Hey, I just re-read my post and realized that I made a typo. I go to Barriletes a little over 10 hours a week, not 30! Big difference haha.
And I also made many stupid spelling/grammar errors but I don´t care haha, this is my free year where I don´t worry about such things! :P
Besos de Argentina!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Time sure flys...
Wow, I completely forgot about my blog. For almost a month! It is is only 4 days until Karl Oskar and I leave for Montevideo so I guess I should update a bit on what has been happening here and as well explain better why I want to find another project, because looking back at my entries I don´t think I have explained very well what I do at Barriletes and why things are the way they are. Anyway, two days after my last entry I moved in with a new family (haha, yes anyone reading this must think I am very difficult to live with having switched families 3 times now, but honestly my new family loves me!) hehe, that being said, I love my new family as well. I am very welcomed and it is nice to share a house with only women. I have two host sisters, Julieta is 20, studies translation and is moving to the USA in December to work and practise her English, Ximena is 19, studies law and sleeps in the bed underneath me (haha, yes I believe it is karma, after two years of managing a bottom bunk in UWC, I now sleep on the top bunk!) Anyway, we live in an apartment (9th floor) near the center with their mother. It is very nice although right now both of my "sisters" have exams and my "mother" works almost 12 hour days so I don´t see them that much.
As for other things, my Spanish has improved quite rapidly in the last month in terms of understanding. Although I don´t understand everything yet, when I am speaking one on one with a person I have no trouble and I have even watched a couple movies in Spanish (without subtitles) with my sisters. As for speaking, well I know that I my accent will never be perfect, haha, nowhere near to perfect, but I am trying, and I think that is the most important thing, if I am teased about my accent I have chosen just to ignore or laugh about it now where as before I used to become discouraged or upset. I realize that the people that tease me obviously have insecurities of their own either in a different language or in Spanish. However, sometimes I do feel a bit frustrated because for 2 years at UWC I never once made fun of someones English (to be honest it never even occured to me to discourage people from trying to learn a new language) and it just isn´t enjoyable to speak when I feel as though certain people are only listening for my mistakes or funny accent. But anyway, I´m taking a new attitude to Montevideo, an attitude of it´s their problem if they feel the need to make fun of how I speak. I am trying and Iwill continue to try and I can be understand so it is all okay.
What else? Oh yes, Barriletes. The past weekend was very lovely because Barriletes had their end of year party. There was a show with both the kids from Barriletes performing (drumming and doing gymnastic type activites) and other singers/drummers. It was all great. Isabell even performed some acrobatic type stuff with this guy from Barriletes, she didn´t know until that day when they asked her to perform, she did great! (I was very impressed!) Today I went to Barriletes all morning and cleaned up the huge mess that was left after the party. It is so hot today and it was not so enjoyable to stack chairs, sweep and wash the floors, but it was all necessary work and I felt useful, which was nice because often this is not the case.
I think I now understand why it seems to me like a volunteer is not needed very much, but why Bruna was told that there was space for me. The reason for this is because the head of Barriletes does not often go to the actual activites with the kids or really with any of the day to day running. He basically publishes the magazine in his home but he does not know that much about the other parts. The other workers that I normally spend my time with know that there is not really a place for another person (like me) since there just isn´t that much to do. I mean it is great on Saturdays when I go and play with the children, but again, not necessary. I ask for jobs to do, but the most I can do is help with cleaning on Monday mornings. Overall I go to Barriletes a little more than 30 hours a week and the rest of the time the place isn´t open. I thought when I came that I would work 30 hours a week, but it was a miscommunication. The reason for this is the head of Barriletes said that a volunteer was needed when really he didn´t know that this was not the case. Therefore, I have been searching for other projects in Montevideo, so far I haven´t found anything. The others have been searching as well. I think Karl Oskar is going to Peru in January, Alex is going to Salta ( a different province in Argentina) and Isabell may go to work on a farm in Chile. For me none of this are viable either because I can´t see myself spending 3 months working on a farm, haha, or because I can´t afford to fly to Peru. Also, I have found quite a few very "commerical" volunteering projects but they want to charge ridiculous amounts of money to go to "volunteer". haha, seems a bit strange to pay others so that you can go volunteer your time. I am still searching and I hope to encounter something once I go to Montevideo. However, part of me really would like to return just because I have become close to some of the kids and my host family now and they all want me to return. If I do decide to return I think I will see if there are other places I can work at here, because I do not like to have so much free time, it is not how I envisioned my 6 months here.
I guess I have written a lot now. I am obviously very confused right now about my future plans. I need to go meet the others for lunch right now but I will try not to forget about my blog in the next month...
As for other things, my Spanish has improved quite rapidly in the last month in terms of understanding. Although I don´t understand everything yet, when I am speaking one on one with a person I have no trouble and I have even watched a couple movies in Spanish (without subtitles) with my sisters. As for speaking, well I know that I my accent will never be perfect, haha, nowhere near to perfect, but I am trying, and I think that is the most important thing, if I am teased about my accent I have chosen just to ignore or laugh about it now where as before I used to become discouraged or upset. I realize that the people that tease me obviously have insecurities of their own either in a different language or in Spanish. However, sometimes I do feel a bit frustrated because for 2 years at UWC I never once made fun of someones English (to be honest it never even occured to me to discourage people from trying to learn a new language) and it just isn´t enjoyable to speak when I feel as though certain people are only listening for my mistakes or funny accent. But anyway, I´m taking a new attitude to Montevideo, an attitude of it´s their problem if they feel the need to make fun of how I speak. I am trying and Iwill continue to try and I can be understand so it is all okay.
What else? Oh yes, Barriletes. The past weekend was very lovely because Barriletes had their end of year party. There was a show with both the kids from Barriletes performing (drumming and doing gymnastic type activites) and other singers/drummers. It was all great. Isabell even performed some acrobatic type stuff with this guy from Barriletes, she didn´t know until that day when they asked her to perform, she did great! (I was very impressed!) Today I went to Barriletes all morning and cleaned up the huge mess that was left after the party. It is so hot today and it was not so enjoyable to stack chairs, sweep and wash the floors, but it was all necessary work and I felt useful, which was nice because often this is not the case.
I think I now understand why it seems to me like a volunteer is not needed very much, but why Bruna was told that there was space for me. The reason for this is because the head of Barriletes does not often go to the actual activites with the kids or really with any of the day to day running. He basically publishes the magazine in his home but he does not know that much about the other parts. The other workers that I normally spend my time with know that there is not really a place for another person (like me) since there just isn´t that much to do. I mean it is great on Saturdays when I go and play with the children, but again, not necessary. I ask for jobs to do, but the most I can do is help with cleaning on Monday mornings. Overall I go to Barriletes a little more than 30 hours a week and the rest of the time the place isn´t open. I thought when I came that I would work 30 hours a week, but it was a miscommunication. The reason for this is the head of Barriletes said that a volunteer was needed when really he didn´t know that this was not the case. Therefore, I have been searching for other projects in Montevideo, so far I haven´t found anything. The others have been searching as well. I think Karl Oskar is going to Peru in January, Alex is going to Salta ( a different province in Argentina) and Isabell may go to work on a farm in Chile. For me none of this are viable either because I can´t see myself spending 3 months working on a farm, haha, or because I can´t afford to fly to Peru. Also, I have found quite a few very "commerical" volunteering projects but they want to charge ridiculous amounts of money to go to "volunteer". haha, seems a bit strange to pay others so that you can go volunteer your time. I am still searching and I hope to encounter something once I go to Montevideo. However, part of me really would like to return just because I have become close to some of the kids and my host family now and they all want me to return. If I do decide to return I think I will see if there are other places I can work at here, because I do not like to have so much free time, it is not how I envisioned my 6 months here.
I guess I have written a lot now. I am obviously very confused right now about my future plans. I need to go meet the others for lunch right now but I will try not to forget about my blog in the next month...
Friday, November 2, 2007
Birthday
By the way (this most is mainly for my UWC friends who tease me about my excitement of my birthday, yes Fay I know you are laughing right now) my 20th Birthday is in exactly one month, haha! :) I´m such a grown up now. ;)
Buenos Aires, Camino Abierto, and the future...
Well I am finally back from my weeklong holiday. I have much to say and will divide it into three parts so that it is easier to read.
Buenos Aires
Last Friday after Spanish class in the morning I took a bus along with Karl Oskar, Alex, and Isabell to Buenos Aires. We left at 1pm and we arrived around 8:30pm. It was a very luxurious bus in my opinion with air conditionaing, televisions, and big comfortable seats. A very enjoyable trip there. When we arrived we were warned to be careful of "fake taxis" that would try to rob us. I think we all were a bit nervous because we were told to speak very little to the taxi driver and only tell him what address to go to. We used Alex as our spokesperson of course and on the ride we didn´t say a single word... Until... Daire called my cell phone, haha, right in the middle of the ride Daire called and of course I had to speak English to him and I think the taxi driver was a little surprised after we had only spoken a bit of Spanish and not a word in English. Luckily our taxi driver was good and got us to our hostel without any problem. For those of you who don´t know Daire is another UWC student who went to the college in Singapore. He is currently volunteering just outside of Buenos Aires and before this past week I had never met him but had only spoken through emails. He almost came to Barriletes with me but in the end decided on another project (Camion Abierto). Anyway, we knew he was going to be in Buenos Aires that weekend so we planned to meet up with him.
When we arrived at the hostel we instantly met with Olivia and Maja. I was so happy to see them both again! I missed my Swedes and I am really looking forward to when I get to see Disa again (at New Years in Montevideo). We talked for a long time and it felt like old times again, very nice. There was a very funny man staying there from Houston, Texas. He had been living in the same hostel for one year!! Just staying and dancing tango. And he was old! He must have been 50 or something haha. He had talked with Olivia and Maja a lot before and he came to talk to us too, he was very strange! He wanted us all to go and dance tango haha, and gave us little brochures of a tango place. It was all very funny and I could tell I was going to like that hostel a lot. It was comfortable and had lots of space, the bar was open till 4am, we all slept in the same room (it was a 12 bed mixed dorm). A very good place and anyone who is travelling to Buenos Aires I recommend it. Very cheap, only about 7 dollars CAN per night and it is right in the center! Very well located. Anyway about midnight we decided to go out to dinner (haha, I guess we have all got used to the strange meal times here now). We had previously planned to go out to a club or something but it was just so nice to share a meal and talk with them after so long that we ended up just staying out talking and relaxing.
The next day Karl Oskar had to go kite surfing with his Norwegian friend so we said goodbye and the rest of us went to explore. We decided to go to the neighbourhood called "La Boca". For those of you that don´t know there are two major football rival teams here in Argentina, Boca Juniors and River Plate. La Boca is a very colorful neighbourhood, with much European influence, that is home to the Boca Juniors. We went to the big stadium that is home to the Boca Juniors called La Bombonera. We paid to go and look around inside. It is amazingly colorful, the colours also happen to be the Swedish colours of Blue and Yellow. Many of the flags were exactly the same as the Swedish flag. Alex got very excited when we went there and we took many pictures in this stadium. I thought it looked like pretty much every other football (oh by football I mean soccer for those Canadians reading this) stadium except for the c0lours so I wasn´t extremely impressed, but it was cool to go there. The neighbourhoods are extremely colorful and there is so much life on the streets of this neighbourhood. Tango shows happening on the streets and many different carnival type things. It was a very fun afternoon, we just looked around mainly and had a nice lunch there. In the evening we met up with Daire and went to this famous cafe called Cafe Tortoni where many famous people used to go including Ernest Hemingway. It was very interesting meeting someone from the UWC in Singapore and Daire had many stories to share, he also knew much about Buenos Aires as his volunteer organization is quite close to Buenos Aires so we also had a bit of a tour guide who knew about famous places and things.
