December 26

You all probably already know why I haven't written in here for over 20 days. When you're boyfriend is in town who has time to sit on the internet for an hour writing a blog post.

But, because I haven't written in so long, I've forgotten most of what's happened... so I guess I'll work my way backwards. Most of it's not super important... lots of party's and goodbyes and such fun things.

I want to comment about something Katiana said in her blog. She said she's going to make changes at school next year. But instead of talking about how much she's going to work harder and focus on accomplishments, she spoke of spending more time with friends. I feel like before I left, the reactions I was getting to the the information that I was going to study abroad were things like, "oh, I wish I would have done that in school," and "wow, you're going to learn so much." I kindof got this feeling that I would go away and learn the secrets to the world and come back to school with the gusto and knowledge to work hard and fix everything and be generally more like Dr. Kalu. But no, if anything, I've lost interest in a lot of the things I used to think were important. I feel like I'm finally viewing college as an exciting place to LEARN instead of a place where I have to go to school to get the knowledge that I need to be a productive member of society. I've learned that you don't always have to be stressed and freaking out about everything that's going on around you. Americans are really up tight. I've learned that what I really care about is people. I told Royce and Lauren one night in the middle of a long and deep conversation, after one of them pointed out that I was supposed to be studying spanish for my test the next day, that those types of conversation are the most important things to me in the world, and that I would never stop having them to do something else. As much as I love learning and classes, you can never learn as much about people out of a book, as you can from their mouths. In sum, I'm agreeing with Katiana. The moments with people are the most precious and delicate things. The book will be there in the morning, that beautiful individual sitting across from you may not be.

Anyway, Christmas in Argentina:

Christmas Eve I went to the family dinner of my 'me responsible roommate' Sebí and his sister. It was a gorgeous house just outside of the city with a long narrow backyard and a pool. We didn't end up swimming because it was windy and cold. There were a lot of people there. Sebí's grandparents are Italian so they have a very big, tight, crazy family. It was very nice to see children running about, the youngest was about 7 I think, the light of excitement in their faces. It was very fun. Everyone was very nice. Even if most people did insist on speaking to me in English... grr. There was lots of food and drink. Then we spent some time painting one of the walls of the yard in bright colors following the coloring book like design of trees and birds and hearts that one of the aunts had already painted there. Then at midnight, the world seemed to explode as fireworks filled the sky from all over the city. Unfortunately they were mostly the noisy ones without too many pretty colors. At the same time we all toasted to Christmas and then everyone ran around clicking glasses of champagne and kissing each other on the cheek. Then a few people went to the huge pile of presents and started calling out names and dishing out all the gifts with each person hungrily ripped open unceremoniously before moving on to the next package. All the gifts were opened at midnight. Sebí and Malena (his sister) were kind enough to get me a couple packages so I didn't feel left out. I was a little overwhelmed and exhausted by this time. After the gifts there were cakes and desserts followed by salsa dancing. They don't do Christmas music here. I didn't hear one rendition of Jingle Bells, not even in Spanish. After a little bit of watching salsa dancing in a stupor I went to the hammock and took a nap until Malena came to get me to go home. I got home at about 3:30 am. It was interesting, but fun none the less.

Christmas morning I again joined Sebí and Malena this time going to their Dad's house for lunch. He also gave me a gift. A cd of Argentine folk music... so I wouldn't forget them he said. It was just us three and their dad and his wife. It was very relaxed and nice. Good food. I got home at about 4:30 pm and then spent about 2 hours on the webcam with my family in AK. In the evening I went to my friend Tracy's house, who was also feeling weird on a Christmas free Christmas day, and we made some make shift gingerbread houses out of crackers and dulce de leche and some candy we'd gotten from the one open Kiosk in the area. It was fun.

I decided it was better to not have snow and Christmas music because without it I could just pretend that it didn't exist instead of being sad that I wasn't at home. Besides, my Christmas was really on December 6th when Royce got here.

Now I'm off to visit my Pakistani friend!
Be back soon!

December 5

Hmm... Mostly I've been consumed with studying and anticipation since I last wrote... and because of that, not much has happened.

I got an overall 6/10 in my modern class. I think that equals approximately a B-. Don't ask me how it works. I expected a 7/10 so I wasn't very happy about it. My modern class is split into two sections in which we learn two distinct modern styles. The one we had twice a week, Martha Graham style, was the hardest for me and the teacher gave me a 5... to which I was frustrated. The other style was more the kind of style that I had learned at UNC and was easier for me to pick up. That teacher gave me a 7... to which I was happy. Unfortunately the average equals 6. sigh. I'm not really angry as I did better than a lot of others in the class... I'm just used to getting A's in dance classes, that's all.

In keeping with the 6 tradition (I also got a 6 in my first intensive spanish class) I also managed a 6 in International Relations. To this however, I am ecstatic! I was expecting to get a 4 as I rarely understood/payed attention in class and didn't do any of the readings. I did study for the final though. And I guess it paid off!

For pretty much the past week, I've had a very hard time thinking about anything but counting down the days until Royce gets here... now we are at about 17 hours. yay!

As my classes come to a close I am very excited for them to be over and for my visitors to come so I can show them around... but at the same time I am wary of the impending sadness of when Royce and Lauren both leave and I am stuck here for Christmas. Then the family comes and it will be all joy (and sweat as it's supposed to be like 100 degrees in the city). Though by the time I finally get back to Greeley in February I will be very out of practice in terms of dance... and I can't help but wonder what I'm going to do with myself once I get there... then there's the every itchy questions of what I'm going to do for the summer, my last year of undergrad, and after. I don't worry about it, but I wonder.

Last night I introduced Lauren and my good Pakistani friend. It was very enjoyable eating Pakistani food and pudding and talking about the world, sometimes in Spanish, but mostly in English. Good times.

It is a gorgeous day, I get to dance tonight and eat fondue with friends, tomorrow my love arrives to visit me from afar, sometimes I catch a glimpse of a fake Christmas tree in a store window. Life is good. Breathe it in. Pass it on.

Dislocated

how can we all fall
so hard on our own with this
huge world under foot

November 25

I know I just wrote a really long post so this won't take long...

I know you probably don't remember me mentioning this over 4 months ago when I first got here... but I was worried about turning cold hearted: cold to the trip, cold to people, just cold. Luckily Katiana talked me out of worrying about it... so I haven't. And these past few weeks have been really fun and enjoyable.

But, people tell me I'm cold. Since I got here Argentines have talked about their perception of Americans and the first thing they say is that they are cold. Well, I conveniently thought they just didn't know any. But now people know me, and they still tell me I'm cold. I think Pablo told me I was cold, partially because I wouldn't have sex with him... but it still hurt a little bit. I thought I was being very friendly and considerate about the whole thing. Then last night... William told me I was cold. William, my close friend... the awkward, hands in pockets, Austrian. He said he thought I had changed since he met me... and that I seemed cold. Then he searched for a different word... and unable to find one returned to cold. I know I don't talk much... I'm self-conscious to almost no end. I keep telling myself and other people I just don't speak Spanish well... I don't want to bore everyone with the tediousness of trying to talk to me. I say I'm shy... nope, it just happened when I wasn't looking... I'm cold. And my heart mourns with the knowledge. I told Lauren the other day that I was wondering what my friends at home would think of me when I go back and don't talk because I got so used to it here... cold.

November 24

There have been a couple things on my mind that I want to share with you... about Porteños... apart from the fact that they don't sleep and eat all the time... (those are exaggerations btw) they have a thing about deodorant. They all carry it around with them. Now this wouldn't be such a bad idea except that when they put it on... they spray it (cause everything comes in aerosol cans down here, and they wonder why the ozone layer is so big...) for a least three seconds under each arm. Apparently on spray won't do. They have to feel it dripping before they are satisfied.

Another thing is Porteños and the zodiac. Almost everyone here has asked me what my zodiac sign is. Apparently it tells them something... though when I ask what it tells them... no one knows. shrug.

On Tuesday night I went to see Lions for Lambs... the Robert Redford movie. It was really... really intense. I didn't want to see it, but I didn't know what we were seeing until the movie started... and from the beginning when the voice of a female news reporter started talking about the war in Iraq I was like oh, I don't want to see this. I knew it would depress me... but what was I going to do. It was actually amazing. Really well put together. And it's amazing that these days people can put out movies like this about something that may be happening TODAY! I recommend seeing it. I think it's important for people to consider the themes it brings up... but beware. Particularly if you have someone you care about over there now.

Wednesday... I was going to sleep... because I hadn't had a more than 6 hours of sleep for almost 2 weeks... but that didn't work out so well. I went to dinner with Lauren and the fabulous Argentines we hang out with. That led to a bar with an angry waitress, lots of sangría, and coral music (because the group I was in are all in the same choir and like to break out into song... I actually love it, it's like living in a musical!) That led to a Milonga to dance chill and dance tango ( I really only danced about three times, the rest was spent judging the other couples and playing a game with Lauren in which when a guy passes the table you have to say whether you would hookup with him or not... it was hilarious) until they kicked us out at 4am. For a while there was a couple of two men dancing tango together. It was fabulous! So... I actually went home that night... 'cause when I go out in Belgrano with Coco... we stay at her house cause it is so far away from everything... but I didn't get there until after 5. And I even went to my spanish class in the morning.

