From China to Argentina, I cannot believe it! This has been an amazing experience and I still cannot believe I am in South America. But anyways starting from the beginning the plane flight here went pretty smoothly, except my luggage. I was over by 10 lbs.. which I don't understand because it is less stuff that I brought to China. They were going to charge me 100 bucks but then I begged and let me go. When we got to Buenos Aires we headed to Casa Holden (the Pepperdine house) it is located in Belgrano, which is an amazing neighborhood, extremely nice. We had orientation right away and then asado which is equivalent to an American BBQ. We had hamburgers and asado (beef hotdog looking thing, really good). We have asado's every Thursday for lunch at the Casa Holden. The rest of the week consisted of intensive spanish and other orientation meetings. Since I haven't taken spanish for 3.5 years and since by some miracle I tested out of two classes of spanish I am taking the third level of spanish here and it is taken up a lot of time, but it will be worth it in the end! Then on Saturday we went to an estancia or ranch. At the ranch we had asado once again, rode horses, played futbol (soccer), swam and talked with everyone and met the people I did not know. It was an amazing experience (Pictures below)! OO yeah and of course my homestay family! My homestay mom picked me up from Casa Holden on the first day I arrived in Buenos Aires. She is extremely friendly and an awesome person. I have a two brothers Fernando who is 21 (lives at the house with us), Edurado who is 26 and then Alejandra who is 28, both of them have moved out. My room is big and I have air conditioning which most people don't have the luxury of having and it helping in this 95 degree weather. My homestay mom use to own a coffee shop at a popular port in Buenos Aires but sold it since it took up her life. Our place is really nice and I feel extremely blessed to be living here. Also I am only two blocks from school, it takes me 3 minutes to walk. Most of my friends are 16 blocks or more, for some people it takes 45 minutes to walk to school. But anyways from what I hear my house is the place to be for Fernando and his friends on the weekends so I am excited to meet them! On last Monday classes started and so far everything is going well. Here are the pictures from my first two weeks:
My homestay mom!!!
The street I live on Teorodo Garcia #214!!!
This guy did some crazy stuff with this horse, but here they are resting
Riding the horse at the estancia
Welcome to the world of Asado!
After the first week of school we heading to Gualeyguaychu, about a three hour bus ride from Buenos Aires. We headed to Gualeyguaychu for the carnival! The carnival is an amazing experience and a great way to see the culture of Argentina. It has very elaborate costumes, floats, bands etc...its a parade pretty much. But anyways before the carnival we stayed in this pretty bad hostisle...the owner was drunk and his pants were down when we got there...perfect haha. Anyways we slept there since the city is dangerous at night and we didn't want to walk around to find another place to stay, we only stayed here one night. The next day Saturday we went around the city and explored. It is a very small town but pretty nice. We were in a group of 20 people so it was pretty funny seeing everyone's reactions when they saw 20 Americans walking down the street. The carnival started at 930 so before that we got a chance to hangout with the locals and other Argentines at the river, which was epic! After the carnival we were forced to sleep at the bus station, which was horrible, but an adventure. We were being eaten alive by flies and we were extremely dirty so was the station but we are in college right? Anyways we made it home all right here are the pictures from my second weekend in Buenos Aires:
Walking around the town before the Carnival!
Constance and me hanging out at the river
Hanging out with SOME locals and other Argentines before the Carnival!
The Carnival next couple of pictures:
Currently I am in 2nd week of school and I have been keeping extremely busy since I have presentations already, quizes and essays! Also I have the Beyonce concert this Friday and I leave for Patagonia on Saturday morning so I am also getting for that, which should be epic!
I AM LIVING THE LIFE; I AM SO BLESSED
Look for my next blog soon, probably once I get back from Patagonia which is home to the glaciers of South America!
Also my next couple of blogs will talk more about the culture here, how Buenos Aires compares to Shanghai, daily life for me, nightlife etc..GET READY!
Miss you all!
Adios!
No comments:
Post a Comment