Monday, April 26, 2010

Estudiar letras es como morir de hambre.

I know, I know, I have been absolutely awful about updating my blog this week. I could lie and say that I have been super busy and had tons of work to do, but that's not entirely true. It's just been a rough week.

As most of you know or at least should have figured out by now, I'm not too crazy about argentina. And that dislike has been getting more and more difficult to handle as time is passing. It's been a rough week because I know that I am unhappy here and I have been having some difficulty dealing with it. I want to come home, I miss everyone dearly and there is no possibility that I can come home. I have exactly ten weeks from today left. I can't wait. Now, you may be thinking, this is the most amazing opportunity and Kristin is getting to see so many amazing things and that is all true, but there is a very large difference between traveling somewhere, seeing how beautiful it is and living there. There have been a lot of things that have contributed to this dislike. I really don't care for the disorganization that is inherent in everything argentine, I really just want someone to get their shit together. I also really really can't handle the food here. They have basically no international food, everyone eats argentine food. My lit professor told me that eating international food was something only rich, elitist people eat international food. So there is not much sushi or chinese food to be found, basically no thai or indian food and I have yet to find any good hummus. The last thing that is wearing on me the most is my relationship with my host mother. I don't care for her at all and in addition, I don't think I am all that good at living with host families, it has never really been a good experience for me. I am thinking about moving houses for my last month, because then I won't have to deal with her. She has been trying to control my diet, what I wear and she sometimes watches me eat. It's really frustrating, anyone who bothers to read this blog probably has met my mother and knows that she hasn't tried to control anything I do ever, or at least in a very long time. I miss her more than you could imagine. Anyways, not to start off on a negative note, although I did, I just wanted to tell you what has been going on in my life and much more important than my classes, this has been going on.

Moving on, this past Monday, I had to go talk to one of my advisors in the program about my diet. I hate eat. All we eat is heavy food and meat and more heavy food and then some more meat. And my host mother has been trying to force feed me and has been yelling at me about wasting food and whether or not I am on some sort of diet. I'm not on a diet (we know I love food too much for that), but I have been trying to eat healthier because you are what you eat and I think it will make me happier if I eat better, if I eat the way I am used to, little to no meat, no salt and fresh vegetables. MM, good. I also eat wheat usually with milk, but I am weird. So I went to talk to them and the first thing they suggested was moving houses but it turns out I had missed the date by 4 days to move and so I would have to live with her until at least the 22nd of May, so they decided to just call her instead. They called and she asked me that night about what I liked and what I didn't. I told her less meat, more vegetables, no salt. She told me she doesn't cook with salt, and compared to most argentines, she doesn't, but I bet she has high blood pressure. I laughed (in my head) when she told me this. We have had meat almost every night this week since that call. Great. It is slightly better though, there was actually lettuce in the house, clean fresh crisp lettuce in the house. I just ate it plain I was so excited. However, she is still trying to "trick" me into eating more and basically, I can't stand her. Hence, I'm thinking about moving anyways.

I haven't really done much else this week, I've had some homework. None of this homework got approached until the last minute though, because someone named Nandita finally reappeared onto planet earth and we skyped for over 2 hours. And then I got to talk to Sean and Erik (and they, and I hope they read this, have no idea how much it means to me that they are always there and make a point to talk to me, because I am lonely and love to be remembered). On Thursday, I went to the first step of getting my residency and was therefore late for class, and that was about it. I went to yoga too, woot.

Yesterday was a fabulous day. I signed up (or rather sean signed me up because I was in class) for this trip through my program (which means they paid). It was an Urban Biking trip to Tigre which is a bit outside of BA. And also, weather permitting, a kayaking trip when we got to Tigre because its right on the river. It's a big river, woah. So, we went, we rode a train a bit out of the city because it's scary. And then we rode our bikes, made a pit stop, had alfajores and mate and then kept on riding. We rode to Tigre, had some lunch and some really good smoothies. The weather was perfect, we went kayaking and it was amazing. We then rode the train back into BA and we were done. I fell asleep on my bed when I got home, had to wake up to shower and eat something and skype with Erik for a bit and then went back to sleep. Now, it is the next day and I'm fully rested but I need some ibuprofen. Yikes.

