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.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
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
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
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
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 :)
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 :)
Monday, April 23, 2012
Isaiah 41:10
"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." -Isaiah 41:10
This verse is what has gotten me through the past few days. Since Saturday it has been an emotional roller coaster. Mostly going down a hill really fast and wanting to throw up... to me that is the worst part. Luckily, I am on my way back up to the top... excited, nervous, and anxious to see what is going to happen next.
I've been working nonstop. It is pretty difficult. To be honest, I would not recommend moving to another country, where they speak a different language to begin your first job... EVER. It has been challenging. I try to explain to my students every day the difficulty of knowing the exact grammar type something is. You know how to speak the language, you know what is right and what is wrong, however you may not know the name of it. I feel like that is my life constantly. Yes, I know whether what you said was right or wrong... but I have no idea if that was an auxiliary verb or an adjective. It's just humanly impossible for me.
I started teaching a beginner today. Talk about hard! He is about 60 years old and I think it is just fantastic that he is learning English. It was very difficult to communicate with him. My Spanish is so so and when he asked about Papa and Feepapa in the pictures, I think I might have said "I killed him". Sooooooo if I go to jail, you now know why. hahah I also asked him what he liked to do... his response "Pamela Anderson". I have a feeling this is going to be a veryyyyyyy interesting year!
I am so tired right now... actually all the time. Maybe it's because it is FREEZING here. Just so you know... the moment any of you start posting about the beach and laying out and how tan you are... you're getting deleted ASAP. It's so cold here. I am in a hoodie, sweatpants, and fuzzy socks. Talk about terrible! I have class at 8am tomorrow, so I have to wake up around 6:20. Needless to say I am about to go to bed!
There is a big holiday weekend this weekend. I don't have to work on Monday and Tuesday :) Hopefully I'll have some more pictures and will have time to write some more!
love you all :)
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
It's still my birthday :)
Don't even think to question me. My birthday goes on for a week every year. Personally, I think it should be the whole month of April. But then we run into the problem that Maddie, the Queen of the house, has a birthday on April 25. Boy oh boy do we know they are gonna celebrate with her more than me.
But really, my birthday weekend was great! Mica's birthday was Friday and she had a party at her house. I went over there with Nico and Mike. Mica is AWESOME! She had an alarm set at midnight to wish me happy birthday :) She also is a better cook than Johnny... yeah I said it ;) I think these 2 need to have a cook off when she comes to visit me in the USofA! We stayed at her house until about 5:15am... I probably got to sleep around 6:15. I slept all day! I completely slept my birthday away and I loved every minute of it. I went to Spanglish where the lovely ladies of Spanglish had a warm brownie and ice cream with a candle for me. Mercedes had a passion fruit cake for me which was delicious. I went out after Spanglish and met some natives, which was awesome. But on Sunday, I slept all day.... I'm old yall. I can't hang anymore.
Last night, I went to Analia's house with Lauren. Those are both 2 great girls from my certification class. Analia had been in Peru basically since we were done with the course, so we hadn't seen her in a while. It was great to catch up! Lauren got me this DELICIOUS birthday cake. I don't know how to explain it, but I do know that if you are reading this and you live in Capital then you better get here quick.
Work has been very very stressful these past few days. We just got the books that I'm supposed to teach out of, which the students hate. I don't really know what to do about that... I obviously didn't choose them. I had to cancel my class this evening because the stupid subte was down and I couldn't get on complete opposite side of town by taking a bus or taxi in an hour and 40 minutes. So that was a bummer. Then I was trying to plan my lessons for tomorrows classes and looked at the syllabus for what they did last year. Well it's a report in ALL Spanish and my boss won't translate it for me until I come to his office. I'm sorry, you hired me as a native ENGLISH teacher, right? So speak to me in English, nobody said I knew English!
Whew, sorry for venting! I knew I had not posted in a while, so I wanted to say hey and that I am alive!!
I'll add a few pictures from this weekend!
But really, my birthday weekend was great! Mica's birthday was Friday and she had a party at her house. I went over there with Nico and Mike. Mica is AWESOME! She had an alarm set at midnight to wish me happy birthday :) She also is a better cook than Johnny... yeah I said it ;) I think these 2 need to have a cook off when she comes to visit me in the USofA! We stayed at her house until about 5:15am... I probably got to sleep around 6:15. I slept all day! I completely slept my birthday away and I loved every minute of it. I went to Spanglish where the lovely ladies of Spanglish had a warm brownie and ice cream with a candle for me. Mercedes had a passion fruit cake for me which was delicious. I went out after Spanglish and met some natives, which was awesome. But on Sunday, I slept all day.... I'm old yall. I can't hang anymore.