The next day we spent walking around seeing the normal famous that you must see including the Obelisk, Casa Rosado, Plaza de Mayo, etc. I felt that the city was full of life and during the day it was quite safe to walk around, especially in our group which was quite big. However, we did witness one lady from Japan I think, being robbed. It was quite scary because it was broad daylight and she had her camera around her wrist and these four boys surrounded her and grabbed her camera and knocked her to the ground and ran. People were all around but no one did anything. I was quite happy that I had decided to leave my camera at home. I actually didn´t take any pictures but relied on the others and bought a bunch of postcards instead. On Sunday Maja and Olivia had to take a boat back to Montevideo because Maja was flying to Peru the following day. We took them to the station and after that it was just Alex, Isabell and I. We walked around some more and had an enjoyable meal. It was sad because we looked up a place to go eat in the guidebook but then we walked there and the place didn´t exist. Haha, needless to say I don´t trust this guidebooks much for restaurants and things, they always seem to be wrong.
The next day (Monday) Alex left back to Paraná and Isabell and I stayed with Daire for the day. We went to this very interesting, educational exhibit called BODIES, The Exhibition. It is basically real human bodies preserved to show the nervous, digestive, respiratory, reproductive systems. It was interesting but also slightly disgusting, as many of you know I am not a big fan of blood or veins. But it was okay, I didn´t get too disgusted and I learned names for many of the body parts in Spanish which was good. Here is a link to wikipedia if you want to read more about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BODIES..._The_Exhibition
That afternoon we caught a bus to Lujan which is near where Daire lives. (btw Daire is from Ireland although he has lived in Singapore for a large part of his life). Isabell and I had decided we´d had enough of the city and we wanted to visit his organization, Camino Abierto. Overall Buenos Aires was nice but a lot like other cities and I get quite sick of playing the tourist all the time. I prefer Paraná which is a very untouristicky (that is not a word but I don´t care) city. It is a beautiful place with a lot of life but overall I am reminded more of other European cities that I have visited rather than a unique "Latin American" city. When I go to visit Brasil and maybe Paraguay and Chile I can see if Buenos Aires is unique in this aspect or whether it is as I suspect and basically wherever you go in the world cities are very similar.
Camino Abierto Foundation, Argentina
I now want to talk about Camino Abierto which is the volunteer place I visited with Isabell and the place where Daire works and lives. I had a very enjoyable time there and I want to go back to visit!! Before I talk about my time there I want to just show what Daire does. There is a description on the volunteer pages website and I have just posted the information here. If you want to read more about other volunteer organizations that RCN offers, go to this link http://volunteers.rcnuwc.no/ If you don´t want to read about the organization just skip the italized text.
What?
Home-School- Farm for former ’street kids’
Where?
Carlos Keen, Lujan (one hour drive from Buenos Aires)
Number of volunteers required?
Two - must be male
Other requirements?
Basic Spanish; no smoking allowed; no alcohol allowed. Volunteers must be keen to live in a rural situation and be ready for hard work. They must understand the rules of living at the farm and fully accept them. The kids at the farm do not go to parties, the cinema and so on. They make their own entertainment. Volunteers must behave accordingly.
Benefits?
Board and lodging provided free of charge. Volunteers will share a room with the young people at the farm. There is heating, warm water and the usual comforts. Volunteers can visit Buenos Aires during free time where there are many UWC graduates living.
Minimum length of stay?
Three months but longer prefered.
Volunteer tasks?
Volunteers will help Susana Esmoris and her husband to take care of the kids. They will help them with their homework and set up English classes. They will help with recreational activities: sports, music, art, and so on. They will also be expected to help with some of the farm jobs.
Details?
Camino Abierto Foundation is a farm in the small country town of Carlos Keen. It is a home for 15 boys from poor backgrounds who were living on the streets. It is run by Susana Esmoris and her husband who decided 15 years ago to change their lives and moved away from the city and decided to open their home to as many street kids as they could.
The kids live on the farm and attend the local school and learn farming skills. There is a large orchard and they also raise pigs, rabbits, ducks, geese and goats. The boys work according to their ages.
Recently they have started to exploit rural tourism and have opened a Farm Restaurant. Two of the boys were trained by some of Argentina’s most famous chefs to prepare gourmet meals with farm-grown produce. Two other boys work as waiters. A bungalow has also been built which people can rent for holidays, weddings and parties.
The Foundation is so successful it is spreading its influence over the kids in the area. In collaboration with schools and local institutions it has organized many educational and cultural activities for the children of the town.
Anyway, we arrived Monday evening to the farm. It is a very beautiful place and there was so many stars out. There was also tons of fireflies which I found very cool. Daire showed us the place we were staying, it was beautiful. A nice apartment for just Isaell and I, complete with a kitchen (which we didn´t use since we ate with the boys and the people there), a bathroom, a bed, a living area, and just about everything we could need. It was very cosy and I instantly felt at home. We ate dinner with Susane and Hugo (the two founders of this organization) and some of the boys that were there. There was three younger ones, Rodrigo (8), Christian (8), and Victor (11). They were all very sweet but it became obvious as the days passed that they had lived through traumas in their lives. We were the only girls there so we were basically treated like queens most of the time. Susane is the only woman that lives there, there are a few women that work on the farm or that work in the kitchen but no one that lives there. Isabell, DAire, and I stayed up very late that night discussing many things but mainly a lot about UWC and whether it was fufilling it´s objectives (ahh the age old question haha). The next day I got a tour of the farm, there are many animals there, and I got to learn all the names in Spanish, there was cows, goats, sheep, rabbits, pigs, bees, dogs, and a huge garden! I learned how to make raviole from one of the chefs there, she was a nice old woman and when I said my mother wouldn´t believe that I was learning to cook she made me put on an apron and the chef hat and take a picture (I will try to put them on here after). She was very nice, as were all of the people that worked there and I was surprised at how easy it has become to just chat with people in Spanish. I can now understand almost always when people talk directly to me, it is more difficult in meetings and things or when everyone is talking at the same time but I feel much more confident now and have no problem getting around anywhere. The boys are also very nice and the little ones stuck pretty close to Isabell and I for the 2 days that we were there. We spent time out in the garden gathering beans, peas, etc and also worked a bit in the kitchen. It was all very nice and relaxing after being in a city for so long (Paraná is 250, 000 people and Buenos Airs is around 11 million). That evening we played football with all of the guys and watched a mexican Spanish movie in the evening (Y tu mamá también). A very nice day!! The next day I woke up at 6:30am to learn how to milk a cow. I know most of you won´t believe it but it´s true! Ask Isabell! haha. Although it was very difficult and I wasn´t very good, the farmer who taught us was very quick, I probably milked a quarter of a cow, overall. After the milking we drank mate, had a little breakfast and then we all went back to bed, haha. In the afternoon I learned how to make a food I have come to love here, Empanadas with cheese. We made them from scratch, the dough and everything. I was very impressed with myself haha, and I plan to make them for my family when I come home! That evening we talked with some of the boys and just had an enjoyable time, that night we attempted to watch another movie (March of the Penguins) but we all fell asleep. Sadly, the next day we had to leave early in the morning. Isabell and I did not want to leave and nor did the people. They told us we are welcome anytime and they would not charge us for the room we stayed in. We bought honey and jam that they make there and said goodbye to everyone.
Yesterday was the day we left and it was a VERY long journey since our bus broke down about half way. We took from 10:30 am in the morning until 9:30pm to arrive in Paraná. In reality it should have only taken 6 1/2 hours. However it was very nice to travel with Isabell and I got to finish another Harry Potter in Spanish. I have now purchased the fourth Harry Potter in Spanish called Harry Potter y Cáliz de Fuego.
Buenos Aires
Last Friday after Spanish class in the morning I took a bus along with Karl Oskar, Alex, and Isabell to Buenos Aires. We left at 1pm and we arrived around 8:30pm. It was a very luxurious bus in my opinion with air conditionaing, televisions, and big comfortable seats. A very enjoyable trip there. When we arrived we were warned to be careful of "fake taxis" that would try to rob us. I think we all were a bit nervous because we were told to speak very little to the taxi driver and only tell him what address to go to. We used Alex as our spokesperson of course and on the ride we didn´t say a single word... Until... Daire called my cell phone, haha, right in the middle of the ride Daire called and of course I had to speak English to him and I think the taxi driver was a little surprised after we had only spoken a bit of Spanish and not a word in English. Luckily our taxi driver was good and got us to our hostel without any problem. For those of you who don´t know Daire is another UWC student who went to the college in Singapore. He is currently volunteering just outside of Buenos Aires and before this past week I had never met him but had only spoken through emails. He almost came to Barriletes with me but in the end decided on another project (Camion Abierto). Anyway, we knew he was going to be in Buenos Aires that weekend so we planned to meet up with him.
When we arrived at the hostel we instantly met with Olivia and Maja. I was so happy to see them both again! I missed my Swedes and I am really looking forward to when I get to see Disa again (at New Years in Montevideo). We talked for a long time and it felt like old times again, very nice. There was a very funny man staying there from Houston, Texas. He had been living in the same hostel for one year!! Just staying and dancing tango. And he was old! He must have been 50 or something haha. He had talked with Olivia and Maja a lot before and he came to talk to us too, he was very strange! He wanted us all to go and dance tango haha, and gave us little brochures of a tango place. It was all very funny and I could tell I was going to like that hostel a lot. It was comfortable and had lots of space, the bar was open till 4am, we all slept in the same room (it was a 12 bed mixed dorm). A very good place and anyone who is travelling to Buenos Aires I recommend it. Very cheap, only about 7 dollars CAN per night and it is right in the center! Very well located. Anyway about midnight we decided to go out to dinner (haha, I guess we have all got used to the strange meal times here now). We had previously planned to go out to a club or something but it was just so nice to share a meal and talk with them after so long that we ended up just staying out talking and relaxing.
The next day Karl Oskar had to go kite surfing with his Norwegian friend so we said goodbye and the rest of us went to explore. We decided to go to the neighbourhood called "La Boca". For those of you that don´t know there are two major football rival teams here in Argentina, Boca Juniors and River Plate. La Boca is a very colorful neighbourhood, with much European influence, that is home to the Boca Juniors. We went to the big stadium that is home to the Boca Juniors called La Bombonera. We paid to go and look around inside. It is amazingly colorful, the colours also happen to be the Swedish colours of Blue and Yellow. Many of the flags were exactly the same as the Swedish flag. Alex got very excited when we went there and we took many pictures in this stadium. I thought it looked like pretty much every other football (oh by football I mean soccer for those Canadians reading this) stadium except for the c0lours so I wasn´t extremely impressed, but it was cool to go there. The neighbourhoods are extremely colorful and there is so much life on the streets of this neighbourhood. Tango shows happening on the streets and many different carnival type things. It was a very fun afternoon, we just looked around mainly and had a nice lunch there. In the evening we met up with Daire and went to this famous cafe called Cafe Tortoni where many famous people used to go including Ernest Hemingway. It was very interesting meeting someone from the UWC in Singapore and Daire had many stories to share, he also knew much about Buenos Aires as his volunteer organization is quite close to Buenos Aires so we also had a bit of a tour guide who knew about famous places and things.
