First 2 weeks of language camp : )

FIRST OF ALL!! PICTURES!!!!!!! http://picasaweb.google.com/countrygal13101 check them out!!! i don't think there's a way to coment on the photo site, but leave a comment on this and tell me what you think! : )

soooo since I last updated!! lol lot's has happened. especially along the lines of navigational skills. DUDE GUYS. im getting pretty darn good at getting myself around the city. (unless it involves a bus...; it's only taken me 2 weeks to figure out how to ride the one bus from my house to the AFS office (where lang camp is) and back....) seriously. i did it right for the first time wednesday. lol : )>

FIRST WEEK Language Camp

it's pretty boring, but very helpful, especially the first week; even though it moves really slowly for me, cuz the grammar is soo similar to french, it was still good to go over all the basic words and such, however, four straight hours of spanish class............ we drink a lot of coffee. cuz it gives you an excuse to leave the classroom, even for a minute ; ) lol there's a kid from Hong Kong, Nick, who is CRAZY. and speaks absolutely NO spanish, and very little english. he slept through 90 percent of this week lol but also cuz he didn't have time to adjust to the time, cuz he'd missed orientation due to the typhoon that hit Hong Kong :S anyways that's about all that happened in the actual language camp... each day we have lunch at the same restaurant, it's nearby and VERY good and very cheap!! everything (huge portions, amazing food) is $3 (US; 9 pesos) and under. its CRAZY. but the waitress is very nice, and though she doesn't speak english, she's amazingly patient. however, still most of the time even though the volunteer Guillermo (Guille) who takes us there/wherever we're supposed to go speaks FLUENT english, he refuses to speak it to us, so if we ask what a dish is, he'll explain in spanish, and so we still have no idea what we're ordering. but it's fine, i've tried SO many different things. everyone should be so proud. lol ;D O. one day, this guy from latvia who'd arrived late met us for lunch, before leaving that afternoon for his host family.... oh dear it was SOO funny. like the sleaziest person EVER and spent the entire time hitting on Annie (one of the americans, from new mexico) he was crazy. and pretty creepy. in a REALLY sleazy way lol poor annie. it was hilarious. check out the pics, theyre great.

