with is that what I learned abroad seems to be fading too.

I was shaped into a different person in Argentina. I walked everywhere, (including downtown with my brother) and get this, I rarely complained. Everything was lax, and nothing really seemed to serious. I felt like I grew up so much while I was there. If I wanted something done, I had to take initiative and do it. It was especially difficult to do in a different language. I felt like I matured a ton. Now, I feel like the immature college environment I am constantly around is making me resort back to my old ways of complaining and getting frustrated with authority.

To BE CONTINUED... Hopefully sooner, rather than later (for those of you still checking this site).

Yankee Landia Stole Me Back

2008-12-17T15:56:00.000-08:00

Well, my journey is far from over... My journey in life that is. It is weird to think that just over five months ago, I had no idea what life was like in Argentina. I had 0 friends, and knew nothing. In such a short time I have made a lot of friends, learned a new lifestyle, and feel like I know Argentina better than most other things.

I left the United States on July 3rd. Gas prices were about 3.50 a gallon, the economy was great, and life was normal. The life there stopped for me on the 4th when I arrived in Argentina, but it did not stop for anybody else.

I realize that life doesnt stop anywhere. Life continued in the States and life will continue in Argentina with or without me. It is amazing how the everyday life that seems so normal can be so foreign to another. I see both sides now, and cannot imagine life without one of them. Lets just say that I am confused.

I miss my friends from home and my family of course, but I cannot imagine life without my friends from Argentina. Or for that matter, my way of life. I walk everywhere, drink mate, only text on my cellphone because its too expensive to call. Little things, but a big part of my life.

Anyway, on to the point of this blog... Monday night I ate empanadas with my family outside during a clear and beautiful night. We brought the tv outside and watched that. I drank Baileys with Luis. I presented my family with a Minnesota Twins T shirt (one for each person). They loved it. I also told them how much I appreciated everything they had done for me. They in return had bought me a mate and painted on the side "de tu familia argentina" (from your argentina family). It was a late night of jokes and conversating in spanish. I hardly slept all night. My time in Argentina was coming to an end

Tuesday I woke up early to shower and start packing my bags. I ran to the store bought some items I wished to return with me. I left for a couple hours to say goodbye to my again "friend" Magui. I returned home for lunch. My LAST meal in Argentina.

I went to the airport with Irene, Luis, and my tutor Pancho. We said our goodbyes and I departed for home.

Four flights and 20 some hours later, I like to inform you all that I have arrived to my home in Minnesota safely. Yankee Landia has stolen me back, but I still have a piece of my heart in Argentina. Cordoba, I will return some day. The reentry shock has already hit me hard, with every little thing I do.

This is not my last blog, I plan (haha plan) on writing atleast one more this week about my reentry shock. Please, if you have enjoyed this blog, read the final one or two (who knows how many I will write).

But for all those wondering when I will be home, I am ALREADY home and I had a good safe travel. See you or talk to you soon.

One Tough Fun Week!!

2008-12-17T15:37:00.001-08:00

Well what can I say... It has been one fun and tough week. With little time to go before returning home to the states for Christmas and the New Year, I had to say a lot of goodbyes. I thought this week would be very lonely as all the other United Statesians were gone. I was completely wrong.

I was out everyday visiting downtown, other host parents that I will miss so much, and of course eating my favorite foods, all well trying to spend as much time with my host family as I could. I even made a stop to my first host family's house to say goodbye. Marta was not there but I had a beer with Edzui. It was really fun, but sad to start saying more and more goodbyes.

My "friend" Magui left for Rioja, where she leaves. We had a lunch date on Thursday, and then met again early Saturday morning to say "goodbye". Funny how that works though because she returned to Cordoba again yesterday morning. We met during the afternoon, drank a juice, and again gave eachother little "going away presents".

I went to my school the other day to say goodbye to most of the professors and some friends before the school closes for the holidays and summer. It was sad, but had to be done.

I benefitted in the fact that I downloaded a lot of the pictures that had been taken by others. I bought a pen drive last week when I realized that the folder I saved all my photos to was on a computer in Argentina. My brother informed me that the folder would be pretty hard to access in Minnesota. I responded with the fact that I have a lot of them on facebook too. Again he informed me of the hours it would take to save each picture off of facebook. He clearly knows how to make me look like a knucklehead. Anyway, he influenced me to buy a pen drive and it paid off this past week as I gained a lot of new interesting photos of my experience.

I also have scrambled this week to buy as many gifts for people as I could. Will see how many of you actually get something. Unfortuanately I suck at that part of life. Dont expect anything exciting hahaha.

It is a sad week, but atleast 37 degrees C (98 F)is better than 0 degrees F (-12 or something C)

A Week With My Bro

2008-12-16T03:37:00.000-08:00

For those of you who didnt realize it yet, I am still in Argentina. The program is over, and all I have been doing is having the time of my life. Last week, my Brother Matt came to visit me. He decided spur of the moment... imagine that coming from my family. Everybody knows we love to plan ahead hahaha.

He arrived Wednesday, and My host brother, sister, and mom all came with me to find him at the airport. We picked him up and got settled in. We had one busy week and hopefully fun. I know I bored the heck out of him a few times as part of the Argentina life is waiting or walking (ALOT).

Wednesday night we went to one of my favorite mexican restaurants here called Mariache. After that we went to my favorite bar Contender where I made him try Fernet and Coke. The description.... tastes like medicine hahaha. We hung out there with one of my tutors Matias.

The rest of the week is a blur for me. We slept in usually, and then went out to eat or walk or something. We spent a lot of time with the one gringo still here. Ashley the really pretty blonde I always hang out with. We spent many hours downtown and touring the city. We even went three times to see this water fountain light show, which never happened. We also took a trip to a nearby city to swim in the river and enjoy the sun. We ate at almost all my favorite restaurants, but could not eat at all of them due to times they were open and location.

Almost everyday we enjoyed ice cream. Thats right ice cream in the heat during December. I made Matt try all my favorite foods here too. Empanadas, dulce de leche, lomitos, panchos, and of course choripanes.

On Sunday, we didnt intend to but ended up walking four hours from my house all the way to downtown. (YES, IT CAN BE DONE). We never want to do that again though. Monday we went out looking for futbol tickets. It was a long and interesting journey, but we eventually found the tiny boleteria in the middle of a field where we bought the tickets. Then we even managed to find the field too. The game was amazing. We ate Choripan because thats like peanuts and crackerjacks at the baseball game. The Talleres were the home team and they won 3 to nothing. There was nothing more fun than jumping up and down yelling GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLL!!

Anyway, I took him to a friends apartment, to a club for my friends birthday party, we enjoyed mates at my school, and even made it to an asado. I hope he enjoyed every minute of it.

It was fun to see him instantly become friends with my friends. He left on Wednesday on the same flight as my friend yankee Ashley and two of my friends from here Flor and Nati. From the pictures, it looks like he had a good time on the flight with them.

Well, I have to run, but I will write more about my experience soon.

We could

Now I Feel Comfortable Because There is no Typical Day

2008-12-02T09:39:00.000-08:00

My life in Cordoba has changed dramatically the last few weeks. I have finished classes, and said goodbyes to some of my best friends in the world. The program is over, but I must have missed the memo because I am still here. Unfortuanately being here is a little bit like finishing highschool. If you elect to stay at home, your friends leave, but if you leave, you are leaving all your friends. Atleast 20 of my friends have moved away in the past week back to their home country, but here I am still in Argentina.

I have noticed that my typical day has changed. I dont mind at all though because I hate routines and knowing what is coming next. Now, I wake everyday without a plan and it is great. Throughout the program my day used to go something like this...

I would set my alarm for noon everyday. I know tough life huh. I would get up and eat some facturas or criollas with dulce de leche for breakfast. Then I would take a shower and finish whatever homework I had left over or needed to get a head start on. Sometimes I would just read spanish things for fun, or go online at my house. After that, I would eat lunch around 1 or 1:30 before class. I would grab my headphones and walk a half hour to the university.

Everyday I had class at 2 or 2:30 which sucked. It was right during the siesta hour. After class I would usually bum around the university, studying, talking with friends, or using the internet. It was always an adventure at the university talking with the girls. Recall my earlier blog where I told one girl I did not have a penis. Another incident occurred after I wrote that blog. I asked a girl if she wanted to go play soccer at the field. "Queres jugar futbol en la cancha". However, my wonderful pronunciation turned "cancha" into "concha". Instead, I asked, would you like to go play soccer in the pussy. Anyway, back to my day.

Tuesdays always sucked as I had class until 8:30 at night. Mondays I had to hang around school becasue I had Tango class at night. Thursdays were a little different because I had to get up at 9 am for horseback riding. Otherwise my days were pretty much the same.

At night I would return home for dinner with my family where they would eat and watch on tv "Por Amor A Vos". After dinner it would usually be "Bailando Por un Sueno" or something like that. Some nights I would go out to the boliches or bars. When that happened, I would rarely return early. I would be out until 5 or so in the morning and then sleep all day.

Now, I dont have the stress of school. I do what I want and go where I please. This week is going to be very fun though, as tomorrow my Brother Matt is coming to visit. I don´t have a plan at all, but we are going to find some things to do in the hot summer sun.

As for when I am returning... That is still a surprise.

Summer Vacation

2008-11-28T08:29:00.000-08:00

I decided that I needed to celebrate being on summer vacation. Since, I did not have a final my "last" week here, I decided to travel with my friends. Brenda and Chelsea had planned a trip to Salta in the north. The three of us are pretty similar and do not like to plan ahead. We baught bus tickets and went to Salta with no plans at all.

We arrived there on Sunday Morning, and met representive of a hostel in the bus station. We checked into our hostel, and began wandering around the city. We stopped at a few tourist booths and learned of some excursiones. We went to like 4 and found the cheapest ones.

The first day, we gave ourselves a self tour of Salta. We walked around all day in 40 degree weather. For you Farenheit people that is 104 degrees. We shopped at the Ferias, and stopped to eat empanadas for lunch. We even stole water for free at the restaurant (this you will only understand, if you live here). During sunset, we took a ski lift swing up to the top of a mountain that overlooked the city. It was very beautiful and a bit cooler because there was a breeze. The breeze grew stronger and it became very windy. Due to the wind, it was cold and we were stuck on top of the mountain because it was too dangerous to go down in the ski lifts. Finally the wind died down a little, and we made it down the mountain safely.

The hostel we were at was having an asado and show the first night. We went back to the hostel and enjoyed some juicy steaks (except chelsea, who opted for the free spaghetti dinner instead). The free dinner was horrible, but the asado was great. The show was good too. Four men played folklore music, well a man and a women danced. I unfortuanately made the comment to the beautiful folkloric dancer that I had learned some of the dances in school. During the middle of the show she grabbed my hand and we started dancing in front of the entire hostel. The guy grabbed Brenda and she had to dance too. Then they put us together and we were the show. It was awesome, even though Brenda was a little embarrassed. Finally the show ended and we went to sleep.

The second day we had excoursiones. They began at 7 in the morning. A tour van picked us up at our hostel. We took an all day tour through the mountains and citys to the North of Salta. We did on big circle and even passed through Jujuy. We saw the seven colored mountain, as well as other small pueblos. We also went to the Salinas where they make tons of Salt.

The part of the tour that I found most interesting had nothing to do with what we saw. It was the mixture of cultures and languages in our van. there was a small group from Alaska, a couple people from Spain, another couple from Switzerland, and a man from Germany. One of the guys from Alaska was originally from Switzerland, so he talked with the two from there. He obviously spoke english too (but not spanish). His friends from Alaska spoke english and spanish, like Chelsea, Brenda, and I. The people from Spain spoke spanish and a little bit of english. The German, spoke german, spanish, and english. The two from Switzerland spoke a little english and spanish as well. There were like 6 different languages going around during this tour. Mostly everybody could understand atleast two of them. The tour guide gave the tour in english and spanish. It was really neat to see all these people comunicating in so many different ways.

The tour ended around 9pm. We walked around the city a little bit, and returned to the hostel around 10:30 for our free dinner. We had uncooked rice with chicken. It was horrible. The girls told me it was the worst meal they had ever had. To me, I thought it was better than the Saint Marys Cafeteria, but we all know that the Cafe food is the biggest scam in the world. The hostel food was better and cheaper. After dinner we went to bed.

For our final day, we decided to play it by ear. We wanted to do another tour to the southern parts of the province, but Chelsea´s bus left too early (she was going to Buenos Aires). Instead we gave ourselves more of a self tour. We even went to a place that had real Salta empanadas. They served them with salsa. The waiter said he did not think we would like it, but we each devoured a whole bowl of salsa by ourselves. We shopped, looked, walked, fed the ducks in the lake, and made many stops to the bathroom. One of us had developed a sickness from the food or something. It seemed that every couple minutes somebody had the "Trots". I will not mention who for means of saving them the embarrassment. During our self tour we passed a peluqeria. I joked and said... should I cut my hairs. Next thing I knew the girls were telling the barber how to style my hair. I paid a whole 8 pesos for my first haircut in another country. At the end of the day, we walked Chelsea to the bus station and sent her off to Buenos Aires. Brenda and I walked around the city a little longer before we returned to Cordoba. We walked from our hostel to the bus terminal and made it just before the downpour of rain came.

Pictures will be up soon of my trip. I cannot upload them right now because my friend Charley stole my cord to connect my camera to the computer. I got my camera back now!!

Schools Out For Summer!!

2008-11-23T11:23:00.001-08:00

So I finished school a little bit earlier than I expected. I am supposed to have a final this tuesday in art, but I did not qualify to take it. I finished the last of my other finals Friday, with a written and oral part. I scored a 7 which capped off my amazing grades here (except for art). So as of this past Friday, School is officially out for summer.