The next day we spent walking around seeing the normal famous that you must see including the Obelisk, Casa Rosado, Plaza de Mayo, etc. I felt that the city was full of life and during the day it was quite safe to walk around, especially in our group which was quite big. However, we did witness one lady from Japan I think, being robbed. It was quite scary because it was broad daylight and she had her camera around her wrist and these four boys surrounded her and grabbed her camera and knocked her to the ground and ran. People were all around but no one did anything. I was quite happy that I had decided to leave my camera at home. I actually didn´t take any pictures but relied on the others and bought a bunch of postcards instead. On Sunday Maja and Olivia had to take a boat back to Montevideo because Maja was flying to Peru the following day. We took them to the station and after that it was just Alex, Isabell and I. We walked around some more and had an enjoyable meal. It was sad because we looked up a place to go eat in the guidebook but then we walked there and the place didn´t exist. Haha, needless to say I don´t trust this guidebooks much for restaurants and things, they always seem to be wrong.
The next day (Monday) Alex left back to Paraná and Isabell and I stayed with Daire for the day. We went to this very interesting, educational exhibit called BODIES, The Exhibition. It is basically real human bodies preserved to show the nervous, digestive, respiratory, reproductive systems. It was interesting but also slightly disgusting, as many of you know I am not a big fan of blood or veins. But it was okay, I didn´t get too disgusted and I learned names for many of the body parts in Spanish which was good. Here is a link to wikipedia if you want to read more about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BODIES..._The_Exhibition
That afternoon we caught a bus to Lujan which is near where Daire lives. (btw Daire is from Ireland although he has lived in Singapore for a large part of his life). Isabell and I had decided we´d had enough of the city and we wanted to visit his organization, Camino Abierto. Overall Buenos Aires was nice but a lot like other cities and I get quite sick of playing the tourist all the time. I prefer Paraná which is a very untouristicky (that is not a word but I don´t care) city. It is a beautiful place with a lot of life but overall I am reminded more of other European cities that I have visited rather than a unique "Latin American" city. When I go to visit Brasil and maybe Paraguay and Chile I can see if Buenos Aires is unique in this aspect or whether it is as I suspect and basically wherever you go in the world cities are very similar.
Camino Abierto Foundation, Argentina
I now want to talk about Camino Abierto which is the volunteer place I visited with Isabell and the place where Daire works and lives. I had a very enjoyable time there and I want to go back to visit!! Before I talk about my time there I want to just show what Daire does. There is a description on the volunteer pages website and I have just posted the information here. If you want to read more about other volunteer organizations that RCN offers, go to this link http://volunteers.rcnuwc.no/ If you don´t want to read about the organization just skip the italized text.
What?
Home-School- Farm for former ’street kids’
Where?
Carlos Keen, Lujan (one hour drive from Buenos Aires)
Number of volunteers required?
Two - must be male
Other requirements?
Basic Spanish; no smoking allowed; no alcohol allowed. Volunteers must be keen to live in a rural situation and be ready for hard work. They must understand the rules of living at the farm and fully accept them. The kids at the farm do not go to parties, the cinema and so on. They make their own entertainment. Volunteers must behave accordingly.
Benefits?
Board and lodging provided free of charge. Volunteers will share a room with the young people at the farm. There is heating, warm water and the usual comforts. Volunteers can visit Buenos Aires during free time where there are many UWC graduates living.
Minimum length of stay?
Three months but longer prefered.
Volunteer tasks?
Volunteers will help Susana Esmoris and her husband to take care of the kids. They will help them with their homework and set up English classes. They will help with recreational activities: sports, music, art, and so on. They will also be expected to help with some of the farm jobs.
Details?
Camino Abierto Foundation is a farm in the small country town of Carlos Keen. It is a home for 15 boys from poor backgrounds who were living on the streets. It is run by Susana Esmoris and her husband who decided 15 years ago to change their lives and moved away from the city and decided to open their home to as many street kids as they could.
The kids live on the farm and attend the local school and learn farming skills. There is a large orchard and they also raise pigs, rabbits, ducks, geese and goats. The boys work according to their ages.
Recently they have started to exploit rural tourism and have opened a Farm Restaurant. Two of the boys were trained by some of Argentina’s most famous chefs to prepare gourmet meals with farm-grown produce. Two other boys work as waiters. A bungalow has also been built which people can rent for holidays, weddings and parties.
The Foundation is so successful it is spreading its influence over the kids in the area. In collaboration with schools and local institutions it has organized many educational and cultural activities for the children of the town.
Anyway, we arrived Monday evening to the farm. It is a very beautiful place and there was so many stars out. There was also tons of fireflies which I found very cool. Daire showed us the place we were staying, it was beautiful. A nice apartment for just Isaell and I, complete with a kitchen (which we didn´t use since we ate with the boys and the people there), a bathroom, a bed, a living area, and just about everything we could need. It was very cosy and I instantly felt at home. We ate dinner with Susane and Hugo (the two founders of this organization) and some of the boys that were there. There was three younger ones, Rodrigo (8), Christian (8), and Victor (11). They were all very sweet but it became obvious as the days passed that they had lived through traumas in their lives. We were the only girls there so we were basically treated like queens most of the time. Susane is the only woman that lives there, there are a few women that work on the farm or that work in the kitchen but no one that lives there. Isabell, DAire, and I stayed up very late that night discussing many things but mainly a lot about UWC and whether it was fufilling it´s objectives (ahh the age old question haha). The next day I got a tour of the farm, there are many animals there, and I got to learn all the names in Spanish, there was cows, goats, sheep, rabbits, pigs, bees, dogs, and a huge garden! I learned how to make raviole from one of the chefs there, she was a nice old woman and when I said my mother wouldn´t believe that I was learning to cook she made me put on an apron and the chef hat and take a picture (I will try to put them on here after). She was very nice, as were all of the people that worked there and I was surprised at how easy it has become to just chat with people in Spanish. I can now understand almost always when people talk directly to me, it is more difficult in meetings and things or when everyone is talking at the same time but I feel much more confident now and have no problem getting around anywhere. The boys are also very nice and the little ones stuck pretty close to Isabell and I for the 2 days that we were there. We spent time out in the garden gathering beans, peas, etc and also worked a bit in the kitchen. It was all very nice and relaxing after being in a city for so long (Paraná is 250, 000 people and Buenos Airs is around 11 million). That evening we played football with all of the guys and watched a mexican Spanish movie in the evening (Y tu mamá también). A very nice day!! The next day I woke up at 6:30am to learn how to milk a cow. I know most of you won´t believe it but it´s true! Ask Isabell! haha. Although it was very difficult and I wasn´t very good, the farmer who taught us was very quick, I probably milked a quarter of a cow, overall. After the milking we drank mate, had a little breakfast and then we all went back to bed, haha. In the afternoon I learned how to make a food I have come to love here, Empanadas with cheese. We made them from scratch, the dough and everything. I was very impressed with myself haha, and I plan to make them for my family when I come home! That evening we talked with some of the boys and just had an enjoyable time, that night we attempted to watch another movie (March of the Penguins) but we all fell asleep. Sadly, the next day we had to leave early in the morning. Isabell and I did not want to leave and nor did the people. They told us we are welcome anytime and they would not charge us for the room we stayed in. We bought honey and jam that they make there and said goodbye to everyone.
Yesterday was the day we left and it was a VERY long journey since our bus broke down about half way. We took from 10:30 am in the morning until 9:30pm to arrive in Paraná. In reality it should have only taken 6 1/2 hours. However it was very nice to travel with Isabell and I got to finish another Harry Potter in Spanish. I have now purchased the fourth Harry Potter in Spanish called Harry Potter y Cáliz de Fuego.
Future
Okay well I have been writing for a very long time and I have to go to Barriletes very early tomorrow morning so I am quickly going to give an overview of my plans for the future here in Latin America.
Tomorrow: I am moving in with a new host family. I plan to stay with them for all of November. There is a 20 year old girl named Julieta who is studying to be a translator and there is also an 18 year old sister and a mother that both do not speak any English. They live in an apartment near the center. They seem nice but I have only met them once, I hope all goes well and I don´t have to move back in with Bruna (although I love living there I think it is fair for Mauro to get his room back).
November: Live in Paraná with my new host family, work at BArriletes and finsih the Spanish classes
December: In the beginning I will get settled and hopefully find a new organizatoin to work with. I have spoken to Bruna and it makes more sense for me to find a new organization in Montevideo and spend my remaining 3 months there instead of travelling back after 2 months to Paraná. I really like Barriletes and it is a great organization but I am not exactly useful and there is not a lot of days that I work. I would like to find more work to do and it will be better if I can live in the city on my own rather than with a host family. Therefore in December I will work in a new organization that I am currently searching for and also my Grandparents on my mom´s side of the family are coming to visit December 5th to 11th which I am excited for! Olivia and Maja have said they will help me show them around. Olivia leaves December 11th to Panama so I think I will move in with Maja for the 2 weeks that Olivia is gone, which will be very fun! For Christmas I think maybe we will spend it on the beach which will be very differnet but very cool! I think I will probably be sad without snow but right now it sounds cool to get a tan on Christmas day :P
For New Years Olivia and Maja´s families are coming to visit. Disa is also coming. It will be nice to see so many Swedes all together, I actually miss hearing Swedish and Norwegian all the time.
January: I think I might go travelling with Maja and Olivia. They plan to go to Brasil for 2 weeks and then to Paraguay, Chile, Argentina and finally back to Montevideo, taking about a month trip in all. I for sure want to go to Brasil and I am not sure if I can afford to go to all those places but it will be quite cool if I can! I need to apply for visas and get vaccinations and things so I have much planning still to do.
February and beginning of March: I plan to work in Montevideo with the same organizatoin that I find in December.
March: I want to go to Camino Abierto one last time before I leave and finally on March 10th I fly home. Phew.
Okay I think that is definitely a long post. I don´t need to write for a while! If anyone else plans to be in the Latin America area and we can meet up please let me know. Lots of love from Paraná!
Monday, October 22, 2007
¡Feliz Cumpleaños!
This past weekend was perhaps the most enjoyable of all my weekends here. This was due in large part to the birthday parties we attended this weekend. On Friday night it was the 50th birthday of Isabell´s host father and the family had planned a big surprise party for him. It was a great time. Great food, great wine (oh yes I really enjoyed the wine! :P), great music and great people. It was quite a big party but not crowded, reminded me of wedding dances that we have in Canada except with very different music (much more latino :P). Again this party was like all the others and we did not get home till after 5am.
The following night it was the 24th birthday party of Mauro (the son of Bruna and Ernesto). A lot of fun again but instead of wine there was blessed tequila hehe. I perhaps had a bit more than was necessary and Karl Oskar and Alex like to call me Borrachellita now. Rochellita is normally what they call me but in Spanish the word for drunk is Borracho/a so now I am Borrachellita. hehe. Very funny.