Anyways, today, I'm going to get some thai food in Belgrano, let's hope it's good. I know, I just keep trying with low expectations and I am going to keep trying. And then I may or may not go to the horse races here, not sure about that. I don't really know what the day holds.

Talk to you soon.

love
un beso
kristin

Sunday, April 25, 2010

At least we still have Cumaná.

My life is like 101 Dalmatians. You know that part where all the dogs start to work together to send messages through each other by barking and barking and barking to each other because that is their only way of communication, well the dogs in neighborhood do that. At any time, it is likely that the dogs will start barking, one starts and then they all follow and it's like I'm living in a Disney movie, except for it's not the cool part of a Disney movie, it's the annoying part for the humans (that's me). I would much rather be in like "Hakuna Matata" or "I just can't wait to be king" or some part of Finding Nemo, pretty much any part, because I don't know if you remember this, but it takes place in Australia and I love Australia and also the fishys are cute.

Moving back into the realm of what is Buenos Aires. I know I have said this many times, but there is not all that much variety in Argentine food, there are even Argentines who will admit to this. So, us Americans we need choices, because I don't know if you know this either, but Americans pretty much do whatever they want, when they want to. I miss this. Anyways, so we have made a list based on research and the suggestions of other (both Argetines and Americans) of new and different places to go eat. We have to do this because if you just randomly choose a restaurant on the street, it will have some combination of the following: meat, empanadas, pasta, possibly casseroles(called cazeulas), possibly some mal-formed variation on the salad, desserts with dulce de leche and bread. That's pretty much it, plus 2x the meat. So we have tried many new restaurants this way, we have tried some awesome and some mediocre vegetarian restaurants. This is how we found Tea Connection and Pura Vida and such delicious and completely americanized concepts such as these.

Moving on, this weekend was a weekend of restaurants given to us on suggestion. First, on Friday, we went to Sarkis finally. This is supposed to be the best Middle Easter/Greek food in BA and has had great reviews on every website we've seen. We have also gotten about a million brilliant reviews from other kids in our program and anyone likely to eat Middle Eastern/Greek food. So, we go to Sarkis, we are expecting pretty much the best dining experience we've ever had, as that is what others have led us to believe. And I will have you know, that is not even remotely what we encountered. We arrived, sat down, were immediately handed English menus without being asked (which was theoretically helpful because the spanish menu didn't contain any descriptions, only names, that's really what menus are good for, nothing). Anyways, so I dare to ask our overweight and very hairy man waiter a question and he doesn't so much as answer as explain to me that a half portion is smaller than a full portion, which is not what I was asking. He says of course we should all get full portions, which leads me to this suggestion, Never take advice on how much to eat from a fat man. This seems logical, and it is, I know, just do it. Moving on again, so we order, we decided to split an appetizer of garbanzo bean pureé a.k.a. hummus. And we all order mild variations of the same thing, some vegetable stuffed with some meat-rice combo. Our hummus arrives with pita, with my food, Lindsay's food and Ami's food. And yes, I think it is weird to get your appetizer with your meal. So, we start eating the hummus which does the trick if you're craving hummus but is mediocre at best (which is really all I expect here anymore). We chow on hummus, Greg tells us it has some sort of milk product on it, because he is having a mild allergic reaction. This obviously points out that something is wrong, because pita bread by design contains no milk products. So we are sitting, waiting, wishing that eventually Greg's food will come out. We sit, we don't eat our food because it would be rude to eat while Greg is starving. The waiter comes by and explains to us how sometimes food takes time to cook and that we should just eat. We try and fail to explain to him that we just don't work that way, we have manners. We sit, we wait, we are still wishing. Time passes. After about 10 minutes, we decide that the three of us have more food than we can eat anyways and give some to Greg so we can all start eating. (For the record, the full portion of grape-leaf wrapped met-rice combo that I order contained around 10 of these things, which leads me to remind you, never take advice on how much to eat from a fat person). So we are all eating and sharing and tasting each others food only to say, yeah that tastes just like mine, only slightly different. The four of us finish all of our food, literally all of our food and sit for another five minutes before Greg's food shows up. And in case you are wondering, he ordered a red pepper stuffed with meat-rice combo. So Greg eats, he starts feeling sick. Ami and I order BaclAva and it finally arrives and it is wonderful, absolutely wonderful and just drenched in honey. Mmm, good. We eventually get the bill and pay the man, making a point not to tip too much because he was basically crap. So, this seems like the end of mediocre Sarkis experience until I make a point to note that Greg is still sick. And after we've been shopping for only a small amount of time, he leaves to find a bathroom and then throws up. Wow, Sarkis, one for the win. He goes home, we continue shopping without having decided if we will return to Sarkis for anything more than the BaclAva. Note of Happiness: It was cheap, we like that, we're easy.