Thursday Lauren and I went for our first waxing experience... and let me tell you: Steve Carell wasn't acting. It hurts like a bitch. Afterwards, Lauren asked me if it hurt more than my tattoo... and I couldn't remember... but I think it probably did, I don't think my tattoo hurt very much at all. Then I went to my tango class and met the parents of one of the other girls in my class who were visiting from N. Carolina. They were very nice and I was in a very enthusiastic and sociable mood for someone so sleep deprived so we talked for awhile. We talked about school and how I'm a junior and have no idea what I want to major in, much less do after I graduate. If I graduate. She said a couple things like "you might as well have fun, because then you have to get a job and that's the rest of your life..." and "that's what we told our daughter too, you have four years and then you are on your own..." First of all... my job will NEVER be the REST OF MY LIFE. I read something about Porteños before I came down here: Americans live to work, Porteños work to live. And it's true! But for me, I'm neither. I want work to be a part of my life that I enjoy and am proud of... but it will never be all of my life at any one point. Neither will I probably work in one place for the rest of my life... THE REST OF MY LIFE... no. Now is the only life I have. And the now that is my life will never be DEFINED by my job. About the second quote. It made me think of a conversation I'd had with my Pakistani friend about the difference between family in Pakistan and U.S. I had been talking about trying to get out of school because it cost so much and I didn't want to be in debt. He'd been surprised by this. He asked if my parents weren't supporting me. I said no... I've always felt extremely supported by my parents. But in the U.S. it's not common for parents to pay for all their children's school and doings after they graduate from high school. He was surprised and said... it's their duty to support their children in whatever until they grow up and start supporting them. Well, needless to say, this is not the way in the U.S. Some people are financially abandoned when they turn 18. I consider myself very fortunate for the support that I get from my parents... and I don't think that my parents will abandon me completely after four years of college like Kelly's mom was talking about. I don't know. I know it's a lot of money, but... shrug. One of these days I will start supporting myself I promise. But I hope that my parents aren't waiting for May of the fourth year to pull the plug and say nope... it's my money... all mine!!! I don't know... i guess I just don't view money as THAT important. You may think that naive... but like I said... my life will not be defined by work... and neither will it be defined by money. I'll do what I can do... and that will be enough. John Lennon was brilliant.

Later that night... I guess that was Thanksgiving... I went to a small dinner party graciously provided by a girl in the program. She and her host mom had cooked chicken (they don't really have turkey here) mashed potatoes, really good stuffing, and apple pie in a small celebration of Thanksgiving. It was very nice and delicious. Then Lauren and I (I love that after only four hours of not seeing each other we have so many things to talk about) were going to walk to our perspective buses, but noticed an odd man kindof following us, so we doubled back a few times and kept crossing to the opposite side of the street when he crossed in our direction. So I invited Lauren to come to my house so we didn't have to wait for any buses alone. The next morning was the wedding of two of my roommates: the cook (28 years old) and the rock star (30). The guests started to show at about 8:30 am. There was cooking and preparation until noon when we walked in procession about 10 blocks to the civil union center, or whatever you call them, and we all crowded into a small room where the man behind the desk with the big book read some things about the law and marriage. Then they kissed and signed the paper. Then we waited outside for them and threw rice on them. Back at the house we waited until they showed up to start eating all the different kinds of empanadas, salad and fruit. Then there was chorizo (sausage) and asado (like steak). Then there was of course cake. 4 different kinds. All with Dulce de Leche in them. At that point I was about to burst. Good thing it was all spread out over some 4 hours. Then I went to my dance class... stupid and full. My teacher advised me that she was going to give me a 5 in the class which is about equivilent to a D+. I was annoyed and frustrated as I thought I had been doing quite well for someone who had never studied Martha Graham modern dance before. Sigh. I've never gotten so many poor grades in my life before, and I don't like it. Then I went back to the party where an Argentine man attached himself to me. He'd just spent 10 years in various places in the states and spoke okay English. It was probably very inhibited by the fact that he'd been drinking beer almost continually since 12:30 that morning. It was very annoying that he wouldn't stop speaking to me in English and that he wouldn't stop trying to get me to go places with him. It was very awkward. Finally he disappeared and I went to bed. The party actually ended at about Midnight... very early for Argentines... but I was very greatful. Last night was the first time in a long time in which I slept as much as I wanted... apparently 12 hours. yay!

Hope you all had a beautiful Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for you all in my life! I miss you. I love you!

November 19

Wow... over a week. Again.

The craziness continued this week... though really a lot more of the same stuff. Lots of food and friends and late nights. At least last night we fell asleep on the floor for a couple hours. :D

The most exciting thing that's really happened is that ROYCE HAS A TICKET TO ARGENTINA AND IS COMING HERE IN 2 1/2 WEEKS!!!!!!

So there's that.

I can't remember what I did on Saturday. OH yeah, we went to a Tango concert of a friend. He plays piano... and very well I must say. Then we (Me, Lauren, and Coco) walked around all night finding food and buses and argentine folk music and dance. I sucked at it, but hey, i'd never done it before.

On Sunday I went over to visit my friend from Pakistan. He graciously fed me again (YAY!!!) and we spent the afternoon talking, philosophizing, and sharing stories. It was great! After I spent a frustrating hour and a half trying to catch a bus to a free comedy concert. I couldn't get on a bus because they were all full of people who were also going to the concert. But I got there eventually. I actually understood a little bit of it! I met up with some friends (American and Argentine) after and we went to Coco's house to party until the wee hours of the morning... luckily this time no one took their pants off. Then we all just fell asleep on the floor until Coco's mom called at 8:30 and we decided to make our way home. But needless to say, I'm tired. I don't know... it was a good week and I feel like I'm always learning a lot... but I am not as adept as Katiana at putting it into words... I still feel like conversation and honesty will get you everywhere. It's nice to have friends.

In other news... on the way home in the bus I witnessed a car run into a motorcycle. The bike was pretty bent up but the two guys who were on it jumped off and started yelling at the driver of the car so I think everyone's okay.

November 11

I think I may actually be insane.

So the tally is now five nights in a row that I have gone out. I need sleep.

This is a warning for those of you who don't want to know... I talk about sex in this blog.

So, Lauren told me there was a party on Friday night. Yay! As of then I had not been to an Argentine house party. So of course I went. We got there at about 1ish. It was a tiny apartment with a bathroom and tiny kitchen, and the bed was on the floor in the living room where everyone was sitting. Luckily there was also a balcony with a fair view. It was someone's birthday, i didn't know her. We all sat around drinking wine and beer and talking. It was very much like any party. But the atmosphere was chill and the people were fun. There were a bunch of streamers hanging straight down from the ceiling, but oddly enough they never seemed to be in the way. And there were a bunch of bottle of bubble stuff, so I ended up blowing bubbles for a good portion of the night. Coco is a friend of Lauren's and she's the one who invited us. She's adorable. She's one of those people that EVERYONE is in love with. She's really outgoing and just great. Anyway, She also doesn't speak English so when we want to hang out with her we speak Spanish, which is great. She and I made some make shift Sangria with the fruit in the fridge. It turned out to be pretty spectacular. The birthday girl, Gaby, spent some time studying at CU in Boulder and we were impressed by her Skippy peanut butter, and she even gave us some Big Red gum... it was amazing. Argentine gum is odd. Anyway, we ended up staying there until almost everyone else left and it was just Coco, Pablo and Emmanuel (Argentine guys), Gaby, and Lauren and Me. At that point... and no one knows why... the guys decided it was time to take their pants off... so they were running around in their boxer-briefs for a while. Yes, Lauren has pictures on Facebook. Eventually we talked them into putting them back on... but then they wanted to play some form of Argentine strip poker, to which we turned them down. We did play a rather illuminating game of Never Have I Ever in which we had a list of things (almost exclusively sexual in nature) to which you may have never done. If you have done it, you have to drink. This was basically the most culturally illuminating experience I've had here, as up until then, things seemed pretty normal to me. But in the world of sex, Argentines are very different from Americans. I consider myself to be pretty open about the subject and generally comfortable with my sexuality. But compared to Argentines I'm a prude. In this culture, sex is something like eating. No one is embarrassed about it and everyone talks about it in detail to those little more than acquaintances. The most surprising thing to me is how lightly everyone treats it. No one seems to bothered by the concerns I have about STDs and getting pregnant. I found out most of the Argentines have done things like had sex with more than 3 people in one night (that's separately mind you). And not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's just so weird to me coming from a country that politely ignores that people have sex. Unless they are gay of course, because then they are obviously have sex and that's against the law. oh wait, that's a different subject I don't want to get into here. After Never Have I Ever, they played some kind of kissing game that got increasingly more... exciting?dangerous? We finally left when two of the Argentines actually just started having sex on the floor. And as is was a one room apartment, we decided it was time to leave. At least is was her apartment. And it was her birthday, she deserved it I guess. :D

Anyway, we didn't leave until 7:30 ish... then we walked a couple blocks to Coco's house to make french toast. But none of the grocery stores were open yet so we just had instant coffee and crackers. After I went to Laurens house where we made french toast with apple bread (amazing) and chilled for a while. I finally went home at about 1. It was so cute when I got on the subte. I know I looked tired because everyone kept making room for me to sit down and offering me seats and stuff. They are so sweet these Argentines. lol. I also bought something from the people selling stuff in the train for the first time. I bought highlighters. lol. I needed some. shrug. I got home and crashed for about 4 hours. It was the first time in my life (i think) that I'd been up for over 24 hours without napping... and not having been on a plane. I talked to Royce all afternoon and went to be around 10:30.

I was awoken an hour later by Lauren who was calling to see if I wanted to go out and sing karaoke. ummm... i'm asleep. So I told her I would think about it and if I called her back I was coming, and if not, I was asleep. So I rolled over and closed my eyes and thought, "I just want to sleep, I have so much homework tomorrow, but then again I decided last week that the one thing I was definitely not going to regret about this semester is not having spent enough time studying... besides, I can sleep when I'm dead right?" So my eyes popped open and I got out of bed and went out to Karaoke. That is SO not like me. We got there at one... and saw the end of a really fun blues band. Lauren and I were the only ones there as Coco hadn't left her house yet. After a while Coco's other friends who I didn't know, but apparently Lauren had met before, showed up. It was really fun. I didn't sing. But the friend who's birthday it was sang and it was amazing and fun. Lauren sang a Coldplay song in English. I was impressed. I got home again after 4:30 and this time went to bed in earnest. I didn't get up until 2:30 this afternoon. horrible. Anyway, I still haven't studied, nor have I seen all the friends I wanted to see this weekend... but I am apparently a party animal... lol. go figure.

on another note, Lauren pointed out to me that if I drop my International Studies Major and just do Philosophy, I can graduate on time. And now I'm thinking about it. Who wants to take 5 economics classes anyway...

