School's out!

Today I had my last class of the semester/turned in my final paper/did my final oral presentation and am now officially done! It feels sooo good knowing that I can just relax and try to have as much fun as I can for the rest of my time in Buenos Aires. I'll use my classes as my excuse for not having blogged in a whole month...I'm sorry!

Here are some highlights from the past month:

1. THE WORLD CUP

I've never been much of a sports fan but I have to say I have officially been converted into a world cup fanatic! It's probably because everyone here is obsessed with the world cup and with the Argentine team. It's really amazing seeing how much spirit literally EVERYONE has. I even know lots of people who have had classes canceled if they conflicted with an Argentina game. This weekend, I went with some friends to Plaza San Martin to watch the game against Mexico (which we won 3-1). They show all the games in Plaza San Martin on a giant screen and there are tons of people all decked out in their Argentine colors and it's very exciting. After the game, everyone was SO excited and gathered in a different Plaza in front of the Obelisco, a giant monument, and had a giant party in the street. It's really incredible to see how much spirit the country has and it made me realize there isn't really an equivalent thing in the States.







As of right now, Argentina has made it into the quarter-finals! Very exciting! Their next game is against Germany on Saturday, July 3rd at 3:30 Argentina time (11:30 west coast time) and I highly encourage everyone to watch. I will be!! Some things to look out for:

Lionel Messi - pretty much the star of the team and considered to be one of, if not the best player, in the whole world cup. He is a god. Watch a game and you will understand.
Gonzalo Higuain - another amazing player and has scored the most goals out of anyone during World Cup 2010, across all the teams. He's also REALLY good-looking.
Diego Maradona - coach and ex-super star soccer player. He's pretty crazy and has been in and out of drug problems/other scandals but is very entertaining.
The world cup song!! I'm obsessed:

World Cup song

2. ROSARIO

A few weekends ago I went on another small trip with my program to the city of Rosario.
Rosario is the third largest city on Argentina after Buenos Aires and Córdoba. (I'm planning a trip to Córdoba for next week with my friends before they go home.) Rosario was a lot of fun and it's always nice to go on a trip where everything is already planned for you! We took a walking tour of the city and had some nice meals with our program and hung out a lot at the hotel. It wasn't anything super exciting but really nice to hang out with friends and see something other than Buenos Aires.

3. Trip planning

So my program ends on July 10 but I am not coming home until July 24 because I'm traveling! Plans are still somewhat loose but I'm planning to go to Uruguay and Peru (Machu Picchu!) from July 14-23 with my Tufts/Bay Area friend Molly that was studying abroad in Santiago, Chile this semester. Then on the 24th I come home from Buenos Aires.

Also, songs in Spanish that I am now obsessed with/my friends sing all the time and are played everywhere:

Colgando en tus manos

Mi niña bonita

That's all for now!

El Norte

The weekend after Mendoza was a long weekend in Argentina because Tuesday, May 25th was the 200th anniversary of the revolution that led to Argentina's independence. My friends and I took advantage by going to the north! We went to the small city of Salta and then to the province of Jujuy. The whole trip was absolutely gorgeous and a really nice break from busy, loud city life.

On Friday afternoon we flew into Salta. We checked into our hostel, walked around the town and had a relaxing dinner that ended up lasting about three hours. We were planning to take a bus to Jujuy the next day but we ran into some other IFSA students at our hostel who told us it's much prettier and not much more expensive to take a taxi. Apparently the buses go on a newer road which just looks like a highway, but the taxis still go on the old road. So with five of us piled into a taxi, we made our way to Jujuy. It took about 2 and a half hours and was quite cramped in the taxi but the ride was beautiful. It was so green and lush that we felt like we were in Avatar. We stopped at one point to take pictures, which included an Avatar-inspired photo shoot.



In Jujuy we stayed in the little town of Tilcara, an adorable indigenous town with a stunning view of the mountains. Our hostel was really cute and also had an incredible view. Our first night there, we met some Argentines who were also staying at our hostel. They were planning on cooking dinner at the hostel and they invited us to eat with them, so we ended up eating a home-cooked dinner with a big group of Argentines at the hostel. Afterwards, we went to a cafe to hear live music which was awesome.

The next day, we took a bus to Purmamarca, another small town similar to Tilcara. Since llamas are a big deal there, there were a lot of people selling alpaca sweaters and other knit items. We had a lot fun shopping and looking around. One of the main attractions in the area are the salinas grandes, or the salt flats. It looks like a giant desert except the ground is pure salt. It's really an incredible sight to see, especially with the white salt of the ground in contrast with the blue sky. The strange and stunning landscape makes it a great place to take fun photos! And that's just what everyone does when they go. Here are some highlights from our photo shoot:







And my personal favorite

Wine and paragliding - not at the same time

The past two weekends I've gone on trips, the first being to Mendoza. Mendoza is basically the Napa of Argentina, known for wine and pretty scenery. I went to Mendoza with my friend Charlotte from the program. A bunch of our other friends had already gone to Mendoza a different weekend so they recommended a bunch of stuff for us to do, including renting bikes to ride to the different vineyards and go wine tasting. We were really excited for our bikes and wine adventure but sadly, the weather was pretty bad (cloudy, cold and rainy) and the bike company was not renting out bikes. However, at the bike rental place, we met up with some other students that had also wanted to ride bikes and wine taste so we decided to join forces with them and walk/take taxis together to the different wineries. (Also, it just so happens that they were all Stanford students. Small world.) By the time we got to the first winery, our group had grown to 13 people after some Canadians joined us, as well as an Irish girl and a Swedish girl. Here we all are at a winery!



Another activity our friends had recommended to us is paragliding, or "parapente" in Spanish. Parapente is where you're attached to a big parachute and you run off the side of a mountain and then float leisurely down. I promise it sounds a lot more intense and scary than it actually is. Although the weather wasn't that great, it was still a gorgeous view. We were only in the air for about ten minutes, but I actually started to feel pretty dizzy while floating down, so the short time was fine with me.


View from the top


Getting ready to go!


Woohoo!

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.