New Years! (Finally!)

Soooo, here it goes. On December 26th I changed families so I spent New Years with a new host family. My new host family actually just consists of parents, they don't have any children. I really don't mind not having siblings though because I am free to come and go as I please. I can't say that New Years was all that different but of course it did have it's differences. Around 10 we went to my host grandparents for dinner. We sat down to dinner at 11 and at precisely 12 we had champagne and then went outside to watch fireworks. Ahhh first, for dinner we had all kinds of delicious things. We had beef, pork, chicken, potatoes, typical argentine salads again, bread, and maybe some other things that I can't remember.

A delicious meal!

My wonderful second host family!

After the champagne toast it was time to set off fireworks and lanterns to welcome the New Year. This was really exciting and different for me because I had never done anything like it in Vermont (maybe because it's so cold on New Years!) The whole city was lit up and it was really a very cool site to see!

fireworks in the street!

setting them off from our champagne bottle

lighting the lantern

letting the lantern fill with hot air

almost ready!

Happy New Year!

   setting off other fireworks

After we finished setting off the fireworks we went inside for desert which was an ice cream bar. After that, I went to a New Year's Party with friends and didn't get picked up by my host parents until 8 a.m. because they were also celebrating with friends. I can easily say that is the latest I have ever been out but that is very normal in Argentina. It was a great night full of lots of new experiences with a lot of wonderful people. That's all I have to say about New Years! Next post: Brazil! Hang in there, I'll try to have it up today!

Chau, un beso grande!

Christmas!

Ok, next topic! Christmas! To start, I have never experienced Christmas in the summer so it was very different for me! Honestly, it really didn't feel like Christmas and it was hard to get into the Christmas spirit. Here they celebrate Christmas on the 24th at night so that was another thing that was really different.

Ready to jump in!

We spent the day (24th) at the pool with family. We really didn't do too much except relax and enjoy the warm Argentinian sun. All of the photos above are with my cousins. We decided to get a little festive as you can see :)

After spending the day at the pool, it was time to get ready for the real festivities. Everyone changed into really nice clothes and we all went to church around 9 p.m.. After church, we returned home to have a great big dinner. We had a huge turkey, corn bread, lots of typical Argentinian salads, and pionono (thin sweet cake that they cover with salty things such as ham, cheese, avocado, and cucumber and then they roll it up and cut it in slices, I really hate it but shh!). When we finished dinner, we had lemon champange (champagne with a scoop of lemon ice cream) and dessert and then we went outside to watch the fireworks. After fireworks, we went inside to open gifts and then the rest of the night we just relaxed and talked.

Our christmas tree, handmade by my host mom.

Cupcakes that remind of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"

Lemon Champ

Cousins!

With all of the family

On Christmas day we had a pig roast with all of the family and then it stormed and we lost power the rest of the day. That's about all I have for Christmas festivities folks! Next up, New Years!

Cena Blanca!

Hello world! I guess it's time that I give you a little insight on what I've been up to these last few months...so buckle up because there's a lot to tell!! I'm going to write a bunch of posts rather than just one really long one.

One of the first things I have to tell you about is Cena Blanca! Cena Blanca is basically Argentina's form of prom but a whole lot different. Cena means dinner and blanca means white so it was the "White Dinner".  It includes every school in the city (and there are a tonnnn!!!) rather than each school having it's own function. That being said, about 3,000 people attended.

So, the two most important things on my list of things to do were to borrow a dress (because I didn't want to buy it to use it just one time and not bring it home) and to find a date because you have to parade through the city with your date..i'll explain that better in a minute. Finding a dress wasn't too difficult. I tried a few from different people and ended up using my host mom's. It worked well because she is about my height. All of the other dresses I tried were a little too short. As for a date, I didn't have a date until the day before the dance. This is because I didn't know if I was going until the week of so at the very last minute, one of my classmates asked me and I said yes.

Cenca Blanca was held on Friday, December 7th. It was a very rainy and chilly day and we lost power at my house the whole day so I was very worried about getting ready. I took a freezing cold shower and then my host mom told me that we would be going to my host grandmother's house in the city to get ready because she didn't think the power would be back in time. So, we drove to her house and the minute we got there I started getting ready because there wasn't much time! My host mom curled my hair, I did my make-up and got dressed, and my host grandmother lent me some snazzy jewels. After an hour of preparation, I was ready. We took some photos quickly and headed down to the center where the parade would be. It was crazy!! There were parents and kids everywhere, it was a mob scene really and somehow we had to find my date. I didn't have his cell phone number so we really had no idea how to find him.

