Hola,
This past week went by so fast!! Last Thursday, I went to an intercambio at a mate bar. My program organizes the intercambios where Americans and Argentines sit down together and practice English and Spanish. It is a great way to learn and also really fun. We drank a lot of mate, which is the traditional tea that they drink here (some people all day long). Mate is drank from a gourd that you put loose tea leaves in and then pour hot water into. You typically drink an entire cup of mate and then pass it to the next person. Its really strong and high in caffeine. I like it but it kind of gives me a headache. Last weekend I went to La Boca on Sunday which is a really cool neighborhood in BA. Usually when you see pictures of BA on a website there are usually pictures of La Boca. All the houses are really colorful and there is tango dancing in the streets. Its a pretty relaxing day. Also,the soccer stadium is in La Boca and there was a big game on Sunday so it was pretty crowded. The soccer season has actually just begun here and it is a huge deal!! They had not played for awhile because some ordeal with the government not supporting the media to televise the games. My host family is also in an uproar about the government giving $600 million pesos ($1.5 million USD) to support the soccer teams in Argentina. Its kind of crazy that there are people starving all over Argentina that the government cannot seem to help but they can give millions of pesos to support soccer. Last night, I went to a bar where there were tango singers. It was a really cool place with mainly locals. It was a relaxing atmosphere and a nice way to spend the night after a long day of class. This weekend I am going to Bariloche to ski. I leave tonight for my 20 hour bus ride.
Chau!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad´s 50th birthday, so Happy Birthday Dad when you read this. Him and my brother are on their way to Las Vegas right now. So good luck to them.

So I had planned to travel this past weekend, but decided I wanted to save money to travel when it gets warmer. I actually found a trip through the University of Belgrano through a girl in one of my classes to Bariloche in Patagonia. Patagonia is in the southern part of Argentina and is very beautiful and mountainous. My university here offers a roundtrip bus ticket, three nights in a hostel, breakfast and dinner, and two lift ticket for $1045 pesos (about 300 USD). So I decided it could be a really fun trip, which is in two weeks. I am thinking about going on a day trip this weekend to Montevideo, Uruguay which is about four hours on a boat and then a ferry over I think it is the Atlantic. Montevideo is a very old and supposedly very beautiful city. However, this week is Fashion Week in BA and I might stay here to see one of the FREE fashion shows. Free is very hard to find here in the city. This past weekend was pretty relaxing. On Thursday I made a new Argentine friend named Franco. My roommate Liz and friend Jared went to his apartment to hang out with some of his friends on Thursday and Friday night and then went out to a club. Franco works for a club called Lost in BA. He basically gets paid a lot of many to take friends or people he meets out to the club and show them a good time. We got to meet some of his friends who were very nice, and it was a great way to practice Spanish. Most of them can speak English very well but I convinced them to practice Spanish with me. On Saturday, I went to another feria in Plaza Serrano which has a bunch of small resturants, bars, and shops in a neighborhood called Palermo. On the weekends a bunch of local designers go there to sell their clothing. There was a lot of really neat things. I bought a really nice leather wallet for 30 pesos (10 USD). I then had lunch with my Argentine friend Brenda, one of my friends Jessica, Jared, and Liz. Saturday night I decided to take it easy, go to dinner, and went to bed semi early. On Sunday Jared, Liz, and I went to the Planetarium. We paid 4 pesos (1 USD) for what we thought was going to be some sort of a show. It ended up being a walk through tour of what looked like someones science fair project. Liz got nauseous and had to leave. Jared and I were pretty entertained by it. We could understand the woman who lead the tour pretty well in Spanish. At the end of the tour she led us through what was supposed to be an imitation of walking through space. We basically walked on a cushiony floor with these mirror goggles on our heads. It was pretty funny. Sunday night was Brenda´s birthday. We went to a bar with all of her friends and danced. It was really fun. The bar played some really good music: some American but mainly reggaton and salsa type music. We didnt home until around 6:30 am. Because yesterday was a holiday (the death of San Martin, one of the leaders in the war for Argentina´s independence I think) we didnt have class. I went to lunch with Brenda for her official birthday. I had my first Caesar salad since I have been here! Surprisingly it is hard to find a salad with lettuce here. The menu has to say with lechuga (lettuce) for the salad to have lettuce. It was good had some sort of Ranch dressing, so it was different but I liked it. I have also been forgetting to mention that I met someone else in my program in who is in SIFE. For those who do not know, Students in Free Enterprise is the business organization that I am very involved in at Cofc. My friend Nate goes to Graceland College in Iowa, and they have a really good SIFE team. They placed at the National SIFE competition in May that I went to I believe. We have been talking about doing a project at the University of Belgrano. I talked to some of the program directors through ISA here and they told me talk to some of the business classes at my school. I plan to do that within the next month. Also, Brenda studies at a business school in downtown BA. She said she may be able to help with starting a project there as well. There is a business fair in September that I may be able to go to. I´ll keep everyone posted with what happens next. Last night I had planned to go out but fell asleep with my light on. Today I have my Tango class and tutoring pretty soon!.Chau besos (kisses:its a common way to say goodbye here)to everyone!