Moving on. Friday night, Ami and Lindsay and I went to see a movie (greg was still sick). It was an Argentine movie and completely in spanish and more importantly, we understood basically everything that went on. It was actually a really good movie and I would recommend it highly.

To Saturday and beyond. We did basically nothing. Eventually we met at Cumaná for lunch because it's real food, it's filling and we know that we like it. No one is going to get sick and we know that it will be a reasonable price. Also, we hadn't gone this week, and it is our goal to go once a week. After Cumaná, we planned to go to the Museum of Fine Arts which is right near that giant mechanical flower. Cool. It is apparently awesome and something you should see and we hadn't yet. Before actually making it to the museum, we got sidetracked. The weather was "horrendous," it was cool and cloudy and it was basically perfect fall weather. There was no one out because it was so "cold." We went to Starbucks, yes starbucks in argentina, because we wanted to walk around outside with our lattes and think of home. It worked wonders. We walked in, it smelled like heaven and we wondered why more argentines didn't appreciate the ability to choose to sit and drink coffee or just walk around in the beautiful outdoors with it (although there were a hefty number of argentines in starbucks and they just opened the 18th one in BA in the barrio of Caballito). I had a Chai Tea Latte and felt happy. We walked to the museum and it actually is something to see. One of the best art museums I have ever been in. There were so many great works, by great authors and although it was a bit confusing, there are just so many things to see. It was awesome, we didn't even finish half before we got tired and ran out of time and decided we would have to return. Really top notch art museum.

Saturday night arrives, it's party night. We have reservations at a restaurant called La Cabrera which is supposed to be really good. We have reservations for 8:30, which is really early, but we also should have called earlier in the week to make reservations, oops. We arrive and are seated. We decided what to eat and eventually out comes this massive amount of food, which deserves the pictures that Ami and Lindsay took. This is a meat place btw. I had order some chicken kabobs and out they came, completely encased in a layer of bacon death. So I had to send them back and my experience was kind of subpar. But Ami and Lindsay and Greg all had wonderful meats and happiness and that is wonderful. We shared a bottle of wine which affected me more than the other because I hadn't really eaten a lot. We got some desserts, Greg got fruit salad and I got the Chocolate Volcano, which was wildly expensive but delicious nonetheless. I think overall this was an alright dining experience, but I doubt we will ever return, it was really pricey and the food wasn't that good, good, not that good.

So, that is pretty much my summary of the past bit. I know I haven't been keeping up with my blog as well as I should have been, but no one was reading it anyways. Also, considering half of my posts are solely about food, it is really no wonder I have been gaining weight. But I started running again (and there ensues the shin splints) and I have been making a conscious effort to eat less bread (of which they provide heaps before every meal) and less dulce de leche. My pants are almost fitting like they used to, get pumped.

Alright, time for life to call in again. Although I have finished my Native American Poetry reading, I still have short stories to read, 3 chapters n Boquitas Pintadas, a 2-page thing to write, an informe to write, a resume to create and a syllabus to translate to english, so I should get on that. Also, I have to go to lunch at Tea Connection at 2:30, because that's what we do.

Also, I finally bought rain boots and according to weather.com, it's never going to rain again. I hate you karma.

lots of love, like lots, also i still need some addresses for postcards if you want one, hmmm.
love
kristin

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Hace frío, no? No, it's 68 degrees outside.