The way the parade works is that everyone lines up by school and parades through the city with their date. All of the parents and other people take pictures and it's really just one big mess. So, my host mom and I ran to where my school was supposed to meet only to find that they had already started marching. Great, now I really wasn't going to find my date. Sooooo, we ran up the side of the parade until I saw some of my classmates. I jumped into the parade and asked them if they had seen my date and everyone said he was at the back of the line looking/waiting for me. So I ran to the back of my school's section and didn't find him. The people in the back told me he was in the front. So I ran towards the front but didn't make it so I just ended up walking with a boy who didn't have a date. When we got through the entrance, I finally found my date and then walked with him the rest of the way. When we got in, it was crazy! They had lots of professional photographers set up, waiters with trays of food and drinks, news reporters, the whole nine yards. We went to the section where our school was supposed to sit and picked a table. I was excited to finally sit down and relax a minute. However, I didn't relax for long because then all the pictures started and of course lots more food came. We waited around and took pictures for a while while the rest of the kids entered. It took a very long time to get all 3,000 in!

Once everyone was in, we started dinner. It really wasn't that good. I honestly don't really know what it was, some cold chicken thing. After dinner the dancing started! They had a famous cumbia singer perform and everyone was really excited about that. Basically the rest of the night was just dancing! It didn't end until 6 a.m. and you weren't allowed to leave unless your parent came to the entrance. I have to say, by 6 a.m. I was extremely exhausted from dancing the night away and was ready for bed! It was a really fun night and I will always remember it!

My date!

One of my school friends

School friends

All the exchange students from my school. From left to right: Davide from Italy,
Me,  Nonni from Malaysia, and Parkee from Thailand.

Dancing the night away!

School friend

Visit to Mendoza/Chile!

Hello again! I've come to realize that I'm a terrible blogger but I think part of that might be because of the internet here. It's really slow and frustrating because I live out in the country and it takes forever to upload pictures and publish blog posts so sometimes I just don't because I can't deal with the frustration. Sorry to all of my readers! I'll try to be more patient.

Anyway, back to my Argentinian life! This past week I had to renew my visa because I have a tourist visa so it has to be renewed every three months. This means I have to leave the country and then come back! I'm honestly kind of glad about that because it gives me a chance to see other parts of South America. Sooooo, my host mom just happened to have a family reunion dinner type thing in Mendoza  (an Argentinian province 12 hours south of the province of Jujuy where I live)around the same time that I needed to renew my visa. Mendoza happens to be very close to the Chilean border so it couldn't have been more perfect timing. My host family decided to make a little vacation out of it because they had never been to Santiago, Chile (the capital) and they happened to have a friend living there that they wanted to visit.

With my host mom's relatives in Mendoza

We left on Monday, November 19th around five in the evening. We drove all night long and finally arrived in Mendoza around eight a.m. the next morning. We spent the night in Mendoza with family and then crossed into Chile the next day. In the Chilean customs, we met a Canadian man who was having some trouble. He didn't have a ride into Santiago because he had taken a bus to the customs station and you aren't allowed to leave on foot. So, my host family offered to give him a ride. He was a little strange, but very nice. He was 59 years old and was traveling around South America for three months just because he felt like it. He also told us that next year for his 60th birthday he hopes to ride his motorcycle all the way from Canada to the end of Chile...not sure how that will work out for him because I never actually got his name or anything. When we arrived in the city, he went to a bank and offered to buy my family lunch but my family went into a shop and after that we didn't see him again. Poor guy.

We ended up having lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken My family loves KFC because they don't have it in Argentina so they were very excited to have it. It was pretty much the same as in the States but the fries were different and empanadas also came with your meal. After lunch we shopped around a little bit and then drove to my host mom's friend Muffy's house. The house was beautiful and was in a very nice part of the city and Muffy and her family were absolutely wonderful.

Thursday was Thanksgiving Day and I'm not sure if you know, but they don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Argentina or Chile so my host family really had no idea what it was like. I had explained to them the night before the foods my family typically has and certain things, such as pumpkin pie, they had never heard of before. Thursday was kind of a lazy day. I woke up late with my sisters and my host parents were out and about (still don't know where they went). They came back for lunch and we had tacos. I skyped with my family in the US and it was really great! I felt like I was actually there for Thanksgiving. The only thing I really couldn't do was taste the food! I didn't know what we were doing for dinner so I was very surprised when Muffy called us to the table for dinner and it was set with candles and champagne and the whole nine yards. Muffy then came up to me and gave me a big hug and said she and my host mom had prepared me their version of Thanksgiving and they wanted me to know that I didn't just have family in the States, but also here with them. It was really the sweetest thing and I will admit I did tear up a little bit because they went out of their way to make me feel at home.