November 9

I cannot believe that I haven't written in here in over a week. I've been so busy I could barely check my email. Good for me huh?!

Lauren introduced me to Jem and Sia! YAY! They are bands...

Actually up until Tuesday I hadn't written anything because I didn't have anything too interesting to say. I went to a Halloween party last Friday. It was fun, but it wasn't a very Argentine thing to do. And my costume pretty much sucked so, shrug. Saturday my roommates had another loud, live music party in our living room... through which I slept because I hadn't had much sleep the night before. Sunday, Lauren and I continued our tradition of sitting around, drinking mate, eating lots of food, and pretending to do homework. Monday morning we got up and had some really yummy oatmeal with maple syrup and then, inspired, I made french toast before dragging myself off to class. Later I did some homework.

Tuesday is when things started to get interesting. Lauren helped me skip tango again (turns out I'm getting bored with it), and we went leather shopping and ate ice cream! Then we went to her house to think of something to do... it was like, "um, this is lame. We are in Buenos Aires and we can't think of anything to do..." so I looked for some activities on the internet and we ran across an advertisement for the opera Madame Butterfly. So at 7:30 we decided to go to an Opera that started at 8:30. Lauren loaned me a cute black dress and some really fun light pink heels and we headed to the opera. We each paid 10 pesos for standing room tickets and entered the hall to my first professional opera experience. Luckily there weren't very many people there so we got to sit down anyway. It was fun! I think the most fun thing for me was that we could spontaneously decide to just go watch an opera. After it was over we walked to a pizza place and had some pizza and chocolate cake. We were rather starving as we had neglected to eat dinner. Then we tried to find a bus for a while before giving up and taking a cab. I slept at Lauren's house so I wouldn't have to pay for a cab. Wednesday I got up early to go home and change before my Spanish class. Then following the spending money theme of the week, Lauren and I went to lunch. After my dance class at 9 pm Lauren sent me a text that they were going to a tango club. So, of course I couldn't miss that. I quickly changed my close and returned to her house from which we walked to the house of a friend of a friend (raised eyebrow) and chatted for a couple hours in intermixed Spanish-English... not quite Spanglish... just in whatever language we felt like saying any one sentence. Then we went to the tango club and watched and danced tango for the night. It was quite fun I must say. I know I just said I was bored with Tango but what I really meant is that I am bored with the class. Anyway, I managed to get home around 5... a good 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up and go to the other side of town to finalize my student visa. Then for dinner I went out with some other friends from FLACSO to a Japanese food restaurant. We spoke mostly Spanish all night as one of the girls brought her friend from Colombia who doesn't really speak English. It was pretty good sushi despite the lack of flavor in the salmon. But it was fairly expensive. Oh, well.

It sounds less exciting on paper (or screen...), but Lauren and I are very proud of ourselves... going out three nights in a row... wow. lol. Anyway. I'm glad I'm finally taking advantage of being here. Now if only I can pass my international relations class... I'll be perfect! -ish.

Academia vs. Personal Experience

Is that a thesis topic?

October 30

Aahh... (that was a refreshed sigh)

Friday night after my dance class I walked to Lauren's house so we could plan our trip to Uruguay for the following day. (apparently Lauren likes to procrastinate like me!) We realized that the boat reservations could only be made online at least two days before so we decided we just had to show up early and buy tickets when we got there. We booked hostels and packed and crashed on my bed for about 5 hours before getting up at 6 to finish packing and leave to catch a taxi to the other side of town and the harbor. When we got to the ticket box... not only were there no tickets left to Punto del Este (the city we were planning on going to first), we were informed that we needed our student visas (which we had left home) because we were about a week past the three month tourist visa date... grrr. So instead of running home and probably missing the boat we paid the 50 peso fine each and bought our tickets. We ate breakfast at the cafe and got on the boat. The ride was only an hour long and then we were in Uruguay! The boat was cool despite the brown river water. Even though we couldn't sit on the deck and drink piña coladas. Basically the entire weekend all I wanted was a Piña Collada served to me in a coconut with a little umbrella... but it never happened. Anyway, when we arrived in Colonia (which was about a 30 second walk from the boat) we went to the hostel to change our reservation to include Saturday night as well as Sunday night. Then we walked around looking for a place to buy lunch. It is such a gorgeous little town. There weren't very many people around. It was sunny. It smelled good. I kept getting whiffs of different flower smells. One thing that really got us was that the drivers in the cars actually stopped for pedestrians... something that never happens in Bs. As. In fact, when I cross the street here... it is almost always a near death experience. It was beautiful. The people were all so nice and happy and relaxed. It was fabulous. After ice cream we walked down to the artisan fair, and they had lots of good, neat stuff that we made mental notes of to buy later. Then we went back to the hostel to change into beach clothes and get directions to the bus that goes to the beach. We found it, and the bus driver not only took paper money, he took Argentine pesos as well as Uruguayan... and he told us when we needed to get off. We got to the beach and basically laid in the sun for the rest of the afternoon. I walked up and down the beach a bit in the waves but didn't swim. We finally went back when it was getting close to dinner time. We watched the sun set into the river and then ate at a place with out door tables that looked over the water. Then we walked back toward the hostel and ran into our hostel roommates (a university teacher and her 6 year old son). They apparently spend a lot of time in Colonia so they walked us around a bit to show us the best places to eat and go out. Later we went to a bar/restaurant that was supposed to have live music. We ordered drinks that turned out to be really strong and listened to a really horrible band that consisted of a guy working the sound board, a guy who played simple keyboard and sang, plus two other guys who just sang. I still don't get it. But it was made funnier by the strong piña coladas! When we got tired around 12:30 we went back to the hostel and fell asleep, content with the knowledge that we didn't have to do anything the next day but hang out. We got up and found breakfast at a super market. Then we went back to the artisan fair to make our purchases. We decided to go to the beach next to the artisan fair instead of the other far away one. It was just as nice, if much smaller. But there still weren't many people around so it was okay. I spent a long time listening to the unintelligible but beautiful German conversation that was spoken by the couple next to us. Lauren and I had an exciting conversation about religion and taking things for granted and the point of academia. We talked about how I should probably change my thesis topic as I don't really have an opinion or passion for it... and that it would be better for me to write about something similar to what we were talking about before because I obviously had a passion for it. The problem was that as soon as she said that I became in capable of remembering exactly what we were talking about, much less make a hypothesis out of it. But we'll see about that later. After the beach we went to take showers before going to get MASSAGES!!!! We'd happened to walk by a hotel that offered a spa and therefore massages. They were 550 pesos each... which is about U$S 23. And they were awesome! I was so relaxed and my skin was soft. It was perfect. Then we went to the restaurant that our roommate had recommended. It was also amazing! We sat outside and the waiter was a hilarious little man with about 1000 buttons pinned to his apron (including one for Kerry & Edwards 2004.. he he). He also had huge ridiculous hats that he would change almost every time he went inside. I think we saw at least 12 hats throughout the night (including a purple wizard hat, a foam frog, and a yellow bonnet with a big red flower on the side). He was adorable! The other waiters... who didn't really seem to be doing anything, offered us some Mate (which we politely refused) and then talked about how Uruguayans drink Mate ALL day long and carry it with them everywhere (which they do). Then he mimed how they wash their faces in between sips of mate. Lol. Anyway, the food was amazing too. We had this typically Uruguayan dish called Chivito which consists of a steak topped with strips of bacon, cheese wrapped in ham, and a perfectly fried egg. It came also with french fries and salad. We shared some really delicious Uruguayan wine and a hot apple bread pudding with vanilla ice cream for dessert. By the time we were done we were ready to just fall asleep. Which we did. We woke up fairly early the next morning because we had gone to bed so early. We leisurely ate breakfast and chatted until it was time to leave. Unfortunately, the clock I was using was on Argentine time which is 1 hour behind Uruguayan so not only did we check out late (thankfully they didn't charge us), but we missed our boat back to Argentina. oops. So Lauren missed her classes on Monday... but we got to hang out in beautiful Colonia another 5 hours. We spent the rest of our accidental time eating more ice cream and doing logic puzzles in Spanish. Then we got on the boat and headed back to Bs. As... which, was sad to me. I went to my dance class and returned to my house to eat dinner with my roommates (who for the most part hadn't noticed that I'd been gone all weekend), and do my Spanish homework before going to bed.

I feel so healthy and beautiful and refreshed. I understand now why people go away for the weekend when they live in the city. It does help. :D

I wish you sunny days and the calm of a cool breeze.

October 26

Yesterday. Hot day. Rainstorm.

I chose to skip Tango (partially to recuperate from Tuesday, but mostly because I just wanted to go party with Lauren). I got to her house at about 5 pm. We went to the store so I could buy ingredients for a sangría recipe that Spencer gave me. I was providing sangría to some 16 people so I bought a lot of it. Wine, Ginger Ale, Peach/Apricot Juice, Vodka, Lime Juice, and Fruit Cocktail. The recipe called for cherry juice and cherries... but those were very expensive, so I improvised. I thought there was going to be way too much, but turns out it was a HUGE hit and the Argentines drink more than Flacso likes to say they do. But I knew that all ready. Anyway. Then we sat around in the kitchen and listened to music, drank mate, and made a music mix for the evening. Eventually Lauren started making the tacos which ended up being awesome! Surprisingly the Argentines arrived early and the Americans arrived late. But we ended up with 12 people I think(5 Argentines, 6 Americans, and 1 Austrian), sangría, tacos, sandwiches, potato salad, teriyaki chicken, sushi, brownies, chocolate oatmeal cookies, sweet bread, corn bread, and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream (which Lauren made from scratch, the apple crisp, not the ice cream, and it was amazing!). It was a fabulous time! After we ate and drank our hearts out we went to an electronic tango milonga. It was interesting. The music was very untraditional and the dancing was almost nothing like what I've been learning. But it was fun! One of the Argentine guys plays traditional tango piano and taught us some tango moves (he dances too). I got to talk to him a little bit about what tango really is. We left at about 3:30 because Lauren had to go to class at 9:30. I thought we'd done pretty well, but the poor Argentines complained the whole way home about how early it was. *rolling eyes*. Anyway, I ended up walking around for a while on the way home with the tango pianist. He has a knack of simultaneously making you feel like you are doing something wrong with your life and telling you to calm down in the same moment. I think he just wants people to be chill and with his philosophy about what chill is. shrug. He's not a bad guy and I don't think he means to do this but, he made me very confused and introspective to the point where I was awake until 6 am writing about it. I skipped my 11 am Spanish class. But I finally found some peace... in my breaths. All in all it was a fun birthday party! Hopefully Lauren and I will get to Uruguay this weekend. If we don't... i don't know... but I won't be happy. :D

I am.

