One Month!

Hello all of you wonderful people!

 

So today officially marks one month in this beautiful country that I already feel like I can call home. It has been a while since I have written a post so I don't really remember all of the things I have already said. So if I repeat anything I am sorry, its just I'm too lazy to go back and re-read the old post.

 

Okay so where to start....

 

My Spanish is getting better, slowly. The kids in my school still ask me when I am going to start speaking Spanish, because you know apparently I should be fluent after one month of being here. I am slowly coming out of the whole quiet phase, everyday I start to speak a little more. I find I am very comfortable trying to speak Spanish at home but then at school its a whole different story. A friend of mine and a rebound here in Argentina said, "give it time, a language will come with time spent absorbing the culture, be patient." And that's what I have to do, just be patient. I have a Spanish tutor that I go to twice a week for an hour and a half which is really helpful. She has started with verbs and how to change them according to the person that you are referencing. Honestly that has been one of the most useful things I have learnt so far. In a few days I start attending a Spanish college for a program designed for exchange students. It takes place 3 days a week for 2 and a half months and it seems intense and that is what I need.

 

Every Sunday my family gets together with all of its extended family for lunch. ASADO. That is what we eat. Asado is the traditional barbeque of Argentina, and might I add it is freaking delicious. Every Sunday they ask me if I have learnt more Spanish and every week I find that I am able to speak to them more and more, so I am actually learning!! YAY! They also got really excited when they found out that I had gotten a Spanish tutor, it made me smile that they were happy to know that I am making an effort to learn the language.

 

I met the first inbound Pete. He goes to the same school as I do. I haven't talked to him a lot but when I have he is nice and friendly. Since he is fluent already I have seen what learning the language ahead of time can do for you. Honestly that is the one thing I would recommend the most to exchange students that are getting ready to leave. LEARN THE DARN LANUAGE. But in some ways I feel like if you go to your host country without knowing anything you also get a true experience of what being an exchange student is like. You go through that mental struggle with yourself and you grow from it. However there is no strict definition of what an exchange student is our what a true experience is like. Learning the language just makes it so much easier in the long run, and I wish I had put more effort into it.

 

My host siblings are obsessed with my iPhone. Here you are considered rich in order to own an IPhone. When walking downtown you must make sure that your phone, especially if it is an iPhone, is well hidden because there is a chance that it could be stolen.

 

I attended my first Rotary meeting. My counsellor picked me up and drove me to the hotel it was being held at. She is so nice and very helpful. She wants to get to know me and invite me over to her house for supper. She mentioned how her daughter wants to meet me and be friends with me. She is very open and makes me feel comfortable, which is nice because that means if I ever have a problem here I can go and talk to her without any problem. The food at the meeting was honestly the best food I have had here so far. It was mashed potatoes and steak, but it was prepared and presented in the most elegant way. Then for desert we had this apple crumble with fresh berries and helado. Oh how fat I am going to get here. The food is soooooooooo good.

 

Here they have a day for everything. Teachers day, both male and female teachers have separate days. Day for people who work in health, first day of spring, children's day, grandparents day....etc. On most of these days we have a celebration at school that involves each of the years to put together a dance or an act of some sort. For my grade it was 3 couples that had to do a tango, then they were interrupted by others and pushed aside for a completely different dance routine. I was one of the people that had to do the tango. It is hard, I do not know how to move my hips at all. My friend laughed at me when she first saw me attempt to do it. Then when it came time to present it I had to wear high heels on the uneven ground, so I didn't do very good, but I still had fun.

 

I was given an English test the other day, really didn't understand how to complete it at all. Then when it was handed back I had gotten 4 right out of 10. All of my friends had gotten 7 or 8, then there's me, the one that speaks English fluently with a 4 haha.

 

The other day my host mum told me that she was going to pay for my first month of Spanish lessons because I was one of her daughters and that is something she would do for them. I was so happy to hear that she thought of me as one of her daughters. It was so sweet, I LOVE MY HOST FAMILY!! I would honestly consider them as my family already, and I have only been here for 1 month.

 

Carne empanadas are a food from the heavens.

 

This weekend I went to Carlos Paz with my friends from school. At first it was really nice everyone was talking to me and wanted to know what it was like in Canada, but as the night went on I had to put in a bigger effort with people if I wanted to talk with them which was nice because it gave me the chance to open up a little more. The house we stayed at was a little sketchy. Everyone here in Argentina smokes whether or not you are under age or not. I don't smoke and most kids that I know in Canada don't so it was a little strange. I tried Fernet for the first time. Fernet is the typical alcohol of Argentina, and normally it is mixed with coca cola. It is disgusting. Completely and utterly disgusting. So they got me to try wine and Fanta orange pop mix, it was alright. We got ready to go out to the club which was fun. My friends lent me clothes and did my makeup. They lent me high heels to wear for the night, although they were too big so when I was dancing in the pit (the part of the club where they do the most dancing) I broke the shoes and almost snapped my ankle because people would jump up and down and push you around, I almost fell 3 times and that eventually caused my shoes to break. It was fun and I danced with a guy in the pit, it was probably the most fun I've had in a while. But after about an hour of being there my friends wanted to leave, so we went back to the house we were staying at. The guy that owned the house asked us if we had taken his money, and all of us said no because we didn't. He showed us that someone who was staying in the house took coins from his money jar and put them into a back pack. So when the others got home there was a big confrontation about who stole his money. No one confessed so he brought out the back pack, and the guy that owned it seemed to act like he didn't know how the coins had gotten in there. The 2 guys ended up getting into a huge fight (fist fight). My friend told me "okay Beth so we are leaving now for Cordoba, pack your bags and your things." But we didn't leave, in fact we stayed for another day. The next day was a lot better. My friend and I went out for lunch with more of her friends and then we went to go explore the city together. Carlos Paz is beautiful. The lake side is one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. If I was going to ever live in Argentina in my future, from what I've seen so far I would live in Carlos Paz.

 

Yesterday ( the 22nd of September) I went out with the girl from Austria to tour the city together. We were supposed to meet with the girl from Switzerland who was coming late. So we headed in the general direction of the mall we were supposed to meet her at. We found it and then went back to San Martin plaza because we had a few hours to spare. We sat down next to a statue, and right beside us was a man whole with a barred cover over top of it. Up walks this homeless man with a Pepsi bottle, he lifts up the barred cover to the man whole - we thought to throw the bottle in - but nope he climbs on into the whole and disappears. I was curious to see what was down there, so I casually walked by looking into the whole. Down there I could see another man and a door that led to somewhere else. Later the man came back up from the whole wearing a new jacket that he didn't have on before...... I think he lives down there, it was really weird but extremely funny. My friend said that maybe it is an entrance to Hogwarts, who knows maybe.... haha. 

 

Well that is all for now.... more to come later

So stay tuned for more of the Argentina Adventures.... staring the one and only... BETH ELLIS

Chao amigos