A week full of classes!

Hey everyone! So it has been yet another week without a post. I'm terribly sorry about that! Classes started at the local universities this week and so I have been "shopping" as its called for classes that I want to take. This essentially means that I attend classes that I'm interested in and at the end of this next week I will have to decide which ones I'm actually going to take and enroll in them. As of now, I have the issue of being interested in too many classes, which I guess is a good place to be. All of the ones that I'm looking at are in the small private university (which is only a few blocks from the apartment). This week I visited: The History of Political Ideas, Social and Political History of Argentina, Sociology of Communication, and Tango. Unfortunately I have not actually gotten to experience the sociology of communication class yet. I was the only extranjero (foreign student) that showed up and there were about 10 of us that waited from about 6pm (when the class was supposed to start) until 6:45pm and the professor never showed up! Imagine that. First day of class and the teacher is MIA. I'll try again next week, but apparently this isn't all that uncommon here (especially the first week of classes).

Other than classes, we had more orientations this week including one at the Chopin Art School, which is connected to Congreso. I'm definitely going to take a tango class there (whether it counts toward my major or not) simply because its a fun part of the culture. There was also a rapid fire history lesson with the program (part 1 of 4) for any students enrolling in a history class at either university. It is supposed to help give us a very general background of Argentinean history so that we aren't completely lost in the classes.

As it relates to classes (since that seems to be the theme this week) this weekend is a long weekend because of a holiday on Monday. As a result, most of us are traveling this weekend in order to take advantage of the extra time and see more of the country. I am certainly in that group and am looking forward to leaving tonight for Cordoba with 10 other friends. Cordoba is about halfway between Buenos Aires and Mendoza and is well known for its variety of activities including shopping, hiking, horseback riding, food, and vibrant night life. If all goes as planned, we will board a bus tonight at 10pm and arrive in Cordoba around 7:30am tomorrow. While there we'll be staying at a hostel and enjoying what the town has to offer. It'll definitely be nice to relax, go hiking, and of course experience the well-known clubs on Saturday night!!! I'm super excited to go dancing! Since there are no classes on Monday, we'll catch a bus back from Cordoba at 11pm Monday night to arrive around 8:30am on Tuesday. Its definitely going to be an adventure.

However, in the latest crazy weather news from Mendoza (where you can actually talk about the weather as an interesting topic) yet another "viento zonda" decided to crash in this afternoon. To recap, this is the crazy wind that comes with a low pressure system down from the Andes and Chile into Mendoza. It causes a severe drop in air pressure (leading to headaches, nausea, stomach issues, breathing concerns) and also comes with crazy winds. As of now, Mendoza is shut down, residents have been asked to stay inside, the city busses are not running, and living on the 6th story I can see debris from the street blowing outside my window... We're all crossing our fingers that the busses are running tonight and that the winds don't get worse. However, should they get worse or stay the same, our trip will be cancelled. Mendoza is the only town that experiences this phenomenon and outside the city the weather is supposed to be just fine. We're all crossing our fingers that it calms down by tonight. :)

I'll be sure to let you all know how the trip goes and what fun adventures we have along the way. I'll be a great chance to get to know some of the other students better and to relax. Since classes were cancelled today (in advance warning of the Zonda) we also have no hw to worry about this weekend! I hope everyone had a wonderful week and that you have fun plans to relax this weekend!

All my love!