Such a beautiful table!

The meal was great! We had turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, broccoli and even cranberry sauce!! For desert we had something very similar to apple crisp. Yum! It tasted exactly like Thanksgiving to me and I couldn't have been happier. A big thank you again to Muffy and my host mom!

Everyone minus my host father, Carlos and Muffy's husband Alec.

Such a delicious meal!

Friday was a day of site seeing and shopping. Chile is much cheaper than Argentina when it comes to clothes, shoes, electronics, etc, so my family wanted to take a trip to the shopping mall and go a little crazy. Before we went to the shopping mall we walked around the center of the city and saw a few sites such as the Casa de la Monera (where the Chilean money is made) and a few other nice buildings that no one really knew what they were but they were nice and old looking so we took pictures of them. After walking around a bit we drove to the shopping mall. It was the largest shopping mall I have ever been to thus far. It was three floors inside with much more outside and around it. It had a cinema inside and an ice skating rink. It had a lot of American stores but also tons of stores that I didn't know as well. In the food court I was surprised to see Dunkin' Donuts, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Burger King. Of course it had McDonalds too, but I was expecting to see that. My family really wanted to try Dunkin' Donuts after I told them how much I loved the donuts from there but we decided not to because it was about $2.00 for one donut.

With my host parents in the center of Santiago

Famous Chilean President

Casa de la Monera

US Embassy

Yum!

After shopping all day, we returned home to Muffy's house for Pizza. We left Chile on Saturday morning and returned back to Mendoza late afternoon. Upon entering Mendoza we stopped at the Puente del Inca or Bridge of the Incas. It was quite amazing! Check out the pictures!

The bridge

This is what happens to things when you put them  under the bridge!
They had shoes,  soda bottles, and lots of other things! It was so cool!

Oh! I forgot to mention above that we drove through the Andes mountains and it was amazing! The mountains were glorious and the whole drive was just so beautiful. I also got to see some snow which was nice because I know I will miss snow this winter!!

Snow!

Waterfall through the mountains

Ski Lodge in the Andes

Once we were back in Mendoza, we mostly just spent time with the relatives of my host family. On Saturday we walked around the plaza a bit and then went to a relatives house for dinner. Sunday we had a birthday party for my host mom's uncle who was turning 84! Sunday night my host parents had a family reunion type dinner so my sisters and I went bowling and then to an arcade with some of their cousins. Monday we spent the whole day driving home and finally arrived in Jujuy around 2:30 am. I had to go to school the next day so that wasn't very fun!

Four person Pacman!

USA shuttle in the arcade! Couldn't help but laugh and take a picture!

Well that's all I have for now! I will be posting again soon! Thanks for reading :)

Goodbye for now! (In my host dad's glasses)

Chau! Un beso grande!

It's been a while...

Hola! Sorry I've been so neglectful in posting..I really don't have any excuse because I still haven't started school yet! Good news though! I will be starting school this Monday! I don't know if I'm excited  or nervous...maybe some of both. I don't really know what to expect but maybe my next blog post will be all about school :)

Moving on....here's a quick overview of some important things I've done in the past three and a half weeks:

1. Traveled to Tucumán by bus for my first Inbound Exchange Student Orientation
2. Ventured to the city alone!
3. Washed my feet in a Bidet with a fellow exchanger...
4. Traveled to Cafayate for a horse race
5. Walked in a parade
6. Went to the National Election for the Queen of Argentina (student queen)
7. Started School!

Now for more detail....and pictures!

1. Three weekends ago (wow, time goes by so fast here, it feels like this was last weekend) I traveled to Tucumán, a city about five hours south of Jujuy with the other exchange students in my city. I don't know if I mentioned this previously, but there are four of us including me. Sabrina Brodersen from Denmark, Thea Cohen from Vermont!, and Kevin Cord from Germany. Anyway, we travled by bus, but traveling by bus long distance is like flying first class. The chairs recline all the way back, they provide a blanket and pillow, free food and drinks, and movies. I can't say that I didn't enjoy the bus ride! We arrived in Tucumán early Friday evening and we stayed overnight with host families. The next day we took another bus (not as fancy) to a city called Conception. There we met up with nearly all of the exchange students in our district. There were kids from France, Denmark, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, and USA. There were also a bunch of exchangers from Argentina that had gone abroad previously. Needless to say we all got along really well because well, exchange students always get along. We're all experiencing the same things and can relate with one another. They call it an instant bond. We spent the day playing games, going over rules, and eating. By the end of the day I had a new group of friends from all over the world. After that we went back to Tucumán for the night and then returned to Jujuy on Sunday.

