You'll never leave where you are, until you decide where you'd rather be

How does one begin on why they abruptly decided to leave Argentina? Because I have no idea.

So let’s put the past 5 months into perspective. The first month I did a TEFL training course to get certified, I was around people I knew every day for 4 weeks straight. Then I went straight into working, just a few classes here and there then I was overwhelmed with classes. Which was great, it kept me busy like everyone else in the city. At that point,  life was great… yeah I was stressed out, but then life started speeding by. There was no time for fun and only time for rest on the weekends, which I loved. I worked for 3 more months and then mom and dad came. From the moment they booked their ticket until the time they left I had no idea what was going on with work or the outside world. It was great to see familiar faces. Then Emily came, even more familiar faces. As this is happening I am down to only teaching 2 classes per day. It was great while Em was here because we got to hang out, but it left a lot of extra time in the day and not really much to do. I’ve seen it all, conquered it all it seems like. Then Dayna leaves… then Suji leaves. So now it’s back to me teaching 3 hours a day, 4 days a week and that’s if I’m lucky and all my students come!

Which constantly kept me wondering, why am I still here? I need my core group of friends and family around me and here I don’t have that. That’s just me. Everyone knows how anal I am and I need schedule. I need to know what I’m doing and where I need to be and at what time.

For everyone who thinks I hated Argentina, you’re wrong. This place truly is magical. It’s absolutely incredible, but it’s not for me and I’m very glad that I realized that now before I became super unhappy.

Whoever tells you that life in a foreign country is easy, especially when they speak a different language and have a completely different culture, is wrong. It’s not easy, it’s actually really hard especially when your alone. I am so thankful to have had this opportunity. I am so thankful that my parents and Emily could come down and be exposed to what’s been called "home" for the past 5 months.

But now my bags are packed. It’s been a crazy unforgettable adventure that I was so blessed to have. I have learned so much about life and myself in the past 5 months. But it’s my time to go home. It’s time to settle down and really have a place to call home. I need my wonderful family and friends to be just a phone call away… just an hour drive. Those are the things I value.

It will be a bittersweet goodbye. It feels right that the journey is ending.  I have made the most amazing friends that I would not have made it this long without them and I cannot thank them enough.

“You’ll never leave where you are, until you decide where you’d rather be..” and I’ve decided where I’d rather be..

Another punch in to the heart, more goodbyes to be said....

I figured after the past 4 blogs were about my amazing adventures of family and friends I would update you on life here in Argentina.

Things have been rough with all the goodbyes. First, I said goodbye to my parents and then Emily. Then I had to say bye to Dayna. I met Dayna one of the first nights that she got here about a month ago. She got here right before my parents did so I didn’t really get to hang out with her much. However, the last 2 weeks before she left I got to know her pretty well. She’s such an amazing person and I am so thankful to have met her.

It’s so weird how some of the people you meet, you never would have had the chance to meet in the states. There are some people you probably wouldn’t have even talked to. However, when you throw a people from the United States into a foreign country there is an instant connection. You become friends with anyone who speaks English and you build off that. She’s a little bit older than me and lives in California, so we would have no way of meeting each other back home. It’s crazy how that happens. The same goes for everyone I've met here.

My friend Tom will be leaving BA on Monday. He was originally supposed to be here for quite some time, but things happened back in Bolivia and he feels he needs to return to volunteer more. I’m sad that he is leaving, but I know this is what will make him happy. When I start traveling soon, I am going to go to Sucre and see him and volunteer for a few days.

Suji has decided to leave a week early, so now she will be leaving on Tuesday. It’s going to be so weird not having someone at every second to hang out with. I kinda got used to that. It’s nice to have my space every once in a while, but then again I’m about to have a lot of that.

Work has been interesting the past few weeks. I am now only teaching 2 classes a day. It works out so much better for me. I wasted so much time sitting at the other company and just waiting for them and wasting time. They didn’t like 1 thing about the class, so they asked to change teachers. When is the last time that you had a class that you just LOVED absolutely everything about it? Exactly… NEVER! Crazy ass people.

On Wednesday, I will start a Spanish tutor for an hour twice a week. I figure I have a lot of free time now, so I need to do something productive. I think it will be a little bit of grammar, reviewing what I have forgotten, and then a lot of conversation.