Friday night, there was a huge party in the Residence Halls Quincho. There was an open bar, a pool, and lots of music. There were quite a few people that I had never met before also. I had plans to get up early on Saturday morning so I did not want to stay out too late. However, my plans changed when this girl named Nadia entered my life. Everytime I reminded her, that I had to leave because I was getting up early, she changed the subject with something like "querés bailar" (Do you want to dance). Of course I responded with a yes. I did manage to sleep a little Friday night. I slept a whole 2 hours.

Saturday I woke up at 9 am and continued my summer party. I went to a nearby town called Icho Cruz. It is a small town with river. My friends Ashley, Brenda, and Ferron went and hung out in the river all day. We climbed on rocks, swam, and laid out in the sun. I put sun lotion on every chance I got hahahaha. Unfortuanately, only one of the girls would put some on the parts of my back I couldnt reach, but ONLY ONCE. I got a little red on my back, but nothing serious like my last encounter with the sun. Brendas host mom has a house in this town. We went to this super nice house for lunch. We had homemade lomitos to eat. AMAZING!! Then we went back to the river.

We left Icho Cruz a little early in order to return to Ashley´s house for an Asado. I didnt get a chance to shower or rest at all. A large group of us met at Ashley´s house and ate chorizo, cerdo, ensalada, helado. Oh yeah and of course there was wine.

After that, a lot of us went out to Chateu (an area with a lot of boliches). We were on a list for a party at Trip. We were a little late, but they still let us in. There was a special event going on too. A cat walk of a bunch of models. We watched the fashion show, and then danced the night away.

I finally made it home for a much needed sleep. I slept until my alarm went off at 4 in the afternoon. Next on my list for the summer. A vacation to Salta!!

Fiestas de Despedidas (Already??)

2008-11-21T16:15:00.000-08:00

Well, the program here is winding down, and my time with my friends is running short. We have already started saying goodbyes. Thursday the 13th, we had our first Goodbye Party. The CRI or Central Relaciones Internacionales Office put together a going away party for all of the exchange students. This included my program and the other exchange students.

We had a private party with lots and lots of sandwiches and empanadas. There was also plenty of pop, juice, and water to drink. We watched a slide show, which included some of our tango show, pictures and interviews with some students. Afterwords, we each got a copy of the show. They played the national anthem of each of the countries represented. This included Brasil, Canada, Argentina etc.

After the food, we began Karaoke. People were a little nervous at first, so I got the party started with a terrible display of the Backstreet Boys. They picked a song for me that I really did not know. It was almost as bad as being in my Brothers Basement on the XBox or whatever system it is. I managed to break the ice and get the party going. We mixed songs from different languages. Espanol, English, and Portuguese. It got pretty ugly when I tried to sing the Lion King in Spanish. I redeemed myself in English though.

This past Monday my neighbor Amber went back to the States. I woke up and thought I would go say goodbye to her. I walked down the street and "rang her bell" (haha) only to find out she was preparing a going away lunch. I had been invited but forgot, imagine that. I stayed for the small gathering of girls, and said my goodbyes to the girl next door in Argentina but from New York.

AND Yesterday my program had a going away dinner. Alfredo, the director of my program arranged a dinner in the center of the city for all of us. We met at a restaurant called Revolucion. Everything was already paid for (From our 15000 dollars it costs to do this program). It was all you could drink wine, pop and water. We had an appetizer of some really rich cheese with bread. Then we had some really tasty meat, followed by a dessert. Our group presented Alfredo with a small gift. We all chipped in and baught him a really expensive bottle of wine. He also had a gift for each one of us. It was a small argentinian candy. We said our goodbyes (even though there is a week left of the program). For a few people, it was the last time I would see them during this experience. For others, I will continue to see all week.

It is weird how the time has gone by so fast. I feel like I have known these friends my whole life and now I have to say goodbye. It also feels like I just arrived here yesterday. Its almost been 5 months. NO WAY!!

Brian´s glass is... Half Full?? No not Brian

2008-11-17T10:54:00.000-08:00

You read it right, my glass is half full. Why?? Well here briefly is the half empty glass. I have been studying like crazy the last couple weeks. I even went to a friends house and studied until 4 in the morning. I have been doing extra projects and retaking exams like crazy. Remember how I mentioned in my last blog that I had 6 exams to take. Well I have taken some of them. I passed 3 of them. However, I failed my exam for Art. This means, I failed Art. I camp believe I failed an art class. Anyway, my glass is half full.

For my Cultura Popular class, we were supposed to go to a fútbol game a few weeks ago. With my luck it got canceled due to rain (which they never cancel stuff due to rain). They suspended the game until Wednesday, and then changed it again to this Tuesday. Tuesday, I am supposed to re take my first test that I failed for Art. Lucky for me, I failed the second test too, which means I fail the class for sure. Now I am free and get to go to the fútbol game. I also had two projects to do for art by Tuesday, not to mention studying for the test. Now, I don´t have to do those either. And what is supposed to be my last week here, I now have completely free because I will not be allowed to sit for the Art final.

So I made a poor decision to take a contemporary art class instead of a public relations class here. The Art class drove me crazy all semester, but I gave everything I had. The teacher failed me, SO WHAT!! I have learned more spanish than anybody else on this trip, so I am satisfied. And now I can take something fun at SMU like a ceramics class or something. My art teacher did have a little bit of a heart. She told me that I could take my exam in english. I know she was trying to be nice and give me the best chance to past, but I took it as an insult. She insulted my level of spanish by not having any hope in me. It was the 700 pages of advanced spanish I was supposed to read each night that was the problem, and the fact that she has a gift. She not only speaks a mile a minute, she speaks 10 miles a minute, so when I asked her to slow down it was still 5 miles a minute.

I am going to a fútbol game, don´t have to take 2 exams, don´t have to sit through 3 more hours of torture in class, I have a whole week free at the end of November, and I can take a class at SMU like ceramics or something. Would of should of could of taken Public Relations which was a lot easier of a class, but it is too late now. I challenged myself unlike those who took the easy way out. Now lets just hope I pass my final for Cultura Popular Friday. After that, SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER!! Haha because it is summer here.

There is More to Argentina than Having Fun

2008-11-07T11:33:00.000-08:00

One might think that my time here in Argentina is simply fun experiences and exciting vacations, but that is not entirely true. As much as I do love it here and am having the time of my life, the school aspect is still very difficult.

The next three weeks are going to be very exhausting and difficult for me. I have already completed and passed a 4 credit class earlier this semester. I am currently enrolled in 12 credits. One of those is Tango, another is Horseback Riding. Last week, I finished another one credit class about culture shock, which leaves me with 9 real credits. This sounds pretty easy on paper, but it has turned out not to be so easy.

I am doing fine in my 3 credit spanish grammar class and have no worries about passing. My hard work in there seems to have paid off. My other two classes, which are both worth three credits also, are causing me a little more stress.

The way they work, is that there are two tests throughout the semester and a final. In order take the final, one has to pass the two tests during the semester. If one were to fail one of the two tests, there is a recoupatory period where one test can be made up. I unfortuanately failed both of the first tests for my classes of Contemporary Art and Pop Culture.

This is how I sit now. I have to pass both my tests this week (One in Art and one in Culture). When I pass those, I also have to retake the first one for both classes the following week. When I pass those I will get to take the finals. Whatever I score on the final for both classes will be my final grade. This being said, I have a lot of studying to do. I have 6 exams in the next three weeks, and I have to pass all of them. If for some reason I do not pass one of them, I will actually fail a class.

It kind is kind of a downer, because among all the fun I have been having here, I have also been spending just as much time studying. I just do not like to talk about that aspect of my life here. The fact that I am taking classes in a different language makes me feel a little better about my situation. I also keep reminding myself that I cannot fail because this experience has already taught me so much more than I could ever learn in the States.

It is going to be a tough few weeks to close out my program, but I am ready to study like I have never studied before. Wish me luck!!

La Quebrada del Condorito

2008-11-02T14:41:00.000-08:00

A few weeks back, my friend Colton began organizing a trip to La Quebrada del Condorito, which roughly translates as "the canyon of the Condor". The day of the trip was to be November 1st, the day after halloween. People were hesitant to go because of halloween, and of course because of the party the night before. From day one, I said I was in. The more people we got, the less it would cost us. 100 pesos was the most it would be. Even when I learned about the party, my plan was to go to both if it didnt cost too much.

Three days before the trip, Colten handed me a form. He told me I had to fill it out by the end of the day and pay 100 pesos to go. I told him, I dont plan ahead and I dont sign my life away when I cant understand what I am signing. About an hour after I received the form to fill out, my Tutor Pancho came along.

I asked Pancho if he was still going to go to the Quebrada. He told me that he had another plan. He told me that he had the car for the weekend. He invited me camping with two other people. We were going to camp friday night and meet up with the group going with Colten Saturday morning. This sounded like a great plan for me. The trip would be free, I would get to spend time with my tutor and go camping.

All of this was only a thought, and never for sure. Pancho was supposed to get back to me. Well, time passed and Pancho never got back to me. It turns out, he could not gather enough people because too many had to work or wanted to go to the halloween party. I found this out a couple hours before the halloween party. (Again, why I never plan ahead). All of a sudden, I was free for Friday night, so I went to the halloween party.

The problem is that I still wanted to go to the Quebrada. Friends and family had told me how beautiful it was and that it was an all day hike, so I needed to get a lot of rest the night before. I never turned in any of the forms or paid the 100 pesos, but found out the group with Colten were meeting at our school at 7am Saturday morning to catch the tour bus. I decided that I was not going to go and try to go another weekend.

Then, once again, along came Pancho. At the halloween party he told me that he was still planning on going in the morning in his car, and that I could come with him. We planned to meet the group at 7 in the morning. (Remember what time I got home Friday night/Saturday Morning.)

I took a 30 minute walk to school Saturday morning. I met Pancho and another Tutor Niko, who had yet to make it home from the halloween party. He decided to come with us. There was space on the bus, but we were both two cheap and did not want to pay for the trip.

We went in Pancho´s car. We stopped and bought some sandwhich stuff and snacks for the day. We met up with the bus at the trekking site. Niko decided that he was too tired and was going to wait in the car. We told him it was an all day hike, but he waited anyway. He wanted to sleep. We left him the bottle of water we had because we figured he would need it. Come to find out, he didnt even use it.

Pancho and I went on the tour with the group. We hiked for about 3 or 4 hours in the sun without water. The others had water, but there was not enough to share. We stopped for lunch in the mountains and to look at the Condors off the cliff. We saw a few. They were beautiful. Part of the tour was that they included lunch. Pancho and I cracked open our sandwhich ingrediants, so that we did not have to pay. After lunch we hiked a little more. The group was going to go down by a small river and do some activities. Pancho and I decided we would start heading back on our own. There were also rain clouds moving in. We said thanks to the group and parted our own way.

I could have stayed with the group, but I did not want to give them any reason to charge me. Pancho and I started hiking in the direction of the car. We were not exactly sure where we were going, but we managed. It started raining not ten minutes after we split from the group. Luckily I had a light jacket with me. It did not do any good. The rain got harder and soon it was pouring. Finally, the rain started to hurt. It wasnt rain any more, it was little pieces of hail. Then came the lightning and thunder. Pancho and I continued through the mountains for a couple hours. We got soaked. We made it back to the car, where Niko was sleeping peacefully. Just as we reached the car, the rain stopped and the sun began shining again. We changed into the somewhat dry clothes we had in our bags and headed back to Cordoba.

Pancho was late for work, which was not a big deal, and I was exhausted. I caught a bus near Pancho´s house. I returned to my house around 7:00pm. I had been up 34 hours all in which I went to a party and hiked through the mountains all day. I took a hot shower, ate dinner and stayed up a few more hours. I went to bed around 11:00 pm despite having invitations to go out. I was simply out of gas. I slept 14 hours straight. It was a great LONG day, or days.

Halloween

2008-11-02T13:52:00.000-08:00

Friday was Halloween, and I almost forgot about it. The people here in Argentina know what halloween is, but they do not really celebrate it. Apparently us yankees love our halloween so we had to have a huge party. My friends KC and Bekah put together a costume party at one of their houses. I was not sure if I was going to go because I had other plans, which I will get to in my next post.

I eventually decided to go at the very last minute. There was a rule to the party, no costume no entrance. So at the last minute, I start digging through my crap and stuff at my house. I put together some sort of costume. I passed up the scream mask because it would have made it to hard to talk with the girls. I ended up with black dress shoes, blue jeans, a white shirt, a black cape and a really tall purpleish pink and white hat. I also had a wan or stick of some sort.

It was about 12:30am when my host mom asked me what time the party was going to start. I told her 11:00pm, so at that moment she kicked me out of the house, while telling me I was too late. I began my 15 minute walk or so to the house of the party.

My 15 minute walk turned into 45 minutes as I ran into some random girls on the street. I was walking down one of the main streets where there is a bus stop. There were about 6 girls waiting for the bus, dressed in costumes. Clearly I must not look Argentino because all six of them ran across the street yelling "hello" and then asking me questions in spanish. They began to love my accent and invited me downtown to the club to celebrate one of their birthdays. I politely declined because I had been told if I miss the halloween party I would never see another day in my life. Anyway, I flirted with these girls for a good 20 minutes before their bus came. Sometime during those 20 minutes one of them grabbed my wan (My wan from my halloween costume for all of you in the gutter right now!!) I never saw it after that. I received a few numbers and went on my way.

I finally made it to the party. Everybody was happy to see me, but they wondered what I was supposed to be. I made them all guess, so that I could say, "yes you are right. That is who I am". For halloween, I was a magician without a wan, some guy from Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter without a lightning scar, the Matrix, and a guy from the 90s.

