I now have a dreadlock in my hair...

I haven´t written in awhile because nothing has been happening. This week I only went to school on Monday. I was supposed to go to today but AFS had this promotional thing that me, Max, and a girl from Thailand who has been here for 6 months had to do. We went around to different schools to explain what AFS is and why we should do it....basically a lot of teenagers staring at you with their eyes bulging out of their heads and holding on to every word you say. I also am going to be in the newspaper (again), on TV, and I was on live radio!!! It was a very long day, from 8 in the morning until 6 at night. I have become friends with the girl from Thailand. She came here not knowing one word in Spanish and now she speaks very well! Anyways, after I got home from this I went to the skate park with my brother and his friends. It is very weird to see my brother outside of the house with his friends, since I only know him as he is in the house with his family. Then me and my other brother got cold so we went home, but our grandma was out buying food for dinner so Mariano decides to give me a dreadlock. Not joking. He even took a lighter and burnt it and everything. So now I have this lovely dreadlock in my hair. Its small, its even kind of cute. But still it was by force. oh and also yesterday I had a bonding time with my grandma. We went to centro to buy a skirt for school and buy other small necessities. We also went to a gym which is close to my house to see what kind of dance classes they offer. So now I´m going to dance hip hop every tuesday and thursday. They also offer brasilero and reggeton and all that. I asked Thailand girl to come with me so I´m not alone. And just a sidenote I am very sorry for my broken english but my mind half thinks in English and half thinks in Spanish and once I say one word in spanish i have to say the rest of the sentence in spanish. It takes me a long time to write these blogs because i have to think about what im saying!!!!!! its very crazy. and now that my head is spinning with palabras in english and spanish i will leave you all to decipher this text.

If this were my normal life this never would have happened...

Okay so I just wanted to quickly tell to all of you the FUNNIEST thing that happened to me that only happens in movies and would never happen to me because I don´t have brothers. So on Saturday I was invited to go to this disco called BASE at 3:30 in the morning. So my mom told me I should take a nap and then started getting ready at 2:30. So I fell asleep around midnight, got up at 2:30, and Mariano and Guillermo aren´t home and everyone else is asleep. So I´m tip toeing around getting ready. When 3:30 finally came around, my friend Nico calls to say that he´s outside waiting. So I go for the door and I´m trying to find the keyhole because they always leave the key in the door and i cant find it! ONly to realize that at nighttime they lock the door and put they key in a secret hiding place! So i´m looking around for the key for about 10 minutes when i finally tell nico to just go without me because i´m literally locked inside my own house. But he keeps insiting that he will wait. So my next option is to go out a window, but i cant because there are bars over every window in my house! so i open the window that is close to the door and im talking to nico about what i should do (this was 20 minutes later) and i look down and there is the key!!!!! so i leave and i dance and have fun and i dont get back until seven in the morning! and it wasnt even over!!!!!! so as im going to open the door to my house im trying not to make a sound as to not wake anyone up. i even take off my heels so it doesnt make that tack tack sound. so i open the door just a pinch, and i see this black thread wound around the electricity box and im thinking, "hahaha mariano good one, but it didnt work!" because i´ve tried to make those traps a million times and they NEVER work, its just how it goes. So then i walk about two steps farther into the entryway (which was dark) and my stomach pushes against this thin piece of thread and all of a sudden the most horrible high pitched noise in the world goes off!!!! it was like a death switch to my eardrums!!!! and on top of that my brother guillermo was asleep on the couch!!! hahahhaaaa i didnt know what to do so when guillermo woke up from the noise i told him to turn it off, but he was so tired that he just mumbled to me to ¨hit the switch thats over there¨and fell asleep. so i finally found the stupid thing and i was so mad i almost went into his room to wake him up but i just went to bed. then at about nine that morning my grandma got up to go somewhere, and she fell for it too!!! so theres this like buzzing in my ear for the rest of the day. in the end i let it go and i didnt bite his head off like i thought i would, and now everytime i think of it i start cracking up!!!! just thought i should let you know....

Potatoes and Mayo

Hi again.