I am part of the fabric of being.
I know that I exist.
I am glowing brightly with life.
I know that I am alive.
I am tinged pink with love.
I know that I love and am loved.
I sparkle with intelligence.
I think that I am and that you are.
I am human.
Hot red blood keeps me here.
I am Makena.
My experience tells me so.
I choose to be.
The truth is nothing more than the choices we make.

October 24

Today, I had a rather interesting experience. I went to my modern class at 7:30. The class usually starts at 7, but on Wednesday the professor can't get to class until 7:30 (or so I gather). Anyway, for the past few weeks we've been having problems with the professor getting there before 8... 8:15 even. Usually there are a good number of people who leave or are encouraging everyone to leave. I think that some are worried about being counted absent if everyone doesn't go at the same time. Anyway, there is at least one girl who refuses to go because she likes this class and we only have this professor on Wed, so usually we wait the some 45 minutes until he shows up. Today we waited 45 minutes... and I think we would have left, but today the students seemed to be in the dancing mood... so we gave the class ourselves! We did the warm up and went through exercises. The accompanist on the drums even played for us. We danced pretty hard for about 45 minutes... but at 9 people started to peater out and leave. It was fun though. Everyone was in such a good mood! Laughing and talking and playing around but dancing! A couple of the girls were even doing funny impressions of the prof. every now and then (in the states I would consider this rather disrespectful... but I don't know what to think of it here, and everyone else seemed to think it was great so... shrug). There was even a short rendition of Let the Sunshine In... which immediately got stuck in my head. I'm still thinking about the whole thing and it makes me laugh. The prof. never showed up.

Anyway, earlier today my Spanish class got canceled... and luckily someone from FLACSO called to tell me so I could sleep in. Then I went to a fabulous lunch with Lauren. We sat outside at the tables on the side walk and had hamburgers (seriously these have to be the best hamburgers in the world) and french fries. It was warm and sunny, but we were sitting in the shade... and it was perfect!

Tomorrow is Laurens birthday potluck dinner. I'm making quesadillas and sangría. Lauren is turning 21!!!! I'm very excited. You'll hear about it I'm sure! Goodnight!

October 22

I got a letter from Molly today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it was really exciting.

October 21

Wow... October 21. Time does go by... i should really stop worrying about that.

Last week was fairly straight forward. I slept in because I didn't have Spanish classes this week. Friday night I went to a salsa club with some people in my tango club. It was really fun, but it was Friday night, after my 2 hour modern class, and it took me forever to get there. Also, I've never danced salsa before (with people who actually know how) so I pretty much looked like an idiot all night. Sigh, fun though. I got home at about 5 am... dead. Saturday I basically couldn't walk up stairs... apparently salsa does a number on your quads. But my two engaged roommates were bbq-ing steaks on the roof and I got to spend some time with them and eat a nice lunch on the roof in the beautiful sunlight.

Saturday afternoon I met up with my friend Eli and we went to this theme park call tierra santa or Holy Land. Its a park dedicated to depictions of religion and Jesus. and yep... it was hilarious and completely made of plaster (or something similar). I was thinking about Emily the whole time because I think she would have found it ridiculous and a little creepy how some of the 'shows' consisted of scenes from the bible, in which the figures were all just placed out there, some of them moving like the Santa Clause dolls you see at Christmas, with fat cherub-like angels hanging from the ceiling, with the story read in Spanish from a record, and fancy lighting changes. Most of the park was just stationary figures set up with short passages from the bible on placards. There was also a synagogue, a mosque, the wailing wall, and for some reason a display of Gandhi. The writing in the plaster synagogue was not even Hebrew, which Eli pointed out, it was just funny looking gibberish. Neither of us can read Arabic so we don't know if the writing in the mosque was authentic or not. Oh, and on the hour there is a 'resurrection' in which an 18 meter high Jesus statue rises out of the plaster mountain in the middle of the park, with lots of Allelujah music and more fancy lighting, to 'bless' the people in the park. The park guide said he had 36 mechanical movements, but I only counted 13... of which most of them were just the figure turning 1/4 of the way around. He did however, at one point, close his eyes, lift his head, and turn his palms to the sky (as his arms were already, obviously, spread wide). Most of the time I couldn't figure out whether to laugh of be offended on behalf of Christians world wide. Wherever they didn't have something specific... there was a plaster donkey or sheep or camel. All of the figures in the park were life size. All the people working there, including the maintenance crew, were dressed up like you would imagine the people of ancient Jerusalem to be dressed. There was one stage where they did live shows and we watched some belly dancers do some slightly less than authentic dancing. The main dancer was decked out in hot hot pink. They did do some cool dancing though. The main dancer finished off the show with at least a minute of hard core head banging in which her really long hair was swung around in large circles. I still don't know how I feel about that.

After that I made my way home. I was supposed to meet some other people and go out some more but I had no credit on my phone with which to contact people and I was so tired that when I finally climbed the last stair to my bedroom I lay down and fell asleep.

Now it's Sunday. A beautiful day... of which I plan on spending doing homework and talking on the phone. I would like to go to a park but as my phone isn't working I would have to put a lot of effort into finding someone to go with me. We'll see.

I posted new photos on Facebook

http://unco.facebook.com/photos.php?id=42109307

I don't know if you can access them without a facebook account... and if you can't... well, I guess you'll just have to wait until you see me!

October 18

I think I forgot to mention this... but a few weeks ago, my friend William actually did get kicked out of his house because of the bathroom door that I broke. oops. oh well. His land lady was a psyco anyway. And he found a new better place to live pretty quickly so it´s okay.

October 16

Friday night I decided not to go out so instead I talked to Royce and went to bed. I slept for almost twelve hours. I must have been tired. I woke up on Saturday and lazily got ready for the soccer game. Getting there ended up being a little stressful because I couldn´t get hold of Lauren so I had to go to the internet cafe to look at the email for directions and then get on the subway which ended up taking much longer than anticipated. And in my silly head I thought that maybe if I was late they would leave without me and I wouldn´t be able to go so I took a taxi the rest of the way. I then proceeded to wait on the corner with the group for almost an hour while we waited for the other people who were late... silly me. I spent all the money I´d taken with me: 10.75 pesos on that silly taxi for no reason. Oh well. The soccer game was very fun though. The second half wasn´t the greatest thing because Arg. was two up over Chile, so they basically just tried to keep the ball away from them for 45 minutes. Sigh. Oh well. It was cool to see all the people in the stadium though. They are crazy about their soccer. The opposing team was sequestered in one section of the stadium with about 15 police men at each entrance... no one was getting in there. When we were waiting on the street corner, a caravan of opposing fans went by, chilean flags haning out the windows, and they were accomplanied by lights and sirens, policemen on motorbikes with HUGH FREAKING RIFLES!!! There were BIG guns involved and at that point I was less excited to go... though I obviously went anyway.

Anyway, after the game I went back to Laurens house because her family wasn´t in the house all weekend and she was having a sleep over! It was so fun and perfect. We watched 10 Things I Hate About You and Moulin Rouge and talked and drank Mate and ate cookies and chocolate and ice cream... it was unhealthy and delicious and perfect. I slept on the couch and in the morning everyone else left so Lauren and I made PANCAKES and watched Eddie Izzard on youtube. We then proceeded to spend the entire day watching tv, drinking mate, and eating the rest of the ice cream. Sunday pretty much didn´t exist. It was wonderful. Luckily, Monday was dia de la Raza... which Royce told me is like their columbus day... but regardless, we didn´t have class. So after I woke up I went to the parks to meet Lauren and William and drink more mate (I´m really starting to like this stuff, it´s so wonderfully social). Plus, the hamburgers at the stand in the park are pretty much the best I´ve ever had... and they don´t put anything on them. It´s just meat and bread. Unfortunately while we were waiting for burgers, it started to rain so we changed tactics and went back to my house to watch a movie: Amoresperros, which means love is dogs only all squished together. It was good. If long and sad. We also played a little ping pong on the temporary table in my living room and ate empanadas. It was grand. It was basically the most relaxing weekend I´ve had since I got here. I didn´t do one bit of homework. And I was happy almost the entire weekend. Quite a feat.

On sunday night I had a really crazy dream in which I had an identical twin who had lost her memory and couldn´t remember who I was. But I still loved her. And when I looked at her I saw my face but knew she was a different person. And I felt like I could see myself from someone elses point of view. I watched how my hair moved and actually looked when I wasn´t looking in the mirror. It was crazy. I´m not sure what to think about it.

Royce got my letter yesterday. It took ten days. :D But we are pretty sure they lost his package that he sent me as it´s been over a month and a half.

Besos!

In response to the questions about my last blog

To be clear... he´s not THE pakistani foreign ambassador, he is a Pakistani foreign ambassador, as is my other Pakistani friend who was in my spanish class. And they are both still in training. Learning spanish. Or one of them is. The one I went out to dinner with doesn´t want to and isn´t trying. He´s been here 9 months and is still in level 1. I met him through the one in my spanish class and invited me to dinner because I accidentally expressed my ignorace of good restaruants in Buenos Aires so he decided to educate me. It´s fascinating to talk to people from different parts of the world. Do you know for example that the Pakistani government always hopes for the Republicans to be in power in the U.S. because the only power Pakistan has against India´s size and army is their nuclear bombs and the democrats would try to take those away. Interesting.