In Argentina, it is polite to make conversation with the man who owns your building. You know the usual hi, how are you? nonsense. Yesterday, I was getting in the elevator and Rueben (the building owner) was shutting the door for me (because we have manual elevator doors). Anyways, we were chatting and he was like, oh it's so cold today, aren't you cold? (as I was wearing yoga pants and an ECU bhangara t-shirt) and I replied no, not really. It was about 65degrees outside. And he goes, oh ok, and I said well, you are argentine, so you're not used to it. And he said oh I guess that makes sense, you are more accustomed to it. Yes, yes I am. I am so accustomed to the cold from my NC upbringing that I can handle 65degree weather, I'm just a bad ass. Also, last night it got down to about 45 degrees, hot damn, it's winter.

My last few days have been mostly filled with the usual, class, yoga, homework, walking around a lot. I have also been to the theater twice this week. Wednesday night, I went to see Much Ado about Nothing, which is Shakespeare and translated as Mucho ruido y pocas nueces. It was wonderful, it stuck mostly to the plot and I could understand mostly everything. The only differences were a few changed names, the fact that it was set on a ranch in the argentine countryside and there were many many singing gauchos (cowboys), it was almost like a musical. It was in fact one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen, but I ended up enjoying it immensely.

Then on Thursday night, I went and saw a play that I was originally supposed to go see with my literature concentration people but Mom was here, so I skipped. But I got the chance to go again, so I did. It was a play called "El pasado es un animal grotesco" or in english, "The Past is a Grotesque Animal." It was written by a young argentine author and it was very very good, or at least the parts I could understand were fabulous. And for the record, I understood most of it. Anyways, it was about the lives of four 25 year olds from 1999-2009, so ten years of their lives. The stage was constantly rotating throughout the duration of the play and there were four rooms. There were also only four actors that each switched back and forth between several characters and being narrators as well. It was quite unique but really quality theater. I enjoyed it a lot. I also bought the book, the bilingual version, if anyone is interested. It also came with a cd and the whole thing was only 25pesos, which is about $6. I am really glad I had the opportunity to go.

When I walked home last night, it was cold and I was wearing boots, and a sweater and a scarf and my leather jacket, I was immensely happy.

Also, I am currently sitting in my room, I should probably go somewhere as the housekeeper really seems to want to "clean" my room, by moving all my things around but I don't have anywhere to go right now. In a little bit, Ami and I are going to walk to meet Greg and Lindsay at a restaurant called Sarkis, which is apparently amazing and we are missing out.

Also, on Wednesday, Lindsay and I went to an all-you-can-eat vegetarian buffet in some unknown part of the city and now it is one of our new favorite places to eat. It was simply amazing.

I think that's all. I'm listening to MGMT, congratulations.

love
kristin

Monday, April 19, 2010

So these argentines, they know as much about nutrition as I know about football.

So, I just need to rant a little because you all know what a health nut I am. And I know two posts in one day, what is the world coming to? Shouldn't I be doing homework or facebook stalking someone, you're probably right, I should be.

Anyways, today was when I was in the IFSA office, I had a discussion with another girl from the program and then one of the people who works in the office about how little Argentines know about nutrition. And I literally mean, they know nothing. this discussion arose after I had to speak to Patricio, the guy who works in the office about how my host mother is trying to force me to eat, is getting mad when I don't eat enough and now watching me eat. That's uncomfortable.

Anyways, so we were talking about how little they know and even Patricio said that Argentines have the worst eating habits in pretty much the entire world. So here are a few things that I've noted that pertain to how they view nutrition:

1. My host mother doesn't eat bread....but she eats crackers, as if they are different. Apparently to Argentines, crackers are healthier, this is not something I knew before.

2. Peanut butter is unhealthy, especially compared to cream cheese, which is really healthy because there is a "light" version.

3. Putting sugar in your coffee is bad for your health, but eating dulce de leche is not.

4. Drinking milk is not important. In fact, the only dairy you need is cheese.

5. Breakfast is not important, not just a big breakfast, no breakfast at all is just fine. If you do however choose to eat breakfast, toast with lots of butter and jam or massively buttered croissants will do the trick.

6. Eating dinner and them immediately going to bed is just fine.

7. Every meal should have meat in it, large portions.

8. Every meal should have bread in it, large portions.

9. No food can taste good unless it is seasoned with salt. Only salt and lots of it. Pepper doesn't exist here.

10. There is no such thing as too much mayonnaise and there is nothing you can't put mayonnaise on, including tomatoes and butternut squash.