Anyway, I also went to Barriletes on Saturday in between parties. It was really great. They have all these drums so the kids are learning how to play the drums. Very noisy but lots of fun. Sunday was also mother´s day here so with the younger children we made cards for their mother´s. Saturday evening I also went out with Isabell to a heladeria (ice cream shop). There are many heladerias here and the ice cream is very yummy. Isabell always goes to Barriletes and it is a nice time for her and I to relax together after Barriletes.
I don´t think I have a lot else to write. We leave for Buenos Aires in 4 days. I am very excited. Can´t wait to see Olivia and Maja. We have now booked our bus tickets and youth hostel (due to my insistence that we do it early). Apparently I am taking after my mother and like to plan way ahead for trips, hehe, I still am not sure if it this is a good thing or not...
Adios for now.
The following night it was the 24th birthday party of Mauro (the son of Bruna and Ernesto). A lot of fun again but instead of wine there was blessed tequila hehe. I perhaps had a bit more than was necessary and Karl Oskar and Alex like to call me Borrachellita now. Rochellita is normally what they call me but in Spanish the word for drunk is Borracho/a so now I am Borrachellita. hehe. Very funny.
Anyway, I also went to Barriletes on Saturday in between parties. It was really great. They have all these drums so the kids are learning how to play the drums. Very noisy but lots of fun. Sunday was also mother´s day here so with the younger children we made cards for their mother´s. Saturday evening I also went out with Isabell to a heladeria (ice cream shop). There are many heladerias here and the ice cream is very yummy. Isabell always goes to Barriletes and it is a nice time for her and I to relax together after Barriletes.
I don´t think I have a lot else to write. We leave for Buenos Aires in 4 days. I am very excited. Can´t wait to see Olivia and Maja. We have now booked our bus tickets and youth hostel (due to my insistence that we do it early). Apparently I am taking after my mother and like to plan way ahead for trips, hehe, I still am not sure if it this is a good thing or not...
Adios for now.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Other Blogs
I have added a link to Karl Oskar´s blog. He has put many pictures on of the city we are staying in so it is a nice supplement to my blog.
I will try to post a link to Isabell´s blog once I find out the exact address.
Goodnight.
I will try to post a link to Isabell´s blog once I find out the exact address.
Goodnight.
Holiday Here!
Hello All,
Right now it is almost 1:30 in the morning and I am writing from an internet cafe only 2 blocks away from Bruna´s house. It is very nice to live with Karl Oskar because we can just go together at night and take a key. Tomorrow I have to work at Barriletes in the morning but I thought I would write one more post on my blog before going to bed.
Yesterday was quite a nice day. It was a holiday in Argentina, I don´t even know why, but that meant that Barriletes was closed and my Spanish class was cancelled. Instead, I slept in quite late and Isabell, Karl Oskar and I met a local named Santiago down by the river. We wanted to go kayaking but apparently you need to take a month long course and be certified to use the kayaks. Isabell of course is completely certified since she taught kayaking all summer in Norway but she didn´t have any of the papers here. Karl Oskar also knows how to kayak quite well since he taught it to the kids in Leirskule (in RCN) but still he doesn´t have the proper documents. Of course it was out of the question for me as well since I have only been kayaking twice in my life. We decided to instead go canoeing. They call it the "Canadian Canoe" here, haha, I don´t really understand why? Anybody know? We had a lovely afternoon, canoeing and spending time on an island. We played football, and Karl Oskar even got to go Kite surfing since someone on the island had a kite. It looks quite fun and one day I would like to try it. We came back before dark and went to eat Panchos (hot dogs). The evening finished with a really good movie, "Good Will Hunting".
Today we had Spanish class which was, as always, fine. I have a lot of homework that is beginning to pile up so I think I will spend some of my day tomorrow doing that. Today we also went and watched the movie "An Inconvient Truth". The one with Al Gore. It was very interesting and there was a discussion afterwards. It was all in Spanish, haha, the movie was dubbed so it took a lot more concentration to understand, but I think I pretty much understand all of it. I had Alex sitting next to me so he helped me as well.
Anyway, there is not much else to report, we leave for Buenos Aires very soon and I am getting quite excited. As well, we are planning to leave to Montevideo on November 30th. I will be there for my 20th birthday and that will be great since I can celebrate with Olivia, Maja, and Juanma too! Bruna showed us where our apartment is located in Montevideo. Very central! Near all the shopping and the ocean! Seems just perfect, about 15 minute walk to a nice sized beach! Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself, I have 6 more weeks here in Paraná and I am enjoying myself a lot but still waiting to find a host family...
I apologize for not putting pictures on my blog but I haven´t figured out how to do it at this internet cafe, I always get errores when I try. Therefore, I hope most of you that are reading have facebook, since I have put many on there instead.
Lots of love from Argentina and hope to hear from some of you soon!
Right now it is almost 1:30 in the morning and I am writing from an internet cafe only 2 blocks away from Bruna´s house. It is very nice to live with Karl Oskar because we can just go together at night and take a key. Tomorrow I have to work at Barriletes in the morning but I thought I would write one more post on my blog before going to bed.
Yesterday was quite a nice day. It was a holiday in Argentina, I don´t even know why, but that meant that Barriletes was closed and my Spanish class was cancelled. Instead, I slept in quite late and Isabell, Karl Oskar and I met a local named Santiago down by the river. We wanted to go kayaking but apparently you need to take a month long course and be certified to use the kayaks. Isabell of course is completely certified since she taught kayaking all summer in Norway but she didn´t have any of the papers here. Karl Oskar also knows how to kayak quite well since he taught it to the kids in Leirskule (in RCN) but still he doesn´t have the proper documents. Of course it was out of the question for me as well since I have only been kayaking twice in my life. We decided to instead go canoeing. They call it the "Canadian Canoe" here, haha, I don´t really understand why? Anybody know? We had a lovely afternoon, canoeing and spending time on an island. We played football, and Karl Oskar even got to go Kite surfing since someone on the island had a kite. It looks quite fun and one day I would like to try it. We came back before dark and went to eat Panchos (hot dogs). The evening finished with a really good movie, "Good Will Hunting".
Today we had Spanish class which was, as always, fine. I have a lot of homework that is beginning to pile up so I think I will spend some of my day tomorrow doing that. Today we also went and watched the movie "An Inconvient Truth". The one with Al Gore. It was very interesting and there was a discussion afterwards. It was all in Spanish, haha, the movie was dubbed so it took a lot more concentration to understand, but I think I pretty much understand all of it. I had Alex sitting next to me so he helped me as well.
Anyway, there is not much else to report, we leave for Buenos Aires very soon and I am getting quite excited. As well, we are planning to leave to Montevideo on November 30th. I will be there for my 20th birthday and that will be great since I can celebrate with Olivia, Maja, and Juanma too! Bruna showed us where our apartment is located in Montevideo. Very central! Near all the shopping and the ocean! Seems just perfect, about 15 minute walk to a nice sized beach! Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself, I have 6 more weeks here in Paraná and I am enjoying myself a lot but still waiting to find a host family...
I apologize for not putting pictures on my blog but I haven´t figured out how to do it at this internet cafe, I always get errores when I try. Therefore, I hope most of you that are reading have facebook, since I have put many on there instead.
Lots of love from Argentina and hope to hear from some of you soon!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Canadians?
Well I had a rather interesting weekend so I thought I would write about it. Friday night we decided to go out, by we I mean Alex, Karl Oskar and I. Isabell was sick so it was just the three of us. We went to another peñna which happened to be a lot of fun but we didn´t end up gonig home to bed until 7am. And this is normal here! Some clubs give free entrance before 1am because it is so early! Anyway, I slept in till around 2pm the next day and I had to get up and go to Barriletes. It was a really fun day at Barriletes, I have become quite popular with the children since they love to use my digital camera to take pictures. :P Who says you can´t be popular by the things you own? haha. But seriously though, I had a very nice talk with some of the teenagers, even with my limited Spanish. We also had our dance class which is put on by one of the volunteers. I have been participating since the second week and I actually think my dancing is improving, although I feel like an idiot, hehe. Anyway, Saturday night was the birthday of one of my teachers so we went to the party. It began at midnight and we arrived around 12:30. Alex said we were very early and he was right, in the beginning there were very few people. However, imagine to my surprise when I am introduced to 10 Canadians! Very strange. All from Quebec, all speak French as a first language, and some of them speak English as well. I think Alex and Karl Oskar thought it was a bit strange that the language I had in common with people from my own country was Spanish! I got along quite well with one of the girls (Stephanie), we spoke Spanglish together, which was quite fun, as Stephanie would speak in English with ocassional words in Spanish that she didn´t know in English and I would speak in Spanish with ocassional words in English that I didn´t know in Spanish. Stephanie and I decided we both wanted to take Tango lessons, so I have her phone number and we can hopefully get together and take a few classes. One of the Canadian guys was quite good at dancing cumbia and he tried to teach me a bit. It was a lot of fun! The other thing that Karl Oskar and I were amazed by was the price of drinks. We paid 10 pesos ($3 CAN) and could drink as much as we wanted. Haha, don´t worry, I know my limits now :P
Anyway last night was an early night, we came back at 5:30am because Karl Oskar had to wake up for Eco Urbano activites today. Right now we are watching a Rugby match, Agentina against South Africa. I have no idea what is going on so I decided to write a short entry here. It seems so strange that I find Canadians here, in Paraná of all places. Although some of them are separatists and would prefer just to be from Quebec, hehe, but that´s a different story...
Anyway last night was an early night, we came back at 5:30am because Karl Oskar had to wake up for Eco Urbano activites today. Right now we are watching a Rugby match, Agentina against South Africa. I have no idea what is going on so I decided to write a short entry here. It seems so strange that I find Canadians here, in Paraná of all places. Although some of them are separatists and would prefer just to be from Quebec, hehe, but that´s a different story...
Friday, October 12, 2007
My Silence
I haven´t had a chance to write for quite a while now. I can´t believe how fast time has gone by. It is already the 12th of October. I have been quite busy but also there have been some problems. Everything is sorted now but to give a cliff-notes version there were problems with my family which I won´t get into on a public blog, so it was necessary for me to switch families. Problem was, there wasn´t a family that wanted to take me. Haha, that sounds very sad. But anyway, luckily, Bruna (the coordinator of my volunteer year, the host of Karl Oskar, and the aunt of Juanma) is very generous and offered to take me in until we could find an alternative family. It is lovely living with Bruna´s family (There is Bruna, her husband Ernesto, her son Maoru, two dogs and Karl Oskar). The schedule is much different, we don´t eat supper until around 11pm or maybe 11:30 which seems very late to me and the last three nights I have been there we have stayed up till at least 1am talking at the dinner table. It is very nice, I feel like I am getting a lot more practise in Spanish living with Bruna. The only downside is that there is obviously not enough room for me to live there. I am keeping my stuff in Karl Oskar´s room and I am sleeping in Maoru´s room (he is sleeping in an apartment that Bruna owns). It is all okay but it would be nice if I could find my own host family to stay with.
Anyway, onto other things. Spanish classes are good. They are each very differnet since every day of the week we have different teachers. I feel my understanding is improving day by day, and I can remember a month ago how lost I was and it feels good to know that I have improved.
