Another 90 days

Hi everyone! Just a quick update about life here in BA. I'm supposed to be at class in an hour and have to start the journey their shortly.

Life seems to finally be falling in to place, which is making deciding whether to stay or come home early a little difficult. I finally got the books for ALL of my classes I'm teaching which is such a big help. I no longer have to stress out everyday about what I am going to teach. It's been such a relief this past week. Friday I was supposed to go to the Brazilian embassy to get my visa and go buy a sube card. A sube card is just a charged card that you use for the buses. Monedas (coins) are almost nonexistent here and you can only use coins on the bus. It's such a pain in the ass to be completely honest. I have to buy things constantly that I don't want/need in order to get coins. However, I woke up at 9am on Friday. I opened the window before I was going to shower and it was raining. So naturally, I climbed back in bed and did absolutely NOTHING all day. Luckily I don't need my visa right this second. And the sube card is going to have to wait. Mercedes luckily has one, so she is nice enough to trade cash for coins. I went to Spanglish Friday night like always and met some pretty cool people. Hopefully they will be there this Friday night.

It's hard to believe that I've been here almost 90 days. The only reason I know this is because my visa is close to expiring. When my visa is about to expire I have 2 choices: leave the country or go to immigration. Apparently going to immigration is pretty painful and it's actually cheaper to leave the country for the day. You can also only extend your visa at immigration once, so I've been told to save that for the one time I absolutely have zero time to go. I guess there is a 3rd option, just don't renew your visa the entire time you're in Argentina and then pay a fee when you leave the country. However, I have been told that if you overstay your visa for quite a bit of time, they don't let you back in the country for a year. I probably would have done that except for the fact that before I leave I want to travel around South America and then fly back out of Buenos Aires. I don't want to risk not being able to enter back into the country.

 So Saturday morning, Analia and I hopped on to Colonia Express and went to Uruguay for the day. It was such a sweet little town. It made me think of Rock Hill. Not exactly, but after being in Buenos Aires, that's what it reminded me of. Unfortunately it was cold and overcast, but I didn't care. It was so so nice to get out of the hustle and bustle of the big city for the day. We met a girl from Colorado who was also leaving to renew her visa. The 3 of us went to lunch at a cute little cafe. They had a Gwinnett County, Georgia license plate hanging on the wall, so I knew we were in the right place. They also had apple sauce and my word it was heaven. It was such a great day all around. I'm so glad that my visa was about to expire so that I had a reason to leave. After I got back from Colonia, I went to Spanglish - of course! Afterwards, I went to dinner with a few old friends and then some new ones. Two of the new guys were from Argentina and the other one was from Chicago, studying abroad. He's only here until August, but hey that's better than nothing. He's the first person that I've met who is just beginning their trip. Normally everyone I meet is close to leaving.

Last night I went to Lauren's with Analia for some tea and just to talk. Okay, they drank tea, I ate ice cream, and we talked. I still can't get used to the whole tea thing. I'm so thankful that I did TEFL with them and was able to make 2 great friends here. Yeah I have friends here, but it's hard to really know someone when you see them every 2 or so weeks. Luckily the 3 of us live within 10 blocks of each other and don't have to plan anything. We just randomly decide to meet up, which is great!

We have a "long" weekend this weekend. I don't know what "holiday" it is now, but the holiday is on Friday. Naturally, I'm not happy about this because I don't work on Fridays anyways. So it isn't really a long weekend... it's just a normal weekend. But ya know it works out perfectly. I normally get homesick on long weekends because I get bored. Unfortunately this weekend I wanted to go to Mendoza (wine country) with an International students group, but they aren't getting back until Monday morning.. so I can't do that.

This actually ended up not being so short... I think because I have no reason to walk in the rain to my next class. I could take the bus, but that would meany using coins, so it's not worth it!

Love you all! I'll post pictures later... it's taking too long now.

Massages and Private Chefs

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have been teaching everyday, coming home, planning for the next day's lesson, and going to sleep. There was a pretty bad thunderstorm here the other day, so I cancelled one of my classes. I came home and took a 2 hour nap and I feel like a completely different person now. I think that's exactly what I needed it.

One of my classes got changed, so now I am able to go to Spanglish during the week. It seems like there's a new group of people coming in so I've been able to meet some more expats. Also there are a few Argentine regulars that I have gotten to know better. I like that because it's very difficult to make friends down here. The foreigners are normally only here for a few weeks and the Argentine's pretty much have their group of friends already.