So I have been trying to update on here more often but everytime I get online, I never seem to have enough time to everything I need to do. It is very frustrating not having internet with my host family because I either have to bring my lap top to a wifi cafe, to my programs office, or to someone elses house. In a way I am glad that I dont end up at my house on the internet all the time, but it would be nice to talk to friends and family on Skype in my own room. This week has been been mostly good but with a few frustrations. On Saturday, I went to what is called "el dia en el campo" which is a day in the countryside. It was a very nice day of just relaxing on what is called an estancia similar to a ranch. We ate the traditional Argentinian style bbq called asado. It was like a Thanksgiving feast. For an appetizer we had ham and cheese and what they call "carne" (they were filled with sausage) empanadas which are probably one of my favorite foods ive had here. Next, they brought us what is similar to antipasta; cheese, lunch meat, and really good bread. They then brough out salad, potato salad, and cow tongue served with eggplant in a spice oil which was actually very good. By then I was halfway full when they brough out the meat which served on a small grill with all different parts of a cow and pig. The meat was very good considering a rarely eat any meat but chicken or fish. Just when we thought we were done with the meal, they brought a second grill of meat with different parts of the cow and pig. And then they brough ice cream for desert. I dont think I've ever been so full. One part of the day that was frustrating was that we ended up staying two hours later because the estancia didnt have enough horses for everyone that wanted to take trail rides. So, we had to stay until everyone got their chance. It was aggravating having a schedule that we didnt follow. The worst part about getting back so late was that it was very dark when we arrived back in the city and we were all dropped off by the university which is very dark and deserted at night. One of the girls was in a hurry to get home and was walking a couple blocks ahead of a few other girls and me. A teenage boy approached her and asked her for money. When she told him she didnt have any he pulled out a knife and asked for her cell phone. She didnt give it to him and the only thing she had in her hand was her ipod so she gave it to him and he left. The saddest thing is that there were two men who walked past while this happened and they didnt do anything. The girl was really shook up by it obviously. I complained to my program that we all should have been dropped of on a main street that was more well lit and with more people around. When you are attacked or robbed by someone here usually people who witness dont help because they think that it is a ploy for them to get robbed. Its really sad. It just makes me have to be extra careful going out at night and not ever walking with valubales or by myself. On Monday, my whole program had to go to get our visas at the immigrations office this week. We had to take two subways and then walk five blocks in a not so safe neighborhood to get there. I was a little angered by my program because they tell us never to carry our passports around the city with us, but to go to the visa office we had to carry with us our passports and 600 pesos (about 160 US dollars). The actual process of getting the visa did not take too long, but some of the other kids on our program had some issues. Our program was responsible for bringing a signed letter of acceptance from the University of Belgrano confirming that all the students in the program are in BA to study in order to obtain a student visa. One of my friends´ letters was not signed by the university, and they made him go all the way back (two subways and about 10 blocks walking) to the university and then back to the immigrations office. Inefficiency can just really bother me at times, but that is part of the experience of being in another country. Other than those two things, the rest of the week was fine. I started a photography class with Argentines this week which was pretty neat. We met at a really old cemetary in the neighborhood called Recoleta. It is the same cemetary where Eva Peron is buried. The professor told us to photograph everything with texture. I will post some of my shots as soon as I can get on my laptop to upload them. This weekend is a long weekend. I was going to travel, but the places I wanted to go are very far and expensive for a long weekend. So I am thinking of just exploring parts of the city I havent seen yet because it is just so huge! I might go see a show because the Tango Festival starts tomorrow which will be awesome!

