Hey everyone! So I first want to apologize, because I know that I have gotten AWFUL with these posts over the last few weeks. To be honest, I have had an exam every week! And the studying has gotten pretty intense. However, I promise to catch up soon and to be better about posting on time...
SO, this week began with an exam on Tuesday morning in my development class. I had studied over the weekend, using the power points from class and my notes. To be honest, I wasn't all that concerned about the difficulty of the test, but I still wanted to do well. The test went completely fine and I'm looking forward to getting it back. After class I took the trolle back home with some of my friends from class. Usually I walk, but seeing as how I'm still slightly under the weather, I decided to take the easier way. I had a quick bite to eat and then took a short nap before getting ready for class. I grabbed a cookie as I walked out the door (one of the homemade ones from Deven and my adventure) and was still enjoying it when I got out of the elevator. Of course just my luck...who should I run into but Ruben...the man who cleans our building. He made a sign of me eating and when I seemed to be confused, he advised me "No debes comer tanto. Hay que guardar la silueta." I was completely taken aback and left quickly without saying anything. Translated, that phrase means "You shouldn't eat so much. You have to watch your figure." Needless to say I was more than upset. Who was he to tell me that I needed to watch my figure? He's no where near handsome or attractive and for the 10 seconds a week he sees me, if I'm eating a snack how is it any of his business. By the time I got to class I was still flustered and told Krista about it. She just shook her hear. Oh the culture of Argentina. Have I mentioned that being politically correct and having a verbal filter simply don't exist here? Well its the truth in many situations. People are just direct and say exactly what they are thinking. Anyway, class went as usual until my professor mentioned that our second exam would be the following week! WHAT?! The entire class was in an uproar, shouting over one another about how could it be so soon and that we didn't have time to study etc. We were just getting out first exams back in class and in a week we would take our second one over all of unit 3 (which we attempted to finish in class) and the beginning of unit 4 (which we wouldn't discuss in class and which wasn't even in the photocopier yet for us to get the information). Oh Argentina... I left class understandably stressed, but also with my first partial in hand! Not only had I passed, but I'd earned a 7 (73%) which translates to a B+ in our standards!!! I was super excited. At home I had dinner with the family and then went to bed, since Wednesdays are always early.
Wednesday morning I was up early as usual and off to class in the office. Class went as usual and I worked on hw and studying until it was time to go to Spanish. Nothing exciting happened in that class either and then it was home to eat a quick lunch before I had to go to Tango class. Everyone is getting pretty excited, because our show is in a few weeks on the 25th! I can't believe its coming up so soon!!! In class we finally finished the dance and practiced the finale. Over and over we practiced the whole thing trying to get timing right and figure out what poses to do. After class it was back to the house to relax and unwind from the week. I only had one more class to go the next day, so Wednesday nights always feel like the end for me. I also made an attempt to clean my room and make sure everything is organized. Sole's parents are coming to visit tomorrow and I wanted to make sure my room didn't look like a tornado had blown through!
Thursday morning I was up and off to class before anyone else was awake (as usual) and came back for a quick lunch. No one was home, so I heated up some leftovers and headed off to volunteering. It was interesting as usual to work with the kids and just talk to the people there. Louisa and I ended up talking to a woman who is from Argentina but lived in the US for nearly 25 years! It was great to hear about her life and she speaks perfect English! We talked a lot about things she misses from there and she told us how lucky she is that she got to live by the beach in FL and now lives so close to the mountains. Its the best of both worlds. What a positive outlook on life! When I got home, everyone was relaxing and waiting on my abuelos to get here. Their bus didn't arrive for a few hours, so I worked on a bit of homework and made plans to go out that evening. It was my friend Pat's birthday, so they were all meeting up for dinner. I elected to eat with the family and meet up with them later. My abuelos arrived on time and after everyone had gotten settled, we sat down to a nice dinner. I felt like I was back at the beginning of the program again, afraid to say anything that I might make a stupid grammar mistake or something. After dinner I messaged my friends and met up with them at a bar on the main street. The birthday boy had decided he wanted to go dancing, so we all piled into taxis and set off for the club. It was free for ladies, so that was a nice surprise and when we got inside there was still a live band playing. ALL the musicians were wearing satin shirts, and they were super shiny in the stage lighting of the club. For their final song they played YMCA, and we ALL sang along. Then the DJ took over and everyone started dancing. Looking around there must have been nearly 30 or 40 disco balls hanging from the ceiling! The music was pretty good. A mix of songs we knew from the US and songs from here in spanish. About 8 of us had gone dancing, and after a few hours, most of them were ready to go back. Pat and I, on the other hand, were still having a great time, so we stayed until the club closed. :) It was a blast!
