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!

One Week!

Well, I've been here now for just over a week! I am slowly adjusting to life here, certain aspects are very different for me such as eating dinner very late and learning to find my way around the city..(I never really had to do that in VT!). I haven't started school yet unfortunately but I will hopefully be starting next week! Maybe it's a good thing I haven't started yet because the extra time has given me the chance to get to know the city, or at least the important things in the city such as my school, the public bus stop, the mall, the zorba cafe, my Spanish class...etc.

Oh! I started Spanish classes this week! I have them every Tues. and Thurs. at 5 p.m. My teacher is a wonderful lady named Emma Cerpa. She is fluent in both English and Spanish so she teaches Spanish to foreigners and English to local children. So far a lot of the things we have covered have been review for me but review is always a good thing. When I first got here, the Spanish sounded like Chinese to me...not really but you know what I mean. My Spanish teacher told me the northern Argentinian accent  is very different than the rest of Argentina which is why it is so difficult to understand. The people of Jujuy tend to slur and connect their words rather than enunciate things...I guess Americans are guilty of that too. Anyway, I'm slowly getting used to the accent here, it is very different than what I learned in school! Each day I understand and speak a little bit more. It leaves me feeling accomplished at the end of the day!

I wanted to put this pic below this paragraph but it won't let me. ..
As you can see the theater is huge!
 It didn't have one balcony, it had three levels!
Isabella and I sat on the third level. Wasn't the best view but it was cool!

Another interesting thing I did this week was go to the theater with my host grandmother and one of my host sisters. (I have three by the way! Isabella is 16, Andrea is 14, and Veronica is 11. My host parents names are Cecelia and Carlos and they are both wonderful. I also have a host brother. His name is Emilio and he is 18 but he is studying in Germany for the year.) Getting back on topic...the theater. I had no idea what I was in for beforehand. I was told that it would be something musical so I was expecting an instrumental concert or a chorus or something. I was also told it would start at 8 p.m. and go to 12 a.m. Well, both of these theories were incorrect. We actually ended up seeing performance of all different types of dances. Some were traditional Spanish dances such as the Flamenco but others were modern Spanish dances and I have no idea what they're called. Also, it wasn't a four hour performance and it didn't start at 8 p.m. It started at 10 p.m.!!! It did end around 12 p.m. however and then we went out to dinner! Argentinians are big on the night life. There's no pumpkin carriage to bring you home at midnight, when the clock strikes 12 your evening has just started! Luckily, we went home after dinner because we were all tired and my host grandmother had to wake up early the next morning.

Vamos al teatro!

Well I think that's all I have for now. This weekend I have an orientation type thing in Tucumán which is a city that is four hours away. The orientation will be with all the rotary exchange students in Jujuy (my state), but I'm not sure how many there are. I have lots of pictures of yummy food that I will post in a future post! I also keep forgetting to take picture of my house, my bed, etc...but I promise I will do it eventually! Thanks for reading, I'll keep posting :)

Chau, un beso! 

New Things!

Things I have noticed during my first few days:

• almost all people drive VW cars
• Every time you meet someone you must kiss them on the cheek. For example, if people are sitting around a table and you enter the room everyone gets up and kisses you on the cheek. Then when someone else enters, the process starts all over again.
• Tea is always served around 5 p.m. usually (with pastries, toast, etc) because dinner isn't usually until 9 or 10 p.m.
• You can NEVER have milk with dinner. Always water or juice. Milk is for breakfast only.
• Driving the speed limit? Not likely. If the speed limit is 60 km/h they're probably driving 120 or 140. 
• Dulce de leche is the peanut butter of the US and the maple syrup of VT
• I have been asked if it is true that Americans hate Mexicans and Canadians
• The kitchen is the most important room in the house

That's all I can think of for now but when I notice/remember more I'll post it! 

Chau, un beso!

I made it!

Hola from Argentina! I finally arrived last night (Tuesday) although I was supposed to arrive 24 hours prior to the time I arrived. I first flew from Albany to Newark on Sunday morning and was scheduled to fly out of Newark to Buenos Aires at 9:50 p.m. on Sunday night. I met up with another girl from VT (Thea) in Newark who was also flying to Jujuy, Argentina. We met in the food court around 4 p.m. and around 7 p.m. Thea checked the board and saw that our flight was changed to a 9 a.m. departure on Monday. We both thought this had to be a mistake so we went to the gate and waited in line with a lot of angry Spanish people. We found out that the plane had maintenance problems and that we would be put up in a hotel for the night. So, we went to the hotel, got very little sleep and woke up around 6 to go back to the airport. We were supposed to board the plane at 8:15 but 8:15 came and nothing happened. 8:30...still nothing. 8:45, nothing.

Finally around 9:15 they made an announcement that the air conditioning in the cock pit was not working and that they'd begin boarding as soon as it was fixed. The departure time was pushed back to 9:45. Then 10. Then 10:30. Then 11. Around 11 they made an announcement that they needed a new part and once it arrived we'd board the plane. Around 11:15 the part arrived! So, we boarded the plane and settled into our seats. Just as we went to start a movie, they ordered us to get off the plane. The part didn't work and the flight was cancelled. We would need to find another flight either from another airport or at a different time. So frustrating!! My companion and I decided we would get on the 9:50 p.m. flight and we hoped there wouldn't be any problems this time. Luckily, there weren't any so we boarded the flight and finally left the United States. We spent 30+ hours in Newark airport. Que horror!

We made it into Buenos Aires International Airport around 9:30 a.m.. There we went through immigrations and customs. Both were very simple and took hardly any time. We then had to transfer airports from the international to the domestic. This was a little challenging but compared to what we went through in Newark it was nothing. We made it to the airport, boarded our last flight and anxiously awaited our arrival in Jujuy!

When we arrived in Jujuy our host families were there to greet us. I was filled with feelings of overwhelming joy, exhaustion and confusion. I realized that my brain really doesn't comprehend Spanish when it is running on very little sleep. My host family was very understanding and my host mom speaks English relatively well so I was able to explain all of my issues to her which she then translated for my host father and sisters. We arrived at the house which is in a small town called San Antonio. I will post pictures of the house and the area surrounding it in a future post! The land is very dry and brown because it is winter here. We had tea and pastries which were very delicious and I just realized I should have taken a picture of them. However I did take a picture of my first meal! Want to see? Of course you do.

Mashed potatoes and beef in a creme sauce. Que rico!

After dinner I finished unpacking my things and went to bed! I was extremely tired and slept until 12 p.m. the next day. That's about all I have to say right now..I have some other pictures that I need to add to my computer before I can write another post! I will keep you all updated, thanks for reading!

Chau, un beso!

Destination!!

I recently found out that I will be living in San Antonio next year which is a small town outside the city of San Salvador within the state of Jujuy. The town has around 3,000 people while the city has nearly 300,000 people living in it. I will be going to school in the city everyday, which is about a half hour from where I will be living. It's crazy to think that I'm leaving in just two months!