I just got back from 24 hours of travel time and it is so weird to be home. I miss Argentina and everybody already.
The final banquet was amazing!! There were 300 people there and the whole night went fantastically. We performed our Tango show and Tanner made a really cool movie of the whole semester. All of our host families went. After the programmed time, we had a dance party until 2 am. It was really fun to all dance together. After, a lot of us headed over to the Drink Gallery. They kept it open especially for us to celebrate our last night in BA. It was a fun night hanging out with everyone and then staying out really late...con mi amigo. I got home at 4:30 in the morning and then got up the next day to finish packing and leave.
It took me 3 flights to get home. 4.5 hours to get to Lima, 8.5 hours to get to LA, and then 1 hour to get home. I slept most of the time because it was at night and I only had 3 hours of sleep the night before. I can't believe I'm home. It is weird that everyone speaks English, so Kelsey and I cannot just talk normally and expect nobody to understand what we are saying. I also have almost spoken Spanish so many times to different people...especially ordering food and saying thank you or excuse me. The culture shock is weird. It sucks going from being around so many fun people to practically no one. I am sad that this experience has ended, but I cannot wait to reunite in the fall. This will be a time of my life that I will never forget.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Tango pictures
Here are pictures of us practicing for the final banquet:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051083&l=13994&id=8505998
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051083&l=13994&id=8505998
Monday, April 21, 2008
Spiritual Retreat/Visiting Estancia
This past weekend 15+ pepperdine students and our faculty family went to an estancia just outside Buenos Aires. Right now there is a fire burning the campo outside of BA, which is creating horrible smoke throughout the city. We thought that by getting away, the smoke would be better, but it was not that much better. The weekend was fantastic. We had Friday off of school, so left that morning. Thursday night we went to LOST, the best hip-hop club in BA and stayed out until 4. So the beginning of the retreat was spent sleeping. We only had programmed time at night, so there was tons of free time. Kelsey and I got massages for 50 pesos (less than $20). We rode horses, slept, read, and just hung out.
The theme of the weekend was "change" and looking at the ways we have changed over the semester, whether it is our prospective on the world, on God, or on our values. We spent time in small groups talking about about specific reflections of the semester. My group really bonded and we talked way into the night about our experience. As a whole, the weekend was really rejuvenating and I got to spend quality time with people I hadn't gotten to know very well, as well as Kelsey and Jessie. I was dreading coming back to a week of finals.
This is my last week in Buenos Aires. We have classes Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and finals on Thursday and Friday. I have absolutely no time outside of school this week, which is not how I want to spend my last week here. This next weekend, I have nothing planned, but I will be done with school, so will be able to truly enjoy my last weekend. Next Monday, we have our final banquet where all our host-families come and we thank the staff and teachers. Part of my Tango class will be performing as well as a band of Pepp students. I am excited for this week to be over and to start the weekend.
pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050876&l=4500e&id=8506204
The theme of the weekend was "change" and looking at the ways we have changed over the semester, whether it is our prospective on the world, on God, or on our values. We spent time in small groups talking about about specific reflections of the semester. My group really bonded and we talked way into the night about our experience. As a whole, the weekend was really rejuvenating and I got to spend quality time with people I hadn't gotten to know very well, as well as Kelsey and Jessie. I was dreading coming back to a week of finals.
This is my last week in Buenos Aires. We have classes Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and finals on Thursday and Friday. I have absolutely no time outside of school this week, which is not how I want to spend my last week here. This next weekend, I have nothing planned, but I will be done with school, so will be able to truly enjoy my last weekend. Next Monday, we have our final banquet where all our host-families come and we thank the staff and teachers. Part of my Tango class will be performing as well as a band of Pepp students. I am excited for this week to be over and to start the weekend.
pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050876&l=4500e&id=8506204
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca!!!
