EFT, Part 1

I've decided to write about the EFT (educational field trip) in parts because I want to remember and write everything I remember.

First, the whole week was amazing!!! The whole Pepperdine group flew down to Ushuaia, Argentina, the most southern city in the world. Also it's called the end of the world. We spent a day in Usuaia and then a 4 day cruise around Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan. Our cruise ended in Punta Arena, Chile and we spent a day there before flying home to Buenos Aires. The beauty of the cruise was comparable to Greece or Sea of Cortez....After living in a big city for almost a month and then going on this trip, I realized how much I appreciate nature and could spent a large part of my life just looking at a landscape.

We started the trip off at the Buenos Aires airport. When traveling with 60+ people, we definitely make a scene and it's a little embarassing. It was pretty fun to have us all on one plane. We arrived in Ushuaia and took a bus to our hotel. Jessica and I were roommates and the hotel was amazing!!! The view from our room was spectacular. We overlooked the ocean and the view was absolutely breathtaking. All of the Pepperdine programs get to spend the same amount of money on the EFT's, but it is a lot cheaper for a big group to travel in S. America, than in Europe. That means that our group in BA gets to travel in luxury and stay at the nicest hotels available and take expensive cruises. So the hotel we were at was gorgeous. The hotel had a pool and hot tub too, all indoors because it is pretty chilly at the end of the world. We went swimming in the pool, which had a portion outdoors where you had to swim under a little strip of plastic to get to. Again, we had a really nice view.

The next morning we woke up to do a day off-roading trip in Ushuaia. We piled in 7 or 8 jeeps and headed towards lakes. Zach, Bill, Kelsey, Jessica, Mariah, Becca, Alyssa, and I were in the same jeep with a crazy driver. He was the owner of the tour company and knew English pretty well. He forgot his iPod that day, so we listened to his cassette tapes, we had two options, Vivaldi's 4 seasons or Beastie Boys. He was 35 and had traveled around the US and had a rat tail (from when he had long hair). He was hilarious because he told us jokes, but the only ones he knew in English were dirty jokes. On the off-roading, we stopped at several look-out spots and lakes. We even drove through the edge of a lake. It was windy and cold at some spots, but sunny the whole time. It was a long day of driving and we drove in really bumpy areas where I thought our car would flip. Overall, very fun and we saw many beautiful lakes. That afternoon, we headed toward the boat for our cruise.

Ushuaia Pics:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047117&l=f268c&id=8505998
I'll continue on Part 2 soon.

Señor Tango

Last night, the entire group went to a Tango show called Señor Tango. It was definitely a tourist spot, but also a very good show and dinner. We sat at 6 huge tables and our food was brought right away. I had the best salad I've had yet in BA, it was in a cracker/bread shell and had some kind of basil/oil dressing. Then we got to pick our meal: steak, chicken or fish. Kelsey and I always order one chicken and one steak to share, so we don't get stuck with something gross. However, the 3 or so times we've been out on group dinner, we both prefer the steak. So from now on we will only order steak. Then we had a disgusting dessert...It was supposed to be 3 flavors of ice cream and a little brownie, but it all tasted disgusting. The show started at around 10:30pm and began with real live horses and gauchos, not what I expected from a Tango show. Apparently, it began with a historical part of where Argentina came from. Then the show went on for 2 more hours. The dancing was very entertaining, especially the number where you could basically see all of the female dancers' butts :) They also had parts where someone would sing or the band would play and that wasn't as cool as the dancing. It ended fantastically with everyone on stage singing "Don't cry for me Argentina" in Spanish. By the time I got home, it was 1:30 am....a late night once again.

On Saturday, I leave for Chile for the Educational Field Trip. I am sooooo excited. It is supposed to be really nice and we are taking a cruise around the very southern tip of South America. We just got the itinerary yesterday and it looks really exciting. I'll be updating next when I get back from Chile.

Boca Game and Zoo and more

This weekend I decided to stay in Buenos Aires, so I could see more of the city and hopefully relax. On Friday night, a few of us went to an amazing Italian restaurant called Brocolini. It was a cute, with red tablecloths, and nice waiters. Argentina is kind of like the US because practically everyone's family immigrated here from somewhere else, especially Europe. So the italian food actually is pretty good. After we went to this restaurant/bar called Acabar. It is a board game bar, so they have tons of tables in this well-lit restaurant and you go and pick out a game from the shelf and play. It was so much fun. We tried to play Taboo in spanish...it was so funny. They even had rummikub!