On Monday, I am going to semi start interning for Beerlingual, which is part of Spanglish. It will be the social media part, and we all know I’m pretty good at that. I have to find sponsors for each week and I’m pretty damn persuasive (mom and dad know all about that).. let’s just see if I can do it in Spanish. I’m excited to see behind the scenes of Spanglish, since that is pretty much where I spend all of my time.

I hoping to travel around South America before I head back to the United States. I’m not exactly sure when that will be, but maybe I will tell you. But probably not, because I’m trying to surprise someone. J my plans are to go to Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and spend the week in Brazil before I come home. I have some persuading to do on this also… talk to you soon dad ;)

Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all J

Emily becomes Friends with Christina

Emily came for a week too!! She got here on Wednesday and it was an interesting Wednesday to start off with. So we get to the apartment and are hanging out and the doorbell rings. It was 2 guys to pick up the TV. I knew that someone was supposed to pick it up, so I let them come up. Well as they’re about to walk out they ask me what address they are supposed to take it to and I had absolutely no idea where it was going just that it was leaving. For all we know they could have stolen the TV.  For all I still know at this moment, that TV got stolen. I never asked because it would have ultimately been my fault. After all this Emily and I went and grabbed lunch. A typical Milanesa that I think is awesome… however no one else that has visited seems to think so. I guess for me American cheese is the closest thing to flavor that I have gotten in the past 4, almost 5 months. We came back home after lunch and let Em sleep because she was exhausted. She slept a bit more while I went to class. I came home and she hopped in the shower. As I am sitting in bed I see a little rubber handle under one of my drawers on my desk. I think oh great, I really need to brush my hair.. I’m glad Em left her brush right there. No, it was a knife. Poor Em had gotten scared when I left. When you look out our back door you see straight into another window and she said it reminded her of the movie “Taken”. I don’t blame her, I would have grabbed the knife too. After that we went to Poke and had dinner so Em could meet Suji and Dayna. Then we had our first night of spooning.  

Thursday I had to give a test so Em came with me for that. Then we went and walked down Santa Fe and had empanadas for lunch. We went to Spanglish at the new location and then headed to Fabrica for dinner (no surprise there!). Like always Suji invited some people to come with us, but it ended up being a good time with lots of laughs… like it always does. Mainly because I think Suji usually regrets inviting some of these people –haha. On Friday, Em and I headed off to Colonia. It was such a beautiful day. She got a good glimpse of what Argentina is really like when we were still in line for customs at 12:30 with at least 50 people still behind us. Our ferry was supposed to leave at 12:30. It would have been nice to have a little bit more time in Colonia, but it was still fun. We got to walk around and get some delicious ice cream. We almost died on the way home because we really had not eaten anything all day. It was 8:00 and we walk down to one of my favorite pizza places… it was closed.  No surprise there, people don’t eat until like 11:00. So we went to the pizza place just a block away from my house then came home and rested.

On Saturday we went on a free walking tour of the city. It was actually really interesting because I learned some things about the government that I didn’t know. I’m sure we grabbed something to eat afterwards then we went to get massages. We got an hour and a half massage for close to $50 (dollars). I can’t really complain about that. It was much needed. We were a little rushed so it wasn’t as relaxing, but it was still good. Then we headed to Brad and Michelle’s Closed Door Restaurant. Brad and Michelle are the people that I got my TEFL Certification through. It was their first night, so I figured that was a perfect thing for Em and I to do. We had a lot of delicious food. Emily got to have some red meat there which was good. I started feeling sick towards the end, so I unfortunately didn’t get to try the dessert. I think it was because we hadn’t really eaten all day and then we go there and I start to stuff my face. But, nevertheless it was amazing and I will definitely go back before I head home.

On Sunday we walked around the San Telmo market for a bit and met up with Tom and his sister, Ellen. It was great to finally meet Ellen after seeing all the pictures of them traveling together. Em and I headed to La Boca and grabbed some lunch and watched a bit of Tango then just walked around Boca and headed home. I don’t think Boca is really a place to hang out, just one of the neighborhoods you should go to while in BA. We then met Dayna at her place and tried a Mexican restaurant that she had found called Lupita in Las Canitas. It was actually pretty good. It was a little different, but good. When I think of Mexican, I think of cheap drunk food almost… but this was a pretty fancy Mexican place. Then like always we went to Freddo. It happened to be National Ice Cream Day back home, so I figured we kind of had to go get ice cream.

