Distractions

I have already been back from Iguazu for two days and for some reason everytime I sat down trying to write on my blog there was some sort of distraction. Its kind of the same everytime I try to study here. The city in general is just loud and I am always running into someone who creates a distraction. For example, yesterday I wanted to go get my lap top at Jareds where I always leave it and just go there to use the internet. I wanted to use it at the ISA office so I wouldnt get distracted by Jared when I was trying to do research for schoool and actually get something accomplished. I went to his house in the morning and buzzed his apartment (because someone took my cell phone by mistake in Iguazu and wasnt yet able to get it back). Marta (his host mom) answered and said he was still sleeping and to come back later. I went to the gym, showered, and returned later and then no one answered. I decided I would make due without my lap top for the day and just spend all day on it today. I then went to the ISA office to study. Of course everyone in the office yesterday was someone Im friends with and ended up getting distracted several times to talk to them. Not to mention there was also really loud construction in the building that I could only tune out with electronic tango music on my Ipod. Before I knew it I had class, then talked to my parents on Skype, and then went to dinner for Lizzys 19th birthday. I got very little studying done for my final which is tomorrow. However, the Mexican restaurant we went to called Lupita for Lizzys birthday was fantastic. All the food was very flavorful (usually hard to find) and even the margaritas that usually are bad were good. More on my distractions a little later. I have to talk about my amazing trip to Iguazu.

This was our last trip with ISA and they really did a great job with this one. We left Thursday night on a micro (charter bus) drove through the night and arrived in Missiones which is outside Iguazu around 7 am. We went to see these ancient ruins that were really neat but the tour was pretty boring. I dont do well on tours with a bunch of Americans. I would rather just explore on my own. After we drove a couple of hours to what is called a chacra (ranch, estancia in BA). It was really beautiful. It actually reminded me of the plantation I stayed on when I went to Cameroon last spring. There was a nice pool that all the (40 girls and only 4 boys!) swam in and sunbathed. We then had an asado (bbq) and ate a ton of food. We also toured a mate plantation which is the tea that everyone drinks here ( I think i described in one of my other entries). It was pretty neat, I got some interesting photos of how mate is made. After a full day of sun and too much food, we drove another four hours to the hotel in Iguazu. We had another huge meal and then Liz, Lizzy, Rachael, and our friends Fran and Julia and I just relaxed outside by the pool until we went to bed.

Saturday was supposed to be our first big day at the waterfalls. I woke up to torrential rains of course. We got to the park and it only continued to pour harder. We were only able to see one of the best falls that day before they closed the park due to extreme weather conditions called "La Garganta del Diablo"(devil's mouth). We had to walk about a mile on a metal slightly unstable bridge to get to it over a river while it was pouring down rain, extremely high winds, and thunder and lightening. I was pretty sure 4'11" 90 pound Liz was going to blow away. It was definitely worth the walk. It was the most amazing water fall I had ever seen. After seeing the waterfall we had to wait two hours for the train to take us out of the park because it closed due to the weather. Of course there were trees and branches on the train tracks which slowed down the process immensely. Finally after leaving the park, we just went back to the hotel and I studied and relaxed until dinner.

After dinner we saw Griffin and some people in his program who happened to be there at the same time and hung out with them in our room. We decided to go to the only boliche in Iguazu. As we were walking there, I somehow managed to step off a curb and my leg went right into a sewer. Luckily Griffin was there to keep me up or else I would have fallen all the way in. Unfortunately I came out with a giant bloody muddy scrape on my thigh. We got to the club and I asked if they had something to clean my leg with. They at first said no, so Fran handed me a shot of rum and I figured alcohol might prevent any nasty infection I could get from the sewer. The bartenderes later managed to find an old rusty first aid kit somewhere which had perioxide and cotton to clean my cut with. I was ok after that and managed to dance for the next several hours.

The next morning Liz and I did not receive the wake up call we were supposed to have a t 7am and woke up to Paula (ISA staff member) knocking on our day saying we had to leave in 10 minutes. Or course we hadnt packed or anything and had to scurry to get packed and clean up the room. I had set my alarm on my cell phone, because I assumed we wouldnt have a wake up call like the previous morning but it turned out that Griffins friend Skyler took my phone by mistake and that was why we didnt wake up in time. We ended up getting ready just in time to get on the bus where we were returning to the falls to see the remainder of the park. It was a beautiful day for the falls and we got several fantastic pictures of them. Unfortunately I will probably not be able to post them until I return to the states because it takes forever to upload photos here. After a couple hours in the park, we returned to the hotel to prepare for our flight back that night. After returning to BA, I went to an amazing middle eastern restaurant called Sarkees. This food also had a lot of flavor and was actually pretty healthy which can also be hard to find here. I returned home pretty laid absolutely exhausted and pretty beat up especially with my wounded leg. The next morning the extremely annoying man who works at the gym asked me what happened and of course touch my cut causing me pain which I did not appreciate. I understood his concerns but he really gets on my nerves. He always talks to me and touches my face while I am trying to get through my workout. I usually cant get away because I am on the bike or the elliptical. Hes nice but I do not want to talk to anyone when Im sweaty and out of breath.

Today my distractions continued as always. I was planning to meet Griffin before his class to get my cell phone back. I forgot that he had class in a different building than I do. I was supposed to meet him at 950 and realized at 1015 that he wasnt coming because he had class in the other building. I raced to the other building and ended up finding one of his friends who had his number for me to text him. I waited for about 20 minutes when he arrived and said he actually had class at 11 and thats why he couldnt meet me sooner. At least I got my phone back. I then went to the ISA office planning to study for the next two hours until my tutoring session. I got there and saw my friend JEssica and we started talking. I was then told my one of the staff that I had to complete an online survey which took about 40 minutes. My friend Mark then convincced me to go get empanadas with him. By the time we got back it was time for tutoring and I didnt study at all. Tutoring was helpful as always. I feel like it is more beneficcial than studying anyways. For the past four hours I have been at Starbucks, attempting to study but I really just cant get anything accomplished. i actually had to go all the way home to get a different adapter for my charger because the one I had did not plug into the outlet here. So from now until 9 I am going to try avoid any other distractions and really study for once! I have my globalization prefinal tomorrow. If I do well I do not have to take the actual final. ITs my hardest one. Hopefully I can focus long enough to acctually learn something! Por suerte!