Bariloche

March 26- Casa Holden

So I have noticed that as the semester as gone on i have gotten progressively worse at updating this thing. ooops. haha

but so anyways, the updates in my life...

my parents and brother were down here and it was great to see them. it was fun to take them around the city and just show them all the things that i have talked about so much since i have been down here. we had dinner one night with my host family which was great that they got to meet them and my host brothers and everyone. but i said goodbye to my parents on tuesday night because they were leaving early in the morning to go to Peru and then i left thursday morning to spend easter break in bariloche, patagonia.

but bariloche was great. it was definitely beautiful and wonderful to be back in the mountains. it is also more or less lake country and so while we were there we did a lot of lake tours and all. the hotel we stayed at over looked the lake and so it was amazing to walk into the lobby in the morning and see the blue water.

anyways, bariloche... i went with my friend amy, kelsey and then amy's sister mom and dad. so it was a great group to hang out with. but we landed around noonish on thrusday and went to the hotel and dropped off our bags and everything but then we had the afternoon free so we went into the "town" part and ate lunch at this small pizza place that was really good. funny story... we randomly ran into another pepperdine student that went to bariloche for the weekend to in front of the pizza place later on during the break and he was sitting there because he was staying with his aunt and his uncle and his uncle owns that pizza place. crazy. but yeah anyways, after pizza we walking to this center area of town because they had a bunch of St. Bernard dogs and puppies sitting around in the square. they do this because you can get your picture taken with one of the dogs for 10 bucks. definitely a tourist trap but oh well you could pet them for free and they were definitely so cute!! they also had a bunch of logs where they were about to being a wood craving competition. we saw the finished products a few days later and it was crazy to see both the before and the after. but then anyways, after that we just walked around the town. bariloche is the chocolate capital of the world so we bought and ate some great chocolate and helado during the entire trip. but then after walking around dinner we went back to the hotel and swam in the pool that has both the inside and then a tunnel to the outside which over looks the lake and the water is heated so it was wonderful. but then after dinner we just went to bed because we had to leave the hotel at 8 am for a lake tour.

the following morning we had to wake up really early to leave the hotel to get to the otherish side of town where we jumped on to a boat and toured the big lake that is right in front of bariloche. it was fun to tour around and then to be able to get off the boat and "hike" around. we also went to this lake called lake frio which is some lake right on the boarder of chile and argentina. it was pretty relaxing and we didnt do much but it was a really long day (we were on the boat/lakes for 12ish hours) so after a great dinner of wonderful argentine food we went back to the hotel and watched mystic river with amys parents and then went to bed.

the next day we also had to be up early but this day was a bus tour of 7 lakes. i dont remember why it was 7 or what was important about these lakes but we basically spend the entire sitting on the bus driving around these lakes. it would have been funner for me at least if we could have walked around the lakes and been able to see more of them than just driving around but oh well. it was still fun. the tour was also entirely in spanish but i understood most of it. so that was pretty cool. i guess i am starting to get better at spanish than i think i am. but anyways on this tour we saw the shortest river in the world and also a river that branches off to both the altantic and the pacific oceans. very cool. but anyways, we drove to the borderish of argentina and chile again and had lunch and ice cream and time to just walk around there. but then we got back in the bus and had about a 3 hour nothing exciting not even driving past lakes trip back into bariloche. but then we went and ate a great dinner of steak and cheese founde which was very interesting considering that i have never had founde before but it was definitely delicious. but then after that kelsey, amy, amy's sis and our friend mike that we randomly ran into in front of the restuarant and i all went out to a couple of bars and talked and had a few drinks and everything. they definitely have a really huge night life there and some of the clubs are supposed to be amazing but we didnt go to any of them and didnt really get to into the night life just because we were so tired from the tours and adventure and everything before.

the following day we got to sleep in a little bit. we didnt have to leave the hotel until 1 so amy, kelsey and i ate lunch at the hotel and it was great food! argentine food is already really good but the food in bariloche was even more amazing for some reason. but anyways after lunch we got on the bus and headed back to the dock where we got on the boat and went to victoria island. supposed the forest on the island is where disney got its inspiration for bambi, however there was a small piece of paper sign from disney saying that this was false and that bambi was created in the 30s and disney visited the forest in the 40s. haha but it was definitely hilarious to heard the portenos claim it and talk about it all the time. but the trees on this island were definitley tight and different that any other trees that i have ever seen. but after that we got back on the boat and went to a different part of the island where we supposed to go see cave drawings and everything but we decided to ditch the group and went to the beach were amy's sis and mom swam in the freezing cold lake and were we had an easter egg hunt (this day was in fact sunday) and i happened to find the golden egg were the prize was a pack of dulce de leche oreo's. hahaha great times! I'm really glad that we can all be 19/20 and still have a great time finding Easter eggs in the middle of a forest somewhere in the middle of Argentina. haha but then after our excursion, we went to a brewrey for dinner and i tried a raspberry beer but considering I don't like beer it still tasted nasty. Then Kels, Amy and I watched this movie called Match Point and it was really weird but still good at the same time.

The following morning, we woke up and packed up and checked out. Then we walked down to the lake for a few minutes before we had to leave to go to the airport. From there it was an uneventful flight back to BA, an interesting cab ride back to Casa Holden where we had to tell the driver where to go because he didn't know the streets and couldn't follow his own directions. haha But once we got back, I went home and unpacked and checked my email and all that and then later that night went out to Acabar to celebrate one of the girls bday.

Yesterday was also an uneventful day of classes and relaxing between classes and all that. And so far today has been the same. I have a lot of homework that I have to get done and also I am going to try to finish the book that I have been reading. It is definitely great and I have time to read.

But anyways, I'll get the Bariloche pics up soon and send out an email when I do!

Chau for now!

The LIfe of Jessie

March 13- Casa Holden

So once again it has been a little while... sorry about that. This week has just been filled with classes and studying. My parents arrived down here yesterday and so i have been hanging out with them which has been great... my computer died the other day. like completely died... i cant even turn it on anymore so we bought a new computer and my brother is bringing it down on sunday when he comes down. at least it was good timing but what a pain in the ass. but yeah. i dont really have much else to say i am sure that i will have more to write soon when i take my parents and brother on random adventures through out the city. but for now... chau chau.

The Past Week

March 9- 1842 Quesada

Wow it has for sure been a while sence i updated this thing. but nothing really noteworthy has been going on hence why i havent written in this for a while. the week was just spend in class and hanging out doing nothing in between classes. last sunday i went to recoletta and walked around the fair there and then went to a random art mueso and walked around that but that was the highlight of the weekend. friday night we went to a bar and just hung out for a while and then went home. yesterday during the day we had a copa grande football match. (copa grande is the big game thing that we are all playing in that i was talking about earlier) and then last night about 30 of us went to this circus thing. well i thought it was a circus but really it turned out to be this trippy art show with trapeze artists. it was definitely different but everyone seemed to enjoy it. but yeah i have a test tomorrow so i have just been studying all day today :(