Buenos Aires, first week

ahhhhh. god i hate busses. or at any rate the bus system in b-a, which is IMPOSSIBLE to figure out. as i said, the first 2 days i rode in a taxi w/ Juan to the office. however. the third day we rode the bus, ok, fine, BUT thursday, he wasn't going to the office. so i had to ride the bus myself. HM. however, first, after class Guille offered to take me and Leigh back to his apt. for matte then to a cool place to shop, so we did, it was fun; didn't buy anything but at least we got to know where it was, then however, i had to take the bus home. in the night. lol Guille told the driver something, most likely along the lines of "she doesnt speak any spanish and she has no idea where she's going tell her to get off at la pampa" cuz the driver told me when to get off : )> HOWEVER. then i had to figure out in which direction the other road i live on was. i ended up just choosing one, as i saw a store sign that looked familiar (later i realized it was the wrong one, but whatever, it still got me in the right direction lol) so then i found the two roads. HOWEVER. there're still four different blocks on which the apt building could be. and i'd only been there four days. and ask anyone who's been with me to a city. my city sense of direction SUCKS. sooooo i figured out which half it was at least. BUT. still not which side. and i didn't have a key, as the key my temp host family tried to get me didn't work. soooo. i walked till i found a building i thought looked like mine. and miraculously someone was going in at the same time, so i got in. got up the elevator, to the correct floor at least. and no, it most definitely was the WRONG BUILDING. XP lol god im special. sooooo went down. but the buildings in b-a, you need a key to get in AND out. so i had to wait for ANOTHER person to come in so i could go out. it mustve looked soooooo sketchy to the ppl coming in!!! lol *rolls eyes* anyways, i went to the other side of the street, found the building, then looked at the opposite side so for future reference i'd know which was the correct side lol anyways, waited for someone else to come, got in, and got back to the appartment. siiiiiiiiigh.
THEN. the next morning, as i said, i had to take the bus by myself. so i got on, no prob, BUT. it was sooo crowded i couldnt see out of either side of the bus. so when i FINALLY sat down, i'd already been on for about 50 minutes (the whole thing's about an hour) soooo Juan had told me to look for landmarks: 2 universities, the Casa Rosada, then a gas station. so for a little I was ok, seeing stores i recognized. however. things started to look unfamiliar. then. i realized the street name had changed!!! ;alskjdfa. so i turned to the guy behind me, who'd gotten on the same place i had (the bus had cleared by now and he was the only one near me) and i asked "inglese?" "si." "where is the plaza de mayo?" (where Juan had said the stop was called; but the stops arent LABELED WITH THE NAMES. just the # of the bus. and they stop before the street, so you can't see where it is. soo annoying. ) anyways, he said something in spanish, and pointed behind him. i was like greaaaat i missed it. so i got off, walked back, and miraculously found the street that the office was on. so i asked a policeman for the cross-street, and started walking there. guess who i saw. mr yes i speak english but no i won't speak it. he laughed when he saw me and walked over and was like "i speak fluent english, but i.. missunderstood you on the bus, but when you got off i wondered if i'd made a mistake." so he asked where i was going, turns out its right by where he works, so he said he'd show me how to get there (i actually think he got off early cuz it turned out i HADNT missed the stop at all; it was still about 4 stops away. a;lskr. anyways, turns out he went on exchange (not with AFS though, but he knew the program) to missouri! lol it was funny. so yea, when i finally got to class (somehow only about 15 minutes late) everyone was like ada!! and leigh jumped up and gave me a big hug shes like I WAS SO WORRIED ABOUT U!! DID U EVER GET HOME LAST NIGHT?? (she lives near guille, so she walked home... but apparently they were discussing the odds of me ever getting home/getting back to the office... lol) i was like "well. sorrrrrta." it was funny.
Next day? got off the bus too early. again. got off as soon as i saw the Casa Rosada (like our white house; it's pink to represent a joining of the 2 political parties, red and white). but it didn't matter as i knew how to get from there to the office, so whatev. by the end of the week though, i could walk anywhere i knew the streets so well cuz of all the walking i did in the morning trying to find the office :P lol ^-^
anyways TANGO! we had our first class Friday (not today, a week ago) lol it was.... interesting. haha lots of fun though. the teacher's very nice ^-^ again, check out the pics.

Temporary Host Family (both weeks)/ weekend
they're SOO nice, i love them : ) Juanchi's adorable, as is the baby (her nick-name's Floppy :D lol but it doesn't mean anything; just a nickname like annie, or any other lol) I watched Cars with Juanchi at least twice last week (he's OBSESSED, if i didn't say that before) lol it was very hard to understand, but i certaintly did get the part about the tractor tipping, and the combine-bull : )> lol Friday, i called Luna, the daughter of a friend of my friend's dad (if you followed all that) but she was sick, though she said she'd love to hang out sat. night... then, Laura from the office called and wanted to know if i'd like to go with her, Annie, Joachim, and his host brother plus anyone else they got in touch with to a bar ^-^ so that was lots of fun, no one got drunk; one of the differences i've seen here is that most people don't drink to get drunk; they'll have a few drinks before going out to discos and dancing from 3am to 6 or 7; they don't just want to get wasted, as a lot of ppl in the US do. then, saturday i went with the same people up to a northern part of the city, on the Tigre river, which was very nice, while my family went to the country club. when i got home, no one was home yet, but i called Luna again who said to come over, so i just took a cab to her house, as i didn't feel like getting lost on busses XP she was there with 2 other friends, they were incredibly nice... however, Luna apparently had been in the HOSPITAL that morning, so we obviously werent going out that night. we did however go to a cafe and just hang out for a while, then came back and had pizza and played monopoly. so it was nice, relaxing, and cool to meet people other than afsers; they spoke about 95% spanish, and the coolest part was i could follow most of it, even if i didn't have time to think of something to add before the convo had moved on ^-^ lol but that'll come. spanish actually comes really quickly, it's nice. then, sunday i went with the host fam, kadi (from connecticut), unnur (from iceland), and my host mom's brother (kadi and unnur are staying with my host mom's mother) on a boat up by where i'd been saturday to the house that my host mom's dad and his wife go on the weekends, an incredibly pretty place, for an asado... however, i was so tired after lunch (about 3pm) i fell fast asleep in the chair, woke up around 6 for tea and cookies, then we left. however, it was very nice, my host grandfather is sooo funny : )> mariana (my host mom)'s family is incredibly italian, it's cute : ) yesterday was the birthday of mariana's aunt, and we all went out to the most amazing boufet i've ever been to. HUGE. but not one like cafeteria style, where u slop the stuff onto ur plate; it's all made in front of you, but it's all you can eat and there is SOO much, plus the most amazing deserts... i had a crep with dulce de leche and vanilla ice cream for desert. lol it was bad though, i couldn't eat anything this morning i was still so full from the night before!!!!