Katiana: I will always be a little sad when you are not with me. And at times I will be very sad. But I will also be happy for you having fun wherever you are and that I will see you again. Hopefully soon.

Molly: Where is home? is a very good question. One that I have been pondering for quite some time and have not come to a conclusion about. When I think about home I think of Spencer and Katiana and Emily and Royce in my living room drinking tea or wine and playing board games... but I also think of sitting in front of the woodstove in Talkeetna with my family listening to Lord of the Rings the radio play... and I also think of playing cards after breakfast on Sunday morning in the sunshine with you and mindy. These things are my home. And they will never be in one place. I don´t know whether to be happy or sad about that.

In terms of plans, I am planning on going straight to Colorado from Buenos Aires in the first week of February. I don´t know exactly when I will be back in Alaska. At the latest it with be Christmas of ´08. I can´t go back this christmas and I can´t go back for the summer because I will need to take a full summer course load to make up for this spring semester. I could come up sometime in the spring... but that requires money I am skeptical I will have. But we´ll see. I don´t know if I can survive without being in AK for over a year and a half.

I think I could never be president of the U.S. because I wouldn´t take those actions that are best for my country, I would try to do what is best for the world. Even though I really think that what is best for the world is also best for the U.S. I feel like most people in our country aren´t ready to make sacrifices for the world. And there´s alway the chance that some nuclear power seeking further strength would sense weekness and decide it was time to take the U.S.A. out. Shrug.

October 12

It´s raining horribly, still.

I had a very long dinner and conversation(s) with the Pakistani foreign ambassador last night. I love conversation. I learned so much. And he paid for everything... which was a lot. If everyone would take time to talk to different people from around the world... we would have no problems. It´s when people think they know how other people are, while they haven´t ever talked to them, that problems start.

I´ve come to a decision about next semester. I´m coming home.

I got my spanish final results back today. I passed, but barely. Therefore, I suck.

Sigh.

I´m going to an international soccer game on saturday!

October 11

I am tired of everyone always telling me to calm down. I am calm. I am just enthusiastic and I strive to be clear about things so I don´t end up mistaken or disappointed. Which tends to happen anyway. It's being told that I need to calm down that really gets me going.

October 10

I have met an unreal number of disillusioned, pessimistic, and dejected men here who used to be naive and idealistic like me, ready to save the world, but then they joined the real world and were consumed by bureaucracy and politics. Almost all of them have a drinking problem. My response to this is that I am trying to hold on to my idealism and optimism. And they all respond that I should do that and then in a rather depressing way say they hope I stay the same and do all the things I want to do. I´ve met students, foreign ministers, and ONG workers like this. It´s really scary to me. Last night I was told by a Pakistani foreign minister that it was nice to finally meet someone from the states who could intelligently talk about politics in the U.S. and the world. He was shocked to meet the "only intelligent American girl in the country". Sigh. He also told me that I shouldn't worry about accomplishments but just enjoy my life as much as I can, but at the same time, I should always be great at my job... and then turn around and say 'go fuck yourself' to my boss because then I will be indispensable. Mind you he was pretty wasted by this time. Alcohol is dangerous... but not nearly as dangerous as government jobs apparently. Sigh, what are we supposed to do? And then I of course want to help these poor sad human beings but they are usually too drunk to really remember me anyway. I miss my campus. At least campuses spawn hope and new ideas. Maybe that´s the key. I´ll just stay on campuses for the rest of my life and I can´t get too dejected. But I´ve met many teachers who seem to have lost hope too.

On a lighter note: I had my first real encounter with tequila last night. It was fun. And I think I did well on my Spanish test this morning. The other sad realization is that I check my email, blog, and facebook far too often for anything to have changed in the interim.

I wish you a sunny, enthusiastic and hopeful day.

October 9

Sigh, it´s raining again. They tell me it´s not normally like this and that I´m here in the wrong season. But the fact is, I´m tired of having wet shoes all the time.

Friday night after dance I went to the other side of the city to have mexican food with Lauren, William, and an argentine friend of Lauren´s. The place looked awesome! It was called Frida Kahlo and it was all mexican looking inside. Just being there made me happy. The food was... just about as disappointing as I expected though it is apparently the best mexican food restaurant in the city. So I guess mexican food is not a good plan while I´m here. oh well. It was fun, but I was tired from a long week and my spanish wasn´t working so I didn´t say much all night. I went home fairly early so I could get up in the morning and study.

So on Saturday I woke up and tried to study though my headache, sore throat, and tired body. It kindof worked. But I was reminding myself of Tyler when I would get distracted for hours at a time by the philosophical questions in my head about the meaning of life and the role of love... seriously I stared at the ceiling a lot on Saturday. anyway, at about 6 I traversed to Laurens house where she fed me some tarta and some alfajore (a rather indescribable sweet) before going to the Night of the Museums. I can´t remember if I discribed this last time but it´s a night in which all the museums in Bs.As. stay open until midnight and you can go to them for free. Also there are busses that run from all the museums to the others that you can take for free. We started on a cool, old looking ship in the river thats crew were all in sailor suits and had a brass band and singer on the upper deck. It was fun in a kindof Titanic feeling sort of way (in a good way). Then we went to the Tango museum. It was okay. The performer was singing, not dancing. Then Patricio (my argentine friend) showed up. I hadn´t seen him in mucho tiempo. We all proceeded to a big cultural center to look at a bunch of different kinds of art. There was the performance art of the the girl in the blue dress who ran around the crowd. Then there was the childrens paintings on huge rolls of brown paper; the woman in the doorway who looked like the clown from Saw (very creepy); the room full of large canvases with different brightly colored circles on them which were apparently representing the 'supremacy of color'; the room with all the poorly taken photos of the towers on meat plants and cemetarys (we spent a lot of time in this room because we didn´t get it); and the room on the top floor with the pretty acrilic painting of people and a great use of orange. From there we returned to the center of town and Puerto Madero to see the final concert and to eat some hamburgers. Unfortuantely it was getting cold and I had neglected to bring a coat. The music was fun enough but we left after the first ten minutes of the drum group because apparently there´s only so much drumming that we can take. It was all good and fun. We left early enough. I was ready to go to bed. Unfortunately that part of the plan didn´t work out. It took us an hour and a half to find a taxi. It was rediculous. If I hadn´t been worried about being robbed or kidnapped I would have walked the some 30 blocks home. But finally we did find one, by some worldly magic.

Sunday morning I did much the same thing as Saturday morning with much tiredness and feeling like I was getting a cold. Then I started out to the house of the Pakistani man (Shahzad) in my spanish class for food. It was one of the most stressful moments since I´ve been here because I didn´t have any phone credit to call neither him nor Christina who was also going but didn´t know the directions. I looked everywhere but everything was closed or didn´t have any cards. By that time I was late and feeling horrible because it is Ramadan and I didn´t want to make Shahzad wait to eat after fasting all day. Finally I found a phone card and everything worked out... though almost 40 minutes late, but Shahzad had already eaten so I didn´t feel too horrible. I found a new love: Pakistani food. It was delicious! And we talked about many things in the world, including the current state of Pakistan and the differences of culture. He played us some Indian music too! We did most of the talking in english because he speaks really good english and we all speak rather poor spanish. It was great. We talked and ate for almost 4 hours before walking Christina home and to my bus stop. Shahzad and I talked about how relationships between people of the opposite sex differ between my culture and his. It was really refreshing to just strait up say what kind of relationship you were interested in having with someone from just about the very beginning of the friendship. It was imortant too because our cultures are so different. But we found out that we are basically looking for the same thing: good friends. And that my definition is essentially the same as his. It´s really too bad that the political situation is so bad in the middle east these days because after meeting Shahzad, hearing his stories, tasting his food, and listening to his music, I would really like to travel there. Hopefully someday soon the world will get over all this silliness and killing each other and I can travel to visit my friends around the world.

Monday: I had my International Relations midterm. It went very badly. And my leg injury had actually gotten worse instead of better so I didn´t participate in all of my dance class. The good thing was that I finally got to talk to my parents for a while and even see my love on webcam! It made for an excellent evening, despite the rain.

Reading Katiana´s blog makes me feel like I just had a really long conversation with her, and reading the New York Times makes me feel like I know so much about what´s going on in the world. Writing this reminds me of good things. Now I am happier.

October 5

This morning, 6 am, I was awoken by cannons firing above my head.

well, not really, it was thunder.

but it was the loudest most abrupt thunder I had ever heard in my life. And then the rain that I usually enjoy listening to on my skylight turned into litte rocks that I thought would surely break through at any moment. It was a little freaky.

And the rain stopped long enough for me to not take my umbrella to class... and then started again. In furry.

But my friend Christina and I went to a glorious lunch at my favorite café. So it´s none the less a good day. I can´t believe that at 9 pm tonight I will have had an entire week of classes. Something I haven´t experienced for over a month. My body is tired from dancing. I´m so glad it´s friday! Tonight... I´m not sure what is going on. Mexican food, maybe, hopefully. Tomorrow is the Night of the Museums in which all of the museums in Bs.As. are open until 2 am, they are free, and there are busses running from each one to the others all the time. That should be good stuff! Sunday, perhaps Pakistani food with the Pakistani man from my spanish class. And all the time in between will be (need to be) spent studying for my midterm in International Relations on Monday. Happy first week of October! Love you!

October 2

Hmm... I have not been inclined to write here lately, even though I travelled halfway across the country. I don´t remember what I did last week.