Barriletes is great. I go there every day of the week now except Friday (which is today). But today, there are workshops on at this school and Barriletes is going so I am leaving in the afternoon to do that. I have taken many pictures at Barriletes and as soon as I possibly can I will post them on this blog. I don´t have my cable with me in this internet cafe so I can´t hook up my camera.
This weekend is quite busy. There is a big "fiesta" type thing happening with EcoUrbano all weekend so the others are busy with that. I have Barriletes today and tomorrow as usual and tomorrow night there is a big birthday party for one of my Spanish teachers. I only needed to pay 10 pesos and then you can drink as much as you like. For those of you that haven´t read the currency conversion way back in my blog, 10 pesos is a little more than $3 CAN. Hehehe, excellent...
In exactly two weeks we are leaving to go to Buenos Aires. I am not sure how long I am staying. I am still waiting for Isabell to tell me if she is coming. Alex, Karl Oskar, and I are leaving the 26th of October and meeting Olivia and Maja there. Everyone is staying the weekend together but after Maja is leaving to Peru and others are all going their separate ways as well. That leaves me by myself, unless of course Isabell comes. I am hoping I can stay for longer but if not it will be nice to have a week off anyway to explore Paraná or perhaps take a trip to Cordoba or another city nearby.
I don´t have a lot else to say right now. I have been quite bad a keeping in touch but I will try to go to a interent cafe as often as I can to write to people. I hope you are all well and I´d love to hear from you!
Anyway, onto other things. Spanish classes are good. They are each very differnet since every day of the week we have different teachers. I feel my understanding is improving day by day, and I can remember a month ago how lost I was and it feels good to know that I have improved.
Barriletes is great. I go there every day of the week now except Friday (which is today). But today, there are workshops on at this school and Barriletes is going so I am leaving in the afternoon to do that. I have taken many pictures at Barriletes and as soon as I possibly can I will post them on this blog. I don´t have my cable with me in this internet cafe so I can´t hook up my camera.
This weekend is quite busy. There is a big "fiesta" type thing happening with EcoUrbano all weekend so the others are busy with that. I have Barriletes today and tomorrow as usual and tomorrow night there is a big birthday party for one of my Spanish teachers. I only needed to pay 10 pesos and then you can drink as much as you like. For those of you that haven´t read the currency conversion way back in my blog, 10 pesos is a little more than $3 CAN. Hehehe, excellent...
In exactly two weeks we are leaving to go to Buenos Aires. I am not sure how long I am staying. I am still waiting for Isabell to tell me if she is coming. Alex, Karl Oskar, and I are leaving the 26th of October and meeting Olivia and Maja there. Everyone is staying the weekend together but after Maja is leaving to Peru and others are all going their separate ways as well. That leaves me by myself, unless of course Isabell comes. I am hoping I can stay for longer but if not it will be nice to have a week off anyway to explore Paraná or perhaps take a trip to Cordoba or another city nearby.
I don´t have a lot else to say right now. I have been quite bad a keeping in touch but I will try to go to a interent cafe as often as I can to write to people. I hope you are all well and I´d love to hear from you!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Internet Cafe
I actually find it quite therapeutic to write down what I am doing and feeling here. It helps me sort out things and also gives me a break from Spanish. Of course I can´t write down all of my thoughts and feelings since this is a public blog and would be a little too public if I did that, hehe. But still, I like this. I may continue writing after Argentina. It is also useful to communicate with people. I have been attempting to send messages to people on facebook but I keep getting an error, so from now on if you want to write to me and for me to write back to you, please address things to my email address and not my facebook account. If you do not know what facebook is, don´t worry, my mother didn´t either until she saw my account and decided to get one too :P
Anyway, this weekend I am a bit homeless since my host family is going away for the weekend. I am staying at Karl Oskar´s host family tonight (Bruna and Ernesto´s house) and Isabell´s host family tomorrow night. Tomorrow is a girls night so that will be fun. Tonight we were going to go out to a club, but no one felt like going except for me haha, so instead, here I am, at an internet cafe. The man just informed us that this place closes in 5 minutes. Too bad. I guess I should go now. I hope all are well and I apologize for not writing back to people, I actually don´t have much access to the internet. I will attempt to write again soon.
Anyway, this weekend I am a bit homeless since my host family is going away for the weekend. I am staying at Karl Oskar´s host family tonight (Bruna and Ernesto´s house) and Isabell´s host family tomorrow night. Tomorrow is a girls night so that will be fun. Tonight we were going to go out to a club, but no one felt like going except for me haha, so instead, here I am, at an internet cafe. The man just informed us that this place closes in 5 minutes. Too bad. I guess I should go now. I hope all are well and I apologize for not writing back to people, I actually don´t have much access to the internet. I will attempt to write again soon.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
A short post on the seista continued
Hola!
Well I´m at EcoUrbano right now. The Environmental Orginzation that Bella, KO, and Alex work for and I´m just chilling out on the computer since they are supposed to be in a meeting right now. I was at Barriletes this morning, but it is not open this afternoon so I came with them to help out. Anyway, we have class in 30 minutes and it takes 20 minutes to walk to the university from here so we should leave soon.
I just wanted to say that I just read an email a friend of mine from UWC sent, and he is living in Argentina right now in a different city and I had to say what he said, because I mentioned the seista in the last blog but I was in a hurry to finish so I didn´t get to rave about how incredibly cool it is that an entire country has an agreed upon nap time. The stores close, there are few cars on the street and everyone just relaxes from about 2 till 4. It´s amazing, a proper nap time, I love it!
Also, I don´t think I mentioned the traffic but people here drive like they are completely insane. haha. I feel like I am in Rome again. No one stops for you and they pass eachother all the time.
Okay I have to go now.
Chau for now.
Well I´m at EcoUrbano right now. The Environmental Orginzation that Bella, KO, and Alex work for and I´m just chilling out on the computer since they are supposed to be in a meeting right now. I was at Barriletes this morning, but it is not open this afternoon so I came with them to help out. Anyway, we have class in 30 minutes and it takes 20 minutes to walk to the university from here so we should leave soon.
I just wanted to say that I just read an email a friend of mine from UWC sent, and he is living in Argentina right now in a different city and I had to say what he said, because I mentioned the seista in the last blog but I was in a hurry to finish so I didn´t get to rave about how incredibly cool it is that an entire country has an agreed upon nap time. The stores close, there are few cars on the street and everyone just relaxes from about 2 till 4. It´s amazing, a proper nap time, I love it!
Also, I don´t think I mentioned the traffic but people here drive like they are completely insane. haha. I feel like I am in Rome again. No one stops for you and they pass eachother all the time.
Okay I have to go now.
Chau for now.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Fiestas, Siestas, and Horarios
Fiesta: a party
Siesta: a nap, usually taken after lunch to avoid the heat
Horario: a schedule
I have officially been here over a week, it´s been 10 days since I left Canada. I feel like it´s been a lot longer. Not because I don´t like it, but because so many things have happened in such a short period of time and my Spanish seems to be getting better every day.
This week was busy with me starting Spanish classes. I have different teachers for every day of the week. All of the classes are very different but I think they all have strong points. On Monday we reviewed the basics and he spoke veerry slowly, haha, I actually thought he should speed it up a bit which is a surprise since usually I am asking people to slow down. But it was good because we covered vos/tú which is a source of a bit of confusion for me. I learned that tú is word for "you" in school but here in Argentina everyone uses vos. We learned how to conjucate that which is very helpful. The second class was about nationalities which is also helpful if I ever want to talk about any of my friends from the college. The third class was a lot of speaking and the teacher spoke quite quickly but it was good practise. We practised formal and informal ways of speaking. Thursday´s class was my favorite because we got to watch a TV show in Spanish (Married with Children or Casados con Hijos) and then discuss it after. I didn´t get everything but I was surprised at how much I understood. On that note, last night I watched High School Musical 2 with my host siblings. All in Spanish except for the songs, but it was good practise for listening skills.
On Thursday night there was a party at the university called "Peña". We decided to go (Karl Oskar, Alex, Isabell and I). Everything starts much later here. The party began at 11pm but it didn´t really pick up until about 3am. It was completely packed. The place was perfect because it was like being inside becasue there was a cover on top but there was a nice breeze since it was actually outdoors. I don´t know how to describe it, it was kind of like in the center of the university which is outside. Really perfect place to dance. I tried a few different types of alcholic beverages, it was all amazingly cheap. About $1.50 for a huge bottle of beer, not the little tiny ones in Canada, haha, big ones! I really liked this drink but I can´t remember what it is called haha. The music was also really good. They played a lot of old songs, a lot in Spanish, but it was really good stuff to dance too and I even had some of the Spanish songs on my iPod. We left about 4:30am, and I had a problem, surprise, surprise it was with my shoes (haha, Gili and Fay are going to laugh if they read this). It wasn´t my shoes that normally fall off, it was new ones which end up giving me blisters! haha, I hadn´t noticed at the party but as we began walking home I realized I was in a lot of pain. Not cool. I still have big blisters on my ankles and toes. Why do shoes hate me so much??
I should probably explain why there was a party on a Thursday night, as this is not exactly normal. You see, on Friday it was the 21st of September which is Spring Day here and also Student Day. Meaning there was no school on Friday. We were invited to go out on Friday to the park where there is a huge concert and all the students gather to hang out (it is is a beatiful place down by the river and the weather was gorgeous, blue sky, sunny, a little hot, but not unbearable, just perfect). They estimate that about 40,000 students go down to that park during Spring Day and I believe it (there was people everywhere). We hung out with some students we had met on that first Friday (they were first year students in university studying English). They are all about the same age as us and it was a lot of fun hanging out with them. Music was everywhere in the air and so many people were dancing at the concert, I really felt like I had entered a whole new world. People can really move here, damn, there dancing is amazing.
Anyway Friday night we went out to a bowling club which was packed with people and after they wanted to go to a club, but we decided next weekend because we were tired (and personally my blisters were really hurting me). We want home around 1am and I slept for a long time. Yesterday at 2pm I went to Barriletes again. Activities go on all day, from 2 till around 8pm. I stayed the whole day. I should probably explain the reason that the reason I couldn´t go during the rest of the week is because many of the activites and workshops clash with my Spanish classes. As my Spanish classes are only for the first two months Bruna says I should prioritize these right now because I am not much help without the language anyway. I started going to EcoUrbano (the environmental organization that the other three are volunteering with) as it is in the morning. But yesterday I got an official schedule from Barriletes saying that I can come in the mornings to help with the magazine. So I know have classes in the afternoon/evenings and Barriletes in the mornings. Saturdays is also for Barriletes and Sunday´s are my day off. Today I am going to a birthday party for a friend of the family. All in all it´s been a pretty great week, and I´m really looking forward to learning more about Barriletes. Yesterday was a lot of fun. I got to know a lot of the kids better as they weren´t shy around me. They asked a lot of questions and we took out the map and I explained as best I could about Canada in my Spanish. Surprisingly they understood me and I understood most of the questions quite well. It has helped that I had to cover all these questions at UWC in English, so it was more a matter of translating what I wanted to say rather than thinking up an answer. Bicho (head guy) was there really happy, he said I had passed the exam after I´d been speaking for about an hour haha. I never knew I was taking an exam but he said it was good because he now knows I can communicate more or less with everyone so he doesn´t need to worry about me. :) That was good news. He also thanked me for talking about geography on the map, because many of the children don´t go to school so the only education they get is at Barriletes. He said it is good for them to understand there is a bigger world outside of Paraná.