Language Camp, 2nd week

this week was more boring; it was mostly grammar, which for me, is the easiest part, cuz once i'm told the words/verbs/conjugation, it's almost EXACTLY like french... however, as most of the other kids haven't had french or spanish (i say both as theyre so similar grammatically) so we end up spending FOREVER on things... however, i've started a little "castallano reference book" cuz there're some verbs/words that for some reason i can never remember, so i figured a little notebook i could just carry with me w/ the conjugation would be VERY helpful; unfortunately, they don't have a spanish version of the Becherelle Poche we use for French :P anywasy it's very useful as i can teach myself (using the grammar in the dictionary) most of the tenses and familiarize myself with the verbs. we've had 2 more tango classes, they're SO fun... we've finally started really tango-ing.. however, only having 2 guys (actually as of today, we have 3, b/c a guy from germany has come... he's not really an exchange student, as he's not going to school; he's working in the office tho, and he's with afs, so he'll have a host family and whatnot) but still, it means we've all got to learn both parts.. though thats actually very helpful, though it's difficult to switch from leader to follower sometimes :P

Buenos Aires, 2nd week

i FINALLY figured out where to get off on the bus this week (wednesday) i was SO proud of myself. its incredibly complicated; not only are the stops unmarked, but there're all different kinds of busses with the same #; fast ones, slow ones, in b/t... ugh. lol but at least i can get back and forth lol there're some AMAZING bakeries, cafes, ice cream places... all the food is sooo good. i try to run a couple times a week, and i've done so, but still. lol o welll *sigh* we've walked around a lot, gone to some famous cafe taht had the most amazing coffee i've ever had in my life (spiked too! >: )> lol) and yesterday we got to take a tour of the Teatro Colon (the opera house) it was BEAUTIFUL. the best part is my host family told me that next friday they're going to go/take me there!!! i'm SOO excited. sorry this post isn't as detailed; i'm tired and also i'm supposed to leave for an asado at guille's with the other afs kids in a couple minutes.

but first.

guess what.

I HAVE A HOST FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i got them yesterday i'm SOOO excited!!!! i don't have any of the official stuff, cuz Laura's out of town and she has all of that info, but Claudia, another lady who works at the office, gave me a letter from my host sister- i have a mom, dad, and THREE sisters, ages 14, 13, and 6! they sound very nice though, i'll go to school with the 14 yr old (she turns 15 in january, same age as Arthur) but still, three little sisters will be pretty different!! lol all i know is that they live in a suburb-city about 40 minutes north of the center of buenos aires, so thats still pretty close and guess what! i meet them tomorrow!!!!!! i'm still gonig to stay with my temp. host family to finish the course though, as i do like being with them and in the center of the city. my city sense of direction has improved by LIGHTYEARS. lol :D im serious. i can actually navigate it. and its way harder than nyc!! lol ^-^ anyways, i've got to go to the asado, but i hope everyone's well, check out the pics (still more to come but it just takes FOREVER) and leave a comment!!!!!! xoxo : )>

first (almost) week in argentina!!!!!!