So I just got back from Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca and it was a fantastic week. Kelsey, Jessie, and I flew out Saturday Morning to Cusco, Peru. We spent Saturday and Sunday in Cusco, adjusting to the altitude and shopping. You have no idea how many souvenirs we purchased. We ran into Russ, another student, and went to dinner with him both nights. On Monday morning, we woke up really early (before 6 am) to head for a train to Aguas Calientes. We saw part of the Inca Trail on the train ride and were so glad we chose to take a train instead of the 4-day hike. Aguas Calientes was a pretty boring town, just a stopping point for Machu Picchu visitors. We went to the hot springs, which were quite disgusting and smelled gross. All of the restaurants begged for us to stop there, all of which offered all-day happy hours, 4 for 1. We got bored half way through the day so decided to walk down the road along the river to see where it would take us.....Randomly we see Russ and another Pepperdine student, Brian. They had already been up to Machu Picchu, so we got advice from them and then Brian almost missed his train back. We went to bed early to get up before dawn for the second day in a row to take a bus up to Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu was amazing. When we got there, the clouds were still covering most of the ruins, but the view of the Andes was amazing. We got to walk along part of the Inca Trail and saw many llamas. There is one mountain next to Machu Picchu called WaynaPicchu and only 400 people are allowed to climb it per day. We decided that was a must and head up at 8:30 ish in the morning. The hike was straight up and took about an hour. We were dying and didn't know how we would get down. I took a picture of the path and later I looked at it and couldn't decide what I was trying to take a picture of. We were practically rock climbing. Once at the top, we stayed there for several hours, reading and eating lunch (haha...a really early lunch). We spent the rest of the day wandering around the site and sitting and reading in the beautiful Andes. That night we took the train back to Cusco.
Wednesday, we headed in a bus to Puno and Lake Titicaca. The bus ride was uneventful. We got off several times to see various sites, but all were pretty boring. Once we got to Lake Titicaca, we were so glad to be staying in a hotel. For the past 4 days we had been staying in hostels and packing and repacking almost every day. It was nice to have our own room and bathroom. It was also so nice to not have to worry about having to pack everything up. Puno was also a pretty boring town, but the lake was beautiful. Lake Titicaca is the highest lake in the world. It was cold, but very sunny. Thursday we just relaxed and wandered around Puno. Friday, we went on a boat to Uros Islands and some other island. Uros islands were made of over 40 man-made floating islands. It was soooo cool. Everything was made out of reeds... the ground, the houses, the kitchen, the boats, everything. The next island we stopped at was actually an island. We walked around the island and had lunch there.
Saturday, we returned to BA!!! Overall, I really liked Peru. The people were nice and the country was surprisingly clean. The food was horrible and hot chocolate was disgusting. Peru has beautiful landscapes and the best souvenirs. I like Peru, but i was so excited to return to BA. I only have two weeks left here. That is both a sad and happy thing. I am so excited to go home, but I am going to be sad to leave this group of people and sad to leave Argentina.
Here are pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050311&l=6e7df&id=8505998
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050312&l=76c46&id=8505998
Machu Picchu was amazing. When we got there, the clouds were still covering most of the ruins, but the view of the Andes was amazing. We got to walk along part of the Inca Trail and saw many llamas. There is one mountain next to Machu Picchu called WaynaPicchu and only 400 people are allowed to climb it per day. We decided that was a must and head up at 8:30 ish in the morning. The hike was straight up and took about an hour. We were dying and didn't know how we would get down. I took a picture of the path and later I looked at it and couldn't decide what I was trying to take a picture of. We were practically rock climbing. Once at the top, we stayed there for several hours, reading and eating lunch (haha...a really early lunch). We spent the rest of the day wandering around the site and sitting and reading in the beautiful Andes. That night we took the train back to Cusco.
