Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!!!!!

Hello again!! After another really long time!! Haha sorry!! :S for the first time I’ve kind of been really bad about writing in general.. before I was being really good at keeping a daily journal.. and, well.. that hasn’t gone so well right now; I don’t know why as being summer, I should technically have MORE time to write, but whatever. Anyways, hope everyone’s been having a fun time in school while I’ve been on summer vacation!!! (JOKING!!! Hahaha love you all!!)

So, to start, MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKAY, HAPPY ALL OTHER HOLIDAYS, & HAPPY NEW YEAR!! hope you’ve all had a great time, and hope new year’s is even more fun!!

SCHOOL
I didn’t do much in school after all the last post… I got back all my tests finally, but the last 2 weeks, we really did absolutely nothing. Somehow, not sure how, I passed all my classes, which was pretty cool… technically I shouldn’t have passed the tech class, and I don’t think any normal teacher would’ve passed me, but I suppose the teacher loves me, and passed me anyway haha, works for me : ) I was kind of sad school was over… not sad to be done with tests, but without school I don’t see all my friends every day, and there’re some I haven’t seen since school got out… and for those who are seniors, means I might not see them again, which is sad.
Anyways, the last things that happened in school were the senior graduation, where I sang a song with 2 other girls, then backup to another song a guy sang, so that was fun, I got to know all the people singing better, and it was lots of fun. Then, we had our wonderful “play” we’d made in the Language/Literature class… well I should say the teacher made, because she took all the ideas each class had for “their” season (4 classes – 2A, 2B, 3A, & 3B) and somehow made a play… it was pretty funny, the acts had absolutely nothing to do with each other, but in the end, considering we “rehearsed” a grand total of 3 times, and didn’t once rehearse all together, it came out pretty good, people found it pretty amusing.
I was acting in the fall season, very originally cast as the foreign exchange student, which meant I got to show off my ability to talk with a VERY exaggerated American accent, and then when Argentina appeared to have lost the soccer game against the States, they had me burst into song singing Don’t Cry For Me Argentina… then Argentina ended up winning anyway haha. I think the best part about the play was still when they strung a wire from the window of one of the second story classrooms to the stage and Niko, dressed in a Spiderman outfit, swung down, changed the set, did various acrobatic things, and then climbed back up; it was hilarious. : )> Or when another guy who’s name I forget and Niko fought over a guy named Juan with a blond wig and these huge fake boobs we put on him in a disco, a dance-off where the lyrics matched what they were saying… then it ended with the two guys dancing with each other and Juan storming off… God, that was funny.
I’d put up pictures, but my host mom only brought her camera and none of the pictures came out well… sigh… but I’ll try to get some from other people. They also filmed it, but I’m not sure how much good that would do all of you guys haha >: )> (seeing as the play’s in Spanish haha).
Then, school was over. Well, not for the kids who had failed subjects, they had to keep coming for another week to be able to talk with the teachers and stuff and study for the exams they had to take, which ranged from December 16 to 27. Then, if they failed those as well (as my host sister Sofia failed both of hers, and Maria Paz one), they have to go to summer school in February, and at the end of that, take the exam. Technically, then if they fail only one, they can still continue, and they take it in March, then July, then December, etc. Well, for my host sisters they can only fail one, but in the last 3 years, which are basically high school, you can fail 2 and still continue. Granted, I’m not sure I understand the system myself, but it is VERY different.

Host Family!
So, as I said, Sofi failed 2 materials, and had to re-take them in December, when she failed them again (language & literature, and natural sciences), then Maria Paz failed the same two, but when she took the exams in December, passed the science one. Either way, they’re both going to summer school in February, and my host parents were NOT exactly pleased.
As to my relationship with my host sisters, it’s basically the same as it’s been… with the youngest, everything’s fine, then with the middle one, we’re at least comfortable enough to have small fights… nothing serious or anything, but I guess what the difference between her and Maria Paz is that with Sofia, nothing is fake, and it is VERY easy to know exactly what she is thinking… she’s an incredibly jealous child so there’re days when she hates me and I just ignore her on those days but then most days we’re fine, basically like sisters. But with the oldest, I still haven’t gotten the courage up to flat out talk to her about this, though I know I need to, I know, I know… we’ve been interacting a bit more this month, but we still haven’t had an actual conversation. And that’s just weird when you’ve been living in the same house, in the same room with someone for four months now.
