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 : )>