On Saturday, Kelsey, Jessie, and I went to the Zoo. It only cost 8 pesos (about 3 dollars) and it was a huge zoo with almost every animal you would want to see (except penguins). It was sooo hot and I felt bad for the animals who don't like warm weather, especially the polar bear. The zoo was a little sad because I felt like some of the animals looked sad and lonely. Maybe that's true at any zoo though. There also were some animals native to S. America. One was a rodent that was the size of a pig. It was so weird. And these rabbit/dog/deer animals just roamed free. It soooo hot!

Saturday night, Kelsey and I had dinner with Dr. K and her husband (the visiting faculty family) and some other students. After we played scrabble, and Kelsey and I dominated!!!

Sunday, Kelsey and I went to the San Telmo fair. It really big, but not as fun as the Recoleta fair. The San Telmo fair was much more of a antique fair or garage sale than a crafts fair. I like shopping for homemade argentine goods way better than looking at antiques. Also, it was very touristy and everyone spoke English to us. When people speak english, I feel like they are trying to rip me off and I just would rather them speak in Spanish.

Sunday night, a group of 13 of us went to the Boca game. They were playing Argentina jrs. In Buenos Aires, there are two major teams, Boca and River. They are huge rivals. So we went to the Boca stadium and there were tons of fans and everyone was crazy! The fans knew tons of songs/chants that I wish I could have understood. It was definitely an experience. Getting home was a huge hassel. We were in Boca, a sketchy neighborhood and their were millions of people everywhere. The only way to get around at night is by taxi or bus. We wanted to take a bus because there was one that went to our house right from the stadium, but each but that passed us was completely full already and there were about 100 people waiting with us for that bus. Eventually, we started walking and spent 30 minutes trying to get a taxi. We finally got home that night, but it took a while. Now I'm at school and I wish that I could just travel and hang out with people. Doing homework is not too bad, just sitting in class is really boring and I would rather not. O well.

I love Tango!!

So I took my first Tango class yesterday and it was a lot of fun. I had forgotten how much I love to dance. There is a two to one ratio of girls to boys, which sucks a lot. She is also having an extra class to prepare for a performance at the final banquet, if you want to be in it and pay a little extra money. I can't wait. The class is big and it goes pretty slow for me, so I can't wait for the extra class, which i'm sure will be small because not a lot of people like performing. I want to go to Tango clubs now, but I'm not sure any guy here is that into it. It was hard enough convincing 8 guys just to take the class. I'll see how it goes.

I put up some pics....to view them you do not need a facebook. all you need to do is copy and paste the links. Then click on the first picture and you can look through these photo albums

My Room in BA:
http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046359&l=08f2e&id=8505998

Beginning BA Pics:
http://pepperdine.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046360&l=dba45&id=8505998

Uruguay:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2046361&l=6ba41&id=8505998

Tango and Malenga

This week, I have just had normal classes. I didn't actually realized that a lot of my days would be spent at Casa Pepperdine in a class room. The professors are ok. They come from the UCA, the catholic university here. Some are really boring, but I like my humanities 313 professor and my economics professor. It's cooled down a little bit this week, which has been nice. It is still warm, but with a nice breeze.

Last night, I meet up with my mom's cousin, Randy, who was down in Buenos Aires visiting. She took Kelsey and I to a Malenga (at least that's what i think it's called). It was a big dark room with tables around the edges and a dance floor in the middle. They offer Tango classes every night of the week, and then have a band play later on in the night. We came late, so just watched the class and waited for the music and more professional dancers to come. At one point, Randy and I tried to learn a little by ourselves and the teacher came and asked us if we had partners, we said no, and he tried to dance with me. This was my first tango experience, so I had no idea what the steps were. I just let him lead me and tried to follow my best. After a couple minutes, the music ended and we sat down. Randy finally asked someone what time the band was showing up for the more performance part of the night, we got the time wrong....1:30am was when it started and it was only 11. We decided to just go home after that.

I start my Tango classes with Pepperdine today. I'm really really excited. I just hope I get to dance with a partner. I don't know how they are going to handle having more guys that girls. We'll see. I'm trying to plan my spring break and easter break trips, Kelsey and I want to go to Machu Picchu for one and Patagonia for the other. Hopefully we can figure it out.