With my host parents, once those three stormy weeks finished, school got out, my host sisters extra-curricular stuff ended, and like everything with this family, everything seemed to just blow over, and pass. As there were only three weeks before Christmas, I’d decided I wasn’t going to talk to them about anything before then, but by the time I’d decided that, I think it was the right thing to do because already for the family everything had passed; basically I’d missed my chance to switch and have it be entirely obvious to the family that it was for the better. To be entirely honest I’m still not sure whether or not I want to switch. I have to sit down and talk with my host parents and lay out what I can, and can’t do by their standards, and also make it clear that I’m scared that once school starts up again, and they have Maria Paz’s 15th birthday party (her birthday is in January, but the party’s in March), I’m scared they’ll get stressed again and it will go back to how those three weeks were. I’m ok now but I don’t think I could live through them again, it was just too tough and not fair for me. However, the problem is that as things are right now, everything is fine with the host family (with the exception of needing to talk with Maria Paz). I’m still pissed as hell that when I got home and no one was home, because my host mom had forgotten to send me a message telling me she’d left the house, and I didn’t have a key, I went to the neighbor’s house and sat and talked with them until my host mom got home, but because my host mom isn’t talking to the neighbors, though they really just don’t care one way or the other, I had to wait for someone to check and make sure my host family wasn’t in sight, then sneak out the side door and walk up as if I was just walking back from my friends’ house. But what was I going to do, stand on the street and wait? That’s INCREDIBLY dangerous where I live. But it’s so stupid that regardless of the fact that if I wasn’t there, I’d be on the street, I think my host mom would’ve kicked me out if she’d seen me. Sometimes I wonder why I didn’t let her see me, cuz getting kicked out would be the easiest way to leave, as it wouldn’t make me have to say I want to leave, when they’re saying don’t leave, we love you, you’re like a daughter, you’re breaking our hearts. But then I also know that’s a bit of an insane thing to do. SIGH.
Just to clarify, I think the whole fight with the neighbors happened right after I posted- basically I got caught in the middle of a fight between my host mom and the mom of the neighbors’ family, that in my opinion was my host mother’s fault, and she was in the wrong for what she’d been saying… if I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, my host mother has a real problem with how she views certain “types” of people, and how she treats them. It’s all kind of blown over, but when before we were always at the neighbors’ house and they were at ours, my host mom forbid all of us to go to their house. Well, it’s hard when you live with one family but secretly side with the other, but I’ve gotten used to just kind of zoning out when my host mom goes on rants. I zoned out the other day when they were going to, and when they did hang Saddam Hussein; I wanted to watch what was happening, on BBC, and when I translated something to my host mom, and she realized what I was watching, she went on a good hour’s rave about how watching that would be horrible for me, and it’s not good to watch that kind of stuff, all about people killing each other and bombs and not caring… ok I have to stop now before I really start on my host mother’s political views. They really piss me off. Anyways I’ve just gotten good at ignoring them, and all the other stupid stuff. Even still, I don’t know yet if I can continue for six more months. SIGH.

CHRISTMAS!!!
This belongs in it’s own section, as the other on my host family was more the issues and relations with them. Anyway, Christmas was lots of fun, but SO INCREDIBLY DIFFERENT!! Enough so, that it didn’t really feel like Christmas, which kind of made it easier as I didn’t miss home so much. There’ve been many times this month, when I don’t want to leave Argentina, I just want to go home. I miss my family, the farm, being able to ride all the places I love riding, school and all of you guys, Peri and all those people and horses, just seeing Baltimore and where I live, being able to play sports, not worrying about being misunderstood… it’s been five months, which is a pretty long time, and it’s usually when I think about how long it’s been since I’ve done this, how long it’s been since I’ve seen these people. The worst times are when I’m at home and bored, and there’s nothing to do but watch TV, and I can’t even get to an internet café in the hopes of talking to someone.
Anyways, Christmas! At around 8pm, my host grandmother arrived, and a bit later my host uncle Christian (the younger of my host mom’s two older brothers) and his family (wife Luli, and kids Santiago, Martina, and Luciano) all came over, and my host dad started the asado grill. The unmarried twin uncle, Federico and his girlfriend had come over earlier, but were having Christmas dinner with her family, and the other twin was having dinner with his wife’s family, and then coming later. Then, everyone changed into relatively fancy clothes, formal at any rate, and we sat down for the “picado” which always proceeds asado, and consists of cheeses, salami, bread, peanuts, chips, those sorts of things.