Today is Saturday. I just accidentally hit a button and now I´m typing in underline and I can´t get rid of it. OH well. Yesterday I had to go to school. I had Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday off this week and next week I have tuesday, wednesday, and thursday off. Loving it. But i have to take a Physics test next friday and i dont know any of the material because I hadnt arrived in argentina yet. So that should be just wonderful. Yesterday after school i decided not to go to gym class at three and i made a cake with my brother. it was really good. Then i went with him to buy beer and we watched the olympic soccer game, which started at one in the morning, and which argentina won!!!!!!!! yay. I´m sure all of my guy friends are going to be off the wall today. Tonight I am supposed to go to a disco called Base1. People here are OBSESSED with Cumbia music...if you dont know what it is, I suggest you give it a listen. Here they are especially obsessed with Grupo Play, a local pair who do cover songs to a cumbia beat. It is a traditional type of music that originated from Colombia. Now its been computerized and modernized to make the newest sensation sweeping latin america. Everyday at school when we have a break, all the kids turn on their cell phones and turn the volume up really loud and walk around outside with this sh sh-sh-sh sound. I love to dance cumbia, but here they dance it differently. Anyway, today i just got back from lunch with my AFS counselor and the boy from Denmark, who doesnt speak any spanish. It was going fine and dandy, except for I couldnt understand a word my counselor was saying to me in english because of this weird, frenchish accent she had. Then I realized she was speaking Dutch with Max! So the whole time thý´re chatting away in Dutch and I´´m wishing i could take a siesta.

Now I am going to do a segment on the "lovely" fashion here. On wednesday I asked my friend Dai if she would take me shopping, which was just a lovely mistake. I went into the store and I asked for some pants, and she asks me what size. I say I dont know because the sizes are different in the US. She says, I think you´re a 36, and pulls out THE TINIEST pair of pants i have ever seen in my life. My pinky finger couldnt even fit inside I am not even joking. What is fashion here are too-tight tops and butt squeezing pants. ANd i´m like, no thank you. There are some stores with more familiar clothing that I think I will check out instead. FOr now, I think i´m good if I stay away from plaid stretchy pants and lime green leggings.

HEre in the picture was the barbecue at Mariano´s. These are literally all the boys in my class right there.

End of weekend update

This week is going to be very interesting! Yesterday, Monday, I didn´t have to go to school because it was Día del San Martín, a day where all of Argentina celebrates their independence of the Spanish Colonies, however they don´t celebrate it as their Independence Day. Their actual independence day is July 9th, and on that day they were freed by the Spainards from the French, however they were still under Spanish rule. Anyways, tomorrow and Thursday I don´t have school either for something called "paro." I don´t really understand what goes on these days we dont have school but hey it works for me. Let me finish talking about my long weekend. On sunday I felt a lot better and I didn´t have a fever anymore, so I went to the Parque de Diversion with my younger brother and my friends. They set up State Fair style rides in a park close to my house. I´ve been there three times already with Gustavo. He loves it. He´s been back and forth between the park and the house (getting more money to go on the rides) all weekend. He keeps begging me to go again, but I think I ´ve had my share of dangerous, rusty, put-together-in-a-hurry rides. After the park on Sunday, I went to a girl´s birthday party, which I didn´t get there until 1 AM! It is so strange to go out here. There is an EXTREME overabundance of alcohol. Every five seconds someone was going outside to open another bottle of something or the other. The funny thing is the parents don´t mind, in fact, sometimes they are sitting right at the table and drinking with their kids! But I have also met parents who are very against their children drinking. I myself find beer and wine disgusting with dinner, dessert, potatoes, asado, whatever. But they seem to love it. Anyway, now I can say I have survived my first Argentinean weekend!!....................alth0ugh I spent all Monday recovering sleep. :)

un poco enferma

Hello everyone, sorry I haven´t written in awhile. My brother Mariano is always on the computer and he gets very angry when you try to get him off. Today is Sunday, and I have just spent my first weekend going out with my new friends. On Friday, I went to Mariano´s house for a barbecue. There were 14 of us. Each one `pitches in a little money for the food and drinks, and then the boys cook the meat. It was a lot of fun and a great way to get to know everyone. The time for going out here is very different. The kids usually leave there houses at midnight and don´t come back until 3 or 4! It is very hard to get used to, I had to take a nap before I left! Yesterday I got invited to a 15th birthday party, which is like a sweet sixteen in the United States. However, I didn´t feel well and ended up falling asleep before my friends came to pick me up, which was at 3 in the morning! I ended up having a fever and I still dont feel very well, but my mom and grandma are taking very good care of me. And my brothers still like to mess around and make me mad. For example, Mariano yelled in my ear while I was taking a nap, and today Gustavo got me out of bed to show me his new bed. The good thing is Guillermo always is looking out for me and tells them to leave me alone. Besides that, school is going better now that I am getting to know everyone. I took my first test and I got a really good score on it! Even though it was just a spelling test I was still really proud of myself. I have to read a whole book in Spanish! School is very hard work and I have to study very hard! Well, thats all I have to say for now. Talk to you later

Acostumbrandome....Getting used to it!