Okay so Jujuy. It started out pretty straight-forward. We went to the aeroparque (which is what they call airports when they aren´t international) at 5 and didn´t actually leave the airport until sometime after 11. Apparently the plane was delayed. They gave us dinner though, which wasn´t too bad. While I was sitting in the food court and got into a conversation with the three argentine men sitting behind out table. They were very nice and we talked about Alaska (of course) and what we were studying, and then I was talking about the college culture in america and about the time I got to binge drinking the FLACSO kids that had been spending the previous hour and a half drinking wine, beer, and whiskey (continually getting louder and sillier, mind you this is like 6 pm on a Wed.) managed to spill a bottle of wine and then one of the guys proceeded to slurp the spilled wine up off the table. It was gross and I was incredibly embarrased. I don´t have a problem with drinking, as you all know, but I feel like when you are an American travelling abroad you might want to take the opportunity to improove the image of Americans rather than solidify the stereotype. Sigh, oh well.
We got to the hotel in Jujuy at about 3:30. They insisted on giving us dinner, again, before letting us go to bed. We then had to wake up and be on the bus by 10 am. We took off but got stopped at the border crossing to the next province because we didn´t have all our names on the right lists or something like that... I think we were there for a couple hours, we didn´t get to Tilcara until after 5 anyway. So we missed the museum and went straight to the Incan ruins where we saw some llamas and some old clay buildings and such things. The mountains, with which we were completely surrounded, were very pretty, not brown and covered in trees but dusty and blue, green, yellow, red, burgundy, purple, and turquoise all mixed together. And the sky was the most blue I had ever seen. And lots of cactus.
From there it basically went: market, fried bread, food, sleep, breakfast, bus, rocks, bus, lunch, market, spending lots of money on cool stuff, bus, more money on stuff, meeting foreigners (I´ll come back to this), dinner in town (this too), sleep, breakfast, bus, bus, big salt mine (this too), bus, lunch, more market (no money), bus, nap, dinner, party in town, walk drunk man back to the hotel, sleep, breakfast, bus, airport, and now unfortunately I´m back in Buenos Aires.
The Foreigners: I met them because I noticed how fancily indigenously dressed they were and was absolutley shocked to hear them speaking english. So I asked the lady where she was from. She's from england, had children and grandchildren and in her words "now it´s my turn." She was really nice and fun to talk to. She told me that when I go to England this summer I should visit Stratford and Yorkshire. Apparently they are the good nature places. The man was from Belgium and obviously very educated and eccentric. He was actually quite intimidating. He had large diamond encrusted Jaguar head earings on...
The free night we had to eat dinner in town was fun. My hotel-roommate Eli and I went to a Peña that had live traditional music and we shared a couple dishes of llama, just to try it. It was a lot like steak. Not my favorite thing in the world. And we got to go home relatively early. The cool thing was that I got to spend some cuality time with Eli who is really cool and I´m glad I got to know him.
The salt mine was cool: basically just a almost never ending plane of white stuff that it actually salt. It was cool, though I´m not sure it was worth the 2 1/2 hour drive both ways.
The drunk man, I´m not at liberty to discribe in detail... but after an evening of feeling completely alone and isolated, walking (half carrying) with this person who had never talked to me before who started telling me about his life made me realize that I am blessed blessed blessed. I KNOW that I have people in the world who love me, even if I can´t see them right now. And even though this guy apparently has lots of friends here, he honestly doesn´t believe that anyone, in the world, cares about him. It made me sad about the state of the world, but also I realized the smallness of my own pain. And that is what I really want to do. I want to help alleviate that kind of pain in the world. That´s the point. I don´t know if I helped him. But I tried.

Monday was not a good day. But I have not the energy to talk about it now. Maybe next time.

You are special.
You are loved.
I know this because I have seen you.
I loved you then.
And I love you still.

September 25

I was talking to Lauren yesterday about the things that I´ve learned here. There really hasn´t been that much. The cultures aren´t really that different. I think people here are generally more ameable, or at least they pretend to be. And I still haven´t quite mastered the kissing on the cheek thing. I´m not sure when to do it. I think the general rule is kiss everyone you have any kind of relationship with when you meet them and when you say goodbye. And mostly I can do that. It just gets complicated when there are a bunch of people around or when I´m in a hurry. But in my experience that´s about where the friendliness ends, at least with me. Introductions don´t seem to be too common and for the most part if you don´t talk to them, they won´t talk to you. Course, that could just be because I an extrañero. And really, they are mostly very nice once you get talking to them.

The biggest thing I´ve learned here is how I treat people. Before now, I never realized how hard it is to understand things in a different language, and it never really occured to me that a cute accent means something more than that they weren´t born in this country. Even when I was with Kana, I probably didn´t slow down and explain enough. Native speakers talk so fast, and unless I am invited into the conversation and directly spoken to, it´s really hard to participate. My normal state of being here is tuned out. So I am more aware of myself. I will invite outsiders into my conversations and introduce them to others and make sure they are comfortable and participating. It´s difficult, because I´m kindof shy myself to think that I will take that much iniciative, but it is much more difficult or the one who´s new.

September 24

The long weekend. Friday was Dia de los Estudiantes. Apparently it’s a really big deal. Everyone was wishing all us students a happy day and my dance professor even gave us candy and little pictures of her when she was young and dancing on stage in different situations. It sounds a little conceited here but it’s actually pretty cool to see all the things she used to do. She’s gained quite a bit of weight since the pictures were taken. Anyway, on Friday Lauren finally got me up and out of bed so we could go to the huge parks on the other side of town that was apparently the place to be. It was incredible. There were thousands of students in the park covering the grass and sitting under trees. Everyone was sitting, talking, drinking mate, playing futból, listening to music (or playing music), and just generally being with friends. No one was alone, and it was rare to see just two or three people together. There was so much joy, just the happiness of being in the company of friends and not being in class. It was great. The spectacle was only slightly dampened by the fact that when the sun started to go down and everyone left they also left behind all their trash on the grass and in the lake and on the streets. Ugg. Sigh, oh well. I have noticed that people seem less concerned about littering here. It was great to see and be a part of that though. Although Lauren and I were severely wishing we had brought some mate with us. We did buy some burgers from the vendor on the corner that despite being just bread and meat were absolutely delicious!

Later we tried to go to a Mexican restaurant with William. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed for renovation so we ended up at the pizza place across the street. It was really fun though, to just hang out. Side note, when the menu says that something has basil on it here it means lots of fresh basil leaves. It’s fabulous. Were hung out in the restaurant for a while and then went to a bar for a bit where I saw a girl from my program who I have Spanish with. She’s nice and it was really good to be able to socialize with her a bit. I’m really jealous of her situation because when she came down here, her boyfriend came with her. Most of the other students I’ve talked to left their boyfriend/girlfriend in the states. On the way home I stopped at William’s house to use his bathroom, and somehow managed to break the door knob or something… anyway, it wouldn’t open. Seriously, who gets locked in a bathroom. We spent some 10 minutes trying to get it open before William just told me to break it down. So I did. I felt ridiculous. But really, in my secret heart I’ve always wanted to break down a door, just so I could see if I could do it. I just rammed into it with my shoulder a few times and the wood around the door knob splintered and broke away, and I was free. Anyway, I decided that the universe was telling me it was time to go to bed. So I grabbed a taxi.

Saturday I layed around it bed most of the day until it was time to go to a choir concert with Lauren. Side note: on the way to meet Lauren I was walking in the Subte and I saw one of the Rastafarian musicians that we had seen the day before at the park, and I swear, he looked at me, smiled, and nodded. As if he recognized me. It was insane. Anyway, one of Lauren’s friends was singing in the concert and then afterwards, we and the other people in his choir went to his house for some authentic asado (which is basically a bbq… with lots of distinct kinds of meat). Apparently, meat is a big deal down here and everyone loves them some asado. And now I understand why. Really, it was incredible how tender and juicy and flavorful it was. I had to actually stop eating for a while because I felt overwhelmed by flavor. Amazing. After that I finally got back to my house after a rather terrifying car ride with Lauren’s friend. No one in this city wears seatbelts and they all drive like locos. My roommates were having a huge party in my house that I had learned about earlier that day. I was really excited to go, but due to the fact that I don’t have a car and that the Asado was in a suburb outside of town, I didn’t get back to the house until almost 3 am. But it was still kicking, though I had missed the band. My roommates had bought at least 16 crates of Heineken beer (that 12 liters per crate) and wine and Fernet (an argentine alcohol, gross, but supposedly is better for the liver and doesn’t give hangovers) as well. And they had formed a little bar in our kitchen and were selling alcohol and pizza to those in need. Luckily, I live here so I didn’t have to pay. The music was really cool and I immediately thought of Spencer. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to socialize in a situation like this, dark, loud, and in Spanish. Fortunately, not too long into it a man and his friend started talking to me. They were very nice, and definitely in their mid to late thirties at least. Not too long into the conversation, after finding out that I was a dancer, they asked if I wanted to dance, and of course I did. It was hilarious to find myself in a rather sparsely populated dance floor with two thirty plus argentines dancing to the heavy beat of some argentine house music. I’m really glad that everyone was dancing in their own space, none of that bump and grind oddness that always takes place in the states. Anyway, they didn’t shut the music off until after 5, at which time I eagerly went to bed.

Sunday I actually only slept until noon and did some more laying in bed, organizing pictures and music, and playing Freecell, my usual free time activities. I think I did manage to do a bit of homework though too.

Today was pretty straight forward. I went to class. My dance professor didn’t show up, so I took Lauren out for gelato to celebrate that she had finished her first midterm and came out alive. She thinks she passed too! Then I came home to the first truly satisfying evening with my roommates. We all (well most of us + Malena and her boyfriend + some girl I had never seen before) sat around the table drinking some of the mountain of beer left over from the party and eating some left over pizza. It was fabulous because they talked to me. I felt included in the conversation. They asked me questions. I felt almost capable of conversation. It was fun! Now I’m going to bed. With a smile on my face.

September 20

I´ve been really tired all week, a combination of a tiring trip and not much sleep this week... basically just making it through my classes. I´ve also been unexplainably busy. Luckily we don´t have class tomorrow because it´s Dia del Estudiantes. And aparrently it´s just a spring party day for students. I finally talked to Katiana on the phone yesterday. It was amazing. Our experiences seem to be more similar than I thought they were. Lauren and I decided that we are going to a mexican restaurant this weekend... I´m really excited... though I´m sure it´s nothing like the mexican food we get in the states, nor like anything you would get in mexico. But hey, if it has blackbeans and mexican rice I care not. My brain is scattered... or maybe it´s just my heart that is scattered, and my brain can´t figure out what to do without it.