Once my host grandfather arrived, and the “picado” was finished, there were things like potato salad, that had cold (but cooked) potatoes, carrots, and peas covered in mayonnaise. They’re absolutely OBSESSED with mayo here; everyone uses it on everything. Unfortunately, it’s another thing, like eggs, that I just can’t get myself to like enough to eat, but luckily there was another that was without mayo, as we’d run out. At some point during the salad part my host mom’s oldest brother Alejandro came over as well, so in total we were 14. There was also normal salad, and about 5 minutes later the asado was brought out, which was sausages, other very fatty parts of the cow (it’s so well cooked they need to use the fattiest parts to keep the flavor), and very good chicken.
By around 11, 11:15pm the asado was done, and we all cleared everything, and brought out the desert, which consisted of pan dulce (kind of like fruit cake but not as scary… it’s like a sweet bread with bits of fruit gummies, quite good, then there was also without fruit as Sofia doesn’t like it with fruit), then this thing called Turron, which is like nuggat with peanuts, something called Montecol, which is a wafery chocolatey/peanuty candy bar that for some reason is traditional for Christmas, and chocolate coated peanuts and brown sugar covered peanuts. If you can imagine so much food, that is. Haha, it was a LOT, I didn’t think I’d be able to eat for a week. Then, Sebastian and his family (wife Soraya, and kids Francisco, Malena, and Candela) arrived, though Malena was fast asleep, and somehow managed to stay that way, and Candela, who’d already gotten her presents, wasn’t very interested in much but getting her small hands on any of the treats she could. Of course the other youngest kids (Martina, Maria Luz, Francisco, and Luciano, in that order) were forever asking how much time was left until midnight, when “Papa Noel” was coming.
A little bit before midnight, my host dad and Alejandro managed to get the youngest occupied in the hammock, giving me, Sofia, and Christian time to run the presents from the car into the house, to my host parents’ room. Then, we labeled the ones that still needed to be labeled, and reappeared with everyone else, till about 5 minutes to midnight, when Sofia and Santiago transferred the presents to the floor beneath the little fake tree, and came out, saying only 2 minutes left.
Just as they came out, all of a sudden there were TONS of fireworks (it was midnight). It was kind of like a mini-fourth of July, with everyone setting off their own little fireworks. Most of them were just noise makers, but some were INCREDIBLY loud (the only one to get scared, however, was the cat). The kids were occupied for a short time with their own little poppers, but not for long; they basically knew when all the fireworks started it was midnight anyway.
When we finally said gave the ok, they all took off inside, opened their presents, brought out everything for anyone who was still waiting outside, just like any other small child, the difference being it was at 12:30am, and not at least 7am (as the rule always was in my family, no earlier, as mommy and daddy needed their sleep). The other difference is gifts aren’t exchanged between people; the grown ups buy one or two gifts for everyone (more for the youngest), and label everything from “Papa Noel,” so I didn’t have to worry about getting something for everyone. My gift from “Papa Noel” was a long red tank top, something I could use going out and stuff; red, for some reason, is the “in” color for going out; if you go to a club or party, there will be at least 1 in every 4 people in a red, or red and white shirt, it’s pretty funny. So now I can be one of those people too, haha. >: )> That was about it… around 1:30am Sebastian and his family left, followed shortly by Christian’s family, and I finally got to sleep around 2am. So that was Christmas, well at any rate I thought that was it. Apparently it wasn’t quite over…
Christmas day, I got up around noon, had matte with my host parents, and found out we had so much of the picado, salads, and desert stuff left over, they’d decided to have another asado!! :S Christian, Luli, and their kids all came over again, around 1pm, and the WHOLE thing started over again. Luckily this time, being the daytime, there was a bit more to do then just eat and listen to the fireworks- Luciano had been given a soccer ball, which he’d brought, and I played with him and Santiago for a long time, which was fun, as it’s been forever since I’ve played, and those two boys crack me up. We were interrupted when my family called from the States, though I was rather grateful as I was getting tired- it was INCREDIBLY hot and humid :P The entire time I was talking on the phone however, Luciano kept peaking in to see if I was still talking, then running away when he saw me looking at him, then returning a few minutes later, etc haha he’s a goof.
