February 24- Los Cauquenes Hotel, Ushuaia, Buenos Aires
Hey from the end of the world!! I had a quick second and the hotel has free internet so i figured i would write a little because i dont think i will get internet until thursday night. to begin with, the movie night that i planned last night went really well!! the ice cream was amazing and we watched transformers and i think everyone had a really good time. but anyways today we left for our eft... aka educational field trip aka no education at all. anyways we took a flight from ba i happened to be in the window seat of the side of the plane that got to see the city as we took off amazing!!! i thought i had seen a lot of the city but i was blown away on how big it actually is it was great. but the flight was uneventful.. we landed here in ushuaia and it is so beautiful!! it remindes me of being in a mountain town in co expect 100 times better... i know its horrible to say that but it is the truth. it is also great to be in cold weather again!!! but anyways, ill let everyone know how cape hope and tierra del fuego is when we get back!!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The Past Few Days
February 21- Casa Holden
So I am not very good at updating this thing. haha life has been a little busy right now. we actually got legit homework for the first time since being here so i have been trying to do that and i am planning a movie night for friday night so i have had to work and then forms for being an ra next year are due soon so i have had to fill those out before we leave for Chile and yeah. but anyways, lets see i dont think anything noteworthy happened on monday... i cant remember do anything that day so yeah. but anyways, tuesday we had classes and then tuesday night we had convo and then our group dinner. but this last tuesday we went to a tango show and dinner for dinner. we had to dress up :( but the dinner was amazing. this show was also really cool just really long. it started out with the history of argentian and they had horses and everything but then it just continued through 2 hours of dancing and operaish singing and by the end everyone was just bored. the best part when this twin singers picked a random guy from the audience to bring on stage and sing to and dance and we got them to pick our director Rafa. it was great. we were definitley laughing very hard. anyways, we didnt get back from that until 2 am so everyone just went home after that. but then yesterday after class we went to this tango museum for tango class because we have to write a paper on this guy that the museum is all about. it was not exciting at all. it was small and didnt really explain anything about the guy.. it just had pictures and pieces of paper and stuff but oh well. we got an information brocher which will be enough to write the paper. then i went home and did hw for a while and then ate this delicious pasta dinner so good! but then around midnight i went and met some friends at a park and we watched the lunar ellipse that was happening down here last night. but then we just chilled in this park until 3 or so in the morning and happened to find this random pool hall that was hella tight and i got home at 6 this morning. then i had to be up by 8 to get ready for class and get to the casa by 9. i had my tour the city class this morning and we went to this place called tigre where there is a river and small shops and everything. we got our own private boat to tour around on but it wasnt that exciting. then we walked around the shops and everything for like an hour or so. i bought this tight soccer cleat keychain that has argentina and the national colors on it. but anyways our trip was cool but not that exciting. maybe just because i am really tired but i dont think i would have liked it that much even if i wasnt tired. anyways, after shopping we came back to the casa and ate asado and now i am sitting here writing this and killing time until class starts.
So I am not very good at updating this thing. haha life has been a little busy right now. we actually got legit homework for the first time since being here so i have been trying to do that and i am planning a movie night for friday night so i have had to work and then forms for being an ra next year are due soon so i have had to fill those out before we leave for Chile and yeah. but anyways, lets see i dont think anything noteworthy happened on monday... i cant remember do anything that day so yeah. but anyways, tuesday we had classes and then tuesday night we had convo and then our group dinner. but this last tuesday we went to a tango show and dinner for dinner. we had to dress up :( but the dinner was amazing. this show was also really cool just really long. it started out with the history of argentian and they had horses and everything but then it just continued through 2 hours of dancing and operaish singing and by the end everyone was just bored. the best part when this twin singers picked a random guy from the audience to bring on stage and sing to and dance and we got them to pick our director Rafa. it was great. we were definitley laughing very hard. anyways, we didnt get back from that until 2 am so everyone just went home after that. but then yesterday after class we went to this tango museum for tango class because we have to write a paper on this guy that the museum is all about. it was not exciting at all. it was small and didnt really explain anything about the guy.. it just had pictures and pieces of paper and stuff but oh well. we got an information brocher which will be enough to write the paper. then i went home and did hw for a while and then ate this delicious pasta dinner so good! but then around midnight i went and met some friends at a park and we watched the lunar ellipse that was happening down here last night. but then we just chilled in this park until 3 or so in the morning and happened to find this random pool hall that was hella tight and i got home at 6 this morning. then i had to be up by 8 to get ready for class and get to the casa by 9. i had my tour the city class this morning and we went to this place called tigre where there is a river and small shops and everything. we got our own private boat to tour around on but it wasnt that exciting. then we walked around the shops and everything for like an hour or so. i bought this tight soccer cleat keychain that has argentina and the national colors on it. but anyways our trip was cool but not that exciting. maybe just because i am really tired but i dont think i would have liked it that much even if i wasnt tired. anyways, after shopping we came back to the casa and ate asado and now i am sitting here writing this and killing time until class starts.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Boca Game
