To the End of the Earth

Wednesday was supposed to be a productive day, but I don't think it actually was... I went to "class" at 1. It's more of a meeting really, but nevertheless I was there! And good thing too! A lady from the newspaper La Capital was there to interview us!!!! I thought that it was sort of ironic that we were interviewed about being here to interview others! Anyway, after the interview Eliana introduced to us her initial findings on our class trip to Iguazu Falls! She told us that it would be about 990 pesos to go for 5 days. This trip would include 2 meals, bus fares, 3 tours and hotel stay. The only draw backs were that we would be in a group of 58 people and that we couldn't get visas to go on the Brazil side of the water fall and would therefore have a day without any activities! (That's fine by me, but she is now going to look into prices for just our group to go privately.) The Univerisity of Pittsburgh will more than likely chip in about 400 pesos, meaning that this 5 day trip will essentially only cost us $150 US dollars!!! That seems like a bargain to me! I'll update you as plans become finalized! After class, we got lunch at the grochery store because it is supper cheap and yummy! Then Annie, Emma and I went to El Shopping! We went to see the movie Mis Tardes con Margaritte! It's a French film that we watch with Spanish subtitles! It was an experience to say the least! It's a cute story that I would recommend watching if you ever get the chance! After the movie I went back home, ate dinner and went to be like usual!
This Thursday I decided to culture myself! I went to meet my friends to plan our trip to Buenos Aires! (We are going on the 27th for 3 nights!) After we finished planning our trip/eating lunch, we went to a lecture. (Earlier this week a group of 5 or so students arrived for a 3 week program to learn Spanish. They have language instruction from 8:30-1pm, then they have other lectures randomly spaced throughout there time here. Because we don't have classes at UCEL, we have been invited to participate in their lectures!) Thursday's lecture was about Argentine History and Culture! It was very interesting. Some of the history stuff was more of a review, but the culture stuff was definetly surprising! I enjoyed the talk. After that I went home and Florencia took me on a walking tour of the city! While we were walking a bird decided that my hair would make the perfect bathroom! Great! That was fun washing part of my hair before going to the boliche! We went to madame again! It was great! I got a marriage proposal from this one guy! It was hilarious! Apparently Argentine men want me, haha!!! I stayed out until 3am.
Friday turned out to be lucky again! I got a cute price for a bargain and then I ended up running into Greenpeace in the street! I got another interview which made a total of 7! Then I met the large group and we walked to the football game! It was so much fun but tiring because there weren't any seats!!! After the game I went home to get dinner, then we met up again to celebrate Kaitlyn's birthday! She turned 20, so we went to this Bar/Boliche called StudioRadio! It was a blast! I thought that it was just as much fun as Madame, but it was just smaller! The atmosphere was beautiful! And, as always, I caught the eyes of many! Apparently I'm a hot commodity here and I have to fight the boys of!!! Oh well, next weekend we shall see if the Buenos Aires boys find me attractive as well!!!

So, on Sunday I slept until noon or so, and I was so tired for the whole entire day!!! (I can’t imagine why!) Annie came over to use the shower since she didn’t have hot water. I ended up going back to her apartment with her and having lunch with her host mom! It was fun, and a nice change of pace (I was served veggies!) After lunch we went down to the monument/ferria and walked around! We looked at the river and the fair vendors. It was nice, then we went on a boat tour at 5pm! I wish that I had my camera, but I didn’t think to bring it! Annie took some great pictures though! The sunset on the water was absolutely amazing!!! Afterwards I had dinner with my family and I crashed long and hard!!! Sleep has never felt to good!
Monday was very chill… I went to UCEL to pay for my futbol ticket and then afterwards I hung out with my friends Meghan, Emma and Annie! We ate lunch, explored la farmacias and went to the engineering school to give out surveys. Afterwards I went home.
Tuesday, on the other hand was a lot more eventful! I met up with Emma and Annie to look for some cute leather boots, unfortunately for me the largest size that any of the stores carry is a 40. I believe that I need a 43 or 44! But nevertheless I was not discouraged; I still ended up purchasing a jersey for the game, a belt and a scarf! All for less than 60 pesos! We ate lunch at this cute little café and then I went back to my apartment at 3:30. Matt and Andrea came over at 4 for their family meeting with me and Florencia! They stayed for 2 hours just talking about everything! After they left Florencia, Carla and I went to the supermarket! It is so efficient having 3 people all shop at one time! It was definitely an experience to say the least! After our supermarket adventure, we went home and ate dinner. Then I went to the English class. Over all it was a good start to this week!

