the blogging paradox

the blogging paradox: once i have things to write about in my blog, there is no time to write them.

i've been in Argentina for a little over a week now. Last Wednesday night, I left snowy buffalo, for boca, and then sunday night i left boca for buenos aires.

this is on the way to the buffalo airport, 12 degrees, it was kind of really cold.

when we landed in argentina, we went directly to a resort called Las Clavelinas, it was just outside of Buenos Aires. It was a really nice opportunity to ease into the program, country, language and all that other good stuff. we spent 2 days at las clavelinas mostly sitting around and getting to know each other, we did orientations, and were leveled for our spanish classes.

a few memorable las clavelinas highlights:

a few of the girls when to a yoga class at the gym there. we did all sorts of poses like perro abajo (down dog). but who am i kidding i didnt really understand that much, we mostly just followed the movements of the instructor it was really fun.

there was a beautiful pool at las clavelinas, we thought that a group of us would go there and hang out. we quickly realized it was not so easy. to get into the pool, we had to pass through a pretty extensive multistep procedure. a "medico" (really though im not sure what made him a medico if not for his scrubs) checked our feet, mouth and hair for diseases. the best part was the swimming cap that all females were required to wear, even if they didnt go in the pool.

anyways, by the time wednesday came around, everyone was really excited about going into the city. we would stay in a hotel in Buenos Aires for 2 nights, then on friday afternoon, we moved in with our homestay families. driving into buenos aires on a 6 lane highway was one of those really unforgettable expreiences. the bus really felt like it would burst with excitement.

our second night in buenos aires (thursday), our academic director invited the entire group over to her house for empandas yummmmy. she had an absolutely incredible redone house. here are some pictures from that night.

sooo these were my first empanada experience.......probably the best things ever...im not really prepared to think rationally about the day when i won't be able to eat them anymore. speaking of, its still so bizarre when i realize that im not just here for a week as a tourist. , im so lucky, i just think about how im here until june, and that i actually get to live here.

here is one more picture of Ana Rita's (our academic directors) home

at the end of the day on friday, we were all picked up by our various host families. before we met them we got a description of our family.

on paper this was my family

Madre: Estela

Padre: German

Maria Eugenia 25

Maria Victoria 24

German 22

Mariana 20

Rodolfo 18.

hhaha coming from a fairly quiet, calm family, i NEVER expected this...

so the reason why i noted what my family is like on paper, is so that you can understand what its like in reality. every one of these children live at home, everyone of these children has 5 friends, and at least 1 boy/girlfriend. our apartment has airconditioning, which is unusual here, so pretty much all of buenos aires lives in my apartment. but it is really fun living in a house with so much activity.

the other best part of my homestay family is that i live 1 block away from none other than LAUREN EVE ANDERSON!!! what? i know, rediculous. so being that i dont have a cell phone yet, becasue i suck and am an incredibly apathetic person, its been tough to get in touch with lauren, but we spent ALL day saturday together. like actually over 12 hours. it was amazing, probably more time than we've spent together in years.

well.....i think thats all i have for this update....umm hopefully ill stop being terribly apathetic and buy a cell phone at lunch today. at which point, people will want to be my friend