On Monday I woke up to go to class, but ended up not feeling so great so I cancelled. I think Em and I both needed that because we fell back to sleep until around 11. We went to a little café called Oui Oui in Palermo with Dayna and Suji. It was actually pretty good, different but good. That seems to be the phrase I use the most around here. Then we went on the boot hunt around Palermo. We didn’t find anything. I had class Monday night and Em came with me then we went to meet Suji and Dayna at Osaka to eat. Osaka is a sushi bar. I’m not a fan of sushi, but I know that Em is and I knew that I could find something to eat. I was able to find some chicken that was pretty good and the other girls ate sushi. I tried it, but it still isn’t really my thing. We went back to Dayna’s for a bit because I wanted to see her place. I really liked it and would be 100% ok if I could have stayed there my entire time here.  #budgetlife. On Tuesday we went looking for boots again and what do you know we found some a block from my house. I found so many pairs that I really liked, but (no surprise here) my calves were too big for them to zip up. Stupid hulk legs.  Em and I went to Beerlingual and of course neither of us knew any of the answers. It was still fun though.

Now, let me just start the beginning of Emily’s trip back home because it’s a little nuts. So we get home from Beerlingual Tuesday night and I go online to book a taxi for us to go to the airport. I double check her flight and it says: “Delayed 8 hours and blah blah minutes: Awaiting arrival of crew”. I told Emily that and I was like oh they’ve got plenty of time, whatever. Her flight isn’t until Wednesday night at 8:30. So we just shrug it off. How can a flight already be 8 hours late, 24 hours before the flight takes off??? So on Wednesday, we wake up.. go grab lunch with Dayna then come back and pack everything up. The taxi comes, we head to the airport and I see people talking in English. So I asked them if they were in line for the flight to Newark and she says no I’m going to Houston and it’s delayed until 6am tomorrow morning. Friendship starts being tested right at that moment. Emily’s mad that she can’t get back to the States that night, I’m mad that I can’t go back to the States for another 4 months, but then again I am happy she has another night and I’m not all alone quite yet. We go talk to the lady at the ticket counter and of course she only speaks Basic English. She is able to check someone in, but when something like this happens, you can forget it. So she tells us Em will miss her connection from Newark to Charlotte so she will fly directly from Newark to Charleston. It wasn’t a problem, but it would have been a lot easier if Em could get off in Charlotte because her mom had her car. Then it sounded like the lady was saying something that wasn’t Charleston. We were both trying to explain to the lady what we needed and that just didn’t work. So we had to go to another ticket counter to try and get the ticket reissued. Well then they said we weren’t even supposed to be at that counter there was nothing they could do.  So in the end she ended up taking the 6:05 flight back to Newark then straight to Charleston. The taxi came and picked us up at 3:30am. I wasn’t going to go with her until Mercedes came in and started scaring the crap out of Em. Argentines make the biggest deal out of the safest/easiest things and the things that should be a huge deal they just brush off. We took Manuel Tienda Leon, one of the safest taxi companies in the city. But oh no, what if someone stops you on the side of the road, what if this happens, what if that happens… blah blah blah. It was so frustrating. I wasn’t mad at Emily at all… just at how things are handled in this country. The longer I’m here, the more things I seem to experience that just make me angry.

Emily made it home and we had a great time (at least I did). Living in a foreign city is tough and I think she realized that when she got down here. She also saw how crazy it has made me. You have to be just as rude as they are and stand up for yourself or you’re going to get run over. Especially since we are foreigners, that makes it that much harder.

Emily: Thank you so much for taking time out of your “summer vacation” (haha) and coming to see me. It meant more than you know. Thank you for putting up with all my craziness that this country has caused. Also, for putting up with the craziness that Christina has caused in this country. (I hope she doesn’t see this and I don’t get deported). I hope you had fun and continue rapping to my boy, "Krispy Kreme". I’m glad that you finally made it back safe and Matt better have opened every single door for you this past week. Haha can’t wait to see you in November! Love you mucho

Mom and Dad Survive Argentina: Part 3

I don’t even know where to begin with Iguazu. It was absolutely amazing. On Friday we went to the Brazil side. We were originally supposed to go on Sunday, but there was a marathon so the park was closed on Sunday. It was rainy, but it didn’t matter. It was still breathtaking. From Brazil, looking to Argentina you get the panoramic view. It’s just waterfalls after waterfalls in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. After we went to the Brazil side we headed back to our hotel in the Argentina National Park for Iguazu. Mom and dad hung out while I went and got a much needed massage, facial, and reflexology. It was very different than in the United States, but I didn’t care. It was so worth it and I needed it. Thanks Mom J