Okay I think I´ve basically covered Fiestas and Horarios. As for Siestas, I think I need to start taking them haha, I finally understand how hot it will be. The first day of Spring was quite hot and I was wearing shorts. haha. I can´t imagine the summer. I will die! :)
Well that´s all for now. I´ll write more when I can.
Sorry for the long post again.
Siesta: a nap, usually taken after lunch to avoid the heat
Horario: a schedule
I have officially been here over a week, it´s been 10 days since I left Canada. I feel like it´s been a lot longer. Not because I don´t like it, but because so many things have happened in such a short period of time and my Spanish seems to be getting better every day.
This week was busy with me starting Spanish classes. I have different teachers for every day of the week. All of the classes are very different but I think they all have strong points. On Monday we reviewed the basics and he spoke veerry slowly, haha, I actually thought he should speed it up a bit which is a surprise since usually I am asking people to slow down. But it was good because we covered vos/tú which is a source of a bit of confusion for me. I learned that tú is word for "you" in school but here in Argentina everyone uses vos. We learned how to conjucate that which is very helpful. The second class was about nationalities which is also helpful if I ever want to talk about any of my friends from the college. The third class was a lot of speaking and the teacher spoke quite quickly but it was good practise. We practised formal and informal ways of speaking. Thursday´s class was my favorite because we got to watch a TV show in Spanish (Married with Children or Casados con Hijos) and then discuss it after. I didn´t get everything but I was surprised at how much I understood. On that note, last night I watched High School Musical 2 with my host siblings. All in Spanish except for the songs, but it was good practise for listening skills.
On Thursday night there was a party at the university called "Peña". We decided to go (Karl Oskar, Alex, Isabell and I). Everything starts much later here. The party began at 11pm but it didn´t really pick up until about 3am. It was completely packed. The place was perfect because it was like being inside becasue there was a cover on top but there was a nice breeze since it was actually outdoors. I don´t know how to describe it, it was kind of like in the center of the university which is outside. Really perfect place to dance. I tried a few different types of alcholic beverages, it was all amazingly cheap. About $1.50 for a huge bottle of beer, not the little tiny ones in Canada, haha, big ones! I really liked this drink but I can´t remember what it is called haha. The music was also really good. They played a lot of old songs, a lot in Spanish, but it was really good stuff to dance too and I even had some of the Spanish songs on my iPod. We left about 4:30am, and I had a problem, surprise, surprise it was with my shoes (haha, Gili and Fay are going to laugh if they read this). It wasn´t my shoes that normally fall off, it was new ones which end up giving me blisters! haha, I hadn´t noticed at the party but as we began walking home I realized I was in a lot of pain. Not cool. I still have big blisters on my ankles and toes. Why do shoes hate me so much??
I should probably explain why there was a party on a Thursday night, as this is not exactly normal. You see, on Friday it was the 21st of September which is Spring Day here and also Student Day. Meaning there was no school on Friday. We were invited to go out on Friday to the park where there is a huge concert and all the students gather to hang out (it is is a beatiful place down by the river and the weather was gorgeous, blue sky, sunny, a little hot, but not unbearable, just perfect). They estimate that about 40,000 students go down to that park during Spring Day and I believe it (there was people everywhere). We hung out with some students we had met on that first Friday (they were first year students in university studying English). They are all about the same age as us and it was a lot of fun hanging out with them. Music was everywhere in the air and so many people were dancing at the concert, I really felt like I had entered a whole new world. People can really move here, damn, there dancing is amazing.
Anyway Friday night we went out to a bowling club which was packed with people and after they wanted to go to a club, but we decided next weekend because we were tired (and personally my blisters were really hurting me). We want home around 1am and I slept for a long time. Yesterday at 2pm I went to Barriletes again. Activities go on all day, from 2 till around 8pm. I stayed the whole day. I should probably explain the reason that the reason I couldn´t go during the rest of the week is because many of the activites and workshops clash with my Spanish classes. As my Spanish classes are only for the first two months Bruna says I should prioritize these right now because I am not much help without the language anyway. I started going to EcoUrbano (the environmental organization that the other three are volunteering with) as it is in the morning. But yesterday I got an official schedule from Barriletes saying that I can come in the mornings to help with the magazine. So I know have classes in the afternoon/evenings and Barriletes in the mornings. Saturdays is also for Barriletes and Sunday´s are my day off. Today I am going to a birthday party for a friend of the family. All in all it´s been a pretty great week, and I´m really looking forward to learning more about Barriletes. Yesterday was a lot of fun. I got to know a lot of the kids better as they weren´t shy around me. They asked a lot of questions and we took out the map and I explained as best I could about Canada in my Spanish. Surprisingly they understood me and I understood most of the questions quite well. It has helped that I had to cover all these questions at UWC in English, so it was more a matter of translating what I wanted to say rather than thinking up an answer. Bicho (head guy) was there really happy, he said I had passed the exam after I´d been speaking for about an hour haha. I never knew I was taking an exam but he said it was good because he now knows I can communicate more or less with everyone so he doesn´t need to worry about me. :) That was good news. He also thanked me for talking about geography on the map, because many of the children don´t go to school so the only education they get is at Barriletes. He said it is good for them to understand there is a bigger world outside of Paraná.
Okay I think I´ve basically covered Fiestas and Horarios. As for Siestas, I think I need to start taking them haha, I finally understand how hot it will be. The first day of Spring was quite hot and I was wearing shorts. haha. I can´t imagine the summer. I will die! :)
Well that´s all for now. I´ll write more when I can.
Sorry for the long post again.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Where has all the good weather gone?
It´s not fair. I fly south, to a "warmer place", just like the Canadian Geese, yet the weather here is absolutely terrible. I have not seen the sun once since I arrived. Everyone keeps promising that this is highly unsually and that the weather will improve but I am becoming skeptical. I think the Norwegian weather is going to follow me for the rest of my life. I know it is my own fault for choosing a university in Vancouver, of all places, it will rain all the time there, I know that and I am prepared for it. But I thought I could at least get a bit of sun in Argentina before university. But nooo....
I read in the newspaper today that there is record rainfall in this province of Argentina for this month. Something like three times the normal amount of rain...
&(/&$%%&??&%$
That is my attempt at swearing while at the same time keeping this blog g rated. Oh I learned that curse words in Spanish is malapalabras. Maybe I should curse in Spanish, haha... well if the weather continues like this I just might.
In other news on Friday I went to a meeting at the university that welcomed Karl Oskar, Isabell, Alex, and I. It was really nice. There are so many Spanish teachers. At least two for each day of the week. There are only 4 students but over 10 teachers! hahaha, they are very enthusiastic about us being here. Today I have my first Spanish class with Ricardo y assistente.
Also, on Saturday I went to Barriletes for the first time. It was complete chaos but soo much fun. There are kids from all ages running around and everyone is so happy. It is obvious that a lot of these kids have next to nothing but yet they always have smiles on their faces. We played many games and I was introduced to a lot of the kids. The younger ones are shy around me, probably because my Spanish is so bad but I am getting along quite well with the 13-16 year olds. They are patient with me and will repeat things many times haha. Also, one little girl has attached herself to me even though I was only there for a few hours. It breaks my heart. The director that has been showing me around is called Ernesto but his nickname is Bicho. Don´t ask me why. Anyway, Bicho said that many of the children don´t go to school so they try to give them an education as much as possible about geography, etc. They also put on workshops for parents on different topics. The difference between there organization and many others like it is that they don´t give food. This means that the kids come for something other than a meal. They come because they have fun and it is a place they can relax and be themselves. I also discovered how the magazine works. They publish it monthly and selected people that come regularly to Barriletes can sell it. It costs 3 pesos for a magazine which is about 1 dollar. 2 pesos go to the pesron selling it and 1 peso goes back to the organization. It is obvious that they have a lot of dedicated people working there, the place looks great, so colorful and bright and many paintings, drawings, etc, done by the students. When I came in there was a huge sign that sade "Welcome Rochelle" (In Spanish of course). Bruna said they think of me like a queen although I don´t know why. In one day they have taught me a lot more about being happy. I haven´t done anything, just played with them, talked with them (with my limited Spanish), sang with them, danced with them, and just was one of the people there, having fun.
I go there again tomorrow. I will write more again after my Spanish class if I have time.
I hope all is well with everyone else.
Lots of love from Argentina...
I read in the newspaper today that there is record rainfall in this province of Argentina for this month. Something like three times the normal amount of rain...
&(/&$%%&??&%$
That is my attempt at swearing while at the same time keeping this blog g rated. Oh I learned that curse words in Spanish is malapalabras. Maybe I should curse in Spanish, haha... well if the weather continues like this I just might.
In other news on Friday I went to a meeting at the university that welcomed Karl Oskar, Isabell, Alex, and I. It was really nice. There are so many Spanish teachers. At least two for each day of the week. There are only 4 students but over 10 teachers! hahaha, they are very enthusiastic about us being here. Today I have my first Spanish class with Ricardo y assistente.
Also, on Saturday I went to Barriletes for the first time. It was complete chaos but soo much fun. There are kids from all ages running around and everyone is so happy. It is obvious that a lot of these kids have next to nothing but yet they always have smiles on their faces. We played many games and I was introduced to a lot of the kids. The younger ones are shy around me, probably because my Spanish is so bad but I am getting along quite well with the 13-16 year olds. They are patient with me and will repeat things many times haha. Also, one little girl has attached herself to me even though I was only there for a few hours. It breaks my heart. The director that has been showing me around is called Ernesto but his nickname is Bicho. Don´t ask me why. Anyway, Bicho said that many of the children don´t go to school so they try to give them an education as much as possible about geography, etc. They also put on workshops for parents on different topics. The difference between there organization and many others like it is that they don´t give food. This means that the kids come for something other than a meal. They come because they have fun and it is a place they can relax and be themselves. I also discovered how the magazine works. They publish it monthly and selected people that come regularly to Barriletes can sell it. It costs 3 pesos for a magazine which is about 1 dollar. 2 pesos go to the pesron selling it and 1 peso goes back to the organization. It is obvious that they have a lot of dedicated people working there, the place looks great, so colorful and bright and many paintings, drawings, etc, done by the students. When I came in there was a huge sign that sade "Welcome Rochelle" (In Spanish of course). Bruna said they think of me like a queen although I don´t know why. In one day they have taught me a lot more about being happy. I haven´t done anything, just played with them, talked with them (with my limited Spanish), sang with them, danced with them, and just was one of the people there, having fun.
I go there again tomorrow. I will write more again after my Spanish class if I have time.
I hope all is well with everyone else.
Lots of love from Argentina...