The party was cool. There was music, pop, juice, and alcohol. I only drank a little bit of the alcohol, and that was only because somebody was going to dump out their drink. I could not allow that to happen.

My friends decided that they wanted somebody to go in the pool. While I was smoothly talking to "Wonderwoman", my friends yelled at me to come over to them as if it were really important. On my way their, I realized the plan. I avoided getting thrown in the pool.

Later, my friend Tyler was standing on the ledge of the pool. He was a little intoxicated, and looked as if he was going to fall in. Not 15 seconds later, my friend Marisa pretended to push him, and being drunk as he was, he fell all by himself into the pool. His lovely Peter Pan costume was soaked along with his wallet, camera and cigarettes. The funny thing is, he was most upset about the wet cigarettes. I was thankful, for he took my place as the one who had to go in the pool.

The party ended around 5:00am. I helped my "ladybugs" home because Marisa and Amber live close to me. We took a remis and somebody paid. It wasnt me because I refused to take a remis if I had to pay. I made it back to my house at 5:45am. I had been awake for 21 straight hours.

When is Brian coming home??

2008-10-29T11:30:00.001-07:00

I am beginning to receive many questions about when I will be returning to the states. It makes me happy to know that so many people apparently are pretending to miss me. I also find it funny how a lot of people just pretend like they know when I am coming home. I have heard several different dates. The River Rat website seems to think I will be returning around December 15ish, while others seem to think just before Thanksgiving in the States.

So, when am I returning?? The truth is that I don´t even know. My program officially ends the 29th of November, but my classes end before than. Depending upon how well, I do, they might end even sooner. However, most of the people in my program are staying through part of December because we don´t have to return for anyting until Christmas. My first thoughts are, what day should I return?? The 29th?? Maybe. Sooner?? highly unlikely because I like it here.

I have been thinking, what if I stay a second semester?? I have already cut off all of my jobs from home, I am already here which would save money on a flight if I ever wanted to return, and I would learn a lot more spanish. There are a few people who have been here since February, and a few people who are going to stay until June. I would like to do the same.

The problems... Well, I would probably have to stay in school an extra semester to finish my degree. Then again, isn´t college supposed to be the best 6 years of my life?? Looks like I am still ahead of schedule. Another problem... MONEY. I would have to get a job here, which apparently I can do, I just need to talk to the right people. Other potential problems are, how Saint Mary´s is going to respond. Will all my credits transfer?? Will I still be considered a student their?? Do I have enough student loans??

There are a lot of question marks, that I still need to work out. I do miss my friends and family, and of course things like baseball and taco bell, but I can return to that in June. The biggest question right now for me, is... Is it possible for me to stay?? I have narrowed it down to, if I can get a job, and change my flight for fairly cheap, then I can stay.

So...When am I coming home?? I do not know!! I will be home sometime, whether it is the end of November, sometime in December, or June is all a mystery.

Random: The love of my life = Food not Flor

2008-10-23T10:57:00.001-07:00

There are a lot of beautiful and sweet girls in this country. Some of them may be falling for me or maybe not. I don´t really know or care, but there is one that is definately falling for me. I made the mistake of practicing my pickup lines with a girl who I would rather not see too many more times. Her name is Florencia which in short we call her Flor. The spanish word flor means flower in english, so I told this girl..."Sos la ´Flor´ en el desierto de mi vida". In english that means "You are the flower in the desert of my life". But I was being clever because her name is Flor hahaha. Somehow she got my number and keeps calling me.

I have grown acustomed to the food here. There is nothing like a lomito completo. A lomito completo is a sandwhich with egg, tomato, meat or chicken, among other wonderfully delicious things.

The pizza is different but pretty good. They have green olives on them and usually consist of ham and cheese with really good crust. The crust comes as no suprise as the bread here is always fresh.

I don´t really drink pop, but the coke here is so much better than in the states. What is even better though, is that almost every kiosko sells a variety of fruit juices. Jugo de Durazno (Peach Juice) is amazing. They also have pear juice, grapefruit juice, orange juice, etc. There is also mate, which is kind of like a green tea. Somebody described it as looking like marijuana once (I thought that was funny). It is perfect for sharing during class or whenever. It is just something to do. Vamos a tomar un mate. We are going to drink a mate.

For breakfast I usually eat criollos (pretty much bread, but really good). I always put dulce de leche on them. Dulce de leche looks kind of like caramel, but is not at all caramel. It is way better and amazingly good.

A really good food for any occasion is an empanada. Empanadas are little tortilla like things rolled up with meat inside. I don´t know how to explain except for that they are really really good.

And the best food of all is the asado. The United States does not have real steak. The steak here is so good, that I go crazy if I go a few days without one. I don´t know what they do to it here but it tastes so much better than anything I have ever had back home.

I am really just bored right now so babbling about the greatness of Argentina. I don´t always realize the culture differences in front of me. However, I do realize the difference in FOOD, but I still love food.

El Día de Los Estudiantes Internacionales

2008-10-22T12:34:00.000-07:00

My sunburn from my previous vacation could not have come at a worse time. On Saturday the University put together a lunch for all the international students. Tickets cost 25 pesos for lunch, a tango show, and a horseback riding show. I received one free ticket for a member of my family. I invited my host mom Irene, and Luis snuck in after lunch without paying.

All semester my tango class had been preparing for this day as we were going to perform for everyone. My horseback riding class had also been preparing for a demonstration. As Saturday approached, I had not wore shoes in over a week because my feet were very swollen. Somehow, Saturday morning, I managed to squeeze my feet in some shoes and made it look like I could walk without a limp.

The members of my tango class and I met early to rehearse our routine. After rehearsal, we all put on our nice clothes. The girls wore dresses with heals, and the guys wore black pants with a white button up shirt.

Our families and friends arrived and were served drinks and empanadas as appetizers. Once they got settled in and seated, we began our first dance. We walked out in our sexy walks and performed a dance. Then immediately after the tango, some of us performed another dance called the Ranchero. The Ranchero was more of a group dance. Both dances were extremely fun. I was happy that I was able to perform even though I could barely walk.

After the dances, we all sat down and had lunch. We socialized and got to know everybody´s families and friends. After lunch, it was time for the horseback riding show. Again, I squeezed my feet into some shoes and began mentally preparing for a painful ride on a horse.

We all moved outside where the instructors had set up a short course for our routine. We started by walking a lap on our horses. Then we trotted and did two little jumps. Finally we galloped and did two more jumps; this time a little bit higher. After all of us beginners finished, a girl from Argentina showed off her talents. She was a lot more experienced than us; however, she was the only one to fall off her horse. Her horse fell, thus making her fall too. It was kind of funny to see a horse running wild on campus. She got right back on her horse though and jumped about a meter in a half in height. It was quite impressive.

After the horseback riding show, we moved back inside for a writing contest. Some students had prepared stories from their experiences in Cordoba. They read them and were judged on things like the funniest or best written. Only 4 people participated, so everybody won a prize. I did not participate in the contest because well lets be honest... I am too lazy to sit down and write a story. If I could have just got up there and improved it, I would have.

After the contest, I returned home with my family where I rested my feet for the rest of the night. My friends went out salsa dancing, but I rested for the first time in four months.

If you would like to see the video of our dances there is a video of both on facebook. I do not know how to upload it onto my blog, but I may try to figure it out when I have more time. Unfortuanately my camara died after two pictures on Saturday, so I do not have all that many pictures either.

More Iguazu...Brian Goes to the Hospital

2008-10-20T11:19:00.001-07:00

I slept wonderfully on my back until about noon or one in the afternoon. The worst part was when I had to wake up to pee. I could barely move, but had to climb down and back up to the top bunk.

When I woke up, my feet were huge. There was no way I could wear shoes, and the worst part is that I did not have sandals. I went to the bar area and played a bunch of games. I was quickly talking with every guest of the hostel. I had become the most popular person there, thanks to the fact that I was bright red with the biggest kankles anyone had ever seen. I do not recommend anyone try this, but burning really bad is a great way to initiate the conversation with all the girls.

The girls that I traveled with began worrying about me. They found some ice cubes, and began rubbing them on my feet to try and reduce the swelling. It did not work because the ice cubes melted instantly. My friends told me that I did not have a choice; they were taking me to the hospital. We all piled into a taxi and went to the hospital.

The hospital was the most run down place I have seen in Argentina. We walked in and there was not even a place to sit or a window to ask questions. I wandered my way to a back room where all the nurses were. They all stopped and stared at my feet. Then they looked at each other in amazement. They brought me around a corner and began applying white cream called Platsul A all over my body. During the half hour I was at the hospital, every nurse came around the corner to see the fool who burned in the sun. The nurses prescribed me 400g of Platsul A and sent me on my way looking like a ghost full of white cream. I officially looked even more ridiculous and made more friends at the hostel.

I was not going to let my little set back keep me from having fun. I rested a little bit and then headed downtown for dinner. We went to an outside restaurant where I sat without a shirt. It was okay because it was dark. We hung out awhile downtown and then returned to the outdoor bar at our hostel.

The next morning we packed up all our stuff and boarded a 22 hour busride back to Cordoba. During the bus ride, we watched movies, the girls lathered me up in lotions, and I did not hurt that much. Outside our windows we realized huge forest fires. I am not sure how safe we were as we were pretty close to the fires. Later it stormed hopefully helping the fires. We eventually arrived in Cordoba where I returned home for a few hours before going to class for the day.

Again for the courtesy of those reading, I am not uploading photos.

Day 2, The Destruction of Brian (and an Asado)

2008-10-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

The second day that we were in Iguazu was a beautiful day. Our hostel was very big and very tropical. There were two pools outside with a patio and bar. Inside there was a bar with pool tables, metagol, pingpong tables, a kitchen and a movie lounge.

We could have returned to the falls again for the day, but the girls wanted to lay by the pool and swim a little bit. This seemed like a fine idea, and it was for a while. We hung out by the pool and occasionally jumped in. After a half hour, I thought of the wonderful idea of putting the sunscreen that I had brought with on my body. I put some on my arms, stomach, chest, legs, and face. I even got a girl to rub down my back. Note, that I never put anything on my feet. After another half hour the girls went inside to cook some lunch. I told them, that I would be right behind them. Unfortuanately I sat down with my headphones on. Two hours later, I realized that I had been sleeping with Mr. Sun.

The Cataratas is to the north in Argentina, which means closer to the equator and a stronger sun. Even with the sunscreen I had applied, two hours of sleeping was not going to help much. I woke up, and realized that I was burned, but I had no idea how badly. By night it was evident that it ws going to be bad.

The hostel put together a huge asado for all its guest, mostly all whom spoke english. It was 30 pesos all you could eat, and free drinks until the huge bowls ran out. Oh yeah, there was a show too. It started out with a Brazil guy jumping around with a drum yelling jibberish. Then some girl with a short skirt came out and danced. After a while we were all dancing with the girl and doing things like the limbo.

After dancing, I realized that my feet were hurting a lot. There were still free drinks, my friends and I took care of them. It was then, that I thought, maybe I should hydrate myself with water. I switched to water (the only smart thing I did all weekend). Some of my friends went out to a boliche later, but I did not due to my sunburn. I stayed and hung out with my other friends at the bar outside by the pool.

It was a great day, with one mighty stupid mistake. I was still content and having fun. Little did I know that sunburn continues to burn even after the sun is down. As I became aware of this, my friends did too. They began taking photos of me and laughing histerically with me. For this, there are photos of my new red skin. For the courtesy of those reading this blog, I chose not to post them. The photos posted are before I got fried. If you would like to see them, check facebook or email me at bmsmit05@smumn.edu. I would be glad to show you. The rare thing about all of this, is my arms and face did not burn at all. My chest, stomach, legs and feet were cooked well done.

Viaje a Las Cataratas de Iguazu

2008-10-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

The wonderful thing about living in Argentina is that everything is cheaper (Except for McDonalds). It is really cheap to travel and have a good time. My friends and I took another trip this past weekend. There was a holiday Sunday, but the president made monday the day of celebration to give everybody a day off from work. For this, we had a long weekend and took a vacation.

I skipped my one credit joke of a class thursday and my one class friday. Apparently only 3 people showed up to my class on Friday as we were all traveling around Argentina. My friends Ferron, Ashley, Chelsea, Brenda, and Erika boarded a 22 hour bus for the Iguazu Falls. Another group boarded a different bus later in the day.

My group arrived early Friday morning. We showered and went straight for the Cataratas (Falls). Since we are technically living in Argentina right now, we got huge discounts to enter the park. We paid 14 pesos oppose to 50 pesos.

We also bought a ticket for a jeep ride and a boat ride for 150 pesos total. The jeep ride was "rubbish". I learned this new english word from the British tourists. It was really stupid and a waste of money. After the jeep ride we all boarded a boat.

On the boat, we came around a corner and we saw the falls. It was the most amazing thing I think I have ever seen in my life. I cannot describe it, but it looked like paradise. We stopped the boat to take pictures in front of the falls. Then we took the boat directly underneath the falls. I almost forgot to put my camara back in a special bag to keep it dry. We got soaked, but it was unbelievable.

After the boat ride, we hiked to the top of the falls. Along the way we took many pictures. I cannot describe what it was like. We saw different parts of the falls including a part called "La Garganta del Diablo" or The Throat of the Devil. Finally we left for the night just before the thunderstorms rolled in.

We took a bus downtown and went to a restaruant. During dinner the storm knocked out the power so we had to finish eating in the dark. We returned to our hostel, checked in and hung out for a while before going to bed. Day one was Perfect.

Stay tuned for Day 2 and the destruction of Brian.

Brian Created his Birthday Party in Seven Days

2008-10-15T14:38:00.003-07:00

He created the birthday party in seven days. On the seventh day he rested. I slept from 10 am to 4 pm. Then I moved to the couch where I watched movies all day. I went to sleep at 10 pm and woke up the next day at 11 am.