Then, we all went over to the gated community where Christian and all have bought a plot, and are building a house- it’s almost done. There, Maria Luz and Martina claimed me, saying I had to play with them now, cuz I’d been with Martina’s brothers all morning, and we went off to the swingset for a while, before meeting Sofia, Santiago, and Luciano in the soccer field, where they were playing. It would’ve been a lot more fun if Maria Luz and Martina didn’t get incredibly mad every time the ball hit them, as if whoever’d kicked it had done it on purpose, and there weren’t so many bloody mosquitos. God I hate mosquitos THEY DO NOT HAVE A REASON TO EXISTTTTT. Grr. I have so many bites it’s not even funny. And because the gated community has a man-made lake in it, they’re even worse there. When we got home, no one could eat any more, and the rest of the day was a quiet one. So that was my Christmas! I’ll get back to you about how new year’s goes : )

FRIENDS!
This month with friends has been pretty quiet, I didn’t go to any parties till 6am or anything, mainly because I was trying to keep things really quiet with the family, but also because the one party I was going to ask to go to, at the house of a cousin of a friend of mine, was cancelled when the kid got hit by a car and was killed. That’s not to say I haven’t been hanging out with friends and such, a couple times I went to a couple different friends’ houses to help them study for the English tests, that was fun, cuz we obviously didn’t study the entire time, and it was a way to get closer to some other people.
I’ve read a couple exchange student forums online, and a lot of people complain about not having been able to make any good friends, which I guess just because of how amazingly friendly the Argentineans are, I haven’t had any problem with… they always tell me when a group is getting together to do something, though I can’t always go, and if I say I’m bored there’s always someone who’ll say come over to my house! We’ve also gotten together a few times to just have dinner at someone’s house, we all brought 3 pesos, 2 guys went out and bought the food, then we made dinner, then after watched a movie, that was really fun.
As I said, now that school’s out I don’t see all my friends, but there haven’t been many days when I wasn’t able to do anything, except the few days when I found myself without any sort of money or way to get money, as in late November I decided to be really special and loose my debit card, so I had no way to get cash. I turned in all my bus tickets, which amounted to over 30 pesos, so that kept me going for a while, and I also borrowed some money from my host mom, but there were a couple days when I literally couldn’t do anything but go to my friends’ houses who I could walk to, or my councilors’ if I wanted to use the internet.
As for extra curricular stuff, I’m still riding, and that’s fun… I was supposed to teach for January, and in return have a free lease on a horse, but first the horse had to take the month off, then they’re not sure yet whether or not they have enough little kids that they actually need me to teach, but they said that either way, I can come any day I want to, and we’ll work out when they aren’t using the school horses, or my riding teacher’s horse, so I can still ride whenever and I don’t have to pay more; the difference is just that if I’m teaching, I don’t have to pay, but we’ll see.
I’ve also kept up with my voice lessons, they’re fun, and those can continue through January, and the teacher said that if I want to take lessons in February as well, though the institue is closed I could take lessons at his house or something, so we’ll see, and I also finally found a French teacher, so I can take private French lessons twice a week, and hopefully keep up with all you guys at home, though now I’m not sure with Arseneau leaving and all… oh well.
Well, that’s about where my life is right now… the only other thing to add is that AFS has decided to give us percussion lessons, as they don’t want us to be bored in the summer, we’re going to take them with this street percussion group that also has a school, where there’re a lot of kids from a lot of different backgrounds, and then AFS is going to make a documentary of it, so that will be cool. A couple weekends ago we went and saw them perform, and met the guy who started it all… it looks like lots of fun to do, though actually watching it wasn’t all that fun haha. Afterwards, as one of the girls from Iceland was leaving Argentina to go live with her boyfriend in Chile, we went out to dinner afterwards. She wanted to go out to sushi, so we went to a sushi restaurant, and I ordered the only thing on the menu that wasn’t sushi, but it was fun nonetheless. Oh, and before that we went to Buenos Aires’s Chinatown, that was pretty fun : )> Unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me to take pictures :/ oh well. But yea… haha this was a bit shorter than the others, just a little but hey… 6 and a third instead of 10 or 11 hahaha… yea, I’m special : )> well, miss everyone, hope you all have a great new year, love ya!!! xoxoxoxo don’t forget to write me!!! and check out the pictures from Christmas!!