Beth - 1 Argentina - 1

Although I've been here three months now, I still find myself frustrated by the language barrier all the time. Even though this is to be expected, I find myself still feeling very self-conscious about my speaking and frustrated that I can't understand more than I do. However, in the past couple weeks, I've had a couple experiences that made me quite proud of my attempt to get by in Spanish.

First of all, I had my first exam in a real Argentine class with other Argentine students and I passed! Not only did I pass, but I did really well! It was my Psychology class at Universidad de Salvador. Since there were a lot of people that didn't pass, I was pretty surprised at my grade, but hey, I'm not complaining.

Also, this past week I went to the doctor because I had a swollen lymph node in my neck. It didn't hurt and I had no other symptoms, it was just very swollen. I was really nervous to go to the doctor and have to navigate my appointment in Spanish, but I managed! (And in case you're wondering, she gave me antibiotics and ibuprofen and it is definitely getting better.)

I'd say these two things make the score Beth - 1 Argentina - 1, in the game of Beth living in Argentina.

My trip to Uruguay (or how I found the site for my Latin American wedding)

Last weekend I went to Uruguay on a trip organized by IFSA. We went to the little historic town of Colonia, across the river from Buenos Aires. Although we had a lot of fun exploring the town (we even rented motorbikes to drive around town), the highlight of the trip by far was going to Mario's house outside of Colonia. Mario is the program director for IFSA in Argentina and owns a house/bed & breakfast near Colonia with his partner, Sergio. The place is called "La Casa de los Limoneros" which means House of Lemon Trees and it certainly was. The property was full of rows and rows of beautiful lemon trees, among gorgeous flowers, a pool and some very happy dogs. When we got there, the staff that works at his house had prepared an amazing barbeque lunch for us. The whole scene was so idyllic it felt surreal. It reminded me of how I felt living in Annecy in the French Alps last summer. After we ate, Mario led a group on a walk to and down the beach, in case the day wasn't perfect enough.

Yanqui Blanca

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've had some difficulties with people being able to say/understand my name here, particularly with the women who work at the "lavadero," the place where I go to get my laundry done. Now when I go to the lavadero, I just use my middle name, Clara, because that they can understand...or so I thought. However, when I went to pick up my laundry a few days ago, I saw that my laundry bag was not labeled Clara, but rather "Yanqui Blanca." For those who don't know, "Yanqui" is pronounced like Yankee and is a slang word for Americans, (kind of like "gringo" is for a White person) and "Blanca" means White girl. Therefore, I now know that instead of knowing me as Clara, the laundry women know me as the White American girl. In the ongoing battle of Beth assimilating into Argentine culture, this means Argentina-1 Beth-0.

Waterfalls and Run for Water

The past two weeks have been lovely, since my parents were visiting! We had a lot of fun doing touristy things around BA, like going to a tango show and taking a tour of the different neighborhoods of the city. One of the highlights of their visit though was our trip to Iguazú Falls. The waterfalls were absolutely incredible!








We took some walks around different points of the falls and also took a boat ride that takes you right up next to them. We got SOAKED so it reminded me of a water ride...except it's real life.

We were there for a full weekend, which some say is too long there, but it actually worked out great because it made our trip super relaxed and gave us time to see the falls and hang out around the hotel.

The other highlight of the past week was today I ran 6K in the Buenos Aires Run for Water, or as they call it Maratón del Agua.




Run for Water is a 6K race in lots of cities around the world that raises money/awareness for places that don't have easy access to clean water. My friend India and I ran the race together and it was so much fun! India had done a bunch of races like this before but this was my first one so it was very exciting for me. There were probably about 8,000 people there so it was a huge event. The running aspect was definitely challenging, but I hardly walked at all and I ended up with a better time than I expected so I'm happy. Here we are before the race looking all official with our numbers.

Project Glacier

This week I was in Patagonia! For those who don't know, Patagonia is basically home of glaciers, hiking or "trekking" as they call it here, animals and lots of other outdoorsy stuff. It's also absolutely gorgeous everywhere you look. I went with two girls from my program, Charlotte and Lindsey. We got there on Tuesday around noon and went to our hotel in El Calafate, the main town in Patagonia. Since our plan was to go to the Perito Moreno glacier the next day (the main glacier/tourist attraction around there), we decided to take it easy Tuesday and hung out around Calafate. We were all really enjoying being out of the city and breathing in the fresh, clean Patagonia air.

Wednesday morning we got up to hit the glacier bright and early. It's an hour drive from Calafate to the glacier. When we paid for the hotel, it included transportation to and from the glacier so we had a car come pick us up. We stopped at one point to get out and take pictures because it was just so beautiful.


When we got there, we decided to take a boat ride that takes you up close to it. The boat ride was full of tourists but it was still incredible. I was amazed at how blue the glacier was. I guess I didn't know what to expect but it was full of all different shades of blue.


After the boat ride, our car took us to the "balconies," a series of stairs you can walk on that take you to different views of the glaciers. I'm pretty sure this wasn't still Perito Moreno glacier, but a bunch of different glaciers.


The next day, we decided to go horseback riding! I hadn't really been horseback riding before so I was a little nervous...ok, a lot nervous. But overall it was really fun and SO beautiful.




Anyway, that was my trip to Patagonia in a nutshell. It was really nice to get out of the city for a few days and be in such gorgeous scenery. Now, as I'm sure everyone that's reading this blog knows, my parents arrive today! They will be here today, Monday the 5th, through the 17th. I'm so excited!