Well, i'm officially over the equator now (actually i was as of 3:15am EST thursday morning :P) lol but yea... its AMAZING.

THE FLIGHT OVER: MIAMI TO BUENOS AIRES

it was fine... but i didn't sleep a wink. couldnt even close my eyes for more than a minute :P o well it was fine. the us kids (who i flew over w/ and spent the first 24 hrs of orientation with) are SOOOOO nice :D we all got so close so quickly... exchange kids tend to do that i've found.... we just seem to open up to each other immediatly and almost always click ^-^ then again, when there're 70 kids made to spend 5 hrs at an airport before all travelling to a foreign country for 6 months - a year with nothing else to do... you talk about a lot ^_* one of the guys somehow made my ipod work... after i spent 2 hrs the night before trying to figure out what kind of "update" it kept saying i needed, refusing to work... blahhhh. lol XP o well at least it works ^-^ thats what matters. however. special me. i forgot that DUH when i unplugged it from the comp, it would stop charging. it was only in the comp for maybe half an hr.... so one song after the flight left, and it was dead. a;slidraw. lol o well. at least there was ok music on the plane, and a very funny movie (RV, with robin williams) and the dinner was actually edible!!! disgustingly edible but edible nonetheless. the breakfast however.... EW. completely inedible. le sigh. customs/immigration was surprisingly easy and quick considering the amount of ppl we had... lol : )> we had to wait a while in the b-a airport as well, but then we all got on 2 busses to go to the orientation camp place... my bus, lotsa fun we watched (the first part at any rate) of happy gilmore (in spanish of course, but with engish subtitles :P lol)

FIRST ORIENTATION CAMP: somewhere, BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE

got there, after about an hr bus ride... OMG IT WAS SOOOOO COLD!! the only heating was some gas heating in about 3 rooms... we were all walking around in hats, gloves, a thousand layers... :P lol o well. the food was ok... coffee was gross... but aw the little servers were adorable ^-^ i mean they weren't very young, about 14 and 17, but aw. had the cutest expressions : )> lol of course, the orienting part was excessivly boring. and stupid. and cold. but whateverrrrr. lol the girl who works for afs in b-a, valeria, she gave us this whole talk on like keeping ur reputation, not becoming the slutty american... scared us all shitless cuz she made it sound like if we sat next to a guy and talked to him, he'd go off and tell all his friends he hooked up with us... pablo (the volunteer who let us watch happy gilmore... SUPER PABLO!! lol >: )>) and ale, another volunteer, all assured us it wasn't that bad but still, she scared us pretty good, and i mean... pablo and ale are guys so its a little hard for them to do much assuring... :S lol no im sure its fine. ANYWAYS. except for 3 girls from switzerland and an australian and a kiwi, we were all american... most of the euros (europeans) were arriving the next day (friday). so yea... took a bunch of pics, will post them once they're on my comp and i figure out how to do so (aka actually try) lol yea. thursday night we had a mini dance party, tho i spent most of the time trying to find kids who hadnt gotten their sheets/towels cuz the stupid volunteers wouldn't give bea (one of the swiss girls, who spoke VERY little spanish and not very good english... tho much better english than my spanish lol) anyways, wouldnt let her get her towels/sheets till we found the other 5 kids who needed them :P lol o well we eventually did. so yea. slept in these tiny rooms with a bed about 2'8" wide but luckily with heavy blankets, so it was ok... hung out in one girl, ash's room w/ a couple other girls till pretty late looking at pics and talking and such ^-^ then, friday morning, we were told that 25 of us, the ones of us staying in b-a (aka me and the other lang. campers) or those who had to fly out of b-a to get to their host fams were going to a diff. orientation camp... so we had to pack up really quickly and say goodbye to everyone :P also we ddnt get to meet the majority of the euros (only about 15 were going to the other camp w/ us) but i had time to hear the ADORABLE british accent of one of the swedish guys... like the perfect accent. lol ^-^ at any rate, tho none of the ppl i was closest to were coming to the second place, whatev. just meant i got closer to them as well : )