Okay, so what have I been up to for the past 10 or so days? A lot!!!
On Thursday the 12th I went to la defensoria to see about getting an interview for my project... I went there and talked to a guy who told me that the people here are very divided about the issue and how it's a concern for some, but not for others. This is to be expected and is somewhat similar to the opinions in the US. The man gave me another building to go to in order to find more interviews, but it was too late to go on Thursday because it closed at 1pm! Later on Thursday night I went to an English class to help out the teacher, Eliana! She is the same lady who helps to organize our program at UCEL. It was a lot of fun going to the class because my Spanish was better then their English so they would speak in Spanish a lot but I could still understand them! They seemed very nice and I passed out my surveys to them as well!
Friday: On friday it rained! (And I thought that I had somehow magically been transported back to Pittsburgh!) It rained practically all day! However the rain didn't stop me from working on my research project! I walked 40 minutes in the rain to the municipality building to try to set up an appointment to come back to do interviews, but Friday the 13th just happened to be my lucky day! I ended up getting to talk to 5 different people including the top guy for the department!!! That made a total of 6 interviews! I only 10 for my project! Anyway, after finishing up the interviews I got lunch with my friends at a sports restaurant and then we went and hung out in the school cafe for a few hours. Afterwards I walked back home in the rain... I dried off and met Annie downstairs and we went to a cafe to get warm drinks and use the wifi! Not much else happened after that, just dinner and lots of glorious sleep!!!!!
The 14th (Saturday) was a good day! I slept in, then went shopping for an Argentine party outfit! I found this really cute skirt for like 80 pesos! Then I got my daily dose of croissant! Not too much happened on Friday day, but after dinner I got all dressed up and we went out with friends! We first went to this bar Russia, which was really cool! It was all red (kind of a communist them with the wall decorations) but very chill! After hanging out there until nearly 2am, we met the group from Oklahoma and went to the biggest club in Rosario: MADAME!!! It was awesome!!! I love going to boliches (dance clubs) here! They are so much fun! There isn't any grinding, just good old dancing and fun!!! We partied hard and long in the Argentine way until 5:30! I got home by 6am! (But don't worry, I was an hour before my curfew!!!)

Wednesday was the first day of class. We met at 1 and talked about how everything was so far and how there are so many cultural differences. We discussed our projects and also were told that the Pitt sponsored trip will indeed be Iguazu Falls!!! We will be going the first weekend in June! I'm super excited After class was over we got coffee/ice-cream at Yomo's. We hung out for an hour and then went back to UCEL to meet the other group from Oklahoma. We sat in with them on their talk about Argentina's economics. It was a very interesting lecture, I only wish that it could have been given in Spanish. (The Oklahomians didn't know any Spanish!) It would definetly be a different experience not having any knowledge of the language. They are doing a tour of the whole country, and thus will only be here for about 4 or 5 days. We will probably meet again to hang out. After that incounter, i think the whole experience was put in a different perspective! After the talk I went home for a few hours. Then after dinner I hung out with Annie. She is another girl from my school (microbiology major) and she actually lives in the same building as me. How lucky! We went to Helga's and ordered drinks that we had no idea what they were. It was our adventure! We ended up seeing the professor from the economic talk and some of his students at the same restaurant. We talked to them for a bit, but then decided to head back before 1. All in all, a good day/night! Hasta Luego!

Today was weird because I didn't have anything that I was specifically scheduled to do. So, I got dressed and went to the school to print my passport, but the computer lab is only open in the afternoon so I was unable to do that (which was annoying because UCEL is like 10-15 blocks away!) So I decided to wak to the park and start my interviews. I asked people to participate in my survey, but most of the people who weren't going places were students. Many of them did not take my survey seriously so, I want to make an effort in the future to only ask older people. I think that it is not realistic to get 200 surveys. For every one person that was willing to complete the survey, probably 3 or 4 said no. It's pretty early, but I don't know what to do. I've been walking for 5 hours and I don't feel like walking anymore, but there is not much to do in the house because I didn't bring anything to keep me occupied like a book... Maybe I'll nap since i'm tired!
Hasta Luego!