These last two days have been very full. Yesterday was my first day of school. We study very odd subjects and from what I can understand they seem completely pointless and awkward. For example, we took notes on rodents nutrition, where they can be found, how to get rid of them and things like that. And that is what the whole class is about. Its really weird. I decided to stay in Natural Sciences so I have a lot of physics and biology and chemistry classes. Our schedule varies from day to day, but I always go to school from 8 until 12 or 1 and then I usually have to come back at 3 for another class. This whole week has been a huge adjustment period for me. Yesterday I also had a computation class, which is basically a teacher reading an article or something from a book and a handful of students typing what the teacher is saying, which I dont get that either but oh well. Today my mom let my brothers and I skip school to watch the inaugural ceremony of the olympics, haha. It was spectacular. After I went with Gustavo to his dad´s house where I helped him make a drawing for his school. Gustavo and I go everywhere together. He takes me around the town and I already know how to walk home from school by myself! I had to go to school at three for gym. I learned how to play handball, which is very interesting. In Argentina boys and girls have separate gym classes. Girls play handball or volleyball and only have gym once a week. Boys play soccer (obviously) and have gym twice a week. As far as friends go, I feel more comfortable understanding and speaking around my peers. Today they invited me to meet al ¨centro,¨ which is basically the main part of town, on sunday. I am very excited. Besides my friends, teachers and basically anyone I meet asks me A LOT of questions. None really seem to understand the idea of Foreign Exchange Student and they all say, ¨Oh, poor you, no one you know can speak english¨ and then proceed to talk to me in english. What a pain. They also dont seem to understand what I´m doing here even when I try to explain to them. Oh well. Everyone is very very nice and understanding and extremely friendly here. It is a very beautiful country with many beautiful people.



IN THE PICTURES you will find me with my good friend I met in Miami Patrick..he is studying in Santiago del Estero in a university. There is also a picture of the tomb where Eva Peron is buried in Buenos Aires, along with other famous people. Then the Pink House, which is the Argentinean equivalent of the White House. The colorful building is in La Boca District, which is a neighborhood in Argentina. All of the houses and buildings are painted bright colors for a certain reason, which is when the immigrants got off the ships and came to Buenos Aires, they found the paint below the deck and decided to paint their houses, and it has lasted all these years. There is also a picture of a gigantic McDonalds which is in Buenos Aires. Check the other blog for more pictures.

Update!!!

Wow, I haven´t written for only a short while and I already have so much to tell! On Sunday (the third) I arrived in Venado Tuerto by bus. It was a 7 and a half ride, and I was so nervous that we would miss the stop that I only slept for one hour. I had to ask someone which stop Venado Tuerto was, and it took me about an hour to get the courage to do it! When I finally met my family, I was overwhelmed with relief. My mom is EXTREMELY nice and touchy. My two younger brothers, Mariano (15) and Gustavo (12) are non-stop chatterboxes and crack jokes every other second. They are always laughing, and it was a great way to break the ice. I also met my grandma, who is seventy might I add, but she left the house at about midnight to take the bus back to Buenos Aires to visit her family!!!! She´s not back yet. My older brother is like a skater boy and has a lot of piercings, and he is also very nice. He plays the guitar really well. When I got home, they had a party for me with empanadas y chorizo and a lot of family and friends. I was very grateful, but also very tired. On Monday I woke to find Mariano not at school, so I talked to him until the others got home. I had a lunch of milanesa (breaded beef) and mashed potatoes. It was delicious. Meal times are very different here. Breakfast is pretty non-existant, just coffee or hot chocolate. When everyone gets home from school and work at 12 or 1, we have a large lunch. Then its siesta. My brothers and I usually watch a movie while our mom sleeps. At around three, mom leaves again for work and doesnt come back until 9 or 10!! Then we have a small dinner and get ready for bed. Yesterday was my first day of school. I t was very hard and probably one of my low points. For one, everyone stared at me which is very awkward. And I know I can speak pretty sufficient spanish, but I didnt understand anything was telling me. It´s very hard being labeled as "stupid" or "foreign" or being referred to as the Yankee. Everyone watches every move you make. Hopefully it will get better. Also, the school system and the school are very different. The rooms have limited heating capabilities, and are very small. Also, once your a junior, you have to choose one of the two career paths you want to take: Art Design and Communications or Natural Sciences. THe bulk of your subjects are fovused in this general category. They decided to have me sit in a natural science class for one day and the art design class for another and then choose. Today i was supposed to go to the art class, but I had to buy school supplies and a uniform instead. I am getting really close to my younger brother Gustavo. Hes very funny and is not afraid to correct any mistakes i make. Overall, i feel very comfortable here. Language barriers are hard, but im trying. I cant wait until I feel more part of the family and less like a foreigner.

****In the pictures you will see me with my youngest brother Gustavo in my room, my mother making a face, and my oldest brother Guillermo and Gustavo.