Wednesday, we headed in a bus to Puno and Lake Titicaca. The bus ride was uneventful. We got off several times to see various sites, but all were pretty boring. Once we got to Lake Titicaca, we were so glad to be staying in a hotel. For the past 4 days we had been staying in hostels and packing and repacking almost every day. It was nice to have our own room and bathroom. It was also so nice to not have to worry about having to pack everything up. Puno was also a pretty boring town, but the lake was beautiful. Lake Titicaca is the highest lake in the world. It was cold, but very sunny. Thursday we just relaxed and wandered around Puno. Friday, we went on a boat to Uros Islands and some other island. Uros islands were made of over 40 man-made floating islands. It was soooo cool. Everything was made out of reeds... the ground, the houses, the kitchen, the boats, everything. The next island we stopped at was actually an island. We walked around the island and had lunch there.
Saturday, we returned to BA!!! Overall, I really liked Peru. The people were nice and the country was surprisingly clean. The food was horrible and hot chocolate was disgusting. Peru has beautiful landscapes and the best souvenirs. I like Peru, but i was so excited to return to BA. I only have two weeks left here. That is both a sad and happy thing. I am so excited to go home, but I am going to be sad to leave this group of people and sad to leave Argentina.
Here are pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050311&l=6e7df&id=8505998
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2050312&l=76c46&id=8505998
Friday, April 4, 2008
Update
I feel like I haven't updated in a while. School has been busy with tests and a lot of work, which really sucks. I am so excited to go on Spring Break to Machu Picchu tomorrow. This week for our group convo dinner, we went to a Greek restaurant and actually threw plates! so crazy. I didn't want to throw mine, but Kelsey made me. We had Wednesday off, so Kelsey and I went to Cafe Tortoni, the oldest cafe in Buenos Aires. That night, we went to see RENT el musical and it was entirely in Spanish! I know the storyline, so I was able to follow. I also could understand what they were singing and the differences between English and Spanish are pretty funny. Last night I practiced for the Tango show that we are doing at the final banquet. I am still loving Tango a lot. I'm leaving tomorrow, so I will be out of contact for about a week.
Here are pictures from Iguazu and Bariloche:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048546&l=92f0f&id=8506204
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049725&l=2078e&id=8505998
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049726&l=68f7b&id=8505998
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049728&l=250c8&id=8505998
Here are pictures from Iguazu and Bariloche:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048546&l=92f0f&id=8506204
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049725&l=2078e&id=8505998
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049726&l=68f7b&id=8505998
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049728&l=250c8&id=8505998
Friday, March 28, 2008
Bariloche
So my family came last Monday and spend Mon-Wed in Buenos Aires. I got to show them all the places I hang out and we went to a Tango show. Unfortunately we didn't tell the travel agent that i have already seen Senor Tango, so I got to see it for the 2nd time!!!! (kind of a disappointment) On Thursday, my mom, dad, Hilary, Kelsey, Jessie, and I all flew down to Bariloche, the lake district. Bariloche is kind of Lake Tahoe....very scenic with tourist towns.
When we got there, we unloaded at our hotel, Design Suites and went to the civic center/downtown area to look around and eat lunch. We had lunch at this place call Crocadila or something like that. It had great pizza and later we found out that Mike's "uncle" owns it. The downtown felt like we were in Switzerland or some ski-town. Bariloche is known for its chocolate so of course we had to walk around and taste the various chocolates and ice cream. In the main square there were tons St Bernards and their owners "pimped" them out. They were trying to get us to pay money to take a picture with the dogs....they had baby ones too! That afternoon we went to Cerro Otto, which was a look at point you get to by gondola. We had coffee in the rotating restaurant.