All of the students at the orientation.

2. There isn't much to say about venturing to the city alone. I live in the country but nearly everything I do is in the city so I travel there by bus. I've now traveled by bus alone five times and found my way around the city to get where I need to be. Might not seem that exciting, but it is a big accomplishment for me! As an exchange student, the littlest accomplishments reward you with the best feelings. Using a new word, ordering something, successfully getting to your destination alone...etc. It's scary to be independent in a different country but it's also the most amazing feeling when you are successful.


3. In almost every bathroom in Argentina, there is a bidet. This isn't very common in the US nor is it common in Denmark so both Sabrina and I think it's a rather odd concept. Upon spending the night at Sabrinas, we went to the city because she wanted to buy new shoes and a few other things. Upon our return, we both felt as though our feet were dirty and we wanted to wash them. However, in the bathroom at her host family's house, they only have a shower and the shower doesn't have a door, it's just completely open. So, we decided to wash our feet in the bidet because frankly there was no other place to wash them. We both thought it was hilarious and a little awkward because the water shoots up. Here are some pictures of us...

4. Can't quite remember exactly how many weekends ago it was, maybe four, I traveled to Cafayate with my host family for my younger sisters' endurance horse race. It was easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited. It was similar to the Grand Canyon I would like to say but I've never been to the Grand Canyon so I can't say for sure. We spent a lot of time at the horse race so there isn't much to tell. Here are some pics! 

So beautiful!

5. The last week of September was the week of the student festivals. Each school in the city (there are many!) builds a float to represent their school and elects a queen and two princesses to ride on the float. For one week, they have a parade every night and each float gets to be in three of the parades. The floats are quite amazing, I will post a picture below. I had to walk in one of the parades with the entire Rotary club. We had to wear our Rotary blazers and wave. It was freezing cold that night and we had to stand around a lot and wait for the floats ahead of us. It was a pretty cool experience over all though!

This is my school's float! Pretty amazing, right?!

All of the Rotary Club, Exchange students,
and Rotaract in the parade!

6. During the week of the student festivals, they have the national election of the queen on the Friday of that week. It's held in the professional futbol (soccer) stadium. I would basically compare it to Miss America in the United States. Each province in Argentina elects a girl under the age of 18 to be the queen of their province. There are 24 provinces. All of the girls come to Jujuy for the competition each year and one of them is elected the National Queen of Argentina. I went to the election with my host aunt, cousins, grandmother and sisters. My host uncle owns a box in the stadium (for the futbol games) so we got to sit in his box to watch the election! It was amazing! The stage was really cool and they had a bunch of dancers perform periodically throughout the night. After the election was over, Axel, a famous singer in Argentina performed. Oh, I didn't mention this above. The election began at 10 p.m. and Axel finished performing at 4 a.m. Needless to say, it was a very late night!

View of the stage from the box!

All of the queens from each of the provinces!

First and Second Ladies, First and Second Princesses, and the Queen.
The Queen is from the Province of Mendoza.

7. I finally started school! It took a while to start because of the student festivals. However I am now enrolled in "The Normal School" which is the oldest public school in the city. I am in the final (or senior) year. The school year ends sometime in December and then we have summer vacation so I will do another senior year there starting in March. All of my classmates are very nice and I have made many new friends! I have school everyday from 8 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Only four and a half hours! I have  either three of four classes a day, it varies. My classes change everyday. Currently I am taking Math, Literature, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, English, Philosophy, Geography, History, and Civics. Most of my teachers are very nice but they don't really pay much attention to me. My Philosophy teacher is kind of a witch but the rest are pretty easy going. Sometimes the teachers don't come to class because they don't want to so we have what is called an "empty class". Basically when this happens we can do whatever we want; leave, stay, chat with friends, etc. This happens a few times every week. The teachers here are paid very little so they can choose whether or not they want to show up. This was very different and surprising for me but sometimes it's nice to have a break and just chat with friends in Spanish! Overall, school is going well and I'm understanding more of what the teachers say each day! 

First Day, First Day! All ready to go in my uniform!
(Yes, this is the public school uniform, I'm aware
that I look like a doctor ;) )

Well that's all the news I have for now. Sorry it took me so long to post! I'll try to be better about the next post! Until then....

Chau, un beso!