Little did I know that on day 8 the party would continue. My profesoras birthday was Saturday the 4th, so my friend Bekah brought a cake and pop to class to share. We had a mini birthday party in our spanish class. We celebrated Lili, and my birthdays.

My birthday was one for the books. I could not have dreamed it any better. I might have to have another party when I return. You are all invited.

2008-10-15T14:38:00.001-07:00

Day 6 Continued...Oktoberfest

2008-10-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

After returning from Trekking all day, I quickly showered and took a bus from my house to downtown to meet up with some girls. I was extremely late and the girls were getting angry. We met up downtown and boarded another bus that took us to Villa General Belgrano. It was a two hour bus ride. I had been to this town once before. My first week in Argentina I went here for a festival to celebrate Independence Day. This time we were going for Oktoberfest.

We arrived at Oktoberfest around 11 pm. We went to the festival part, but it was winding down. We saw a short pagent where some couples danced tango. It was pretty cool.

It was very cold outside, so we went to a restaraunt. We were very tired as well. We wanted to meet up with 11 of our friends who had been there all weekend, but they were all tired from they day and went to their hostel to sleep. The Oktoberfest part closed at 2 am.

We eventually met up with two members of the other group, (Luckily for me they were both guys) and we went to a couple boliches. One was outside and one was inside. It seemed as if, Oktoberfest would be the ideal way to celebrate the last day of my birthday week, but it was terrible.

The festival had closed, it was cold outside, we had nowhere to sleep, and my friends would not keep their english voices down. As usual it was me and a group of girls (until the two guys showed up later). Their loud voices in the streets drew all the drunk Argentinans to us. I felt very uncomfortable, so I decided not to drink anything. There was one moment where a couple of us heard the people next to us speaking in spanish plotting a way to steal the girls` purses. Thank goodness we speak spanish too.

To keep it short, it was a terrible night, but I still had fun dancing. I did not sleep and returned to my house at 10 in the morning. I know I am always a target here, but I try to down play my risk by speaking spanish. My friends decided that they did not care, and that was very frustrating for me.

Day 6 of my Birthday (Trekking)

2008-10-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

Day 6 was Saturday, and it started nice and early. I had gone to sleep at 5 in the morning the night before and was up by 8:30 in the morning. The international program at my school had set up a day of trekking in the Sierras for the day. We met at the university at 9:30 in the morning.

We boarded a bus, and took it to an area called Rio Ceballos. We got off the bus and began trekking through the mountains. Our first encounter was a barbwired fence. It was not a very big one so it was very easy to climb. We all climbed it including one of the tutor`s Matias who had a broken arm. We really did not hike too long, but we crossed small streams of water, climbed over rocks and (Mom don`t read this line)almost fell off a couple of cliffs (not really that close though). Eventually we found a place next to a little water fall to camp out for the day.

We built a fire to prepare for lunch. While the fire was being built we formed 4 teams of 4 people. We played different games and the team that won the most games would win 4 bottles of wine (one for each member of the team). We played a game pretty much identical to bocce ball, except with wooden discs kind of like frisbees. My team kicked but in round one. Unfortuanately the other game we played was a scrabble like game, where we got random letters and had to make as many words as we could in one minute. Each letter was worth a different amount of points. We did a round in english and a round in spanish. My group sucked at spelling so we got killed.

We played another round of each against a different team. Again we killed in the bocce ball game. We lost by one point in the scrabble game, but I pointed out afterwords that the other team cheated somehow. They had a "Q" during the english round without a "U" but by the end of the minute, they no longer had a Q. Oh well. The rules got really screwed up and somehow the team that we beat won the bottles of wine.

After the games, we ate Choripan for lunch with pop to drink. I had way too much to eat. After lunch some people went hiking some more, while others played in the little river. A couple of the leaders started playing the guitar and singing songs. We drank a mate and listened to the music. A little while later, we got a huge soccer game going in the smallest playing field ever. I had the play of the day. This girl Tina kicked the ball as hard as she could towards the goal from about two feet in front of me. It smashed off my face leaving my face full of mud from the ball. I saved the goal though. Of course my team lost, when my friend Brad kicked the ball off of Tina`s knee right into our own goal.

Later, we packed up our stuff and hiked back to where we began. We caught a bus and returned home. We had to wait a short while as three people had wondered off and were missing. We found them though.

Day 5 of my Birthday Blast

2008-10-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Day 5 of the week of my birthday was not so much about me. I took a parcial during the day. I hope I past. For the night, my host cousin was celebrating her 15th birthday. When a girl turns 15 it is called a Quinceañera. It was the biggest birthday party I have ever seen. It was the sweet 16 times 16.

I decided that this was a great way to experience the culture a little bit more. I told my family that I wanted to go even though it was the Friday night of my 21st birthday. Quinceañeras are a really big deal, so we had to dress up for it. That is right, me in Khaki`s and a saco or dress coat. I did not need a tie though.

The party was held in Carlos Paz, which is a very pretty city about a half hour drive from Cordoba. It is in the mountains and near a river. The party had a DJ with a dance floor. A separate Quinche (cabin like building) with more free wine than you can imagine. They had an unlimited suply of liters of pop. They had servers walking around with free sandwiches and empanadas. They played slide shows on a big projecter between all the dancing. Almost every family member and friends of the family were at the party. Almost all of the friends of my cousin who was turning 15 were there too.

I was standing at this party listening to the music as the dancing got started, thinking to myself. If I were 15 years old, I would be in heaven right now. There had to be ATLEAST 50 girls around the age of 15 dressed up in very beautiful dresses. Unfortuanately for me I was 21 and 1 day. I felt apart of the old crowd as I was drinking wine with the moms. And what do you know as the night went on, I was dancing with the moms too. It was a little more legal than dancing with the 14 and 15 year olds. I did meet a cousin of mine who is 23. She studies english and is going to go to Texas in December to study. She left fairly early though, leaving me sharing champaigne with the older folks again.

It was a great experience, and I am happy for the opportunity to experience this kind of party. My family let everyone know that it was my birthday the day before, so everybody wished me a happy birthday as well. My family and I returned to our house at about 5 in the morning. Day 5 was a success with a lot of partying.

The Last From This Party...So Enjoy

2008-10-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

I am Sure You Want Some More Pictures

2008-10-03T14:08:00.003-07:00

My host mom wanted to dance. Eventually I gave in. She is in the pink.

More Pictures from my Birthday Asado

2008-10-03T14:04:00.001-07:00

Day 4...My ACTUAL Birthday

2008-10-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

I AM FINALLY 21!! I am finally legal to drink alcohol...oh wait I have been legal since the 4th of July. Okay now I am legal in the states. Yesterday I had class in the morning and afternoon, and then I celebrated my birthday at night with my Argentino family and some friends. I had to keep it somewhat calm yesterday because I had a midterm exam today.

I with a lot of help from my host mom, planned an Asado at my house. My host mom kept asking me all these things about what I wanted, and telling me that I had to do all these things...like inviting people. Well, I didn´t really come through, but the asado turned out fine.

I told some friends at school during the day to come to my house for some Choripaneas. Those are sausage like meat wrapped in bread. They are way different than hotdogs. Some of my friends were like, no we cannot, others had class. I was a little worried that nobody would show. My host mom had told me not to have too many friends over.

Later in the day my host mom asked me how many were coming. In all honesty, I had no idea. I had told about 15, but figured more than half of them would not show. I guessed and said 5 to 10. Well lucky for me almost everybody I wanted to show up made it. We had about 9 of my friends show. It was the perfect size.

The planning part. I got home around 7 o clock. I had told my friends to come around 8:30 or 9. Well I realized when I got home that I had nothing ready. My host mom dragged me to the store and we bought 5 liters of cerveza, some coca cola, a lot of chorizos, chimichurri (the best sauce you will ever have) ketchup, chips, among other things. As I was at the supermarket, I was beginning to worry that nobody would show up, or too many people would show up. This reinforced to me the reasons why I HATE planning things.

Also, at the supermarket, a friend called to ask how to get to my house. I was left with the wonderful task of trying to explain where to get off the bus. Luckily he took a taxi making it easier. Another friend got off the bus too soon, making it even more difficult to explain where to go. Luckily we figured everything out. Again I realized how much I hate planning things, especially when the name of my street is Tupac Yuponqui and I live on dirt roads that do not go through.

Anyway, A lot of my friends were able to make it. My friend Chaz brought me a gift...Bailey`s, my friend Erika brought some cerveza, my friends Amber and Marissa brought a cake and some other really super sweet tasting dessert. Due to this fact we had plenty of sweets and beer.

We socialized, listened to music, drank a little beer and a little pop too, and had a classic asado or barbacue. Everybody sang happy birthday to me in two languages. We played futbol tenis or soccer tennis, we danced cuarteto, and of course we had cake. Some of the girls decided to put some of the cake in my face. Then there was a mini food fight that my host mom encouraged. She made sure we took lots of photos too. Lots of photos of EVERYTHING!!

I received a gift from my host family. They bought me a CD of Carlito La Mona Jimenez, the Cordobes who invented the Cuerteto dance. They also made a big sign for my bedroom door that read Feliz Cumpleaños Brian (Loco). Loco is my nickname here because I tend to be a little crazy I guess.

The party lasted until a little past midnight, as I did have to get up the next morning. It was a perfect way to celebrate my birthday. It was calm, but exciting at the same time. I felt like I was at home. I am sorry, that I was unable to talk very long with my real family, but I was having way too much fun at my party. I hope you all had a drink for me. I tried to pour one for all my friends and family back home, but when my friends here realized I was about to pour part of a beer on the ground, they stopped me.

Day 5 of my week long birthday has started with me taking an exam. The rest will come tonight as I am going with my family to a 15th birthday party in a nearby city called Carlos Paz.

Day 3 of my Birthday Extravaganza

2008-10-02T14:04:00.000-07:00

Last night at midnight was the offical start of my 21 birthday. My buddy Brad and I came up with a plan a couple hours before about what we were going to do to celebrate. We informed as many people as we could and met in downtown Cordoba at 12am.

Only a few were able to make it as it was a Wednesday night and many of our friends have exams this week...including me. I also have a problem of planning ahead too. Howevever, we were able to make something of the night.

My host brother Jero, Brad, and I met downtown first and walked to La Cañada, which is a couple blocks of bars. We went to some bar that did not really even have a name. Jero and I drank the first beer together. Then my tutor Pancho and two other tutors, Niko and Matias showed up. We ordered some Fernet with Coke to celebrate my cumpliaños. Around 2 am we walked to the boliche Montecristo to go out dancing. We had a bunch of free tickets to enter as well. We all entered for free and began drinking some more. Some girls that we invited called and met us at Montecristo later. We also met some girls at the club.

After many hours of dancing some girls told the bartender that it was my birthday. He gave a us a free bottle of champaigne (Spelling??). We danced until the boliche closed around 4 or 5ish. Then, the plan was to go home, but Jero, two girls we had invited out with us and I went to an "After" where we danced a little bit more.

I finally returned to my house around 7:30 in the morning. I slept for an hour in a half and was able to wake up for my horseback riding class. I told myself that I was not going to miss class on my birthday, and I stuck to it.

As for Day 4...well that starts really soon, so I need to go figure out what I am doing tonight. I think I am having a barbaque sort of deal. Pictures are not working on my blog right now, but I will try to get them up as soon as I can.

Contact Information

2008-10-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

My mother informed me that a lot of people were wondering how to get a hold of me. My email is bmsmit05@smumn.edu. Otherwise if you want to spend a crap load of money or if you have a long long distance plan, you can call me on my cell phone here at 011-54-9-351-678-9017. Its completely free for me, so I dont mind. Just dont leave a message because I dont want to pay to listen to it haha.

Day ONE of my Week Long Birthday Party

2008-10-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

I have figured out some solutions to my anger problem from last week. Well only the Birthday part. Why only celebrate for a day?? Lets celebrate all week. Monday, I was sitting at the table in the Cantina at school, and Brad wrote down a plan for me. He also always tells me that I suck at planning...I can`t believe such a lie. Anyway, he planned out my week. Monday night was simply con el viento or with the flow.

We finished our Tango class at 8:30. Thanks to a local holiday here (only in the city of Cordoba) we did not have class on Tuesday. That made Monday a perfect night to go out.

A group of us walked to an arabic restaurant to eat, but it was closed. We ended up taking a bus to Mariachi (a mexican restaurant that we have all grown acustomed to liking even though it has consecuences later). After dinner we ran into some more of our friends drinking at a kiosko across the street. They went to eat while we walked down the street to the Contender. I am becoming a regular at the Contender which is a bar with many pool tables. The others met us later.

At Contender, we started celebrating the fact that its my 21 birthday. Therefore we started drinking. We played a lot of pool as well. My friend Meagan was on my team. We beat my friends Ashley and Brad twice. Well once they lost because Ashley hit the 8 ball in, but she was so happy because she "got it in the hole". That is all she kept yelling. More and more of our friends kept showing up at Contender. Later, after we were all a little drunk already, we decided to go downtown.

We took a Remis and started searching for some boliches. There was a huge line for El Sol, so we continued on to Social. Ironically you had to be 21 to enter Social. Very funny because I was two days short of my 21st birthday. Of course my ID says my birthday is 10/02/87 which here means the 10th of February. I did not need to try that trick though. I said that I did not have ID because it was too dangerous to carry my passport around. The bouncer asked my age and I said 21 of course because its my 21st birthday celebration. There were no more questions, so we walked in. This boliche was free also.

Around 5:00 am we got tired of that boliche, so we left for a different one. We went to Consecuencia. Unfortuanately we had to pay for this one. I did not have any money left because I had spent it all on alcohol. Thankfully my friends loaned me some money to get in. We drank and danced some more until 7 in the morning.