So yesterday we went to a Boca game and it was amazing. i never thought it would be possible but Boca fans are even more crazy than River fans. anyways, because i organized the event i had to go down to Boca around 10 to stand in line for 2 plus hours to get tickets for the safe but still good section. anyways i convinced my buddy russ to come with me and we had fun talking to these dutch people that are travelling all around south america. anyways after we got the tickets we came back into our area and chilled until all of us met at the Casa to leave around 6. we took a bus down there and other than it being hot (its hot here everyday) it was uneventful. but then we got to the staduim and the stadium is called the Chocolate Box and it is designed where the walls are as close to 90 degrees as you can possibly go so even though we had great seats up at the top of the staduim it felt like we were so close to the action. the stadium also shakes when everyone is bouncing up and down cheering so that was an adventure. the game its self was amazing with the final score being 4 to 0 with the last goal scored on a pk and the second to last goal scored with no one knowing what was going on because someone headed it but then it popped up but then someone headed it again but it still didnt go in and then it got kicked in finally and it was just amazing! however after the game we were planning on catching the bus to get back but so was everyone else so we had to wait forever and finally just gave up after empty bus after empty bus passed us and wouldnt stop so we started walking for a while until we could catch a cab but then free cab after free cab kept passing us so finally a friend and i walked for quite a while to get away from the crowd to the to where we could finally get a cab back to the Casa... what an adventure but it was so great!! im stoked to do it again! haha
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Acabar
February 16- Casa Holden
So my last two posts havent really explained at all what I have been doing the past few days so i figured now would be a good time to fill everyone in on the life of Jessie. Since thursday was valentines day after tango i went out dinner with some people just to go out to dinner and then some of us met at midnight to go get dessert... well some of us went to dessert and some other people went to a bar. i went and got this amazing browine thing with some bomb chocolate ice cream in the middle with 4 squares of brownie propped up on the ice cream and chocolate sauce and nuts drizzled over the whole thing. then friday morning i had class then just hung out at the Casa during the day until friday nightish when i had my last class. i spend some time on friday working so i could organize the Boca game that we are going to tomorrow which i am very stoked about. anyways, friday night i went out to dinner with some girls. we went to this italian place down by florida street just to eat some place that wasnt around the Casa and it was definitely good to eat some pasta again instead of mostly beef and potatoes. :) but then after dinner we met up with other people and went to this place called acabar. it was a very chill atmosphere and the bar is known for having board games there that you can play which you eat or drink. i would say that it is more of a resturant than a bar but it was definitely tight and we ended up staying until around 3 am. then today i went to the local zoo and it was definitely an adventure. there were some animals there that i have never seen in my life like these huge bunny looking things that had the face of a bunny but the body that looked like the coloring of a deer and it walked like a dog... i dont know how to explain it but it was definitely weird. also there was this black bear that had a circle swimming pool in its cage but it was just walking around in circles pacing its pool. we stood there watching it for maybe 5 min and it just kept walking in circles the entire time. it was crazy!
So my last two posts havent really explained at all what I have been doing the past few days so i figured now would be a good time to fill everyone in on the life of Jessie. Since thursday was valentines day after tango i went out dinner with some people just to go out to dinner and then some of us met at midnight to go get dessert... well some of us went to dessert and some other people went to a bar. i went and got this amazing browine thing with some bomb chocolate ice cream in the middle with 4 squares of brownie propped up on the ice cream and chocolate sauce and nuts drizzled over the whole thing. then friday morning i had class then just hung out at the Casa during the day until friday nightish when i had my last class. i spend some time on friday working so i could organize the Boca game that we are going to tomorrow which i am very stoked about. anyways, friday night i went out to dinner with some girls. we went to this italian place down by florida street just to eat some place that wasnt around the Casa and it was definitely good to eat some pasta again instead of mostly beef and potatoes. :) but then after dinner we met up with other people and went to this place called acabar. it was a very chill atmosphere and the bar is known for having board games there that you can play which you eat or drink. i would say that it is more of a resturant than a bar but it was definitely tight and we ended up staying until around 3 am. then today i went to the local zoo and it was definitely an adventure. there were some animals there that i have never seen in my life like these huge bunny looking things that had the face of a bunny but the body that looked like the coloring of a deer and it walked like a dog... i dont know how to explain it but it was definitely weird. also there was this black bear that had a circle swimming pool in its cage but it was just walking around in circles pacing its pool. we stood there watching it for maybe 5 min and it just kept walking in circles the entire time. it was crazy!