So, I'm sure there are other falsities that I have simply blocked out, but these are the basics and if you remember them, you can survive in Argentina. Aren't you lucky?

Also, reading this, it's not wonder I have gained weight huh? Also, they put dulce de leche on everything and they have some pretty awesome desserts. They also have a high percentage of anorexia, because they only way to be skinny is to not eat anything. In fact, it is estimated that eating disorders are 3 times more prevalent in Argentina that in the United States. 1 in 5 women in the United States struggle with an eating disorder or disordered eating. That means 3 of every 5 women you pass on the streets in Argentina either have an easting disorder or disordered eating. That is just epically sad.

In case you are wondering also, I did nothing of importance today. I went to class, it was long and boring and I ate a 4peso sandwich, that's like $1.

lots of love
kristin

p.s. don't fret, of course i still eat. i love food, not argentine food, but still food in general.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Let's talk about some uruguay.

I really want to take a nap right now. I think I will.

So I went and took a nap, you just can't tell, because this a blog.

Anyways, I went to Uruguay Friday and Saturday. It was a program trip, there were supposed to be two trips with the program, included in the fee of course. I don't think the other one is actually going to happen, which might be better, because traveling with that many people is a bit chaotic. There were 75 of us and that is only half of the group.

So, we had to be at the buquebus station at 8:30 am. That is a ghastly early hour and I did not like it. I also discovered this morning that my host mom makes the coffee the night before and we re-heat it, this explains why it sucks. That's not the only reasons it sucks, but its a contributing factor.

Anyways, so I get there, we get on the boat after getting our passports stamped, woot. I get coffee, take some pics and then sleep for the rest of the trip. We get to Uruguay, we meet Mario (our program director) and take two giant buses to his house which is also a bed and breakfast. It was beautiful, they fed us really well. I ate barely any meat and some really good sweet potatoes. He has a pool and we walked to the beach which is actually a river. It was amazing. Later we got to our hotels and then went on a city tour at night. It was a bit chilly but gorgeous and you could see all the stars perfectly. After this, we went to the retaurant that the program had rented out for the night. In the back room, where we sat of course, they had a projector screen on the wall playing Britney´s single collection. It was fabulous. We had delicious food and something called Clerico, which is really fruity and diguises alcohol, we know now how to get Greg drunk, he loved it. After dinner, we slept.

Saturday, I woke up and had breakfast after checking out of the hotel. Greg met me at the hotel and we met Lindsay and Ami who were staying in a different part of town. We had already decided that it would be super fun to rent bikes and ride them 5 km to the Plaza del Torres, which is a no longer in use bullfighting stadium. It´s in danger of collapse. Also, bullfighting is still legal in Uruguay but not in Argentina. So we walked around, taking pictures and looking for somwhere to rent bikes. We ended up renting them at the Thrifty for 3 dollars per hour, which we thought was completely reasonable. We rode our bikes, it was super fun, we got stalked by a stray dog which kept biting me and we finally made it to the Plaza del Torres. We walked around the fence, which had barbs and took pictures. We then decided to climb through the hole in the fence to take pictures of the inside. Ami is short, it was easy for her, I am not, it was not easy for me. We then decided to ride back to town and return the bikes. On the way back, I was in front and therefore, in the danger position. There was a bad spot in the road and I was going to fast for it. I hit the rock or something and according to Lindsay, I completely flew over the handlebars. She said it was epic and scary, but it makes sense since I have a huge perfectly straight bruise running up my shin. Please refer to facebook for the pictures Lindsay took immediately afterwards, I´m bamf. Yeah. We got back, returned our bikes, had some lunch, got confused by converting currencies and walked around town taking pictures. At one point Ami and I decided to get ice cream, it was artesenal and the best ice cream ever. After that, we walked to the artisan fair (I´m having difficulty spelling) where everything was from China. We went back to our hotels, got our stuff, took a cafe and returned to the buquebus to return to BA.

There was a lnog bus ride, I slept and wrote postcards. There was a singer on the boat, who was singing songs in english, but didn´t actually speak english, making for an intersting show. She also had a platinum blonde hairpiece. Also interesting.