Friday, September 14, 2007
Hola Argentina
| Well I´m here, in Parana, at my host family´s house. I want to keep my goal of writing short posts but I´m afraid this post is going to have to be quite long. Where to begin? hmm... I will start with my flights and after my day of packing/saying goodbye to people. I first went on a flight from Edmonton to Toronto. It just felt so nice and safe and I was reminded of how nice it will be when I go off to university in Vancouver. On a short flight, with mainly Canadians, speaking English and feeling quite safe and comfortable. That comfortable feeling lasted all the way until I was lining up to get on the plane to Santiago, Chile. The lady was speaking in English but I heard many people close by saying "español, español". That is when it hit me. People are not going to understand me when I speak English. I have been spoiled my whole life into thinking that everyone speaks English. I mean obviously I should have figured it out at UWC, but no, there I am standing in line, in a bit of a panick. Oh no, I don´t know Spanish. As I boarded the plane I begin to think "happy thoughts" about this trip I was about to take. I put off thinking about actually being in Argentina. I contented myself with watching movies, reading books, and sleeping a little bit. And of course, when you don´t want something to come, time always speeds up. I know that it was a 10 1/2 hour flight and it was the longest I had ever taken, yet it felt like the shortest. Before I knew it we were in Chile and then in Buenos Aires and I was off the plane, looking for my luggage. Everything went smoothly, I got my luggage went through customs without a problem, and bought my bus ticket. Everyone in the airports spoke English so my illusion continued. However, when waiting for the bus I decided to be a bit brave (stupid) and speak Spanish with someone. I asked this woman in Spanish if she was taking the bus to Rosario and she said yes and begin to chat to me (quite quickly) in Spanish. She caught on quite quickly that I understood very little of what she said so she asked where I was from. We proceeded to talk, but in a very slow way, haha, and I understood her. She did not speak any English but still we were managing to communicate quite well. I found out she was from Paraguay but her husband was studying at the university in Rosario and that she, herself, was a teacher. It was all very interesting. When we got on the bus, I didn´t think that anyone spoke any English, the bus driver certainly didn´t. I proceeded to talk with the lady in my limited Spanish. I was surprised, this was probably the longest conversation I´d ever had in Spanish with someone, in Spanish class I always hid behind my books, afraid to make a mistake, but talking with her, I didn´t feel worried. I apologized for my horrible Spanish but she said it was very good, haha, boosting my confidence. Anyway, finally I arrived in Rosario, got dropped off at the house of Ingrid (Bruna´s daughter) and rang the bell. Bruna quickly came to the door and I make a mistake of shaking her hand and saying nice to meet you. She explains to me that they do not shake in Argentina but kiss on the cheek. I feel a little foolish since I already knew that. Once we get to the door, Isabell is standing there. Ah, what a relief, a face I recognize. I hug her and Bruna says that we will only speak in Spanish from now on. Isabell catches the look on my face and says "un poco ingles", which means a little English. Haha, I was exhausted at this point after travelling 26 hours and sleeping very little (I found it difficult to sleep because at the back of my mind was the worry). We go inside and I meet everyone (with a kiss on the cheek), Ingrid, Ernesto, and the lovely shower. Hehe. After I was clean I went out into the kitchen and talked with everyone (only in Spanish) for about two hours. I had arrived at 9pm, and we went to bed around 11pm. It was quite challenging even though they spoke very slowly, I think understood about as much as Isabell and we spoke about our college, our friends, our EEs (yes haha, I had to explain my English essay in Spanish), our summers, etc. We asked a few questions but I think we both preferred (well I certainly did) talking because I could take as much time as I needed to form sentences and I wouldn´t look like an idiot when I didn´t know what they were asking me. However, as time went on it seemed to get a bit easier, by no means do I feel like I understand half of what is going on, but it was a start, I was speaking and listening only in Spanish and it is at this moment right now that I am truly grateful to Bruna for saying only Spanish because I know she speaks English, but I think I would just use it as a crutch, since Nancy, my host mother also speaks English. Anyway, we drove to Parana in the morning (it took 3 hours). We went first to Bruna´s house where I met Alex (from Brazil) and said hello to Karl Oskar (again it was very good to see a familiar face). Us four had a minute or two to talk, and it was all in English, haha, I am actually quite glad that I am in a host family by myself becasue I know I would just speak English to Karl Oskar and Isabell (by the way in Argentina we are supposed to call KO, Carlis, hahaha, but I haven´t got used to it yet). After an hour or so we drove to Nancy´s house. I met Nancy, and her two children Gonzalo (5) and Sophia (11). They had made me a banner that said in Spanish¨"Welcome Rochelle" and Gonzalo had drawn me a picture. It was very nice. Gonzalo was very shy at first and Sophia didn´t say a lot either. I spoke with Nancy for a bit and realized it was more difficult to understand her than Bruna because she spoke a lot faster, haha, I didn´t get much and she realized that right away. I was shown my room (which is Gonzalo´s room) and I began to unpack. She asked me if I wanted a nap but I thought it best if I stay awake so I unpacked, showered, and had a snack. After, Nancy and Sophia had to go out for a bit, Sophia was going to a friends and I didn´t quite understand where Nancy went, haha. They left at around 3:30 and it was me, Gonzalo, and Mariana (the babysitter). Gonzalo warmed up to me quite quickly after his mum and sister left. We played basketball and volleyball (they have a net in their backyard). I won two games of basketball and he won three. (haha, and no I wasn´t trying since I could dunk the ball since the net was so low). We played volleyball and I never understood any of his rules, he spoke to me in very fast Spanish the whole time and the only thing I ever got was when he said the score. haha, my numbers are at least good :) Anyway, I don´t know how but somehow I won all of the volleyball games and he soon tired of me winning (and again, i dont know how I won, haha). We went inside and played cards with the new deck that I had given them. I had also given Gonzalo stickers and both of them t-shirts (all Canada stuff from Zellers). Sophia liked her shirt, she wore it to her friends house, and Gonzalo liked his stickers, he put them on his notebook. Anyway we played cards from two hours. We played war for a while, but his game was different than the way I play and it took some time before I understood his rules, I needed Mariana as the translator (from Spanish to slower Spanish haha). She kept telling him that I didn´t understand when he spoke quickly but either he didnt care or didnt listen or didnt understand but he continued with his very fast Spanish which left me completely lost. haha. Mariana was good, she didnt speak English but I found her Spanish easier to understand. After I tired of War I suggested we play a new game. He taught me a new version of Rumy, haha, which took some time to explain. After a while I decided to teach him golf. He really liked this game and was very good at it. I then taught him baseball. We had a lot of fun but I was exhausted. I suggested we go watch a movie with subtitles in Spanish so I could understand. However, we put the Simpsons movie on but it was a copied version and there was no subtitles. I watched it since I´ve seen it already and laughed at the parts I knew were funny even if I barely understood anything haha. However, Gonzalo, it became very clear was a true little boy who liked to fight, he wanted to have a pillow fight with me and he began hitting me with pillows, haha, I didn´t want to wreck his mom´s pillows and I really didnt want to fight when I was so tired but he was relentless. Thankfully his parents soon came home after that. They told him that I was too tired to play anymore. We talked for a bit and then I went on the computer to check my emails. I fell asleep at the computer and Nancy woke me up. She said that normally they ate dinner much later (it was only 7pm) but she was going to start it now so I could go to bed early. We ate pasta and chicken (my favorite) and I offered to help clean up but she insisted I go to bed, telling me that later I would help. I should mention that I tried to join in at dinner but I am not much of a conversationist exhausted and in Spanish, haha. I slept for a very long time! From about 830pm until noon today! I feel very refreshed. I´ve had lunch and now Nancy is gone with the children to a doctor´s appointment. At 4:30 there is a meeting with all of the Spanish teachers (there are more teachers than students, haha, one for each day of the week) and the students are only KO, Isa, Alex and I. I should mention that Alex´s Spanish seems excellent already. I am sorry this entry is already so long, I think it is more for myself to remember the beginning more than anything else. I promise you my posts are not normally going to be this long. I just wanted to write this all down, also, many of you know, I like to talk a lot, and I have felt oddly silenced, there are so many things I want to ask and say but my Spanish limits me. It is quite a frustrating feeling not to be able to communicate as much as I would like. This is another reason this post is so long. I just wanted to give a picture of what the house and Argentina is like so far in my experience. It is different in a lot of ways from what I pictured. I had picutred a more European strucutre of roads, houses, etc, but I would say it is more North American in that sense with big double lane highways, and big sky scraper buildings in the cities. It does look a lot poorer in some areas, with a lot of garbarge in some places and things very dirty, but other places, like the neighbourhood I am staying in seem very clean and safe. Yet, there are bars on all the windows, they keep the house locked at all times, even when inside! It is so strange for me as half the time at home I forget to lock the house when I leave. I think perhaps one of the strangest things is that they wear their shoes inside, all the time!! I am not used to it yet, normally I would take them off. Gabriel, if you are reading this, I apologize for being so harsh with you when you left your shoes on in my room at the college. It must have been so strange to suddenly have to take them off all the time. Hmm, what else? Oh yes, the size of the house is a lot different. It has three bedrooms, one bathroom, and a kitchen. In Canada this would seem small, one floor, no entry way, no living room, family room, basement, etc. There is a televison in the parents room and the kitchen. The computer is in Sophia´s room. I still haven´t any idea where Gonzalo sleeps while I am staying here. I went to bed too early and got up too late to find out. I like this place though, it is cosy and comfortable and a nice place to live. On television the channel on all the time is Disney. They have all the same shows, just in Spanish. I think it is time I finished writing. If you stuck with me this long, wow. haha, I am impressed. I think they will be home soon. To everyone that has written to me, I will respond as soon as I can, I just thought it was important I write down everything now before I forget. I hope to hear from some of you soon... |
Monday, September 10, 2007
Packing and Leaving
Wow, tomorrow I am leaving. I am supposed to be finishing thank you cards for grad gifts right now but I thought I'd take a quick break to marvel at how the fast this summer has gone by. I can't remember what I did. I wish I had a blog for my summer too. I think this is a good idea to record my trip because memories tend to fade rather quickly.
I was looking at other people's blogs and I realized how short their posts are. I always have this problem of writing too much, that is why my first draft of my Extended Essay was over 5000 words. My new goal is to write short and direct posts. It's not going so well as you all can tell.
My next post will be when I'm in Argentina, or perhaps in an airport if I'm really bored.
Hasta luego...
I was looking at other people's blogs and I realized how short their posts are. I always have this problem of writing too much, that is why my first draft of my Extended Essay was over 5000 words. My new goal is to write short and direct posts. It's not going so well as you all can tell.
My next post will be when I'm in Argentina, or perhaps in an airport if I'm really bored.
Hasta luego...
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Barriletes
I thought I would start at the very beginning and explain how and why I became interested in volunteering.
I realized early into the second year that as much as I love school, I wasn't ready to go back straight after UWC. I then began to explore my options. Volunteering seemed interesting and I attended Pete's workshops on being a volunteer. He really made me think hard about whether it was something I wanted to do. It was stressed that this was not something to take lightly and that if I was applying I should be 100% committed. After discussing it with my parents and some of my friends that were interested in going, I decided that it was something that seemed very worthwile. I decided I wanted to go to Latin America because I think becoming fluent in another language is an added bonus to spending my time working for an organization. I researched many of the organizations and asked Pete about some of them. Originally I had applied for one in Peru, but then I was informed that the minimum age had been risen to 24. Being only 19, I had to again begin researching. I applied to Barriletes because it combines many things I like, children, journalism, learning about another culture, and attempting to help those in poverty. I have put on here what is said on Pete's volunteering pages because it is already explained very clearly.
What?