Friday, February 15, 2008
RA
I just got back from dinner and got the email saying that i have the chance to be an ra this next year. i am so excited that i just had to write a post and everything. i was kicking the ball around when i read the email and i got so much energy that i started running in circles. haha :)
Pictures
So i finally put up a bunch of pictures on Kodak Gallery however there isnt just a link that i can copy and paste... i have to email you a link to see the pictures. why they do it this way i am not sure but the point of this story is leave a comment or email me or something and then i will email you back with the link to the pictures. There are only ones from here in BA up but ill put ones from Uruguay and everything up soon!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Tango
February 14- Casa Holden
So one of the classes i signed up to take is tango lessons and yesterday we had our first class period. i really thought i wasnt going to like it but i wanted to go to the first one just to see what it would be like but i actually really enjoyed it! most of us (especially the guys) thought it was going to be stupid but by the end of the class everyone was getting really into and having a lot of fun. we have another tango class tonight so we will see how that one goes. other than that nothing else too exciting has been going on. we went to this american bar last night called alamo and had a couple of drinks down there and it was a lot of fun. there is this drink called sangria where you mix red wine with fruit juice and it is definitely delicious even if you dont like wine (like me). i had a meeting for my job today and found out that i am the event coordinater person... basically i am going to get paid to plan events through out the city and go the places and do everything that i want to do but i get paid for it :) i am super stoked about that. we had an asado today also.. so good. that food is amazing.
So one of the classes i signed up to take is tango lessons and yesterday we had our first class period. i really thought i wasnt going to like it but i wanted to go to the first one just to see what it would be like but i actually really enjoyed it! most of us (especially the guys) thought it was going to be stupid but by the end of the class everyone was getting really into and having a lot of fun. we have another tango class tonight so we will see how that one goes. other than that nothing else too exciting has been going on. we went to this american bar last night called alamo and had a couple of drinks down there and it was a lot of fun. there is this drink called sangria where you mix red wine with fruit juice and it is definitely delicious even if you dont like wine (like me). i had a meeting for my job today and found out that i am the event coordinater person... basically i am going to get paid to plan events through out the city and go the places and do everything that i want to do but i get paid for it :) i am super stoked about that. we had an asado today also.. so good. that food is amazing.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Drum Circle
February 12 -1842 Quesada
So let me start out by saying that I had some time today and I acutally tired to put some pictures up but you can only load one picture at a time and since i definitely have a lot more than one... it would take too long. so therefore i started a kodak something account thing were i can put a lot of pics up at once but then i ran out of time so the pictures are still coming soonish... haha. anyways, we had class today. totally fine. spanish at 9 this morning... ugh... i hate mornings. but then i had a break and went and got some bomb chinese food at this place that is really close to the Casa. but then i had my first hum class and i think it will be a good class.. my teacher seems very nice. the class is kindof boring but i think that has more to do with the fact that humanities doesnt really interest me than it does with the class but then anyways i was meant to have my night history class tonight and that got canceled so i went with a friend and bought a black river jersey today. how can you not like a club whose colors are black, white and red. haha but then anyways right when i got home my brothers were getting ready to leave to meet some people to go to this drum circle thing... they had no idea what it was and neither did i but i put my backpack in my room and went with them. and it was awesome! it was literally people sitting in a circle playing the drums and bells and everything. there was a conductor in the center and he was telling everyone to play different things through this weird hand signs and everything. they would play for 10 min "songs" and then a different person would get up to conduct and the other person would sit down and play. we got there before it was really crowded but by the time that we left there was standing room only and just barely that. it was definitely a very unique experience but very cool. it was amazing some of the songs they could make just by varying a drum. i took some short videos so i will try to get those up also that everyone can hear the drums and everything. anyways we went to dinner after that and now i am here writing this. but sadly now that classes have started i have homework :(