When we got back, we took a bus to this sushi restaurant that Greg had wanted to try. The salmon rolls that Lindsay and I got were really good, but the tuna was canned tuna in a roll, making for a completely unpleasing sushi roll. Overall, the food was good, but sadly, diversifying your palate in this city is very expensive.

Sunday, I slept in, went running, worked on some stuff for my internship and met Lindsay, Greg and Ami at the other tea connection for lunch. We have decided we like this tea connection better than the other, because the staff don´t seem to resent our existence. Also, I had there smoked salmon salad which I would highly recommend to anyone and everyone.

I´ve been eating less to avoid gaining more weight and so now, my host mom watches me eat.

Today, I had to get up and come to the program office to fill out a form I was supposed to turn in last week, but didn´t. Now, I´m in the office, but I have to leave for class because I have to take the slowest subte ever, it was built in 1913. It´s still the same one.

Anyways, talk to you later, lots of love
Kristin

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Part 2.

Wednesday, April 7th: I spent the night at Mom's hotel and we woke up and went to La Biela together for breakfast. This is a place you should go, it's one of those really cool old cafés in BA and it has a gorgeous patio under a massive tree. They also have scrambled eggs. Oh and they charge more to sit outside, they know it's a cool place to be. We then went to the cemetery and spent many hours goofing off. Mom doesn't have all that much respect for the dead, hehe. And then we went to the flower and Mom sat while I took pictures.

You know honestly, I can't remember all the things we did. I took pictures of the important things, but if I ever want to finish this blog, I just need to say, ooohhh look at my pictures. I know we went to the National History Museum of Clothing and it was awesome and then I had to write a review about it for class.

I am in the process of posting pictures. Also, I miss mom and wish she could visit again.

As for the past week, because I did absolutely no work while mother was visiting, I worked this week, a lot. I read all day sunday for class monday. And then monday and tuesday, I had class all day. Wednesday, I read all day for class on Thursday and wrote a a review on the museum and then I did some grammar practice on the subjunctive, which I hate. Also, on wednesday, I went to San Telmo with Ami and I bought some shoes, because I am sorry to inform you people, but not only did my most favorites gladiators die this past week, my black flats also died. This means that I had to go buy shoes, and I literally mean had to buy shoes. I'd worn the others out. When I come back, I am going to look ragged and horrible and I will have holes in everything I own. Also, it rained and rained and rained and rained and rained this week. Tuesday, rain. Wednesday, rain. Thursday, rain. It was like I was living in London. Also, when we went to San Telmo on Wednesday, Ami and I took the C-line, which smells like plague and goes to Constitucion (where you should never go) and got off at a stop that was right beside the highway (bad place). Also, for funsies, the C-line is the only subte in the city that runs from north to south and vice versa, the subway system here works as well as everything else in Argentina.

Also, for a a class, I'm reading a book called Boquitas Pintadas by Manuel Puig and I actually really like it. Don't tell anyone else in my program, but I really do.

Oh, so I know this is the most ADD post ever, but I am going to Uruguay tomorrow, just to Colonia. Also, I need to go to sleep, because I am so tired and also I have to get up really early tomorrow.

Alrights loves, until saturday, or rather most likely sunday,
Kristin

P.S. If you don't watch Glee, your life is probably incomplete, so start now, you are only 14 dazzling episodes behind. do it.

Monday, April 12, 2010

The Return of the Worst Blogger in the History of the World.

Ottoman couch, how handsome your furniture.

I listen to too much Vampire Weekend, you should too.

Anyways, so I have returned and my life has started to calm down a bit. In fact it has calmed down so much that I have more than enough time to sit at home and do my homework. This is disgusting, thank god I'm going to Uruguay this weekend. That makes me sound way cool.

So it seems that we have lost a week in time, so I plan to review what happened or qué pasó this past week. I am going to do this while I transfer things to the new external Ben sent me. Apparently, my computer is so full that I can't even update it, damn. So, as you know Mom was here visiting for the past ten days, well she left on Saturday and yesterday, I had to read 80some pages in Spanish of Native American short stories, mmm fun. In more recent news, I am now addicted to plums, peaches are out of season and I am starting to see people I recognize in random parts of BA. Also, for those of you who haven't talked to me recently, my hair is long, like woah long and it doesn't seem that I will cut it until January and my return to Duke, who knows if I will sit on it by then.