The next day we took an all day boat tour to see Puerto Blest, Lago Fria, and Puerto Fria. It was a lot of fun to be on the boat, but not so fun to be with tons of other tourists. We walked around and saw great views. The next tour day we took a 7-lakes drive. It was pretty boring because we sat in a car ALL day, but the view of the lakes was amazing. We saw the world's shortest river and got out of the car at different scenic points. The last tour we went on was to Isla Victoria. It was my favorite because we split from the group once we got there, so it was nice just to be with the 6 of us and nature. That day it was Easter, and my mom decided to bring easter eggs for a hunt on Isla Victoria. I'm 20 and Hilary is almost 18, so we are definitely too old for egg hunts, but it was still fun. Jessie found the golden egg. My mom and Hilary went swimming in the lake....brrr. Overall, the tours were fun. We were the only ones that spoke English and the tours were completely in Spanish. The tours lasted all day. We would leave by 9 am and get back just in time for dinner at 8pm. They were exhausting days, but really fun.
Other than tours, we spent our time eating and at the hotel. The food in Bariloche was amazing. I did not eat one bad meal. Food in Argentina in general is not my favorite, but Bariloche food was soooo good. We had italian, traditional parilla argentine, fondue, and a brewery. Each place was amazing. I had never had meat fondue before, and it was surprisingly good. I really can't describe how good the food was. The dinners were probably one of the biggest highlights of my trip.
Monday, we flew home and Hilary and my dad continued on to Calafate. It was a great Easter break and I was happy to get to see my family (minus Sallie).
When we got there, we unloaded at our hotel, Design Suites and went to the civic center/downtown area to look around and eat lunch. We had lunch at this place call Crocadila or something like that. It had great pizza and later we found out that Mike's "uncle" owns it. The downtown felt like we were in Switzerland or some ski-town. Bariloche is known for its chocolate so of course we had to walk around and taste the various chocolates and ice cream. In the main square there were tons St Bernards and their owners "pimped" them out. They were trying to get us to pay money to take a picture with the dogs....they had baby ones too! That afternoon we went to Cerro Otto, which was a look at point you get to by gondola. We had coffee in the rotating restaurant.
The next day we took an all day boat tour to see Puerto Blest, Lago Fria, and Puerto Fria. It was a lot of fun to be on the boat, but not so fun to be with tons of other tourists. We walked around and saw great views. The next tour day we took a 7-lakes drive. It was pretty boring because we sat in a car ALL day, but the view of the lakes was amazing. We saw the world's shortest river and got out of the car at different scenic points. The last tour we went on was to Isla Victoria. It was my favorite because we split from the group once we got there, so it was nice just to be with the 6 of us and nature. That day it was Easter, and my mom decided to bring easter eggs for a hunt on Isla Victoria. I'm 20 and Hilary is almost 18, so we are definitely too old for egg hunts, but it was still fun. Jessie found the golden egg. My mom and Hilary went swimming in the lake....brrr. Overall, the tours were fun. We were the only ones that spoke English and the tours were completely in Spanish. The tours lasted all day. We would leave by 9 am and get back just in time for dinner at 8pm. They were exhausting days, but really fun.
Other than tours, we spent our time eating and at the hotel. The food in Bariloche was amazing. I did not eat one bad meal. Food in Argentina in general is not my favorite, but Bariloche food was soooo good. We had italian, traditional parilla argentine, fondue, and a brewery. Each place was amazing. I had never had meat fondue before, and it was surprisingly good. I really can't describe how good the food was. The dinners were probably one of the biggest highlights of my trip.
Monday, we flew home and Hilary and my dad continued on to Calafate. It was a great Easter break and I was happy to get to see my family (minus Sallie).
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Iguazu Falls!!!