 I had a big break through with my Spanish last weekend at Spanglish. I spoke with 2 girls from Colombia who I understood perfectly and had a real life conversation with them. I was so confused because up until that moment I thought that I was an idiot for coming here and that I didn't know any Spanish at all. There is something about the Argentine accent that I just can't pick up. Their pitch changes when they say words and it sounds completely different. They also have a lot of slang which is pretty confusing. I can understand Spanish perfectly when it is written down, but the moment Argentine's speak, I feel like I'm hearing Chinese. Luckily now I am not near as frustrated as I was the first 2 months of the trip. I realized that I do actually know Spanish, I just need to think a little harder and pay attention more to understand the accent here. Up until last weekend, I had pretty much given up, but now I'm ready to start speaking and learning more.

My friend Lauren isn't moving to Hong Kong anymore!! I'm super excited about that. She is studying Thai massage at the moment. She wants to practice, so obviously I am more than willing. I went to her house the other night with Analia and just ate cookies and talked while she gave me a massage.. it was awesome. I think I'm definitely gonna be going to see her a lote especially since she lives so close.

Johanna's birthday was on Thursday. After work, I met her at Spanglish and then we went to have dinner at a buffet with some of her friends for her birthday. It was a lot of fun. It's nice doing something with friends. At first when I got here, I was wondering if I would even make any friends. But now that I have made a lot of friends, it's going to make it that much harder to leave.

The main reason I'm writing this blog is to tell ya about my awesome experience last night. I went to a closed door restaurant. It was about 20 people in someone's house and there is a chef who prepares a dish for you. I went to Casa Mun. Unfortunately, it wasn't him that was on Iron Chef America it was his teacher... which was still pretty awesome. And just FYI, on Iron Chef America the chef's are told 3 months in advance what the secret ingredient is so they can practice. It was a 5 course Asian meal and it was awesome. I ate tofu, sushi, and quail egg. The tofu wasn't that bad... the sushi, well my thoughts haven't changed, I still don't like it, and the quail egg was actually ok. I knew what I was getting into before I went and I'm really glad that I did. I don't think actually I know that I would never have tried anything like that back home. I definitely want to try another closed door restaurant soon. I think when mom and dad come we will try one called Casa Salt Shaker. One of my friends recommended it to me, so I wanna try it out. 

Today I went to Barrio Chino aka Chinatown. There was some festival for Budda or something, I don't really know. It was called Bano de Buda which mean's Budda's Bath. I'm still not exactly sure what it's all about, it was just a big street festival. We just walked around and got some pretty good food.

I hope everyone is doing great... love you all!

Happy Mother's Day, Mom. Thank you for everything, I love you. You are the best

"Lunchbox" meal... the far left is the tofu

Chinese Wonton soup: 

chicken, shrimp, won ton, bok choy & water chesnuts 

Sushi: The spicy tuna wasn't too bad!

Salmon Nigiri, Argentine King Crab Hand Roll, Spicy Tuna Maki

Bibimbap

A bowl of warm white rice topped with

 Namul (sauteed and seasoned vegetables), bulgogi marinated beef, 

gochujang (chili pepper paste).. garnished with a fried quail egg

Torta Alfajor Rogel with Fresh Berries

Chef Mun

Bano de Buda

6:45am Wake Up calls are NOT ok!

Unfortunately, I do not have anything exciting for you today. We had a long holiday this weekend so today was my first day back at work. It was nice because I haven't done anything all weekend. And when I mean anything.. I really mean I barely even got out of bed. It's so cold here. I hate the cold.

Other than that... life is good. I went to Spanglish every night last week which was great. The times of one of my classes got switched so now I am able to go during the week. I am pretty excited about that. Gran is doing much better now which is good. My mind was elsewhere when everything happened with her. So now I am slowly getting back on track and my mind where it should be.

Maybe I will have something interesting to say after this weekend. I have to teach a few make up classes on Friday which I am not looking forward to. I will also soon be an illegal citizen soon. So I have to plan a trip to Uruguay soon.. which I am okay with. It will be nice to get out of the city for a day or 2!

Ok.. well I just wanted to let everyone I was still alive! Like I said... hopefully after this weekend I will have something exciting to say.

ohh and tomorrow is my wonderful mom's birthday... so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I love you :)