Sorry, the ADD is acting up, the past ten days.

Thursday, April 1st: My mother arrives in the morning. I wake up and walk to meet her at her hotel after breakfast. I bring her chocolates from Bariloche and I buy flowers on the street, she is lucky to have me. We meet, we hug, we kiss and then we go find food. She's been on a plane for many many hours. We walked to my house at some point and had coffee with Ami. I don't remember if we did anything else. And then that night, because Aleea and Netty are bad influences, Ami and I went out. We met them in Palermo and ended up going to transvestite night, called Club 69, at Niceto Club. It was super fun and I shared two choripans with Aleea and Netty in the middle of the night. I didn't really sleep, neither did Ami.

Friday, April 2nd: We fly to Iguazú Falls and go to the hotel. We have lunch and go to the park. A remise driver tries to cheat us but we end having an alright day. The falls are beautiful and at some point I will post pictures, right now though I have nowhere to put any pictures. I have some emotional instability based on lack of sleep and personality disposition. We eat dinner with Lindsay, Greg and Ami. We sleep.

Saturday, April 3rd: We wake up, have breakfast. The hotel realizes there are three people in our room. We return to the park after checking out of the hotel. We make it to the boat on time. WE RIDE A BOAT INTO THE WATERFALL. Our lives are cool. We ride the boat down the river and then ride on a truck thing back to the entrance while getting a talk about the biology of the place. We get a taxi to the airport and return to Buenos Aires and I can't remember if we did anything else. But it was Aleea's birthday!!!! So at some point, I go to their hostel and we wait for the guys, Scott and Dan (Thon) to arrive. We go to dinner and are obnoxious, but it's fun. We return to the hostel to wait to go to Pácha and run into Matt, haha. We go to Pácha and lose Scott and dance and make fun of people and have a wonderful time. Please refer to the facebook pictures if you are curious. We leave Pácha and have the best hamburgers ever from a stand on the side of the road. Ahhh!!! I return to the hotel because we are going to San Telmo in the morning, yet again, insignificant amounts of sleep.

Sunday, April 4th: We get up and take a bus to San Telmo for the market. The city is relatively dead, everyone is at church, it's easter and all. We have coffee and a concept of breakfast. We walk around forever and buy some things. I got a hat which is the most exciting thing to happen to my abnormal head ever. We came back from San Telmo and I think I took a nap, I can't remember which is why I am not good at this blogging for the past thing. Oh I remember, Mom and I ate dinner at Tea Connection!!! I didn't finish my reading, turns out it wasn't due then anyways.

Monday, April 5th: I got up at my house and ate breakfast. Then I went to Las Violetas again because I had a meeting with Patricio. We chatted, he told me my spanish was good and that was about it. Then I went to my four hour class at UBA. Afterwards, I met mom and we walked to Santa Fe and went to the bookstore. Then we went and ate at La Cholita because mom didn't want to walk far. I walked Mom home after dinner and that was about it.

Tuesday, April 6th: I stayed at my house again because I had to go to class in the morning, However, I didn't have my afternoon class, so I came back and met mom for lunch at Pura Vida. We decided we were tired after this and went and took naps and did nothing, literally nothing. We met Lindsay, Greg and Ami for dinner. We had delicious food and got Mom addicted to empanadas and that was that day.

Sorry, I know this is basically pointless, but I can't remember all that much in the past.

I will finish later, this is part one.

besos

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

This is going to be short.

First of all I want apologize for being the worst blogger ever. Since Mom got here, I have barely had the chance to check my email or respond or facebook or anything including my blog. She got here and we hung out and got her settled and the next morning we flew to Iguazú Falls, definitely no internet connection. While she's been, it has also been Aleea and Netty's last few days in BA, so I have also been spending a bit of time with them, since they are in Bolivia now. Anyways, we came back from Iguazú, it was beautiful and I will tell you more and I have had class and mom time and so much more. Anyways, I don't know if I will have time to update or upload pictures until Mom leaves which will be on Saturday (and at some point I should do my homework), but I just wanted to let you know that I hadn't forgotten about my beloved blog and give you something to know what was going on.

So the moral of the story is, I will be back and it's mother's fault.

love love love