Last night, I went to Analia's house with Lauren. Those are both 2 great girls from my certification class. Analia had been in Peru basically since we were done with the course, so we hadn't seen her in a while. It was great to catch up! Lauren got me this DELICIOUS birthday cake. I don't know how to explain it, but I do know that if you are reading this and you live in Capital then you better get here quick.
Work has been very very stressful these past few days. We just got the books that I'm supposed to teach out of, which the students hate. I don't really know what to do about that... I obviously didn't choose them. I had to cancel my class this evening because the stupid subte was down and I couldn't get on complete opposite side of town by taking a bus or taxi in an hour and 40 minutes. So that was a bummer. Then I was trying to plan my lessons for tomorrows classes and looked at the syllabus for what they did last year. Well it's a report in ALL Spanish and my boss won't translate it for me until I come to his office. I'm sorry, you hired me as a native ENGLISH teacher, right? So speak to me in English, nobody said I knew English!
Whew, sorry for venting! I knew I had not posted in a while, so I wanted to say hey and that I am alive!!
I'll add a few pictures from this weekend!
Pub Crawl
Birthday girls
I mustache you a question
I'M FINALLY 23!!!!
and obviously still a child.
Mica's Birthday Party!
Birthday cake Mica made for us :)
Birthday girl :)
Mica blowing out her candles
Pinata
Birthday Princesses
David, me, and Milagro out for dinner after Spanglish
sweet baby puppy
2 all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a ????
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
April 14, 1989
MY BIRTHDAY IS IN 3 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
just didn't want you to forget....
AND MICA'S IS IN 2 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
The spring game is in 3 days too. I'm so upset I am missing it. I am also upset that I have to teach at either 8 or 8:30am every morning except Friday. Anyways, I just wanted to remind you of our birthdays! I'm really excited... get to help Mica celebrate her birthday then I get to celebrate mine!!! So excited!
love and miss every single one of you!
just didn't want you to forget....
AND MICA'S IS IN 2 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
The spring game is in 3 days too. I'm so upset I am missing it. I am also upset that I have to teach at either 8 or 8:30am every morning except Friday. Anyways, I just wanted to remind you of our birthdays! I'm really excited... get to help Mica celebrate her birthday then I get to celebrate mine!!! So excited!
love and miss every single one of you!
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Feliz Pascua!!
Happy Easter everyone!! I hope you all have had a wonderful day! I'm not gonna lie, I can't really complain. I didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to sunrise service. I went to Mercedes mom's house for lunch. Her entire family was there, it was great. We ate lunch and hung out for 5 hours. I don't think I can say that I could stand being around my family for 5 hours straight... haha only kidding!
I went to Spanglish Tuesday and Wednesday night! I met some really cool girls from Norway on Wednesday. They're traveling the world and will be in BA until the 17th, I believe. Thursday I went to the bakery... twice. Don't judge me. I don't know what they are called, but it's just like a stretched out croissant with sugar all over it. It's so delicious. In fact, I want one right now.. too bad they're closed. I went out Thursday night with some guys I met from San Francisco. It was actually a lot more fun than I expected. Friday night I walked around a lot and went to Puerto Madero and made empanadas with some friends. Yesterday, I went to a friends house with the girls from Norway. We just hung out on the roof and ate and talked. I met up with a friend after that then stayed in for the night.
I have something to admit. I went to McDonalds last night for dinner. It was AWESOME. It's very difficult to find "fast food" here. Not necessarily like Chickfila, Bojangles, McDonalds, Wendys... that kind of thing. Literally just food you can grab on the go. I was starving and needed something quick. I figured after I had walked like 5 miles on Friday it was ok.
Today was great. I couldn't have asked for a better place to be for Easter while in South America. Mercedes family was so inviting and so nice. It was definitely Spanish overload for me, but I had a lot of fun. Lauren and I went to the park afterwards. I tried to juggle.... and failed. Before I come back to the US, I am going to learn and I will be awesome :)
Happy Easter! I love and miss you all more than words can say :)
Armando y Fred... friends from San Francisco
Empanadas...que rico!
Mica!!! Tu eres famosa :)
Ingeborg y Anna.. Norway friends
Mercedes, my wonderful host!
Lauren's actually awesome at juggling...
I'm actually really bad!
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