Friday I didn't have any many plans for the day, so I worked on hw a bit and relaxed. I also spent some time talking with the abuelos. Early in the afternoon I met up with a project group from my history class to work on our upcoming project. We had lunch together at a café before going to Augusto's house to work out the details of the project. Later that afternoon Sole had to work and Paola had gone to Gustavo's for the evening. When I realized it was only going to be me and my 'grandparents' for dinner I started to get a little uncomfortable. I didn't want to be the intruder in their evening, and I certainly wasn't planning on talking much...it just seemed awkward. So, I made plans to eat with a friend. However, as I was grabbing my keys to walk out the door, when abuelo asked what I was doing and that dinner would be ready shortly? I tried to explain that I didn't want to interrupt their evening and that I could just eat out. "How could you interrupt the evening? We're happy to have you here!" was his response...So not knowing at all how to explain my way out of this one, I thanked him and hung my keys back up... Poor David was so disappointed. I sat in the kitchen on my favorite stool and watched abuelo make dinner and even talked to him a bit. Dinner was delicious though and I even made the salad. After dinner I met up with Louisa to catch up a bit and have ice cream. Then, to make up for dinner, I met up with David and some others at a bar to hang out for a bit. I was pretty tired from the night before, so I called it a rather early night and took a taxi home.
Saturday I really had nothing going on, so I spent the ENTIRE day in my room studying sociology. I was absolutely determined to get all my reading done and study very hard for this second exam. I studied up until lunch and then after as well. Although I did take time for a short nap. I seem to be losing my voice, and I don't want to get sick again, so sleep is important! After the nap it was back to studying. David and I had made plans to go out for dinner in light of the confusion the other night, so we met up at 9 and walked around for nearly an hour trying to decide where we wanted to eat. We finally ended up on the main street with the bars and restaurants and decided to go to a restaurant that someone's host mom had mentioned. It was AMAZING! The night was nice enough to sit outside, and when the waitress found out we spoke english, that was all she spoke to us...we of course responded in Spanish. :) After a delicious dinner of chicken wok, we decided that dessert was absolutely necessary and ordered a tower of chocolate mousse to split. It was DELICIOUS! there were strawberries and pastry pieces in between the chocolate sections. It was SO good! After dinner we walked down to meet up with some other friends. This is going to sound very sketchy, but we all met up at a gas station where we could buy beer and sit outside at tables to drink it. Its actually a nice place and it just makes for a good place to meet up. After a bit we all decided to wander to a different bar and ended up playing pool at a new location on the same street! I hadn't played pool since South Africa, so my skills were awful, but it was fun to try again. Then we wandered to another favorite bar farther up the street and sat outside for a bit. After awhile it got too cold to sit outside and the remaining 5 of us moved inside. For some reason Pat and I decided we wanted to go dancing again, so we headed to a bar called Por Acá which also has a dance floor. We stayed until it closed and this made my 3rd evening with friends in one weekend. I crashed immediately into bed when I got home.
Sunday was spent again dedicated to home work and studying for sociology. The amazing food cooked by my abuelo continued and we had a wonderful white fish for lunch that just fell apart with your fork. It was really delicious. Honestly there were no adventures at all during the day. I was dedicated and determined to finish the reading. I also headed to bed early so that I wouldn't get sick and could get as much sleep as possible. Tomorrow brings another week of adventures and experiences. I can't believe that I've almost been here 3 months already and that I'll be coming home in slightly less than 2! My how the time flies!
I hope everyone is doing well and I hope you all know how much it means to hear from you about your lives as well. Missing you bunches!
All my love!
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