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.

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.

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.

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...

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...

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...