At 7, three of us shared a taxi home. With my luck I was the last one to be dropped off. The others left me what they thought was enough money to cover it. A short distance from my house, I had to ask the cab driver to let me out. I paid the cab with everything I had and walked 15 minutes to my house. I arrived home at 8 in the morning and went to sleep. I would say that day one was a good start to my birthday fesitivities.

Day 2 I rested in my house, watched Jim Thome break my heart yet again, and then watched a movie with my brother and his friend. As for Day three...That is today. I hope all goes well tonight... because tonight at midnight, I am officially 21 (that is 10 oclock in Minnesota).

An Angry Brian

2008-09-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

I find myself really frustrated today...OH BOY...are you ready for this blog?? Haha!! I am learning through my experience how to use the internet an email. Anybody that knows me, knows how against the technology of the internet I am.

I am a little frustrated because I cannot watch baseball here. I have settled for the simulation versions on gameday. Of course today, I am trying to watch the Sox Tigers makeup game and there is a rain delay. Oh well... Yesterday I tried to watch the Twins game but the site kicked me off in the 8th inning. Oh well... its only a game.

I tried to call home this week, but oh wait my phone card doesnt work. The operators keep sending to the same voice recordings which eventually hang up on me. Oh well, I can email them....HAHAHA!! I am funny.

This week is my 21 birthday. Its on a thursday which is a perfect night to go out in Argentina. I only have one class the next day at 2:30. Even so, I could bare to miss one class. Oh wait my professor decided to change our midterm exam to Friday. This means that none of my friends want to go out anymore because they have to study. GRRR!! It`s only my 21st birthday an all. Oh celebrate Friday... its just not the same... Oh and I am supposed to go somewhere with my family this weekend. But none of these slight inconveniences made me terribly upset.

The one that makes me upset, is... Remember how I said I could email my family. Well someting is seriously wrong with Saint Mary`s Internet Technology department. The only site I seem to have problems operating in Argentina is my email. All my friends here don`t have any problems with their emails, so its got to be the SMU server. This makes it really difficult to contact with my family. How do I let Saint Mary`s know about my concerns, oh well why dont I just send an email (haha). I am solving this problem by complaining now. This blog is for several reasons... One is to help me vent, Two is to make you laugh because here I am being ME again and complaining about stupid things, and Three is that I know there is a link to my blog on the SMU website. Maybe by some rare chance somebody from SMU will read it and forward it to the IT department. And they actually encourage me to use email more often?? hahaha.

The picture is the best I could find of me looking angry.

Chau

TWINS!!

2008-09-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

People from home are often asking me... What is one thing you miss from home?? Besides the obvious answer of friends and family... Its Baseball and the Twins!! I am still following the Twins the best I can down here. I read articles online pretty much daily. I have also been finding short news clips as well.

The White Sox series this past week was difficult. I watched the simulation version of the game on the Twins website. Game one, I was able to find some site that showed it live.

My host brother Jero has found interest in watching the games with me. The other night we were going crazy at the miraculous come from behind win to sweep the Sox. I am so sad that I am missing all this excitement. My brother and I had fun laughing at each other´s pronunciation of the players names. I apparently cannot pronounce Carlos Gomez correctly, and he can´t pronounce Denard Span.

I am rooting for the Twins the best I can down here. Baseball does not really exist in this land, but I am finding it the best I can. I am also using this blog as a test, to see if I can figure out how to include a video. Apparently its not working though.

Go Twins!!

El Dia de los Estudiantes

2008-09-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my last post that there was supposed to be a big festival at my school on Friday, but that it rained and was postponed until Monday. Monday was a beautiful day. It was probably 80 degrees F and sunny. Their were little activities to participate in all day and a stage that featured a few bands. In between bands, there were contests and other music being played.

For the Day of the Students, most classes were cancelled or shortened. Of course my classes were not cancelled. My Spanish class was short, but we needed to have it because it was the last one before our primer parcial otherwise known as a midterm.

Some of the activities throughout the day included a toro mechanico or mechanical bull, an inflatable rock climb, and tons of Metagol or fooseball. I really mastered the bull riding. My friends kept telling me to try it again and again. It was very fun. The rock climbing was a different story. It was very very difficult to get to the top. Many of the "rocks" kept ripping causing me to crash to the bottom.

I hung out with my argentina friends a lot on this day. We ate free empanadas for lunch, (one huge reason I was present at the festival) we played hackisac, listened to the bands, and we drank a mate. My friends also taught me some jokes, and of course some pickup lines. They even filled me in about certain contests when they were happening.

The winners of the contests won a shirt. First, there was a joke telling contest. I didn`t win with my stupid spanish joke - Habìa una vez... Truz. Next, they were trying to find people for a dance competition. What kind of dance you ask?? Striptease!! Apparently I was the only one to volunteer. I went up on stage in front of all these Argentina students and began stripping to music. Don`t worry, I kept it appropriate, but the girls loved it. They ran up to the stage trying to touch me and everything. The only reason I went through with this was for a free shirt. I guess I am pretty cheap. Had I known that I was going to win another shirt later, I would not have done the strip tease.

Later, there was a Reggaetòn dance contest. It didn`t take me long to find a girl to dance with. I met Augustina, a very cute 20 year old argentina girl. We were the last group dancing and both won a t shirt. Since, I already had one, I gave one of my shirts to Augustina`s friend, thus making me another friend.

At the end of the day, there was a sorteo or raffle to win some prizes. In order to win, the person had to be present. The prizes included a pen drive for the computer, a trip to the Iguazu Falls, an MP4 player, and a new labtop computer. Noboby that I knew won anything. Most of us were late to tango class, but it was worth the chance to win a computer.

There are some pictures from the day, but there are none from the strip tease. I am worried somebody has a photo somewhere, but I do not want to find out.

El Fin de Semana del Primavera

2008-09-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

I am starting to have so much fun here, that I cannot keep up with my blog. The fun combined with a row of parcials or midterm exams are inhibiting me from keeping up. This past Sunday was the first day of spring; Primavera. The University set up a huge festival for the Friday before, but it rained all day so it got postponed to Monday. For all of you reading this, you might think, oh rain of course, it rains all the time. Nope!! This rain on Friday was the first time its rained since I have been here. In fact it was the first time it rained in Cordoba since March. My hope is that it never rains again, because the streets were a mess and everything was flooded.

Friday night I went out with my tutor Pancho and my friend Brad. We met up with some guys at their apartment in Nuevo Cordoba otherwise known as downtown. We hung out there for a while and then went dancing at a pub. We met some girls, one which spoke english farely well. (I scored major points for knowing english). I returned to my house around 7:30 in the morning and slept until 4 in the afternoon.

Saturday was the big night for Primavera. One of the tutors, Flor, had a house party to celebrate Primavera. It started at midnight, so it was officially primavera. The theme was to wear a sombrero or some type of wig. I plan ahead so well, that at 11:45 I realized I needed something to wear. Luckily my family came through. They found me a greenish had with fake green hair. So I wore it.

The night was fun. There was pizza and chips to eat, and lots of alcohol. If you wanted to drink, it cost 13 pesos for the entire night. There were different kinds of drinks too. Cerveza, Fernet con Coke, your mixtures of fruit juices with vodka. It was one big party of dancing to english and spanish music. I made it home Sunday morning around 6:00 and slept until about 4 in the afternoon again. It was the by far the best way I have ever celebrated the first day of spring.

I have posted pictures from the party.

Mendoza...Rafting, Rapelling, and Ziplining

2008-09-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the entire CCCS group (CCCS is the program I am studying through) took a trip to San Rafael, Mendoza. It was only for the weekend, but served as a very fun and needed break from school. The coolest part was that everything was already paid for. Again, I finally feel somewhat satisfied about my tuition money. Atleast I am paying for fun stuff and great meals oppose to a really expensive and crappy, uncooked meal in the CAFE.

We all boarded a big coach bus Friday night. We drove through the night. We played games, sang songs, and watched the movie "The Bucket List" on the trip. Some people slept a little bit, but not me.

We arrived around 9 or 10 in the morning and went straight to Rafting. It was a beautiful day outside, but the water is always freezing in the mountains. We all dressed in clothing that we didn`t care if it got wet. Over our clothing we wore water pants, a water jacket, and a life vest.

We boarded 5 different boats or rafts and set out down El Rio Atuel. My team was the best beacause we finished first and probably had the most fun. Our team name was Los tiburones (The Sharks). We had the most pride with our chants. ¿Que somos?...¡Tiburones! (What are we?...Sharks). We also liked to jump around a lot as we chanted, so we came up with...¡Yo quiero mover el bote! (I want to move the boat). We worked real well together as a team. We bumped into the other boats on purpose quite frequently and splashed them with water. However, we got soaked also because everybody retaliated against us. The water was freezing cold, but we survived. Unfortuanatly I do not have photos from rafting for obvious reasons. After rafting, we all changed clothes and had an asado.

After lunch we took the coach bus to our next event. We did activities of rappel y tirolesa (Ziplining). I did not think twice about these activiites, but others had a little bit of fear climbing down the side of a mountain, and sliding across the sky holding onto a rope. I was one of the first ones to go. Rapelling was a lot more fun than Ziplining. The ziplining was not very steep. Either way, these events were pretty sweet. It was even fun to climb up to where we had to rapel from.

Next we went to our hotel, where I shared a room with my tutor Pancho. We each took showers and went walking around the city. Later we had dinner, and after dinner a large group of us went to a boliche called "La Zona". It was a lot of fun as there was a live band that played. We returned to the hotel around 4. We got about three hours of sleep before we woke up, checked out of the hotel and went to our next activity.

We took the bus to a bodega (winery). We received a tour of how they make wine and even got to try some. The wine was very tasty.

After that, we boarded the bus to leave...BUT WAIT... We couldn´t get out of the parking lot because the bus was too low to the ground. Everybody got out, but the bus still couldn`t get out. The sidewalk was elevated a little bit so the bottom of the bus kept touching the ground and getting stuck. This was quite hiliarious.

Due to this inconvenience, we decided to do a little bit of landscaping for the bodega. We took shovels and dug up the garden, stole some sticks and logs from across the road, and even took a hammer to the beautiful brick boarder around the garden. We used all of our materials to build a ramp. After many trys and an hour later, the bus drove up our man made ramp and made it out of the parking lot. Did we bother to clean up our mess, NO. We left the beautiful new landscape for the owners of the bodega.

Finally we boarded the bus, stopped for lunch, and headed back to Cordoba. We arrived at the University around 2am. Me being as cheap as I am, was contemplating walking home because I did not want to pay for a taxi or wait for a bus. Suddenly, a car drove by and yelled "BRIAN". It was my host brother Jero and his friends. Que suerte (lucky). I got a ride home and went to sleep.

There`s my trip!! Nice and short huh??

Una Obra de Teatro

2008-09-11T13:47:00.000-07:00

Last night I was invited out by my friends to see a short play. I took the bus downtown to meet oh you know 6 girls. I was told specifically not to be late. We all know how I am with time, but I ALMOST made it on time. I tried so hard, but I was a few minutes late. Oh well.

The show was really funny. I was able to understand most of it which really made me happy. Apparently they perform a show every couple weeks, so I plan on returning sometime.

Afterwords the girls and I went out for some ice cream. We had a nice long walk through downtown on a beautiful clear night, and topped it off with some shakes.

Unfortuanatly I missed the soccer game, but I heard Argentina played really poorly anyway.

My Status

2008-09-10T13:56:00.000-07:00

Many of you might be wondering how I my spanish is coming along down here. I have improved dramatically since I have arrived. My English on the other hand has declined. I have reached a point where I am very confident speaking in spanish now. I am fairly fluent with what I want to say and need to say. If I don´t know how to say something, I am getting very good at describing what I want to say. I still have a problem understanding others when they talk. In my house I am very good and with my friends outside of class, I am pretty good at understanding. My problem is with the profesors, radio, tv, and such things like that.

Last Thursday I gave a 10 minute presentation on the traffic here. I did very well and my classmates said I spoke very fluently. I believe I received an A for the presentation, but as we all know, I could really care less. I was proud that I got up in front of people and talked intelligently for 10 minutes. I have trouble speaking intelligently in english sometimes.

Apparently, I am not a very good listener or "checkerer of email". We received this huge project in my art class last week or perhaps two weeks ago. Supposedly we all got an email about it. Well, a half hour before class yesterday my friend Carla asked me if I had done the homwork. I responded with an innocent Brian face, "What homework"? This girl freaked out and starting talking english to me, so that she could quickly explain the reading. Then she told me that I had to choose two paintings of art and compare them using what I learned from the reading and post them on some blog for class. Funny how I had no clue about this project.

I went to class a half hour later to find out the the profesor was ABSENT... What luck I have. But wait... the homework was to be posted on a blog online, so I actually had to do it anyway. I worked my butt off, not having a clue what I was doing because I never got the emails with the directions. I haven´t finished yet, but hope to tonight. I tried working on it before this blog, but found that my file would not open on this computer.

I don´t know why I always have troubles with my email and computers. I actually checked my email this time. I hope I get my stuff done. There´s nothing like trying to do a two week long project in a foreign language in one night. I reminded myself that this is an experience, and I can´t fail at it. I laughed all the way home last night because I realized that I am still completely lost here.

By the way, about a month ago I picked up the last paper for my Visa. I am officially legal in Argentina. Now I have to stop procrastinating and figure out my art project. After that I have to prepare a presentation for Tuesday as I am taking a vacation to Mendoza this weekend.

Mi Nueva Familia

2008-09-05T17:30:00.000-07:00

I switched families this past Monday at 8 in the morning. To clarify, I switched because I decided that I wanted to switch. After I made the decision, it took a week or two to arrange the actual move. I had to move at 8 in the morning because that is the only time that would work for Marta.