Fantastic weekend to Iguazu Falls. A group of 6 of us, which turned into a group of 9, spent the weekend visiting Iguazu Falls. I learned a lot from this weekend, especially about with who and how I like to travel. Iguazu is about a 2 hour flight from Buenos Aires, or a 18 hour bus ride. Taking buses places is really popular in Argentina. We decided to take a bus because it was only $150 round trip instead of $300 round trip. On Friday, Kelsey and I told our group to meet at the Pepperdine house at 1:00 pm to get to the bus station by 2:10 pm. One person wanted to meet us there, another forgot her passport, another forgot his credit card, two others decided they wanted to make a last minute grocery store stop (I know that doesn't add up to 9, but others went with the people who forgot stuff). So Kelsey and I were left just the two of us and it was 1:30 pm by the time everyone had shown up and left to do their separate errands. We made our way to the bus station, which was so huge. There were over 150 desks of different bus companies, similar to checking in at an airport. Our tickets were at desk #121. The attendants pretended they didn't speak English, so I made a complete fool out of myself trying to explain that I was here to pick up tickets. We got on the bus and ran into another group of Pepperdine students doing the same trip we were. Altogether there were 14 of us on the bus. I'm sure everyone else hated us. The bus ride was actually not that bad for being 18 hours long. We left at 3:00PM and stopped many times to pick up more people along the way before arriving in Puerto Iguazu at 9:30AM on Saturday. The food on the bus was disgusting, but the boys were very appreciative to take Kelsey and my meals. Everyone was jealous when Kelsey and I took out Peanut Butter for dinner. For the most part, we all slept well. Our seats only reclined a little bit, but somehow I managed to fall asleep.
Once we were in Iguazu, we went to our hostel, Hostel-Inn, to drop of our bags. The hostel is probably the biggest hostel I will ever see. It had a huge eating area, lounge area, swimming pool, ping pong, pool tables, someone to help with activities, bbqs, free brazilian dance show, and more. We dropped our bags and made it to the falls. The whole morning was very slow because everyone had their own agenda of what needed to be done before getting to the falls. Once at the park, we first went on the lower falls circuit where we got on a boat to get close to the bottom of the falls. We took off our shirts and put on life vests and got on the boat. They drove us around the bottom of the two different falls and then drove us under a tiny fall coming off the island in between the two huge ones. Kelsey and I thought the ride was over, but they started driving towards the smaller of the two huge falls. All of a sudden, we were driving straight into the falls. It was so scary, I was under Iguazu Falls. The Iguazu Water Falls actually were falling on top of me. After coming out from under the falls, we were completely soaked, shorts, tennis shoes, socks, and all. Then, the driver took us under again. Kelsey and I thought that one time was enough....it was so scary. After the boat, Kelsey and I wanted to take the train to the falls called Devil's Throat. The train closed early, so we wanted to make sure we spent lots of time at Devil's Throat because it is the highlight of the park. The rest of the group wanted to explore the island between the water falls, so we split up. The whole group didn't understand why Kelsey and I wanted to do our own thing, but we were both tired of having to stop and wait for everyone to be able to move on. We stopped to have a cookie break, where Cotis, a native animal, attacked Kelsey and stole our cookies. A park ranger had to get the cookies back from us. We went on the train and then to the Devil's throat. The view and sound was amazing. It was something that you can't take a picture of or describe adequately enough. You have to be there to truly experience it's beauty. We spent a long time just staring at the water falls. You can see Brazil from where we were looking, but the Argentina side seemed better than the Brazil side. We saw the other group going out when we took the train back in. Kelsey and I stopped for a pizza and beer lunch for $3 each....everything is so cheap in Argentina. It started getting cold and rainy, so Kelsey and I relaxed at the Havanna coffee shop, sipping chocolatada (hot chocolate) until our group was ready to leave. Overall, it was an amazing day.
We returned to the hostel, were we fit 9 people in 6 twin beds. The boys complained how expensive the hostel was...40 pesos or $13.... so they tried to sell their beds or half of their bed to the part of our group who didn't have one. The boys also didn't want to spend any money on dinner so bought pasta and cooked it and ate left-over ham and cheese sandwiches from the bus. The girls decided to go into town where we went to a artisan pasta shop and got 1 kilo of pasta, 1 liter of sauce, and 2 liters of drinks for 9 pesos each or $3. Generally, people take dry pasta to go, but they are willing to cook it for you. 1 kilo of pasta is more pasta than you can imagine. When they brought the plates out, we thought that 1 plate would be enough for 2 or 3 people and 1 plate was actually for 1 person. The next morning we woke up and got back on the bus to take another 18 bus ride home. There was a baby and snoring, which made this ride less plesant. Also at one of the bus stops, there was a doctor giving yellow fever shots for free. Kelsey and I were kind of creeped out by the whole thing, but almost half of our bus got of and got shots before continuing, including at least 5 pepperdine students. We got home at 6 am and had class at 9 am. Overall, very good weekend.