SECOND LANGUAGE CAMP: somewhere else, BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE

this one was OMG SO MUCH NICER!! still freezing cold, but only about half as cold :P lol and a beautiful old monestary/university building thing (not really sure what it was) anyways sooo pretty and yea ^-^ very different lol also, the food was much better (tho no adorable little servers) lol but the rooms were nice and warm... double ones, i shared a room with a girl named kyla, from alaska. also, jilly came as well so that was nice i hadnt spoken with her much before at the other place, and we sat next to each other on the ride over so yea. lol : )> once the euro's got there, we had a orienting session thing. guess what it was. THE EXACT SAME TALK WE'D GOTTEN THE DAY BEFORE!!!!! ;aslkdjrea. i was soooooo boredddddddddddd. lol :P o well. the euro's are very nice, i got to kno a bunch of them pretty well, so it's lots of fun ^-^ anyways, at least the cool volunteers (pablo, stephen - an american who went on exchange to argentina... crazy guy. but very funny lol - and mili - a very sweet argentinian girl) all came so that was nice ^-^ anyways, after dinner we all sat around till about midnight, drinking matte and one of the italians was really good at guitar, and kyla it turns out is AMAZING at the violin, so they played a bunch of stuff... lotsa fun. then we played this version of musical chairs: everyone is seated in chairs in a circle, and each person gets a playing card. then, the one in the middle (who's not playing, just reading cards) chooses a card from the rest of the deck (2 decks if not many cards left) and reads the suite. if ur card has that suite, u move one to the right (yes, sitting on the person next to u, unless they happened to have the same suite) the game continues, always moving one to the right if ur suite is called.. however, if someone is sitting on u, u can't move, even if ur suite is called, so u'll get 6 ppl on the same chair >: )> lol the game's over and won by the first person to get back to their original seat. i won the second game :D lol yea.. next day, more boring orienting... we were split into groups, organized by where ppl are going, so everyone in my group was staying in b-a, and with the exception of 3 ppl, an american girl, a girl from germany, and a girl from holland, were all doing the language camp. so that was cool i got to kno them before we started, and its a very cool group. also, pablo and mili are our group head ppl, so that makes it more fun ^_^ saturday, we took a bus ride to the city of b-a (the place was actually about 30 minutes away) and went on a mini tour of b-a... had 4 stops, the first ones about 20 minutes each, but nice to see it a bit, then the last we had sandwiches and walked around one part, so it was fun ^-^ that evening we had a "talent show" but not really... in our groups, we had to come up with a skit thing about what we learned... my group had an argentinian class, and joachim (the only guy in the group, from belgium) was the prof. and he introduced 2 new exchange students... neither of whom spoke any spanish. so the first one goes "how do u say 'may i go to the bathroom?'" and of course, us students tell her the spanish equivalent of "i'll kick you're ass," and then when the teacher flips out, and says GO TO TEH PRINCIPALS OFFICE, we were like "he says take ur time!" so yea. it was all improv-ed cuz we couldnt come up with anything. then the second one, we tell her to raise her hand as in giving the middle finger... lol yea. the others sucked just as much tho, so it was ok lol :D so yea... we ddnt go to bed till like 2am. and got up at 4:30. to get on busses and go to the airport :P cuz some of the kids' flights left really early and blah. lol