This week has been another great week. Classes are good but not the most interesting. I have two literature classes, history of latin america and argentina, and globalization of argentina and latin america. Globalization is my favorite out of the four, but the professor talks extremely fast and sometimes mumbles in castellano (the spanish dialect of Argentina). It really forces me to pay attention. Speaking of castellano, I should probably explain what makes it different from Spanish that most of have learned in class in the U.S. Here in Argentina, like most Spanish speaking countries have their own vocabulary which can sometimes be confusing. In BA, the slang is called Lunfardo which can be very difficult to understand. I have noticed it mainly when talking with a group of Argentines that are my age when they talk very quickly to each other. Also, Castellano uses what is called the vos form. Usually when you refer to someone as "you" you would say tu eres (you are), but in Castellano they say vos sos. They also do not stem change verbs in the vos form. For example, I learned that the verb for you have is tu tienes. In Castellano, it is vos tenes. Also, the double "ll" which I had learned is pronounced like a "y" is pronounced "sh". "Y"s are also pronounced with the "sh" sound. It can be confusing, but I am getting used to it. On Tuesday I was out and actually saw one of my friends from Charleston who is originally from BA. He was in town because his grandmother passed away. It was really crazy that I saw him here. I got to meet some of his friends who seemed to be pretty nice. Wednesday night I went to a bar that is actually owned by Americans called the Alamo. It was like being inside an old house, pretty neat. I talked a lot with Argentines in Spanish, so that was helpful. This weekend I am going to what they call "el dia en el campo." You go to what is they call the country and have asado, which is their traditional bbq here or all different kinds of red meat. Its supposed to be a pretty fun and relaxing day. Im pretty excited!

Well, I've managed to survive another week in this crazy place. Buenos Aires is a constant party, but it is way too much fun. I started class on Monday. Class isn't really a big deal the first couple weeks. They have what's called "shopping" for classes where you can just go to whatever classes you think you might like for the first week. I have two literature classes, a history class, tango (which is so much fun!), spanish class to practice grammar, and economics. I like all my professors so far. My economics professor talks really fast though in castellano (the local Argentinian dialect). He seems to really know his stuff, as long as I really pay attention in class. Last Monday, I went to a show called La Bamba. Its a concert with just tons of people standing around a stage of drummers, (similar to an African drumming circle). They play a series of songs. It was so much fun, but very easy to lose your friends. Afterwards, there's a bunch of street vendors selling food. It's really neat. Tuesday night, some of my friends and I went to a bar called Jobs. You sit at big tables with a bunch of people and the waitresses will bring out different games, food,a nd drinks. It's a popular Tuesday night place. We all played Jenga. Wednesday night I went to a local place with some friends. We met some locals who were absolutely hysterical, and we practiced our Spanish and they practiced their English. We taught one of them (Sergio) what it meant to go commando. He then told the waiter that he was Commando. It was pretty funny. Thursday night, a group of my friends and I went to a bar called Sugar. It was a pretty cool place with a lot of locals. We met up with our friend Francisco, who speaks perfect English because he studied at an American school in Panama. He is really helpful in telling us about the city. He then took us to a club called Lost. Lost is what's called a boliche, a huge club with tons of people dancing. I was surprised by how much American music I heard. Friday, all international students don't have class, so my room mate, Liz and I slept in. We've had a lot of problems with out local cell phones. I spent two hours in line trying to get someone to help my fix my phone, that couldn't send text messages but could receive then. I finally talked to someone, and she took my phone for a few minutes and th en told me if my phone didn't work in an hour to call customer service. It still didn't work and the phone line had me on hold forever so I gave up. Luckily, someone in my problem said all I needed to do was take out my battery and put it back in. Sure enough, it had been sending text messages ever since. One of the best things about being in a big city is that there a ton of events that are free. Saturday some of my friends Jared, my roommate Liz, Rachael, Tyler, Tess, and Justin went to the Puma Urban Art Exhibit in the Buenos Aires Auditorium. There was a ton of modern colorful art and also a bike/skateboard competition. I will post my pictures of it as soon as I figure out how to add pictures to my blog. Saturday night, Liz, Jared, and I went with Rachael who is a vegetarian to a Chinese vegetarian buffet. The food was pretty good, except I didn't always know exactly what I was eating. This is a difficult city to be a vegetarian in because Argentina is so well known for its beef. After the restaurant, we went to a different boliche calleed Crobar. It's a pretty exclusive club here. It was a similar atmosphere to Lost and probably even more people. They played a lot of American music and then a lot of American music but in Spanish. Today Rachael, Jared, Liz, and I went to a market called a feria in Recoleta where there were a bunch of vendors selling leather, clothes, and food. We ate rellano which is similar to a calzone filled with different cheeses, tomatoes, or ham. This week professors will probably be giving more assignments. I feel like I may be getting sick, so Liz and I are going to relax and watch a movie. Chau for now!