So let me start out by saying that I had some time today and I acutally tired to put some pictures up but you can only load one picture at a time and since i definitely have a lot more than one... it would take too long. so therefore i started a kodak something account thing were i can put a lot of pics up at once but then i ran out of time so the pictures are still coming soonish... haha. anyways, we had class today. totally fine. spanish at 9 this morning... ugh... i hate mornings. but then i had a break and went and got some bomb chinese food at this place that is really close to the Casa. but then i had my first hum class and i think it will be a good class.. my teacher seems very nice. the class is kindof boring but i think that has more to do with the fact that humanities doesnt really interest me than it does with the class but then anyways i was meant to have my night history class tonight and that got canceled so i went with a friend and bought a black river jersey today. how can you not like a club whose colors are black, white and red. haha but then anyways right when i got home my brothers were getting ready to leave to meet some people to go to this drum circle thing... they had no idea what it was and neither did i but i put my backpack in my room and went with them. and it was awesome! it was literally people sitting in a circle playing the drums and bells and everything. there was a conductor in the center and he was telling everyone to play different things through this weird hand signs and everything. they would play for 10 min "songs" and then a different person would get up to conduct and the other person would sit down and play. we got there before it was really crowded but by the time that we left there was standing room only and just barely that. it was definitely a very unique experience but very cool. it was amazing some of the songs they could make just by varying a drum. i took some short videos so i will try to get those up also that everyone can hear the drums and everything. anyways we went to dinner after that and now i am here writing this. but sadly now that classes have started i have homework :(
Sunday, February 10, 2008
River Game
February 10- 1842 Quesada
So there are 2 major soccer teams... one called River Plata or just River and the other Boca Juniors or just Boca. they are HUGE rivals and everyone is nuts about their team but anyways that doesnt really play into this story at all. But I happen to live about 5 blocks from the River stadium. So tonight i was just at my casa and my "brother" Eric was here too. I walked into the kitchen and he was flipping throught the channels to find the river game. we sat down to watch it when i asked if it was here or there.. he said here and then do you want to go so i was like of course. so we walk to the stadium and we get there around half time but the quit selling tickets when the game begins. so we walked around and stopped to ask this guy where we could buy tickets for next game. as we were walking away some other people came up and he wouldnt let them in but in all this confusion called us back over and let us in FOR FREE!!!! so we ended up watching half a river game for free and it was insane. there are no words to describe a soccer game in South America. the fans are nuts. everywhere you look you will see a police officer. the fans are jumping up and down screaming the entire time. the opposing team has there own section... with a fence around it... with barbed wire... with armed police... it was amazing. and what was amazing also was river won 2 to 0... they scored the 2 goals during the second half while we were there and we have one of them on tape. i am so happy right now :)
So there are 2 major soccer teams... one called River Plata or just River and the other Boca Juniors or just Boca. they are HUGE rivals and everyone is nuts about their team but anyways that doesnt really play into this story at all. But I happen to live about 5 blocks from the River stadium. So tonight i was just at my casa and my "brother" Eric was here too. I walked into the kitchen and he was flipping throught the channels to find the river game. we sat down to watch it when i asked if it was here or there.. he said here and then do you want to go so i was like of course. so we walk to the stadium and we get there around half time but the quit selling tickets when the game begins. so we walked around and stopped to ask this guy where we could buy tickets for next game. as we were walking away some other people came up and he wouldnt let them in but in all this confusion called us back over and let us in FOR FREE!!!! so we ended up watching half a river game for free and it was insane. there are no words to describe a soccer game in South America. the fans are nuts. everywhere you look you will see a police officer. the fans are jumping up and down screaming the entire time. the opposing team has there own section... with a fence around it... with barbed wire... with armed police... it was amazing. and what was amazing also was river won 2 to 0... they scored the 2 goals during the second half while we were there and we have one of them on tape. i am so happy right now :)
Uruguay
February 10- 1842 Quesada
Its been a little while since my last post. Sorry about that. Let's see here. Thursday was a boringish day. I spent a lot of the day doing little things and making sure that I had everything done for the weekend. however i did go to this place called Florida street where there are a lot of little shops and vendors. its a lot like an outdoor downtown type mall things but mexican style with the types of shops and the street enteritainment and everything. i bought my first soccer jersey :) and decided that i am going to buy one in every country that i travel to. you can never have enough soccer jerserys hahaha. Then Friday (the 8th) we began our first day of classes. I only had 2- Spanish and History and spanish was a lot like the Boot Camp classes that we had been doing earlier so that wasn't hard at all and it seems like it is going to be a good class. But history... the class doesnt seem like it is going to be hard but the teacher is SO