September 17

Cordóba

Tuesday night I watche Clockwork Orange... not the most pleasant experience of my life.

Wednesday I only had to go to Spanish class. Then I went to FLACSO to check my email and such and have lunch with Lauren. The program had split our number in half so as not to have to organized housing for 120 people per visit so unluckily Lauren was going to Jujuy and I was going to Cordóba. She brought a piece of cheesecake and a piece of chocolate cake for us to share. It was delicious. Then I happily talked to Royce online for a couple hours before running home to take a shower, eat dinner, and pack in the hour and a half I had before I had to head to the Bus Station. I actually finished doing everything in an hour...lol. Then I drug my sport bag and book bag to the subte and found my way to the bus station. I actually got there an hour before I was supposed to get there because I hadn´t known how long it was going to take me to get there so I left early. Then we waited another hour and a half before we actually got on the bus, an extremely comfortable semi-sleeper with lots of space and apparently lots of food. It was just the beginning of a weekend of being stuffed full of food at every turn. Then we began our twelve hour bus ride with a horrible movie called Lucky Seven. I won´t bore you with the details of the odd movie.

We got to our destination at about 11 am Thursday morning and of course immediately went in for breakfast. Our destination was a small sort of resort. We separated into cabins and rooms of about four people each. The room I ended up in was kindof at the top of the hill and the view from our porch looked down over the village and up into the mountains in the background. Of course I didn´t know that on Thursday because it was really wet and cloudy the entire day. After we had lunch we all walked through town, cute, small, a little shabby, to a path that led up the river into the mountains. This part was beautiful and I was really excited to see something resembling nature. At the top of the mountain there was more food, snacks, and drinks for us to have before they drove us back to the resort. Then we had some more free time before dinner. Stuffed ourselves full of dinner and wine and beer before getting up to dance some local cumbia and things like that. It was fabulously fun. Well, I suppose I was a little lonely the whole trip because Lauren wasn´t there and I don´t really hang out with anyone else so it was awkward tagging along with other groups of friends. But it was fun to meet some new people. Anyway, then the people in my room and the girls from next door all hung out on the porch until some ungodly hour... well I suppose it was only 4 am.

Friday, we slept through breakfast and got up for lunch at 12:30. But the clouds had cleared mostly and I got to see all the gorgeous scenery. Then we all got into vans that took us up into the mountains to this gorgeous little waterfall where we hung out for most of the day. Some people were brave enough to hop into the pool below the waterfall, but I was not one of those. It was not really that warm out. Then we returned to the resort where we had some free time so each room could organize a skit to perform at the bonfire later that night. Dinner, wine, beer, free time, then the bonfire complete with hot wine, melted chocolate, marshmellows, and many hilarious and often horrible skits. Our skit was a short and rather lame depiction of how the young men in Bs. As. hit on women which basically consists of starting by showing us that they can speak english then basically just grabbing you. It was funny, but really not very good. There was a funny version of Twelve Days of christmas about all the rules that we had to follow in the program... most of which we don´t even try to follow. The evening was finished off by another large group of people sitting on our porch being drunk.

Saturday we skipped breakfast again and dragged ourselves out of bed so we could go out to a ranch or something where we had some of the tradicionally grilled meat that you hear so much about. It was quite good. Then they gave out prizes for the skits from the night before. And they gave us all Mate gordes (the cup you drink mate out of) with out names carved into them! It was so cute! Then we went HORSEBACK RIDING!!! It was really exciting for me. My horse was so cute and attentive to me. I felt like such an expert comparte to all the city kids getting on a horse for the first time (there weren´t actually THAT many who had never been on a horse before, but I was definitely one of the most experienced riders). It was fun! Then we retured to the resort to pack before getting back on the twelve hour bus where instead of one, we watch two bad movies.

We got back to Bs. As. at 7 am. The subte doesn´t open until 8 am on Sunday and am becoming less and less inclined to take taxis... because I´m cheap. A girl said that she would sit and have coffee with me until the subte opened. So we had some yogurt and cereal and chatted for an hour before getting on the subte and making our way home. I spent most of sunday relaxing on my bed. Then I went to the locutorio across the street for 5 hours to reconnect with my long lost parents, spencer, emily, and royce. It was too late to call kati. :(. Then I happily went to bed. Though I am not really excited to be back in the city. Seriously, I could have sat on that porch in that small town, with my roommate playing guitar in the background for the rest of my life. Or, maybe I was just so relieved to be out of the city. Anyway, I´m going to see if I can go to Uruguay this weekend. William wants to go anyway, to renew his tourist visa.

September 10

Hm, I don´t know what to write here. I´ve been really uninspired to write in my blog for the past couple days. I don´t know why. My classes are okay: I really enjoy my spanish class which is good because I have it 8 hours a week. My international relations class is kindof like any other international relations class (the information is really interesting but it´s often hard to pay attention because of all the big language and indepth theory talk) only worse because everything is in spanish and it´s really easy for my brain to just recognise is at background noise if I´m not directly involved in it. It´s sad because I really do want to know the information. I think I need to figure out a different way to study for the class. My dance classes are fabulous, as always. One is fairly easy for my level and one is very challenging and over my level... but I feel like I´m keeping up, or close to it. Tango club is getting really fun! I think I like it! And I also think that I will probably pursue my tango translation thesis idea.

Anyway, on friday I hung out with some of my roommates and ate dinner before Lauren came over to watch Love Actually... seriously I must have seen that movie 50 times by now... and though I can practically recite it from memory it still makes me cry a little. It was cool, we had a little girl party and ate chocolate covered peanuts and various cookie things from the store. It was fun. On Saturday we tried to go to a concert but it turns out that Argentines are 30 minutes late for everything except things that are free. Then they show up hours early. Sigh, oh well. We went to a museum for a while and then to a cafe for an American time dinner at around 6 pm. We talked for over two hours. I love that so much. I know that sitting in cafés talking for hours will be something I will always miss from being here. Then we went to Lauren´s house and she graciously let me use her internet to talk to Royce for a while. sigh. And we had some amazing ice cream. It was a little surprising because up until then all the ice cream I had had here was substandard I must say. I even bought some hagen daz (however you spell that) and it wasn´t good at all. Then I went out with Patricio and some of his argentine friends to celebrate one of their birthdays. Unfortunately since I had not had much sleep the night before I was ready to pass out at about 1 and talked them into letting me go home around 2 even though they thought I was completely lame. Oh well. Sunday Lauren and I went to one of her singing friends concerts at the museum of Bellas Artes (btw: lauren is a singer who is taking classes at the Arts Institute here... in one of her classes they watched a video of vocal cords that had been take by a camera that had been shoved up someones nose...). The concert was actually kindof amazing and it was in a museum so we got to look around at all the art... all in all it was a very spencer and emily kind of moment. Then we went looking for a restaurant that Coco (Lauren´s friend) wanted us to eat Choripan (a really fatty red sausage) at. Turns out she didn´t really no where it was so we ended up walking around a lot. We got there eventually though. And she and her friend were both really nice and fun. We went to her house after that to eat popcorn and watch the Devil Wears Prada. Then we tried to go home... but I got turned around looking for the bus and we ended up walking around for quite some time in a strange neighborhood after midnight. It was kindof a nice neighborhood though so we didn´t get robbed... unlike one of the other girls in my program who was just sitting in a park with a friend at 9 pm... or so I heard.

I´ve been thinking a lot lately about what I want to do next semester... since I don´t know if I´m getting the experience here that I really wanted. I have lots of options... but I have to keep thinking about things like money, credits, dance, and friends. It´s so complicated having so many things I want to do at the same time. I´ve just kindof been feeling like I´m only having a kindof spread out college experience, in spanish, and living in a house that is okay... but I don´t get very much attention. I´m thinking I would probably get more out to the culture if I weren´t having to spend a bunch of time reading about the international relations of south america... I don´t know. I just feel kindof focusless... but I guess that´s what happens when you want to dance, study, experience a culture, learn a new language, and save the world all at the same time. I know Spencer and I have had this conversation many times... but how do we find a satisfactory balance between art and making a difference. And then you throw in personal happiness and you´re practically counterproductive. But I did decide that I´m not going to decide anything until the end of October at least... even if I want to. So I should really stop thinking about it. But alas, my brain has a horrible habit of completely ignoring me.

I´m still having crazy dreams.

September 7

I don´t really have time to write this because I have to go to modern, but I finalized my schedule today. I have two intensive spanish classes that take place one after the other thoughout the semester. I have modern at IUNA, and contemporary dance at the cultural center. and International Relations here at FLACSO. I´m satisfied with my schedule. It is getting hot and humid around here. They call it pesado which basically just means hot and humid. I had a long and badly needede conversation with spencer last night that helped me a lot. After about two hours and almost two phone cards I decided that we could easily continue talking for the entire night and that I´d better save some of my phone cards. It would be a lot easier if the freaking internet in the house worked. I don´t know what´s up with that. Then again maybe I would end up spending all my time talking to spencer... naw. Anyway. I have to go. Talk to you all soon... it had better be soon anyway.

September 4

Aahhh... where did the time go.

I suppose it´s a good thing that I haven´t had time or energy to write in my blog for a while... but really, not too much has happened. I dropped my ballet class because it was far far too advanced for me and I wasn´t really learning anything. I felt like I was in the way. When on Friday everyone pulled out their pointe shoes halfway through class I was like... oh-k, that´s that. And left. It was very stressful because I WANT to dance. I'd be happy to take a lower level, but they don´t offer them this semester. So I spent the rest of the evening worrying about, money, classes, credits, the future and life... and consequently picked up a stuffy nose to go with everything else. I did go to Family Night with Sebi though and that was fun. It was a potluck with some of the other CIEE students and their families in my neighborhood. There was so much food. And it was all delicious... I probably ate two dinners in the two and a half hours we were there. Plus desert. It was fun... but then of course I went back to my room and sat at the computer until 3 am because I was too full to sleep... then I stresses for a while in bed, fell asleep, woke up 6 hours later and stressed some more. This is my neuroticism.