My parents and Hilary are now here to visit and we are leaving on Thursday to go to Bariloche, which is the Lake District.
Once we were in Iguazu, we went to our hostel, Hostel-Inn, to drop of our bags. The hostel is probably the biggest hostel I will ever see. It had a huge eating area, lounge area, swimming pool, ping pong, pool tables, someone to help with activities, bbqs, free brazilian dance show, and more. We dropped our bags and made it to the falls. The whole morning was very slow because everyone had their own agenda of what needed to be done before getting to the falls. Once at the park, we first went on the lower falls circuit where we got on a boat to get close to the bottom of the falls. We took off our shirts and put on life vests and got on the boat. They drove us around the bottom of the two different falls and then drove us under a tiny fall coming off the island in between the two huge ones. Kelsey and I thought the ride was over, but they started driving towards the smaller of the two huge falls. All of a sudden, we were driving straight into the falls. It was so scary, I was under Iguazu Falls. The Iguazu Water Falls actually were falling on top of me. After coming out from under the falls, we were completely soaked, shorts, tennis shoes, socks, and all. Then, the driver took us under again. Kelsey and I thought that one time was enough....it was so scary. After the boat, Kelsey and I wanted to take the train to the falls called Devil's Throat. The train closed early, so we wanted to make sure we spent lots of time at Devil's Throat because it is the highlight of the park. The rest of the group wanted to explore the island between the water falls, so we split up. The whole group didn't understand why Kelsey and I wanted to do our own thing, but we were both tired of having to stop and wait for everyone to be able to move on. We stopped to have a cookie break, where Cotis, a native animal, attacked Kelsey and stole our cookies. A park ranger had to get the cookies back from us. We went on the train and then to the Devil's throat. The view and sound was amazing. It was something that you can't take a picture of or describe adequately enough. You have to be there to truly experience it's beauty. We spent a long time just staring at the water falls. You can see Brazil from where we were looking, but the Argentina side seemed better than the Brazil side. We saw the other group going out when we took the train back in. Kelsey and I stopped for a pizza and beer lunch for $3 each....everything is so cheap in Argentina. It started getting cold and rainy, so Kelsey and I relaxed at the Havanna coffee shop, sipping chocolatada (hot chocolate) until our group was ready to leave. Overall, it was an amazing day.
We returned to the hostel, were we fit 9 people in 6 twin beds. The boys complained how expensive the hostel was...40 pesos or $13.... so they tried to sell their beds or half of their bed to the part of our group who didn't have one. The boys also didn't want to spend any money on dinner so bought pasta and cooked it and ate left-over ham and cheese sandwiches from the bus. The girls decided to go into town where we went to a artisan pasta shop and got 1 kilo of pasta, 1 liter of sauce, and 2 liters of drinks for 9 pesos each or $3. Generally, people take dry pasta to go, but they are willing to cook it for you. 1 kilo of pasta is more pasta than you can imagine. When they brought the plates out, we thought that 1 plate would be enough for 2 or 3 people and 1 plate was actually for 1 person. The next morning we woke up and got back on the bus to take another 18 bus ride home. There was a baby and snoring, which made this ride less plesant. Also at one of the bus stops, there was a doctor giving yellow fever shots for free. Kelsey and I were kind of creeped out by the whole thing, but almost half of our bus got of and got shots before continuing, including at least 5 pepperdine students. We got home at 6 am and had class at 9 am. Overall, very good weekend.
My parents and Hilary are now here to visit and we are leaving on Thursday to go to Bariloche, which is the Lake District.
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