On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to venture to the Argentine side of the falls. Once again it was awesome. No words to describe it. If you have the chance, no doubt about it… you have to go. We stopped at one of the overlooks to take pictures and all of a sudden dad hits me and points. There’s a girl who has on a Clemson hat. It’s the first time while I’ve been in Argentina that I have seen anyone with something Clemson on it. I obviously ask her if she went to Clemson and she said no she is a teacher. I told her I graduated blah blah and she happened to be a Spanish teacher. She also happened to be the teacher that did the study abroad Ecuador trip this year… the same trip that I did 3 years ago. That just proves how small this world is. We walked one of the trails and saw all the falls. Then we took a train to go to Garganta del Diablo or “Devil’s Throat”. Absolutely astonishing (big word!). Garganta del Diablo is part of the upper Iguazu River where half of the river flows. It was so crazy… while walking on the bridge up to this point, the water didn’t look like it was flowing THAT fast. But WOW! Little fact: apparently a lot of women come here and commit suicide. Not sure why, but that’s just what I heard from one of our tour guides. We then had lunch and started on one of the lower trails. We were able to get very up close and personal with the waterfalls. And by up close and personal, I mean that mom and dad made me take a boat up to the waterfalls, practically underneath. It was so scary. I thought it was going to be more cold than scary… boy was I wrong. But I am so glad that I did it. I can’t wait to watch the video when I get home.

Unfortunately on Sunday we had to leave.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day, by far the prettiest. I think we all wish that we could have stayed longer. We were all a little sad... partly because it was such a beautiful day and because that meant our time together was coming to an end. We went back and walked out to Garganta del Diablo. Even more mesmerizing than it was the day before. The sun being out made a huge difference. We walked back to 2 other waterfalls also and were able to see the rainbows. It was so awesome. I still can’t believe a place so beautiful exists. We came back to the city that evening. When we arrived to the National airport we didn’t walk through the little hallway. I don’t know what they’re called right when you get off the place. But we walked down the stairs and got on a bus. You know, we thought we had to go to the opposite side of the airport to baggage claim. No, less than 100 yards later… we get off the bus. Mom sat down and got all comfortable, just for us to get off. It was so funny and ridiculous all at the same time. Oh Argentina!

Sunday night was a night of luxury. And by night of luxury I told dad that the hotel we were staying at was the only one I knew of and was in a safe place. That it was, but I may or may not have exaggerated a bit. The best part of the hotel was when mom got out of the shower. She came out with her hair a mess and was so mad. She said the water pressure was so hard for such a small little shower (be glad I’m not posting the picture). I didn’t care, the bath tub with jets was awesome. We ate at La Estancia for dinner so that mom and dad could get some red meat. The 3 of us shared a steak (yes I ate red meat), apple sauce, French fries, 3 salads, beer, and wine. Let me tell you that this was way cheaper than any steakhouse in the US and probably a lot more delicious. And if you know me well enough, you know that’s a big deal if even I say that steak is good. On Monday we walked around a bit, relaxed, and got more empanadas. Then off to the airport we went L

I cannot express to anyone enough how thankful I am that my parents were able to come visit me. Some people are here for months and their family isn’t able to visit for whatever reason. There is no way that I would have been able to go 8 months without seeing them. I say that, but then again I don’t know how I am going to make it another 4 months without seeing them. We had such a wonderful 10 days and I’m glad they were able to come see what my life is like down here. I think now they will understand more when different things happen because they realize how hectic the city can be. I have always understood crying when your sad and laughing until you cry. But I never fully understood crying when you’re happy. That is until I saw my parents walk through customs at EZE after 4 months. I was the happiest girl on the planet, no doubt about it. Even though I see them about once a week on Skype, it’s not the same. Anyone who says it is the same is absolutely crazy. Thank you again mom and dad for an amazing 10 days. It was awesome. The only thing that would have made it better is if Matthew would have been here. 