I layed around in bed most of the morning before finally texting Lauren so we and a couple of her friends from her college in D.C. could go to the Body Exhibit that was displayed in one of the malls. It was insane! For those of you who don´t know, the Body Exhibit is a travelling display of meticulously disected cadavers that show all the different body systems and parts of the body at different levels. It was incredible... if a little creepy. Anyway... we then waited around in a Café for a couple hours before going to the Peña we were planning on eating dinner at. We waited around some more because we were typically and horribly early. My argentine friend Patricio showed up after a while as well as Kevin, another CIEE student. The Peña turned out not really to be a peña but more like an empty room with beer and a $15 cover charge. We hung out for a while and then went to the resaurant near my house with all the good food at about midnight. It was fun. We all laughed a lot and we talked in english the whole day which was a nice break for my brain. Everyone else wanted to go to a club in Palermo but I decided I should get some real sleep and try to get over my cold. I complained to all my gracious friends for a while and they said I should relax and get some sleep. Of course! But it's nice to blow off steam! It´s also nice to have friends. So after that... I let it all go. I slept for 10 hours and woke up refreshed and happy with a more relaxed outlook on life. YAY! I still have a cold however...

Monday I did laundry, the first time in a month... I was out of everything! I went to class. Modern was still really fun! YAY! Ate dinner with my roommates. They make the best rice ever... I have to figure out how they do it. And I went to bed.

In the interim I found out that I don't have to be back here for next semester until around the 10th of MARCH!!! So I get to spent my 21st birthday in the states afterall!!! YAY!... that means I will probably be imposing on my dear Spencer's hospitality for closer to a month than two weeks... but if I have to sleep on the sidewalk that's okay too.

Anyway, I love you all. I had a dream last night about us roommates all being back on 17th street together. It was a pleasant dream. It's funny how I miss the little things... like sitting in the kitchen and emily's footsteps coming down the stairs. It's finally getting warm here. And humid. I feel sticky all the time. But I'm getting more comfortable. And having fun!

August 30

So... modern dance is amazing. I love the dance classes at the art institute (IUNA) here. They are CHALLENGING! I am the worst dancer in both my ballet and my modern classes, but I am learning fast and it is becoming easier. In anycase, it´s probably plenty beyond what I could get out of the dance classes at UNC. Plus each class is six hours a week, so including my modern class at the cultural center and the tango club I´m in I have some 18 hours of dance a week which is amazing! I feel fine, I´m not even sore anymore... but I really hope I don´t get injured because that would really cramp my style. I´m being careful. But sometimes luck plays a large part in injury. Sigh. Also, in both my IUNA classes we have in room musicians who play the music to which we dance: piano for ballet, and drums for modern. I think it is amazingly brilliant.

Too bad I have a headache.

August 27

Today is the first monday I´ve had of a week that will be completely full of all my classes. Mondays are not actually going to be too bad because I don´t have class until 3 pm. Tonight I´m going to try Modern II instead of Ballet II because ballet is turning out to be far over my head and I think that I look like an idiot enough around here, I don´t want to look like a complete idiot in dance too. The only problem is that Modern goes from 7-9pm monday, wednesday, and friday. That´s pretty late for me... and on fridays it´s going to be a pain. Oh well, dance is more important than anything else while I´m here so... there you go.

Let´s see... I guess it´s been almost 5 days since the last time I wrote. I got my student visa fine, though it took hours of sitting, staring blankly around the room. We had to be there at 8 am and I did not get enough sleep to utilize the time to study... so I did the stupor thing. But it was fine. On friday I went out with the austrian and met some more Argentines who were very nice. It was fun. So I slept most of the day on Saturday before going out to dinner with Lauren to a restaurant in my neighborhood. It was the first time I´d eaten in my neighborhood and it was a fabulous choice. We got free bread and empanadas before we ordered, then a real salad with lettuce (rather rare around here), corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and eggs on it. We also shared what they call a tortilla which is kindof like an open faced omlette. It was very delicioius. We won that round of the never ending adventure with food. After that I went home because my family was having a party in our living room. I sat around for about two hours because it didn´t even start until after midnight. It wasn´t really a party per say, it was more like a free concert of my roommates and all their friends in my living room. The music was good for the most part and definitely interesting, but I was really tired for some reason and hermitly went to bed at 1 am. I was so tired I could sleep through the loud music and all the clapping and whistling. I woke up at about 6:30, shortly (I assume) after everyone else left, to use the bathroom. It was raining really hard and I could hear it very well through my skylight, so I stayed up listening to it for some time and had a text message conversation with one of my argentine friends who was just getting to bed and was very confused why I had a) gone to bed at 1 and b) woken up at 7 am on sunday morning. shrug. I did go back to sleep for a while though.

Last night I went to the WORLD TANGO CHAMPIONSHIPS with Lauren. It was very cool. It was the sala competition which means it was more like social tango than stage tango. It made me think that I would probably actually like doing this tango thesis idea. So, I´ll follow that for a while and see how it goes.

It´s weird to me that classes at UNC started today and I wasn´t there. It´s also weird to me that Spencer´s huge beautiful appartment has never met me and that Katiana is tanning and wearing long skirts on a beautiful beach in Africa and that Emily is sharing the only home I´ve know as an independent adult with three other people and that Royce went to the hospital and I didn´t know about it until just now. My mom went on assignment, my brother has a girlfriend I´ve never met, and my dad´s bike broke. Molly is starting school and should be back from a trip to california by now. I don´t know where Mindy is or what she is doing. Dan is going to be a father any day now. Did the Colorado Eagle season start yet? This is the long way to say that it´s so easy to forget that the world keeps moving even when you´re not there to see it. This is a little comforting and a little more disconcerting. Stay safe friends. I´ll see you again soon.

August 23

I am so sore. I had Modern on Tuesday and Ballet on Wednesday. The Ballet class is way over my head but I think that the teacher just thinks it´s because I can´t speak spanish, so I´ll fake my way through it and learn a lot. But I am so sore!!!! I haven´t danced really since May and my body is not used to the stretching. However... in two days I went from about 8 inches from fingertips to floor to touching the floor... these people will make me bendy. YAY!!!

August 20

I think I just gained about 5 pounds. I just had breakfast, lunch, and dinner in one sitting. It’s my fault really. I should have gone downstairs for breakfast at 9 am when I woke up, but I wanted to finish dreaming of my abandoned loved ones. So I determinedly remained in bed with my eyes closed reliving my happy memories for an hour before sitting up and reaching for my computer in order to (and this is going to sound really lame) work on my budget and schedule, which oddly enough happen to be two of the most satisfying activities that I spend my time on. I think it makes me feel like I’m in control of my ever changing life. Not that I mind that it’s always changing. I just take out my anal retentive side on my Microsoft Excel. In any case, I didn’t get down to the kitchen until after 2 pm when I foolishly fed myself, before accepting the vegetable soup dish from Vero and the milanesa dish from Sebí. Silly me. It was delicious though. I just won’t eat ever again…

I haven’t written in a while because I have been too busy. Finally. I had three classes this week: two International Relations of South America classes and my first Contemporary Dance class. OMG. Dance! It had been 3 and ½ months since I had set foot in a dance class, and I thought I was going to die. It was fun. We did a lot of things I had done before in Modern I, but without all the thorough explanation. I think there was some explanation but as I couldn’t understand it, I followed along and tried to use the principles I had learned in Modern. When I told the teacher after class that I was from Alaska… he looked REALLY concerned that I probably couldn’t understand what he had been saying. I had this experience when I did Tai Chi with my roommates Tuesday morning also. I wish they wouldn’t worry about me. I’ll be fine just following along until I pick up the language enough to understand them. I don’t want to feel like a problem. I have to deal with that enough just trying to communicate socially.

Thursday night the Austrian’s roommates invited me to their house for a Chocolate Fondue party. I brought a bottle of wine. Tangent on wine: I love it. This makes me think about Spencer every time I drink or buy it (and it IS really nice to be able to buy my own wine). The wine here is EXCELLENT! And CHEAP! I went to the store and bought one of the more expensive bottles I could find, 11 pesos instead of the 3 pesos that were the cheap bottles of wine. That’s about $4 for one of the better wines I have ever tasted. Anyway, back to the party. There were a ton of people there, everyone seemed to have brought a bottle of wine, and the table was full of bowls of sliced fruit and a pot of each dark chocolate and white chocolate. It was delicious and really fun. All the people who live in William’s house are from abroad as well, there are like 12 of them, mostly from Europe, and so most of the people at the party were from other countries. I met people from Canada, the U.S., Columbia, Mexico, New Zealand, Germany, Spain, England, and the Netherlands, to name a few. I was there until 5 am. It was great.

Saturday, Lauren and I walked around a few different parts of town with Tracy from CIEE before taking the Subte to the edge of town to have dinner and ice cream with on of Laurens friends from school. We ate at a Mediterranean restaurant. It was good, if a little expensive. Later, I’m talking around 1 am, Lauren and I met up with a couple Argentines who we’d met before and hung out in a pretty nice bar (Asian themed with a huge blue and orange lighted disco ball) until around 5 am. It was very fun and good Spanish practice. And I honestly slept until 2:30 pm when my phone rang. I think that has to be an all time record…

After I pulled myself out of bed in mid afternoon on Sunday I voyaged to Laurens house to bake our first banana bread and watch House, Moulin Rouge, and Bruce Almighty. The banana bread was fabulous. Especially with Dulce de Leche spread on it. And we ordered in some empanadas which only cost me 7 pesos. Ordering in is something really common here that I am finding I really like. Especially since I can’t cook.

Today is a holiday so there aren’t any classes.

I miss the sky.

I was going to say something I missed and then end with something I love about this city… but I can’t think of anything I really like about the city. Not really very surprising considering my background and lifestyle. Oh well. I’m learning, and I love that. And although they don’t have peanut butter… they do have Nutella!