boring. I actually tried to pay attention in class and take notes but he is so boring and jumps around so much that I couldn't follow any of the class. It is going to be a very long semester with that class. However, I decided to add two classes. One a tango class... that should be interesting sence I hate dancing but I figured I cant come to Argentina and not learn how to tango. I also decided to take this humanities class where every Thursday morning we go and tour the city basically I guess. I dont really know what all we do but that is what i have heard so that should be amazing amounts of fun. and i am defintely stoked to get to know the city even more. anyways, right after history we left the Casa and took the Subte (subway) down to the ports to jump on a ferry to go to Uruguay. because we signed up for the trip late, they only had 1st class and so we got to relax in big chairs around circles tables were we played cards and drank complementary champenge. anyways there was 20 of us that decided to go this weekend so one we got there it was kind of a nightmare to figure out what everyone wanted to do. we broke into 3 groups... one stayed in colonia where we landed, one stayed in colonia for night and then took a early 3 hour bus ride to montevideo (the capital) and the other took an even earlier 6 hour bus ride to Punto del Esto. i was with the group that went to the captial and we had a lot of fun. we got to go to the beach (it was kindof dirty and the water was brown but oh well... laying out is laying no matter where you are haha) and then me and 2 others walked around the city for a little while and went to mall and ate a Uruguayn version of Panda express. haha we also caught up on some much needed sleep. but anyways we left there early in the morning also to make it back to colonia by 12 so that we could get on our ferry and get back home. all in all it was a great weekend! it was a good first travelling trip. next time however i want to travel with less people so that it is easier to make decisions and also because i want to be able to pracitce spanish which is hard to do in a big group. not all 20 of us can talk to one hostel clerk at the same time haha but it was great to figure out some things about how to travel and i am stoked to see what next weekend brings!! even though i have said it before... i promise ill get pictures up soon!
Its been a little while since my last post. Sorry about that. Let's see here. Thursday was a boringish day. I spent a lot of the day doing little things and making sure that I had everything done for the weekend. however i did go to this place called Florida street where there are a lot of little shops and vendors. its a lot like an outdoor downtown type mall things but mexican style with the types of shops and the street enteritainment and everything. i bought my first soccer jersey :) and decided that i am going to buy one in every country that i travel to. you can never have enough soccer jerserys hahaha. Then Friday (the 8th) we began our first day of classes. I only had 2- Spanish and History and spanish was a lot like the Boot Camp classes that we had been doing earlier so that wasn't hard at all and it seems like it is going to be a good class. But history... the class doesnt seem like it is going to be hard but the teacher is SO boring. I actually tried to pay attention in class and take notes but he is so boring and jumps around so much that I couldn't follow any of the class. It is going to be a very long semester with that class. However, I decided to add two classes. One a tango class... that should be interesting sence I hate dancing but I figured I cant come to Argentina and not learn how to tango. I also decided to take this humanities class where every Thursday morning we go and tour the city basically I guess. I dont really know what all we do but that is what i have heard so that should be amazing amounts of fun. and i am defintely stoked to get to know the city even more. anyways, right after history we left the Casa and took the Subte (subway) down to the ports to jump on a ferry to go to Uruguay. because we signed up for the trip late, they only had 1st class and so we got to relax in big chairs around circles tables were we played cards and drank complementary champenge. anyways there was 20 of us that decided to go this weekend so one we got there it was kind of a nightmare to figure out what everyone wanted to do. we broke into 3 groups... one stayed in colonia where we landed, one stayed in colonia for night and then took a early 3 hour bus ride to montevideo (the capital) and the other took an even earlier 6 hour bus ride to Punto del Esto. i was with the group that went to the captial and we had a lot of fun. we got to go to the beach (it was kindof dirty and the water was brown but oh well... laying out is laying no matter where you are haha) and then me and 2 others walked around the city for a little while and went to mall and ate a Uruguayn version of Panda express. haha we also caught up on some much needed sleep. but anyways we left there early in the morning also to make it back to colonia by 12 so that we could get on our ferry and get back home. all in all it was a great weekend! it was a good first travelling trip. next time however i want to travel with less people so that it is easier to make decisions and also because i want to be able to pracitce spanish which is hard to do in a big group. not all 20 of us can talk to one hostel clerk at the same time haha but it was great to figure out some things about how to travel and i am stoked to see what next weekend brings!! even though i have said it before... i promise ill get pictures up soon!
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