week three

Monday was interesting. I went to Language class, like I do every Monday, after I arrived by taxi to the school. About 15 minutes into class, we started to hear fireworks outside. Moments later, a group of 5 or 6 kids, in ridiculous costumes, rushed into the classroom and brought us all outside into the courtyard. There was a huge party going on. There were colorful banners flowing from the third floor down to the ground, Reggaeton blasting, and students going nuts. All of the teachers were standing around the edge, supervising. Keep in mind it was about 8 am at this time. I could not figure out how these kids were awake enough to be dancing, because I was half asleep. I later found out that the party was for some kind of anniversary, and that the kids who were partying had been doing so since the previous night, which makes it even crazier to me that they could be dancing so wildly.

Classes were cancelled the rest of the day so me and some classmates went to a park to drink mate and sit around in the sun. It was a beautiful winter day. Probably around 60 degrees F, with the sun shining. "Muy linda."

The rest of the week was as normal as a week of school in spanish can be. I found out this week that the name of the language here is "Castellano," and not "spanish." It is a bit different than spanish in the pronunciation. For example: in spanish, "Calle" is "Cayay." In Castellano it is "Cache." I've been getting used to the differences in the language here and the spanish I studied with Eulalia.

I took three tests this week. One in Biology, one in Math, and one in English (haha.) The class advisor gave me the choice to take the tests or not, but I figured I would have to take the tests eventually so I chose to do them. I knew the answers on the Biology test, but it was very hard to explain them in Castellano. I was the first one to finish the Math test, but I might have missed some of the directions. The English test was the easiest test I have ever taken, and I finished it in 5 minutes, while my classmates took the whole hour. I love English class because it is the one time in my day where I know exactly what is going on and I get to see other people struggle with language, instead of myself.

On Friday, 5 girls in my class took me to McDonalds. I got a "Cuarto Libre con Queso" with fries and a coke. The burger tasted the same as it does back home and while eating, I felt at home again, but only for a moment. After McDonald's, we went to one of the girls' houses where they showed me popular Argentine music and taught me "mala palabras" (bad words.) After hanging out for a while, we left and they walked me to the house of the Italian exchange student, Valentina.

I keep having dreams in which I am back home, and then I wake up and realize I am in Argentina. One night, I had a dream that I was making a big scrambled egg breakfast for myself. I woke up all excited to devour my meal and then realized that there were no eggs waiting for me in the kitchen, only Zucaritas in a coffee mug.

I can't lie, I miss my life back home. But I don't want to come home. Not at all. Each new day here is better than the previous one because I am becoming more and more comfortable in my new environment. On Thursday, I took the bus home after school all by myself! All of the previous days, my mom would come get me from in front of the school. Some days I would be talking to the girls in my class and then my mom would come running over to kiss me and walk with me to the bus stop to go home. I felt very childish when this would happen, and a little embarrassed. Not that I didn't appreciate her getting me, because I probably would have gotten lost without her. On Wednesday, when we were walking to the bus stop, I told her that I would come home by myself the next day. She showed me the bus stop and told me what to say when I got on. "Uno diez." I made it home on Thursday without any problems.

On Saturday, I was planning on going downtown with my mom to buy new guitar strings at 5, but David, the exchange student from Germany, called me and told me to come to Plaza Moreno to drink mate with him, Pond from Thailand, and their respective conseguirons. Pond's conseguiron picked me up from my house at 4ish and we walked to David's conseguiron's house to pick him up. We walked for about 20 minutes until we arrived at Plaza Moreno. In La Plata, there is a giant, beautiful Cathedral. It stands in front of Plaza Moreno. We walked up to the Cathedral to find David waiting for us. We went inside the Cathedral and it was absolutely amazing. (here is a photo of the Cathedral: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/La_Plata_-_Catedral_-_HDR.jpg) After walking around the church, we exited and found a spot on the lawn to drink mate and play cards. My conseguiron Julio arrived shortly thereafter.

We went back to Julio's house and hung out for a while, until it was time to take me home so I could get ready for the birthday party of two of my classmates. I got picked up for the party at 12:30 by two of the girls in my class. (That is not a typo - the parties here start very late.) We got to the party after driving for about 20 minutes. All of the kids at the party wanted to talk to me. At one point, I was outside, and slowly the party room emptied out and there was a circle of kids around me, asking me questions and saying I was "buena onda" (good vibes.) We went inside after a while because it was quite cold that night. In the next 3 hours I had to fend off 3 different drunk chicks. I felt very uncomfortable for most of the party. I was already very tired when they picked me up, so that didn't help. The drunk chicks certainly didn't help either. They kept asking me questions and then asking me the same questions 10 minutes later - very annoying. They all wanted to kiss me. "No, gracias."

I got home at 5:30 but I couldn't fall asleep because my mind was still processing all of the events of the party. I eventually fell asleep, and woke up today at 1, just in time to eat lunch.

It's now 11:05 pm, and I am very tired. I am going to sleep.

Chau