That's all for now!

Uruguay and Sunday

We went to Uruguay this weekend. Wow, I can't believe it was so easy to travel to a different country. So....Kelsey, Lauren, Diana, Jessie, Michael, Alex, Jessica, Alyssa, Miriah, Becca, and I all took a boat to Colonia, Uruguay on Friday. We bought the tickets on Thursday and tried to book a hostel. The tickets were almost all gone, so we all had to buy first class tickets $100 for both ways, instead of $70 in regular class. The boat ride was really fun, we played cards and signs and they even brought us champagne. After getting off the 1 hour boat at 10:30pm, our group split up. Kelsey, Lauren, Diana decided to stay in Colonia and the rest went to Montevideo and some other beach on a bus at 6am the next morning.

Colonia was a very pleasant town to visit. We thought we were going to the beach in Uruguay, but aparently Colonia doesn't have a beach to lay out on and the water was a gross color brown. We found our hostel around 11 pm, but they didn't have any idea that we were coming. They only spoke spanish and told us that we didn't have reservations. She wasn't very helpful and told us she could split the 4 of us into 3 rooms, all with other people. Finally, she showed us a room with only four bed and no bathroom. We took that room at an instant even though we would have to use the community bathroom (i.e. the one that everyone in the hostel can use). It only cost $11 each per night and it seemed really clean and nice for a hostel, and they had breakfast.

Saturday, we woke up and walked around Colonia. It was really empty until the afternoon. We went to an artisan fair and wandered around the historic town. I don't really know why it's historic, but it was all really old and the streets were cobblestone. We had lunch sitting at a restaurant in the street and for $7, I had pizza, wine, ice cream, and coffee. I really didn't like the wine, but everything else was great. I think I'm going to live off of pizza because I seem to eat it a lot. We went back to the hostel and napped after lunch and then walked to dinner. Kelsey and I had steak and french fries....it was the biggest meal ever and we made friends with our waiter, Diego. After we got dessert at another restaurant and listened to their live music. At 12ish, we decided to go back to our hostel, and a band was playing on the street next to ours. They all were dressed up in nice purple shirts and ties and tons of people were in the street sitting watching them. Sunday, we woke up and it was raining, so we took a taxi to the port to get back on the boat...again in first class with champagne. Then, we were back again in Argentina. I can't believe that we actually in Uruguay, it kinda seems unreal. I mean who says, I went to Uruguay for the weekend. Who actually even goes to Uruguay in general? Haha...on that note, we ran into a couple from Pacific Palisades at lunch on Saturday who just bought land in Uruguay and visit it frequently. Anyways, I'm back in BA and am excited to see more of the city.

Today, a group of the students got together to have a small group, to talk about how we are doing and support eachother and worship. I'm really excited for this and it seems like a fun group of people. I haven't been to a church yet in BA, but the majority of people are Catholic, so I'm interested to see what their traditional churches are like.

So ya, that's what is going on so far. I just got back from ice cream....I LOVE this place called persicco and they have the best ice cream ever. Oh, and I'm also in desperate need to do laundry.

Ave. Florida y mas

So first I should give you a brief update on life...

My host family isn't as great as I described them the first day. They are hot and cold...I suppose. They definitely don't like the other student or I to be on their part of the house or in the living room. Our rooms and the kitchen is our only territory. Also, I learned that I am supposed to do my own dishes, sounds obvious, right. At first, they were over the top in doing everything for me, but I quickly learned that was only at the begging and that I do my own dishes. I love my roommate (she isn't really, but that's the easiest thing to call her). We haven't really hung out outside of our appartment that much, but we talk all the time and it's nice to have someone other than my parents to talk to when I'm at home. Also, we steal wireless internet from other people in the building. The internet only works about ten percent of the time.

Yesterday we took the SupT (metro) to Avenida Florida and walked around. Avenida Florida reminds me of Santa Monica, but triple the number of people and stores. It is for pedestrians only and there are street performers and tons of little shops on the side. Very fun place to walk around.