AIRPORT: BUENOS AIRES

yea... i was there from about 5am till 1pm... hung out with various ppl, changing as they kept leaving to go to their different host families... not much happened lol we were too tired. lots of funny pics tho of all of us completely knocked out on the airport floor... lol >: )> i FINALLY had some very good coffee ^_^ lol the orientation coffee and of course the airplane coffee was nasty, tasted like cardboard, but the stuff from the cafe was very good... now that i'm eating the "real" food... im gonna get soo fat. tis bad. well no actually starting tomorrow im gonna go running and stuff but ugh the portions are HUGE. like... its practically impossible to ever finish completely what u're given. lol XP

TEMPORARY HOST FAMILY!!!

so yea!! juan (my temp host father) picked me up around 1pm and took me to this country club where he and his wife and their two kids - juanchi, who turned 3 on 8/7, and a baby girl, who's name i forget - spend most of their weekends... it's got tennis, golf, cricket (!) (lol weirdest sport EVER) and in the summer, polo and swimming... very pretty place ^-^
afterwards, we went to mariana (temp host mom)'s dad's house, where he lives with his 2nd wife, and had dinner, which was very good, tho not stuff i really liked. but whatev, i ate it at any rate lol but i was sooo exhausted, as soon as we got home i just went to sleep.
the next day, after lang. camp, it was juanchi's bday, so juan and i went over to his school and met up wtih mariana, then we went to the class.. teh kids all went to this little sitting room type thing iwth a fireplace, and then me and the host parents set up decorations... balloons, etc, and set up a little party, all in the classroom. when the kids got back, they had chips and cookies and such. then the teachers gave them all pompoms and turned music on and they all danced... soo cute!! lol the kids are tiny, 2-4 years old... lol aww! haha yea then they pulled a string from a pinata a al teh movie Cars (which joanchi's obsessed with) and candy and confetti fell everywhere.... by the end, the classroom floor was COVERED in confetti. then we had cake, INCREDIBLY rich cake, lots of dolce de leche in the middle (reallyreallyreally sweet caramel spread thing... very good but only in small amounts... my host fam at least eats a ton of it tho lol) anyways, we had AMAZING steak for dinner.. the beef in argentina truly is the best anywhere ^_^ lol also they eat a lot of pumpkin-like squash that i thought at first was sweet potatoes, cuz it looks/tastes just like our sweet potatoes, apparently their sweet potatoes are completely different tho lol
today, didn't do much.... mariana took me to an amazing ice cream place tho ^-^ so that was cool. i swear theyre trying to make us fat lol

LANGUAGE CAMP

the language camp's been fine... first day especially was pretty boring, cuz i do kno a bunch of the basics... today i knew most of what we did as well, but it was good review cuz at the back of my mind i'd forgotten a lot and so it was good to practice it, remember it all... cuz usually while speaking u concentrate mostly on words/vocab, not grammar lol
the best part of it is talking with the other kids tho... they take us to lunch at this little cafe that has amazingly cheap and amazing food, so its just fun to talk with them a lot... we have fun ^-^ today me, annie (from new mexico) and jenny (from alaska.. actually she went to argentina last summer on the summer program but is back again lol) anyways, we taught joachim (the belgian guy) all the american slang... its funny, west coast slang is SOO different from east coast slang. lol kno how we call the fat over girls hips "love handles?" in belgium they call them "fuck reins" !!!! lmaooooo. >: )> "neukteugels..." haha yea. thats my fyi of the day. at the orientation we learned the origin of fuck: Fornication Under Consent of the King. lol >: )> yea the convo's get pretty "interesting..." haha its SO fun tho. aregentina and b-a are amazing. thats pretty much it. lol ^-^

so yea. thats how it's been so far... i kno its really long but hey. u guys wanted details!!! lol :D but sry if other posts arent as detailed... its sooo time consuming. like it's now midnight and i hav to get up in 7 hrs sooo yea. lol :P anyways, hope everything at home's fine and dandy, and leave a comment!!!! xoxo : )>