I was really excited before the move because I received an email from my new host mom, telling me how excited she was to have me as a part of her family, and telling me that she would help me with anything I needed. When I arrived Monday morning, my host mom and brother were home to welcome me with open arms.

My new host mom is named Irene. She is 53 years old, and when she was 21 studied in England. I believe she speaks a little English, but she does not use it with me at all. She is very patient and always offers to help me with my homework. My first day we sat and talked for an hour in spanish.

Irene is divorced with 2 kids. My host brother, Jeronimo (Jero) is 18 years old and works with veternarian. He also coaches tennis a few times a week. My host sister, Camila is 14 years old and is still in school. Both of my new siblings are very patient, and they help me whenever I need it. Irene also has a 66 year old boyfriend named Luis. Luis is also very helpful.

I am very comfortble in my new house and so far love my new family a lot. It is nice to be able to sit in front of the tv with something to drink in my hand while putting my feet on the coffee table. Jero even told me to relax and put my feet up on the table. The first thing Irene told me is that I was just like one of her kids. She told me that if I wanted something to drink or eat, to help my self. She showed me how to use the computer and gave me permission to use it whenever. The family has internet also, which is really nice.

I have to adapt to some things in my new house. I only have 3 television channels now as my new family does not have cable. This is good because now I am forced to watch tv in spanish. My bed is a little bit smaller, but I have lived my whole life with a smaller bed. And probably the biggest adaptation I need to make, is that I live a little further away from school. It`s about a 45 minute walk or a 5 minute bus ride. However, I am really cheap (imagine that) so I have been finding other ways to and from school.

My first night returning to my house, I played the "Where do I live?". I got a ride from a friends host dad, and luckily I faintly recognized some buildings and street names near my house. I eventually made it home. Other times, when Jero does not need his bike, I have been riding that to school. It is a bit dangerous as only one of the breaks works and that break barely works. There is no stopping quickly on this bike.

I am now allowed to eat meals pretty much whenever I want. We all have different schedules in my house, so if I am late for a meal, it is usually sitting on the table for me to heat up in the microwave. For breakfast, there are usually different kinds of break, cookies, and cereales for me to choose from, along with coffee or juice to drink. It is amazing.

Jero has been really cool engaging me in other activities. He invited me to his friends house my second night there. We hung out with ten GUYS (and one girl) and it was just like being home. Chilling with the boys while listening to music and talking. Last night he invited me out to eat some Lomitos with two of his guy friends Walter and Juan.

Overall, things are a lot better in my new home. I feel way more comfortable, and I only use spanish in this house. When I don´t understand something, we work around it with other forms of communication. I am really excited because I have always been the youngest person in the family. I finally get to be the BIG BROTHER. I am looking forward to this weekend and the next 3 months with this family. I was a little nervous about the switch, but as of right now, I am so glad I went through with it.

Saying Goodbye to Family Number One

2008-09-04T13:20:00.000-07:00

I have officially switched host families. About a month back, I was talking with Alfredo who is the director of the program here. We were just chatting so that I could practice my spanish more. In the conversation, we began talking about my family here. I explained how I was not comfortble in my home. He told me that I could switch if I wanted. I was not too sure if I really wanted to switch or not. Things were not terrible in my house, so I thought the evil I didn´t know could be worse than the evil I know.

I honestly think, Marta (my first host mom) had the best intentions, but she spoke a lot of english with me. My brother Edzui was very cool, but he spoke english with me a lot too.

I am definately going to miss watching movies and cable tv with Edzui. I loved our conversations about sports and yelling at the tv when the soccer players screwed up. I will miss studying in the sun in the back yard. I enjoyed the location with many kioskos nearby and my school within 15 minutes walking. I also got to know the other exchange students that lived near me. I will miss Marta´s laugh when and her smile when she was relaxed. HOWEVER....

I will not miss feeling completely uncomfortble all the time, feeling like a thief if I drink or eat something from the refridgerator. I will not miss being yelled at for turning the water faucet off too hard, slamming the car door too hard, or being yelled at to make chocolate milk when I don´t like milk, and then being yelled at about how I mixed the chocolate. I will not miss being told how to hold a fork and a knife. Most of all I will not miss explanations in english. It seemed like everytime I did not understand something completely the first time, I would get told in english, instead of another way of saying the same thing or the same sentence slower. I will not miss being told to be careful with the keys, or to unplug the tv.

The point of all of this, is that in general I was not comfortable in my home. I felt like I was always doing everything incorrectly, and I felt I was never given a chance to understand spanish. I had been hearing from my friends how they always have asados with other family members and always drink mates, but I realized I had only met my host sister once and had gone to one asado. The ironic thing about all this is that my last day with this family, we had an asado and I was invited to my host sisters house for dinner.

I hope this gives everybody an idea of why I wanted to move. I felt like I was not getting the culture or language aspect of Argentina in my house. That combined with me feeling uncomfortable led to me switching families. Stay tuned to hear about the new family... That is if you care.

There is more to Poland than Kuba

2008-09-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I was invited by Marta to a Polish Festival. I decided that I had to go since I was finally invited somewhere. Edzui, Marta, two of Marta´s Friends, and I went to this festival. We met up with a lot of my host families friends at the festival. Unfortuanately I forgot my camera, so I do not have any pictures for this blog.

Everything at this festival was polish. I could not help but to think of Kuba. There was tons of young men dressed in bright red and blue polish clothing. The night started with food. I still don´t know what makes a sausage polish, but I ate two polish sausages or salchichas polacos.

My host family obsesses about the polish culture so much that its kind of annoying. Its probably similar to the environment in Yons Hall last year last year. Anyway... During dinner I decided to add my bits of polish knowledge. I started using the little polish that I knew. Apparently, the only words I know aren´t really the nicest things to say (Why didnt you teach me anything polite KUBA??) I started dinner by telling the lady next to me in perfect polish that she smelled like a monkey´s ass. Later we had a toast, so I raised my glass and said in perfect polish "cheers..." All was good until I added "...to the fat cow" not realizing that I was looking straight towards an overweight woman. I realized my mistake an accidently spit out "shit" in polish. For this I am blaming Kuba.

After dinner there was a show. There was polish music and a lot of polish dancing. The young men and women danced together and separately. They danced with a lot of passion and stomped their feet with a lot of force. It was very impressive and interesting to watch.

After the show they invited everybody else to join in with the dancing. After a short while, I felt like I was at a dance. They played some songs in spanish, polish, and english including YMCA. It was a very interesting and fun experience. I am so thankful to have met other polish people that are not as crazy Kuba. (for those who dont know, Kuba is a very strange polish kid that I go to school with and am friends with. However after this blog, I don´t know.)

A Long Week Leads to a Pub

2008-09-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Natalia, Gaby, Me, y Ceci

Friday night, I had an adventure. I really wanted to go out after my long week of frustrations and classes. I went home for free dinner, and as always got distracted doing something completely different. Therefore the girls left without me. My friends Ferron and Brenda went to the house of Natalia, who is a native, for some dinner.

I knew which neighborhood Natalia lived in and I had the address, but no idea how to get there. Using my map, the address, and my knowledge of Córdoba, I flagged a cab. The cab driver got lost and didn´t know where to go. Finally after 15 pesos, I told him to let me out. I was not about to pay to get even more lost. I eventually was rescued by Natalia, Brenda, and Ferron.

We decided to go to a Pub in downtown Córdoba called Paris. It is the same pub I have been to before. We met up with two other girls there named Gaby and Ceci. Brenda and Ferron got bored and left very early (3 am). I started talking with Gaby and Ceci, and before I knew it, I was dancing with them and Natalia. Somehow we kept getting free drinks, so I kept drinking them. It was fantastic. We all know I am not a big drinker, but I had my fair share Friday night. Natalia helped me home safely at 7:15 in the morning. It was a great night with the girls.

I have to admit, I have seen better afternoons than Saturday afternoon when I woke up.

How Important is the Accent??

2008-09-01T12:51:00.001-07:00

So spanish has accents on a lot of words. At first it seemed useless to me. So what if my accent is a little bit different?? I am not native, I am supposed to have a different accent. Well I learned the hard way this past week about the importance of the accent.

First I was reading an email a loud. It was supposed to say that "Marta called me", but because I messed up the accent, I said that my name was Marta (Marta was my first host mom). I got a strange look, being a young thin male and saying my name is Marta.

Thursday night, after class, the girls invited us all to a restaurant for dinner. We all piled into the cars to go. Someone mentioned my messy hair. My calloch (ah I have no idea how to spell that word and I dont have an english dictionary) was sticking up. Well, I decided to practice my spanish at this moment. I tried to say, ¨I don´t have a comb¨ but instead I said "I don´t have a penis". You wouldnt believe the look I got from my friend Fernanda. At least this time I caught my mistake and was able to laugh at myself. For those of you wondering how I made this mistake... Comb in spanish = peine and penis = pene. I forgot to stress the "I" in "peine". Yeah huge mistake, especially when I was trying to flirt with the girls.

Yesterday, I had an asado (a barbacue) with one of Marta´s friends. Its amazing that once I said I was moving, they started inviting me more places. The asado was great with very tasty meat and lots of wine and pop. Well, I was wearing my bright red SMU CREW shirt with the cardinal on the front. One of the men at the asado asked what the logo was... I responded Pajero instead of pájaro. Pájaro means "bird", but pajero means "jerk off". Again, I did not get the best look from this man. He laughed and then explained to everyone what I had said.

The same thing is true with gestures. A common gesture here is to brush the tip of your chin with your fingers. In the United States this gesture is interpreted as duragatory. I asked a question to my host brother the other day and he gave me that gesture. I thought, why is he flipping me off, but what I learned later is that simply means "I don´t know".

This serves to show that I am learning here. Sometimes it is the easy way, and other times it is hard way.

A Little Catching Up

2008-09-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

I want to let everyone know that I did not get lazy and stop blogging. The blog site was not working and of course it took me over a week to figure out how to fix the problem. Actually I have no idea what the problem was.

Anyway, Argentina won the Gold Medal in fútbol and the Bronze in basketball. It was really cool to be here for all that. It was also fun to watch the United States win the Gold in basketball, even though I really don´t care about those NBA players.

This past week was an up and down week for me. I encountered many things that were frustrating, but I also learned a lot. It was a little weird in my house because my family found out that I would be moving houses. Most people would consider it awkward when your host mom asks you why you dont want to live in her house anymore. It was fine though. I talked my way out of that jam....(IN SPANISH TOO). It really was a great week in my house though. My family invited me places and were more patient with me.

This week was a tough week because I had to decide which classes to take for the rest of the semester. It was easy to eliminate a couple. I dont need a ethics class or computer class, so I dropped those; however, I did enjoy the classes. The other easy one to drop was my Institional Sociology class. I really like the class, and I was the only male in a small class of 10 very good looking chicas, but there is no way I was going to take a class on Friday nights from 5 to 8:30. That left me with the tough decision: Art class where I would kill my general education requirement or a public relations class where the beautiful girls always invite us out after class. We even watched the Simpsons in the Public Relations class. I decided to take the Art class because those same girls that I have gotten to know so well now are in my art class. The class is more difficult to understand, but what a perfect way to interact with my new friends. I will be asking them if they would like to ¨study¨ a lot.

So for those of you who are still reading this long boring blog (Probably you Tracy because you are the only one that cared which classes I am taking, which is the whole purpose of this part of the blog.) My classes are: My spanish grammar class which I really like, A popular culture class which is very interesting, A one credit culture class, Tengo, Horseback Riding, and a Contemporary Art class. I also meet with the director of the program here 2 to 3 times a week for extra practice.

Well now that you all are caught up, you can read my next couple blogs which will be a little more interesting.

The Passion for Futbol and Other Sports

2008-08-22T16:38:00.001-07:00

I had many classes this week as it is the last week to try out classes before I need to sign a paper saying which ones I am for sure going to take. It has been very tough to figure out what the classes are going to like because of the olympics.

The people here have so much passion for their sports teams. It is amazing how everybody gathers around to watch the games. The other day was the semi finals for futbol or soccer. It was Argentina and Brasil; A border battle. Only 7 people showed up to my computer class because everybody was watching the game. The professor gave us a break to go watch the end of the game in the Cantina or cafeteria here. It was an unbelievable sight.

The Cantina was packed. There wasnt a place to sit or even stand. Everyone was hovered around the TV watching the game. I felt like I was in a bar during the superbowl, or at a Twins World Series game. Anytime something happened the place erupted. It was really cool to see everyone so into the olympics and their country. Argentina won 3 to 0, and advanced to the gold medal game. The Gold Medal game is tonight at 1 am local time. I plan on going out to watch with some friends.

Its not just soccer that they go crazy about, however soccer is the most famous sport. Last week my professor cancelled the first part of class to watch the Argentina basketball game. Today was the semi finals basketball game. It couldn´t have been any better because Argentina played the United States. Again everybody skipped class and huddled around the tv. This time, I was right up front with my fellow USA friend Brad. We accidently forgot where we were a couple times. Lebron James nailed a three pointer and somebody else dunked on an Argentina player. Brad and I accidently jumped up and cheered. We received some dirty looks, but they were all in fun.

Alright well I am off to cheer for Argentina in the Gold Medal game for futbol. It should begin around 11pm in Minneapolis. You all should watch.

Otras fotos durante el viaje

2008-08-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

Amber right before jumping in the water.

Me with Francsiso the snorkling instructor
Ferron and Ashley cooking dinner
Brenda and Chelsea jumping for joy on the beach
Chelsea and Brenda freezing on the boat with me.