Barriletes (Kites) is a civil Association founded by professionals in the area of Communication, whose main objective is to instil a positive attitude towards working habits, fostering solidarity, and promoting active citizenship among street children and their families living under extreme poverty and/or enduring social exclusion. Barriletes issues a monthly magazine –street paper- whose production is the result of collective work, and its sale an alternative source of income for the participants. The organization is a path to other opportunities, for it motivates and leads all its members into educational, cultural, and recreational activities.As an organization of the civil society, Barriletes strives to exert its influence on public policies towards the generation of genuine work, the promotion and respect of The Universal Rights of Children and Adolescents, and the construction of a democratic society with social justice, cooperation and solidarity among all.
Where?
In Paraná, Argentina(6-hour drive from Buenos Aires)
Volunteers’ Tasks:
For the area of Communication (1) :Volunteer joins the Communication-Workshop and assists the team in the production of contents for the magazine, writing/editing articles, suggesting possible graphic designs, and doing/monitoring the photographic production. 10 hours per week.
For the Area of Social Work: (2):Volunteers join the staff of social-workers and street-agents to visit the children and their families, listen to their inquiries, spark their participation in beneficial activities other than the magazine, help them arrange timetables for the activities undertaken, coordinate collective conversational exchanges and support their development as contributing members of society. 10 hours per week.For the Area of Education and Expression (2):Volunteers must join the staff of communicators, educators and social promoters who coordinate different workshops (oral expression, computers, reading); helping them recruit members, organize activities, carry on recreational and cultural activities, as well as mentoring the youngsters in the acquisition of skills in the different fields of expression. 10 hours per week.
Now you all know as much as I do about the organization. I will definitely explain more when I find out myself.
I just wanted to also make a note of something. Recently I was discussing the idea of volunteering with a girl who had recently come back from a 3 month volunteer trip. She was in a very poor country and had seen many things that had deeply disturbed her. She was also very negative to the idea of volunteering after she had gone herself. She claimed that many countries were over-run with volunteers doing nothing, or just encouraging dependency in those countries. I just wanted to respond. I think it is true that some organizations do not always help people, the same way that aid does not always help, but there are many vital organizations out there who are doing a lot of good and although it may be depressing because even as I write this I know that I cannot "save the world" or "make a difference" by volunteering for just 6 months, yet I think each persons part will make a small little difference in the world. Even if you can only help one person, it seems to me worth it. Also, I realize that volunteering for me is also quite selfish in the fact that I will get to learn Spanish and I will get to see some of my friends along the way, but does this make what I am doing of less value because I will be gaining from the experience as a person? No, I think not. Perhaps someday when I am better educated I can make a true difference, not to a few individuals but to a much larger group of people.
Well anyway, who knows what I will think in 6 months? It is nice I could write this post and see how much my thoughts have changed after volunteering.
If anyone has any questions just ask. Thanks!
I realized early into the second year that as much as I love school, I wasn't ready to go back straight after UWC. I then began to explore my options. Volunteering seemed interesting and I attended Pete's workshops on being a volunteer. He really made me think hard about whether it was something I wanted to do. It was stressed that this was not something to take lightly and that if I was applying I should be 100% committed. After discussing it with my parents and some of my friends that were interested in going, I decided that it was something that seemed very worthwile. I decided I wanted to go to Latin America because I think becoming fluent in another language is an added bonus to spending my time working for an organization. I researched many of the organizations and asked Pete about some of them. Originally I had applied for one in Peru, but then I was informed that the minimum age had been risen to 24. Being only 19, I had to again begin researching. I applied to Barriletes because it combines many things I like, children, journalism, learning about another culture, and attempting to help those in poverty. I have put on here what is said on Pete's volunteering pages because it is already explained very clearly.
What?
Barriletes (Kites) is a civil Association founded by professionals in the area of Communication, whose main objective is to instil a positive attitude towards working habits, fostering solidarity, and promoting active citizenship among street children and their families living under extreme poverty and/or enduring social exclusion. Barriletes issues a monthly magazine –street paper- whose production is the result of collective work, and its sale an alternative source of income for the participants. The organization is a path to other opportunities, for it motivates and leads all its members into educational, cultural, and recreational activities.As an organization of the civil society, Barriletes strives to exert its influence on public policies towards the generation of genuine work, the promotion and respect of The Universal Rights of Children and Adolescents, and the construction of a democratic society with social justice, cooperation and solidarity among all.
Where?
In Paraná, Argentina(6-hour drive from Buenos Aires)
Volunteers’ Tasks:
For the area of Communication (1) :Volunteer joins the Communication-Workshop and assists the team in the production of contents for the magazine, writing/editing articles, suggesting possible graphic designs, and doing/monitoring the photographic production. 10 hours per week.
For the Area of Social Work: (2):Volunteers join the staff of social-workers and street-agents to visit the children and their families, listen to their inquiries, spark their participation in beneficial activities other than the magazine, help them arrange timetables for the activities undertaken, coordinate collective conversational exchanges and support their development as contributing members of society. 10 hours per week.For the Area of Education and Expression (2):Volunteers must join the staff of communicators, educators and social promoters who coordinate different workshops (oral expression, computers, reading); helping them recruit members, organize activities, carry on recreational and cultural activities, as well as mentoring the youngsters in the acquisition of skills in the different fields of expression. 10 hours per week.
Now you all know as much as I do about the organization. I will definitely explain more when I find out myself.
I just wanted to also make a note of something. Recently I was discussing the idea of volunteering with a girl who had recently come back from a 3 month volunteer trip. She was in a very poor country and had seen many things that had deeply disturbed her. She was also very negative to the idea of volunteering after she had gone herself. She claimed that many countries were over-run with volunteers doing nothing, or just encouraging dependency in those countries. I just wanted to respond. I think it is true that some organizations do not always help people, the same way that aid does not always help, but there are many vital organizations out there who are doing a lot of good and although it may be depressing because even as I write this I know that I cannot "save the world" or "make a difference" by volunteering for just 6 months, yet I think each persons part will make a small little difference in the world. Even if you can only help one person, it seems to me worth it. Also, I realize that volunteering for me is also quite selfish in the fact that I will get to learn Spanish and I will get to see some of my friends along the way, but does this make what I am doing of less value because I will be gaining from the experience as a person? No, I think not. Perhaps someday when I am better educated I can make a true difference, not to a few individuals but to a much larger group of people.
Well anyway, who knows what I will think in 6 months? It is nice I could write this post and see how much my thoughts have changed after volunteering.
If anyone has any questions just ask. Thanks!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
2 Weeks
Well I decided to start a blog just because it is much easier for me to communicate with my friends and family when I am in Argentina via this blog, rather than sending emails to update people on what is happening. I have no idea how much internet access I will have but I will try to update as much as I can.
Right now it is exactly two weeks before I take a plane to Buenos Aires. September 11th. That is the day. Yes, I know, a bit strange that I pick this day to fly on, but at the end of the school year Karl Oskar, Isabell, and I had decided that we wanted to leave around September 10th. Can you believe that tickets were 200 dollars cheaper on September 11th than September 10th?? It surprises me that people still don't like to fly on that day, even 6 years later. The funny part is that I am not even flying through the US. I go Edmonton to Toronto and from Toronto all the way to Santiago. From Santiago I take a 2 hour flight to Buenos Aires. I will arrive on September 12th in the afternoon.
From there I must take a 4 hour bus ride to the house of Bruna's daughter where Bruna and her husband Ernesto will be. They will drive me to Parana. All in all, it should be a solid two days of travel.
I am nervous right now. Mainly about the Spanish part. My reading and writing have improved a great deal but speaking and understanding is still very difficult for me.
However, my host mother Nancy seems extremely nice. I have been emailing with her a lot over the past two months. My Spanish teacher Graciela also seems like a lot of fun and I think the Spanish classes I take will be interesting and probably I will learn a lot in a short period of time. Finally, Bruna has been working tirelessley to make our preparations as smooth as possible. I am quite exicted to finally meet all these fantastic people. Not to mention learning about and working for the organization, Barriletes. Of course it won't hurt that I get to see Karl Oskar and Isabell again.
I am missing people from my college a lot right now. Mattie just left on Sunday after staying for a week. We had a lot of fun and I'm really glad she could come visit. During the weekdays I had to work so that was too bad. But on the weekend we went out with my friends (celebrated Jayce and Lindsey's birthdays).
This is my last week of work so that excites me! I want to ask my boss if it is possible for me to work here again next year as the summer student. I will do it tomorrow I think. I am also going to bake the Snikkarbua chocolate and cheescakes for Friday as I way to say thankyou to everyone at the office. It has actually been a pleasant place to work except for the fact that I find my job extremely boring and tedious.
Well I will probably be updating as September 11th draws closer, I need to go now.
Oh and btw, I am on page 100 of Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal. I want to keep track of my progress on this book, as it is my first chapter book in Spanish.
Here is the current currency conversion for Canadian Dollars and Argentinian Pesos. It will be interesting to see how this changes over time.
1.00 CAD = 2.98 ARS
1.00 ARS = 0.335 CAD
Right now it is exactly two weeks before I take a plane to Buenos Aires. September 11th. That is the day. Yes, I know, a bit strange that I pick this day to fly on, but at the end of the school year Karl Oskar, Isabell, and I had decided that we wanted to leave around September 10th. Can you believe that tickets were 200 dollars cheaper on September 11th than September 10th?? It surprises me that people still don't like to fly on that day, even 6 years later. The funny part is that I am not even flying through the US. I go Edmonton to Toronto and from Toronto all the way to Santiago. From Santiago I take a 2 hour flight to Buenos Aires. I will arrive on September 12th in the afternoon.
From there I must take a 4 hour bus ride to the house of Bruna's daughter where Bruna and her husband Ernesto will be. They will drive me to Parana. All in all, it should be a solid two days of travel.
I am nervous right now. Mainly about the Spanish part. My reading and writing have improved a great deal but speaking and understanding is still very difficult for me.
However, my host mother Nancy seems extremely nice. I have been emailing with her a lot over the past two months. My Spanish teacher Graciela also seems like a lot of fun and I think the Spanish classes I take will be interesting and probably I will learn a lot in a short period of time. Finally, Bruna has been working tirelessley to make our preparations as smooth as possible. I am quite exicted to finally meet all these fantastic people. Not to mention learning about and working for the organization, Barriletes. Of course it won't hurt that I get to see Karl Oskar and Isabell again.
I am missing people from my college a lot right now. Mattie just left on Sunday after staying for a week. We had a lot of fun and I'm really glad she could come visit. During the weekdays I had to work so that was too bad. But on the weekend we went out with my friends (celebrated Jayce and Lindsey's birthdays).
This is my last week of work so that excites me! I want to ask my boss if it is possible for me to work here again next year as the summer student. I will do it tomorrow I think. I am also going to bake the Snikkarbua chocolate and cheescakes for Friday as I way to say thankyou to everyone at the office. It has actually been a pleasant place to work except for the fact that I find my job extremely boring and tedious.
Well I will probably be updating as September 11th draws closer, I need to go now.
Oh and btw, I am on page 100 of Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal. I want to keep track of my progress on this book, as it is my first chapter book in Spanish.
Here is the current currency conversion for Canadian Dollars and Argentinian Pesos. It will be interesting to see how this changes over time.
1.00 CAD = 2.98 ARS
1.00 ARS = 0.335 CAD
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