 From Brazil looking to Argentina

 Stanley in Brazil

 My Rock

Daddy's Girl

 30 years of Marriage, 23 dealing with me :)

 Argentina side

 #Hoodlums

 Garganta del Diablo

 On the Boat

 1 of 99,999 pictures of the bird

 Garganta del Diablo

 Amazing

 Obelisco 

 La Estancia

 Put a fork in Stanley, he's done

Gourmet Empanadas.. better than Esters

Mom and Dad Survive Argentina: Part 2

Tuesday: I had class once again. Mom and dad sat in a café while I went to teach one of my classes. Then we went and walked all the way down Scalabrini Ortiz, one of the big avenues. We walked down there because we heard there were a bunch of leather shops and we wanted to try and find something good. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. We did a good bit of walking so mom and dad went and hung out at the apartment while I went and taught my 2^nd class for the day. After my class we went to Gringo Stand-Up Comedy. It was a stand-up comedy show that was in English and is the only one in the city. It was actually really good. A little inappropriate to go with my parents, but nevertheless it was funny. I’m definitely going to go again before I leave. On the way to the comedy show I kept thinking about cancelling class. Mom and dad wanted to go to Tigre on Wednesday and I had never been. I was also nervous about them going outside the city alone, especially since I had never been there before. So I ended up cancelling my afternoon and night classes for Wednesday.

Wednesday: On Wednesday the three of us went to Tigre to celebrate 4^th of July. While everyone back home was tanning, drinking, and on a boat… we were on a boat, but bundled up because it was cold and rainy. Tigre is where all the people from the city go for the day to escape the city for a bit. So I wasn’t exactly sure how we were going to get there. We could go from Retiro then switch to Tren de la Costa about halfway through. Or we could take the train from Retiro all the way to Tigre. I talked to the taxi driver on the way home from class and he said it was simple and quicker to just take the train from Retiro straight to Tigre. That’s what all the locals do, so that’s what we decided we should do. So the train is supposed to arrive and leave and we are waiting for the train and waiting on the train for a little over 20 minutes AFTER we were supposed to leave. Then all of a sudden an announcement comes on, the doors open, and everyone runs. Well we decide to join in. I heard something about “Tigre Tren 1” but wasn’t really paying attention. Mom, dad, and I run to the train and when we get on the train, I realize for all we know they could have said something about a bomb, who knows. Luckily we made it to Tigre. We took a boat ride around the delta and had some lunch. There was also this cute little stray puppy out there. He was black, long tail, a little chunky and precious. He had to be Arthur’s long lost brother. I mean this dog had white feet like Arthur, black toenails like him, gray around his nose from distress, the way he walked with one foot not really touching the ground. It reminded me of Arthur 100%, not to mention when I tried to give him some food he wouldn’t eat it. Once again… he acted the exact same as Arthur, well as Arthur did. It was sad because that was Arthur at one point and now Arthur has a great home. But, this little puppy doesn’t. I definitely want to go back and visit him before I leave… and pray he is there. I would spend all day playing with him. Then like always on Wednesday nights, we went to Poke. It’s really a restaurant called Magdalena’s Party where all the expats hang out. But on Wednesday nights there is a chef from California that cooks. It’s absolutely delicious. I get the same thing every time: Costa Rican Casado. It has black beans, rice, meat, lettuce, pico de gallo, and some kind of spicy sauce. I absolutely love it and continue to go every Wednesday.

Thursday we made the trek over to Colonia, Uruguay. It was awesome. It was such a beautiful day and plenty of time. The first time that I went, I went for 6 hours and that was about 4 hours too many. This time we went for about 2 hours. It was just enough time to walk around and relax. Of course dad had to drink a beer in Uruguay. There’s not much to Colonia, but when can you go to another country for $100? Not too often, so why not? There was another cute little dog there. He actually ate my crackers though, so I was happy about that. We went to have drinks with Mike, the manager of where we stayed, when we got back to the city. Then we went to Gourmet so that dad could try the empanadas. Now I think he understands why I used to eat them every day. They are delicious and cheap.

Thursday night we went home and packed up to head to Iguazu, which deserves its own blog post so,

To be continued…. (pictures below)

Stanley before Colonia

Stanley in Colonia

Colonia, Uruguay

Figuring out life

Wish you were here Matthew :(

Dad's beer in Colonia, Uruguay

Sweet puppy in Colonia

BA Gringo Stand up Comedy

wish you were here Bobo!

Happy 4th of July from Tigre, Argentina

Arthur Jr.