Last night, lots of people from Pepperdine went to a club called LOST. I have class this morning, but I went anyway. We met at the club at 2 am, so I tried to sleep a little before we left, but it didn't work. Aparently, it is the only hip hop club in town and it was pretty fun. I liked dancing with the pepperdine crowd, but the other guys lingering kinda creeped me out. I got home at 4am and we were the first ones to leave. People were still arriving at the club. Now I have class at 9 and I'm really tired. That's the way in Argentina though. I'm not sure I'll go clubing a lot.

This weekend I'm going to the beach in Uraguay. We take a boat there. It should be fun.

First day of spanish boot camp

Today we started bootcamp spanish. I'm in Span 152, the lowest one offered here and there only 4 people in my class including me. It was fun and I'm going to pick Spanish up so fast. We watched the super bowl at the Pepperdine house last night, but there were no US commercials, sad. On Sunday, we went to Recoletta, which was an open air market and the Hard Rock Cafe. We figured out how to take the bus to get there. Buses are weird because .90 pesos gets you five blocks on a bus, but if you pay 1 peso, you can go as far as you want. 1 peso is like 33 US cents. The vendors at Recoletta sold many different things. One lady took oranges, dried them inside out to make little boxes and then painted the tops. Really cool looking. Another guy took old SupT (the subway) tickets and folded them into each other to make little statues and paper weights, using the colors on the ticket in different ways in each thing he made. It was sooo hot there. A band was playing in the park in the middle of the fair, so we went and sat down and watched. Argentines love this drink called mate, which is really really intense tea. They drink it out of this weird bowl and it looks like they are doing drugs. Today was the first day of actual class/orientation. Every monday, we have an asado, which is a BBQ....very good. I had chorizo. Tonight I'm going to bed early because I haven't had more than 6 hours of sleep a night since I've been here. That's all for now :)

My first two/three days...

The flight to Argentina was the longest flight of my life. After waiting 5 hours in the airport, we boarded and then waited another hour to take off. The flight to Santiago, Chile was 10 hours, or 11 if you include the hour we waited before take-off. Thank goodness I got to sit next to Kelsey. Kelsey, Jessie, and I checked in together so we all sat in the same row, in the middle of the plane. The entertainment was great on the plane. I watched Shallow Hal, Everwood, Martian Child, and more! After arriving in Santiago, Chile at 6:30 am friday morning, we took a 1.5 hour flight to Argentina. People from Casa Holden, the pepperdine house, met us. There are 30 new students this semester and 30 ones returning for a 2nd semester. I feel like I already knew at least 8 of the new students before I got here, so that is good. Once in Argentina, we had a bbq and short orientation at the casa holden and then our families came to pick us up.

My family is really sweet. My mom held my hand to the taxi and then showed me around their 7th floor appartment about 6 long blocks from the casa holden. My room is small, but very nice. My family also has another student from Boston, not from the Pepperdine program staying with us. Her name is Kristen and she is also nice, but she seems to be gone more than I. She barely knows any spanish, which gives my confidence a boost. There are 2 bathrooms in our house, but 1 shower, so we all share the 1 shower. Later, my mom took me on a tour around her block to show me the internet place and the laundry place, ect. She held my hand the entire time. My parents really like talking to me and we are communicating really well. Dinner was ok, not the greatest. We had soupy mashed potatoes, bistec...but it looked like meat loaf, and salad. Fruit for dessert. I went out with people from Pepperdine after dinner at 11 pm. We met at casa holden and I took a taxi there. I hope eventually I can walk to casa holden at night, but my parents didn't want me to walk alone at night the first night i was there. I got back from being out at 1 am, by taxi, and accidently rang the doorbell because it looked like a light switch...woops. Taxi's here are really cheap. It cost me 5 pesos each way, which is less than 2 dollars.

Today we went on a bus tour of Buenos Aires. I have now seen all the historical sites that I was looking forward to....where Eva Peron, Evita, is buried and the balcony where Evita gave her speeches. Really cool. I'm getting my cell phone stuff figured out right now. I rented a cell phone from casa holden, but you need to buy a phone card and then activated it on your cell phone to be able to use it. Also, my house doesn't have internet, bummer. Kelseys does. Apparently neighboors do have it and their previous exchange students were able to use it, so i'm going to try that later. My mom's cousin is in town, so i'm hoping to call her up once my phone starts working.

That's all for now. :)

I'm here

Just wanted to let everyone know that I got here and am safe. I don't have time to update now, but my family is great and my spanish isn't that bad.

I love and miss you all.