El viaje a Puerto Madryn tercero parte

2008-08-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday, we woke up nice and early again. The hostel told us about a tour they set up to the Penninsula Valdez. The girls arranged for us to go on the tour. We were picked up by a tour bus at 8 in the morning.

First we drove toward the Penninsula and had 20 minutes to walk along the beach. We stopped to look at las ballenas or whales in the water. It was so cold along the coast. I thought I was gonna die because I knew we had a boat ride later in the day. We also stopped at a museum and looked around a little bit. It was really interesting.

We finally drove to the penninsula. It costs 45 pesos to go into the penninsula but only 15 for natives. We had to fight to prove that we were students in Argentina, but with our insurance cards and international student ID cards, we were able to get the discount.

We drove to small town on the coast of the penninsula and stopped there. We boarded a boat to go whale watching. It was really cool. We were on the boat for about 2 hours. The whales came so close to our boat. I could almost touch one of them. Another whale jumped right in front of us. It was amazing. I tried to take pictures, but it was extremely difficult as the whales did what they wanted when they wanted.

After the boat excursion, we ate lunch at a restaurant on the coast. We then took a bus tour around the penninsula, and we stopped at different places to take pictures. We saw the elefante marinos (sea elephants). One of them was about to give birth, but we couldn´t stay long enough to see it.

After our long excursions we returned to the hostel. We went out for dinner at a nice restaurant. After that we wanted to go out, but we all fell asleep pretty early. The next morning we woke up, packed, and headed back to the bus station for 20 more hours on the omnibus. We were almost late to the bus station, but we made it. We arrived back to Cordoba at 8:30 in the morning on Tuesday. I had class at 10:45. I went home, dropped my stuff off and ran to class.

The vacation was great but a little expensive. I probably spent 400 to 500 U.S. dollars in total for the bus rides, tours, and hostel.

El viaje a Puerto Madryn segundo parte

2008-08-20T14:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we woke up very early. We were met by a friend of Ashley´s from England. We had free breakfast in the hostel which consisted of coffee and cookies. We had an appointment to go snorkling at 8:30 in the morning. It was not just regular snorkling though. It was snorkling with los lobos marinos, which translates in english to ¨sea lions¨.

We all know how great of a swimmer I am and how much I love spending money. For these reasons I passed on the snorkling and swimming with sea lions. Snorkling cost 500 pesos per person. Brenda, Chelsea and I decided it was worth the 100 pesos to go with on the boat and see everything without having to jump in the freezing cold water. It was hilarious to watch the girls get into the water suits too. It was also hilarious getting onto the boat. We had to be carried on the backs of the swimmers to get into the boat. The picture is of Chelsea being carried back from the boat. The others enjoyed it that we didn´t want to snorkle because we could take a bunch of pictures for them. I don´t know how they survived because it was freezing out on that boat and probably much colder in the water.

After swimming with los lobos marinos, we went back to the hostel, warmed up and then went to lunch. Lunch was very fancy, but very good. After lunch we walked along the beach and the pier. For the first time in my life, I danced the tango on the beach. My friend Ashley and I danced alone on the beach. It was great.

That night we cooked dinner again. this time we bought some chicken and pretty much had Fajitas with out the tortillas. It was delicious. We ended up hanging out in the hostel and watching movies. It was really cool because there was a variety of people staying in the hostel. There were people from England, Austria and Argentina. We had so much chicken that we shared it with everyone in the hostel. It was really cool to interact with so many different types of people.

El viaje a Puerto Madryn primero parte

2008-08-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went to Puerto Madryn in Pategonia. This trip was not with the program here. It was planned seperately, but not by me of course. If I had to plan it, we all know I would have been sitting in my bed at my host home. The girls planned it and for some reason invited me. There was a holiday on Monday so it was a three day weekend. I skipped my classes Friday to make it a four day weekend. My friends Ferron, Ashley, Brenda, Chelsea, and Amber took a 20 hour busride thursday night to Puerto Madryn. Yes, me and 5 other girls. (Very long bus ride haha).

We arrived Friday early in the evening and walked to our Hostel. We walked about 10 blocks along the beach. We went to the store and bought some food to make dinner. The girls cooked dinner and it was delicious and CHEAP. After dinner I went for a walk a long the beach with Chelsea and Brenda. It was great, but a little cold.

The first picture is the table before dinner and the second picture is during our walk from the bus station to the hostel.

Y More

2008-08-13T13:43:00.001-07:00

Pictures tell a thousand words right??

2008-08-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

WOW... I am lost again, but making so many friends.

2008-08-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

Last week was the start of the semester for me, but this week was the official start for all the regular Argentine students. Let me say, it´s completely different with all of them on campus too.

Being that this is the official start of the semester, the past weekend was perfect for a big party. There was a big party at my friend Abby´s house. I hung out early in the evening with my friends that did not want to go to the party. They cooked chili and we had dinner together. Afterwords, I went to the party by myself. It was a lonely walk at 2:30 in the morning by myself, but hey. Finally my tutor Pancho picked me up in his auto because I didnt know where the party was.

The Party was awesome. There was many people, many drinks, and a lot of music. The best part though was that there was one of the blow up castles that you can jump around in. My flips worked perfectly to draw attention new argentine girls. Before I realized it, it was me and my new friend Majo playing wrestlemania in the castillo. Then I was learning how to dance the Cuerteto better. Needless to say, I met another girl and actually got her phone number this time. Again its great,because it really makes me want to learn spanish better. I think I have officially mastered the word ¨Beso¨ haha. I eventually got dropped off by my new friends at 7 in the morning.

After the big party all weekend, I started classes with other students today. My first class was a level II computer class and I was the only exchange student in it. Hahaha, I dont understand computers at all, especially in level II and now in another language. It was pretty funny. However I didn´t miss anything because the professor gave us an hour in a half break due to the Argentina Olympic basketball game happening at the same time. I watched the game with 4 new girl friends and a guy named Angelos. The students in class with me were very patient and helped me understand the little of class we had. I am already in a group for our group project too. They refused to leave me out.

I tried a few more classes during the day including a history class and pop culture class consisting of only exchange students. Then I tried a contemporary art class with a mixture of exchange students (2 from Brasil) and regular argentine students. None were quite as fun as watching basketball and having girls laugh at your broken spanish.

I am completely lost again because I dont understand anything in my classes, and I have so many classes right now. It is easier to remain calm though because I am making friends so fast. I also have things to look forward too. If I survive this week, I am on my way to Puerta Madryn (or whatever its called) to see Penguins and Whales Thursday night. Yeah thats right I am skipping class Friday. Hope to have good stories when I return.

The start of the semester...And new friends from Brasil!!

2008-08-08T17:02:00.000-07:00

This week we started our classes for the semester. We have a two week trial period where we can try classes to see if we like the material/teacher and so on. This week starts the classes with other exchange students like myself. Next week I start classes with the native students. I need to take one class with the native students and the rest I can take with my friends who also don´t speak spanish real well.

The schedules are ridiculous. I am having trouble deciding between two history classes. Argentina Modern History or Argentina Popular Culture. I could take both and have 15 credits or choose one and have more time with 12 credits. Anyway, enough with the boring stuff. I will let you all know what I decide to do next week. Don´t worry, I am for sure taking Tango and horseback riding.

More importantly... This week we gained a few new students. Some of which are from Brasil. My friend Brad and I went to this extra class about the Aborigenes because it sounded interesting. Little did we know it would only be us and these three beautiful Brasilian girls to show up. We of course became best friends with the girls right away and got invited out to the pub that plays Brasilian music.

These girls are very pretty and nice. The best part though is that they don´t speak English. They speak portueguese and I speak English. Talk about needing to learn spanish quickly. My spanish probably improved a ton yesterday as I flirted with these girls in Spanish.

Anyway, Brad and I ate lunch with our new friends and then that night were the only exchange students to show up to the ¨Brasil Party¨. It was very fun. I learned the Samba dance from the girls. Of course, We all had a test this morning at 9:30, so it was an early night. I crawled into bed at 5:30 in the morning only to wake up 3 hours later regretting my decision to go out the night before. I was tired today, but I dont regret it. These new friends of mine are awesome.

My Friend Caitlin

2008-08-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

I met this girl here named Caitlin. She is real cool and relaxed all the time. And she lived near me. Unfortuanaely Caitlin had previously decided to only stay for one month, so she went home the other day.

She was great because she and my other friend Brenda were always ready to share a lomito (the best sandwich ever with eggs, meat, cheese, tomatos etc.). The last night here we went out and drank some wine and had a lomito. It capped off a great month getting to know this girl from NY.

For those of you wondering. Caitlin is not the love of my life. The love of my life might be this Brasilian girl in two of my classes. I met her yesterday and she is really cute.

Buenos Aires (el tercero día)

2008-08-05T14:30:00.000-07:00

The third day of my wonderful trip to Buenos Aires started at 9 in the morning again. We boarded the city tour coach bus and took it somewhere to the Fería. There were many streets blocked off with little restaurants and stands to buy things (especially souvegnirs sp?). Don´t get excited because I didn´t buy YOU anything. Just kidding.

It was really neat seeing all the different cultural things and small stores. We spent three hours there and I ate lunch there as well. I bought my first Mate and a non authentic cheap argentina soccer shirt/jersey. I might have to buy a real one later, but its really expensive.

After the Fería, we went to another museum and walked around. It was really old and run down. It was pretty tall and overlooked El Río de la plata.

Then we returned to the hotel to grab our luggage before going to the airport. We took a nice short plane ride back to Córdoba and said our goodbyes to the one month exchange students before they headed back to the states.

El Tango en Buenos Aires

2008-08-04T14:12:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night in Buenos Aires our group went to this dinner and a show at the theatre. We all know how much of a slob I am. I hardly do my laundry, I shower every once in a while, and for goodness sakes we know that I cannot eat anything without wearing it at the same time. But there was Brian dressing up for a super fancy nice dinner and a show.

There was red carpet in this theatre with table cloths and everything. This was clearly not a place I would fit into, but I put on my nicest shirt here and would you believe it was not wrinkled at all. At dinner I only managed to spill a little bit of wine on my shirt. I don´t think anyone noticed.

During our huge steak dinner, we watched a tango show. This tango show was probably the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I want so badly to learn how to handle a woman like the guy on stage did. We were not allowed to take pictures, otherwise I would have. After half a bottle of wine and being seduced by the dancers, I tried my best to imitate afterwords. I have included a sexy picture of my imitation.

I finally know where my tuition money is being spent. This was the nicest and most fanciest thing I have ever been a part of in my life. I am so glad I decided to come to Argentina, and cannot wait for my Tango class which I have in about an hour.

El Viaje a Buenos Aires (El segundo día)

2008-08-04T13:57:00.001-07:00

The second day of our trip began at 9 in the morning after about four hours of sleep for me and less for others. We woke up and had another huge continental breakfast. Then we went on more of the City tour. We went to two museums. The museum of Evita which was of this lady who was the first female President or something. I feel bad because I don´t actually know my history, and didn´t really pay attention at the museum. Actually NOBODY paid attention. Everyone was either hung over or super tired. The guide talked really fast too, so nobody even wanted to try and understand. The second museum was an Art museum and was pretty cool, but I don´t remember what it was called.

After that we got to walk around the town that the museum was in. It was crazy because all the street people kept coming up to us to try and get us to buy things. These dancers came up and took a picture with us and then wanted money. Me being me, I took the picture of course and then didn´t pay them. They hated me, especially when my two friends each gave them 5 pesos. We found some little place for lunch, and then walked around some more. It was real interesting because this pueblo was very run down.

Later we returned for a siesta before going out to the Tango at night. The tango was so sweet it will get its own post later.

After the Tango show, we played some cards at the hotel before going out to the boliche. Of course the boliche was 60 pesos to get in, so me and a few people returned to the hotel. We had some good chats before bed. It was a sad night because it was the last night for a few people in our program. I made it to bed that night around 530 am and woke up around 9 am.

Viaje a Buenos Aires (el primero dia)

2008-08-04T13:12:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the end of the intensive course session our group took a vacation to Buenos Aires. We took a 9 hour bus ride from Córdoba over night to Buenos Aires. Nobody slept much on the bus even though we had tons of space to recline our seats almost all the way back.

We arrived early in the morning and checked into our hotel located downtown. We had continental breakfast which consisted of all you could eat pastries like croissants and other cinnemon type rolls. There was also scrambled eggs and cookies and different kinds of juice. It was the best ¨continental¨ breakfast I have ever had.

After Breakfast we boarded a coach bus. We began our three day city tour. We got to see many museums and statues throughout Buenos Aires. We even stopped at the Cathedral. I think I have now been to a Cathedral Greg has not also. I made sure to take a picture of the outside. I was only able to grab two bullitens here though. We ate lunch for free at a nice restaurant. All you could eat buffet. We received a bottle of wine per 3 people. It was fantastic.

After our first day of tours and eating so much, we all took a siesta in the hotel. I also took the best shower since I have been in Argentina because I finally had hot water. That night we went to an all you could eat pizza place for 20 pesos. Again I ate way too much. After dinner a lot of my friends drank some healthy beverages and went to the boliche. I ditched out on the boliche and walked around Buenos Aires for 2 hours with my friends Andrew and Colten. Tours are a lot more fun when you do them yourself. I made it to bed around 4 am.

Stay tuned for Day 2... I have posted a few photos above.

Intensive Course Complete!!

2008-07-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

It has been a long week for me as today we had our Final exam for the Intensive language and Culture course. There was not much language to the course which was frustrating. All the material was about the culture which would have been cool had I known spanish before the course. Of course struggling through the course has helped my spanish enormously.

I really did not like my professor very much, so I am happy to be done with her. That is the polite way I am going to put it. For those of you who know how much I complain, It wasnt just me. The ENTIRE class really disliked her. But we are done with her for now.

Now its on to Buenos Aires... strictly for FUN!! I am so excited. Of course its a ten hour bus ride over night to get there. I think I feel a dance party coming on. I will try to take lots of photos, and I am sure I will have some good stories when I return. For now, I am just happy to not have homework all weekend and a chance to live the Argentine life.

As you can tell in the picture.... I am excited to be done with my final.

Paz y Amor

Contender + disco + shopping = best weekend so far

2008-07-28T16:28:00.000-07:00

I am finally starting to get an understanding of spanish and my neighborhood. I was able to successfully take the bus downtown and get my visa stuff figured out. I have one more step and I should be good. As for the weekend.

Friday night we had a big party for the one month summer exchange students because this is there last weekend in Còrdoba. We went to a bar called Contender where there was free beer, free pizza, and free pool. It was a lot of fun. After the bar I went downtown to a disco with some of my argentine friends. I ended up being the only foreigner there but it was great. I met lots of girls and had to use my spanish if I wanted to say anything. I returned home at 5:30 in the morning.

The next day I went to a shopping in downtown with my friends Ferron, Brenda, Caitlyn and Chaz. We stopped to eat at a restaruant where I had a big and really good argentine hamburger. Then we went to the mall. I was able to buy a cell phone for about 110 pesos or 35 dollars. So now I can contact my friends here AND some of you at home (if I remember your numbers). We finished shopping tour at a water/light show that was really cool. The water fountain turned different colors and shot up to the music that was played.

Later that night my friends and I decided to go out again. We ended up at the bar Contender again. There we met some people, and the rest of the night was interesting. I met a girl named Cecilia haha. Thats all I am gonna say about that. I returned home at about 4 in the morning.

All of this time being out, I was finally able to communicate with the general public in spanish. I talked to the lady at the phone store about how my phone works and even helped my friend Caitlyn buy a soccer jersey. I am feeling much more confident and understanding most of what everybody says. This past weekend was by far my best few days here so far.

sorry that this blog is kinda long and boring.

El Omnibus

2008-07-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

I think I am turning into my Dad (yes you Dad). Today I rode the omnibus or bus for fun. Well not really for fun but I didnt get anything accomplished so it turned into fun. Today I took the N2 line all the way to the end of the route and then paid again to take it back. One giant circle through Cordoba. Why you might ask??

Remember that I forgot to get my visa stuff figured out here. I was trying to go downtown to get a piece of paper I need to get my Visa. I knew where I needed to get off and the general area I was going. Knowing my luck, there was a protest today so all the roads were blocked off. A BUS DETOUR!! Of course I didnt know that at the time. There was no transit supervisor to tell me in broken spanish.... ¨No autobus aqui." Dad, I feel for those poor guys in Minneapolis that get mad when you say no bus here. Because today, I had no idea what to do. Next thing I knew, I was no longer in downtown, so I sat back and enjoyed my tour of Cordoba. At the end of the line, the bus driver told me I had to get off. I told him I wanted to stay on, so I gave him another cospeles (the token to ride) and continued my ride. My destination: Right where I started.

Moral of the story: I got frustrated and lost in Cordoba today. I made it back alive BUT, tomorrow I have to try again because I really need to get this piece of paper in order to get my Visa. I enjoyed my bus ride though ( ALL TWO HOURS). Dad, I hope your proud. The rest of you; I hope you can laugh with me.

Dad, I just wish I would have heard you saying "no autobus aqui" today. I would have understood you.

More Equitacion

2008-07-22T14:44:00.001-07:00

For those who dont speak spanish equitacion is the spanish word for horseback riding. I have been learning rapidly in my one class a week. I have added a wonderful picture of me riding Osa.

I will admit that I was pretty scared the first couple times cuz I didnt know what I was doing. Today we took a alittle excursion on a trail. Well that was after me and a new horse named Todavia or something went through the river. We crossed the river and then went through the trees and up a hill (with the group and instructors). I finally learned how to get some rhthym on the horse. Apparently if you use your legs to push up and down, it doesnt hurt your butt so much.

I have finally learned the basics of riding the horse and can´t wait for my next class. I also have officially signed up to take it all semester. Hope you all enjoy the picture.

Tribute to Greg

2008-07-22T14:35:00.000-07:00

I have been really busy with my intensive language and culture course, so I have not had time to blog. It seems that everyday we have something to do. We have had many classes and when we dont have class; we have field trips. Most of the time to CHURCHES!!

Now for some reason I felt so comfortable on all these excursions through different churches. I felt like I had done it before. The rest of my group was taking pictures and listening to the professors tell us boring history, while I roamed around trying to figure out if it was a Cathedral or not, which none of them were. The group would constantly sit and listen to stuff while I roamed around on my own tour. I kinda got in trouble for that but not really.

The best part of these trips was that they had fliars about some of the information. I dont understand why everybody looked at me so funny when I asked for 30 extras. I thought that the normal thing to do at church was to grab all the bulletins. I wonder where I got that idea.

Anyway, we have had many trips to the different Jesuite churches in town. They were very neat but I didnt take many pictures because all my life I never took pictures of the churches. All I know is that Greg is probably very proud of me showing so much interest in churches. And I am betting that I FINALLY made it to a church he hasnt seen.

Back to the Future Part I

2008-07-15T16:12:00.001-07:00

I feel like I have gone back in time, but really I am in Argentina. It is a completely different world here. My dad always says, ¨ I remember when blah blah blah..." I actually do listen dad and its interesting. For example my dad talks about going to the gas station. In Argentina, when you go to the gas station there is a person there. He says, How much gas do you want and he pumps your gas. Everybody has to get out of the car also. Then there is another guy selling coke bottles that you need a bottle opener for. What age am I living in again?? Sounds like your old times stories Dad.

Anyway, the cars are so old and run down here. Half the roads are dirt. Nobody walks on the sidewalk. YOu cant find a house without a gate around it and three sets of locked doors. The keys are old fashon to. I could probably break in with a punch of the door or a credit card.

Alot of people ride around in carriages being pulled by a horse. The walls are thin in the houses and the windows are just shutters that you can shut real tight to block all the light. Many people walk everywhere (LIKE ME) and the omniBUS is very popular. There is a train too, but the arms to block the road have to be put down manually by the police every morning.

Going back in time or ARGENTINA is awesome except for this final part. EVERYTHING IS LOUD!! The cars are so old and run super loud. Most of them are manual transmission too without radios. The train which runs everymorning literally outside my window with just bars and a shutter has such a loud horn. ERRRNNNN ERRRNNNN it whistles every day at 8am. I hate it. Of course I hear every car or skooter that drives by too cuz they arent quiet at all. OH yeah and there are dogs that roam everywhere. You find them sleeping in trash cans, or just roaming the street. Not to mention they BARK all night long.

Needless to say, Argentinos dont sleep and neither do I. I am in a world like the old days, but I am loving every moment of it. Well except class where I understand nothing. Hope this post gives you an idea of the culture here. Oh by the way... The toilet water spins counter clockwise here. What way does it spin in the northern hemisphere (or in the future)??

picture

2008-07-14T16:49:00.001-07:00

I am trying a foto so bear with me.

La fiesta con pelucas

2008-07-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had a huge going away party for one of the students here in Argentina. Juan is going to study in the US for a while. The theme was pelucas or wigs. We had a huge party at the res hall with all the students. We danced all night and some people drank. I think I had one fernet and coke which wasnt that bad. It was so much fun dancing with all the Argentina girls, oh have I mentioned how beautiful they are. I am really enjoying myself. The party was fun. I think I walked home at five in the morning, which again is early in the NIGHT in argentina.

The next day I was awaken by suprise to find out we were going to my host family grandpas. Yeah so I spent a day in Carlos Paz I think it was called. Things are better now that my host brother is around. We got out in carlos paz and went downtown. We stopped at a bar and had una cerveza and then went to the arcade. He kicked my butt in racing. I beat everyone else but him. Then I went home and realized I had homework. Screw the homework here. It sucks.

Anyway to make this post somewhat interesting, I think I met the girl of my dreams.... just kidding not yet, but I did meet a really cute one at the peluca party.

chau

What is a Visa??

2008-07-11T08:58:00.001-07:00

In order to stay in Argentina for five months like I am supposed to I need a visa. Its a little different here in that you get a visa once you get here. Sounds simple until say your name is Brian and you dont understand a single word in the information class telling you how to get it. Apparently I was supposed to go downtown by myself and get finger printed and stuff. I was supposed to do that by yesterday. WHOOPS!! So now I dont know what to do, but I am asking around in my very poor spanish trying to understand. Its hard enough for me to understand these sorts of things in English.

I had horse back riding class today, but I needed to get my visa. I was recomended to catch a bus from the horse back riding course. All good until the driver to and from horseback riding wouldnt tell me where we were or where the bus stop was because he wanted more money for driving me. Then it was too late to get downtown. For those wondering. Horse back riding was sweet. I got a picture but dont know how to upload it yet. Imagine that?? Lets just say horseback riding kinda hurts a little too. I am not going to say where though. I will let you all figure it out haha. Alright I am gonna go catch some lunch hopefully. That is if I can figure out how.

amor,

Brian

Argentina is tiring. They never sleep here.

2008-07-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

For those of you who dont think I will keep up with this blog thing.... You are probably right, but I will try my best. Its been a few days because I have been busy with classes and Argentinas independence day was yesterday. Of course we didnt have class yesterday because of the holiday, so Tuesday "night was late night¨. Our group went to a restaruant for dinner at 10 o clock in the night. It was a mexican place, and let me tell you... it was mexican based on my bathroom trips later that night. sorry for the tmi.

After dinner we went to the bar. I did not drink because the beer wasnt free this time and we know how cheap I am. Plus I had to get up early the next morning which was stupid. I walked home with some friends at 2 15 in the morning. I got home about 3 and was yelled at by the argentine students that i left WAY early. Anyway the next morning Ihad to get up at 8 to drive with my host mother Marta to some city far away. We brought her friend a long too.

We visited a town just like german towns. We watched a parade of cowboys called gauchos. It was very interesting but Marta drove me crazy. Her friend was sweet though. Her friend brought us to her house later and I met the daughter who is an english teacher with my host sister. It was nice to talk to someone of that culture and explain my frustrations. I got to try many things there including mate which is like a green tea but looks like drugs. It was awesome though a little bitter.

Today I had classes again. It was a sweet class but I still didnt understand much. We learned some dances but I didnt understand cuz of the language barrier. I felt sick today, but am fighting through it. I have a lot of homework and am finally starting to get overwhelmed. I want to know spanish now haha. Hope I didnt bore anyone with this post. I just wanted to get another post up for all you doubters about me keeping a blog. Oh yeah and if I ever figure out the camara thing, I WILL PUT PICTURES UP. Of course I dont understand computers, cameras or computers yet, and everything is in spanish. Alright, I have to go again cuz the mexican restaruant is being friendly to me again. Does anybody know yet if you can flush tp down the toilet here or not?? Cuz I dont know, however have done it a few times. Anyway, Ciau Y´all.

Boliches or dance clubs

2008-07-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

Saturday night, oh what a night. Our spanish tutors here invited us out to the boliches which are like dance clubs. Of course we had to "pregame" first. The pre party started at 11 at night which is very early here I am learning. So theres Brian at 11 oclock who is such an experienced drinker trying new drinks with fernet and coke, and argentine beer.

Finally we took a remise or taxi to the boliche around 1 in the morning. It was very cheap. Once we got there we were VIP. We got in for free ahead of everyone and of course there was CER VESA GRATIS (FREE BEER). So again there is experienced Brian with a beer. What the heck is happeneing to me over here. Anyway we danced the whole night away literally. There was a lot of english music including shania twain for you ladies. There was also spanish music. I loved the boliche especially all the chicas. They are so pretty hahaha I love it. Anyway we left the dance club at 6 in the morning. That is typical in Argentina I guess. A few of us couldnt get a taxi so we walked a long way in the cold (its winter here). Finally my tutor Francisco aka Pancho got us a taxi. Next thing I know I am in front of my house at 7 in the morning. Finally I got to go to sleep. I was so tired. I slept the next day til 4 pm. And NO I was not hung over even though my host brother thought I was.

paz,

Brian

If you know me you will understand the struggles of Brian

2008-07-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

You all know that I never really understood anything in the United States. I know even less here. So all the bathrooms have wash things next to the toilet. I wasnt sure if those were urinals or not. Of course I was smart and didnt pee in them. I have figured it out now, but still dont know if we can flush toilet paper or not. Other things: I have a tendency of not knowing where I am. I dont know where my house is. I have only been lost twice so far (dont worry Mom, I wasnt really that lost, and I had friends with me). The girls here are very beautiful and I love meeting them cuz they kiss you on the cheek everytime. What a sweet culture. Anyway.

My host mother is named Marta. She speaks english and doesnt give me a chance to understand spanish even though I ask. My brother is cool but also speaks a lot of english and my sister doesnt live with us but is an english teacher and speaks better than me. My brother and mother smoke which is disgursting but the cigarretes here dont smell as bad as the ones back home. I dont know why. Thats it for this post. I have a lot of catching up to do.

el viaje a Argentina

2008-07-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

Hola, this is my first blog ever. I don´t know what I am doing. Does that suprise any of you. I have made it safetly to Cordoba. I flew through Miami and Santiago de Chile to get here. I had a 11 hour layover in Miami but left the airport and went to Miami Beach for the day. Tons of fun. In Santiago I met most of the group I am going to school with as we were all on the same flight. I got to Cordoba and made it through customs fine. I was picked up by my host mother Marta. She speaks English which is frustrating because she wont let me struggle through it. I have an older brother and an older sister. I have to get going now for more orientation. I will hopefully add more soon. Love and miss you all.

ciao,

Brian