weeks twenty two and twenty three

We left for the bus terminal at 11 am on the 23rd. The bus ride ahead of us was to be more than 24 hours, so I prepared as best I could by charging my iPod the night before. The bus was a double-decker and we were on the top level, in the front. I was happy to be so fortunate to have a windshield to look out of and expected that in 24 hours on the road, I would be sure to see some nice scenery. I was wrong. All there was to see out the windshield was flat, boring farmland. I woke up the next morning, still on the bus, to the province of Misiones, Argentina. Misiones is beautiful with rolling jungly hills and red earth.

We stopped at a rock quarry in Misiones and learned about the semi-precious stones of Argentina. After a long time at the border due to the German couples' barely readable documents, we were at last in Brazil. By 4 pm we were in the hotel.

The next morning we set off to see the exotic bird park. I had never seen a Toucan before except on my cereal box so that was a cool experience. After that, we went to see the Brazil side of the world famous Iguazu Falls.

We entered the national park and took a jeep through the jungle. I saw monkeys swinging from tree to tree in the distance. Then the jeep stopped at the top of a hill and we waited in line for a motor raft ride up river. After a few km on the raft, we turned a corner and there they were. The Falls. The boat driver took us right next to a couple falls and we were soaked. Then he played around in the huge waves, doing donuts and getting air, making sure to splash us even more. I had a smile on my face the whole time.

After we got back from the raft ride, we took another jeep up a huge hill to get to the observation platforms and walkways around the falls. I took some good pictures and enjoyed the atmosphere. The falls and the land is incredible. Huge rock cliffs covered in jungle greenery with the contrast of bright white water reflecting in the sun. The way it sounded, the way it felt. The wind was whipping, the splash from the various waterfalls was reaching us from what seemed like every waterfall. It was an experience I will never forget.

The next morning we saw the falls from the Argentina side. The Brazil side offers a great panoramic view, but the Argentina side offers a closeness that the Brazil side can't. I stood above the famed Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat) which just looked like a giant area of spray from the Brazil side. I didn't want to leave. After a while around the Garganta, we took a group photo and went to see some other views of the falls. They are beautiful close up, they are beautiful far away. A highlight of the Argentina side was standing on a platform that was pretty much at the bottom of a very powerful waterfall.

After we were done with the Argentina side, we went to eat and there was a native playing the harp. The next day there was an excursion to Paraguay for those who wanted to purchase electronics at a much cheaper price, but we didn't go. We left for home after our last well appreciated all you can eat breakfast in the hotel complete with all the fruit I could have asked for at 7 am. I reflected on the trip while looking through the windshield onto Misiones. I saw wild monkeys, I saw blue and silver Iguanas, I saw spiders the size of my palm, I saw one inch black ants, I saw an alligator, I saw the jungle, I saw Iguazu Falls. The trip was also great bonding time with my host family. Playing cards, cracking jokes, and talking Argentine league soccer were among the things we did in our downtime in the evenings. One week from the halfway mark of my exchange, I feel very much a part of my host family and very comfortable here.

At a stop on the way back home I purchased a hand painted t-shirt to help me remember the experience, or rather I bought it because it looked cool. The truth is I don't need a t-shirt to remember the trip... I'll never forget it.

Here are some photos from the trip. The rest are on Facebook.

weeks twenty and twenty one

On Monday of week twenty my host mom told me that we would be going to Brazil to see the famous Iguazu Falls from the 23rd to the 29th. I've seen pictures and heard all about the Falls from people who have been lucky enough to see them, but now I would have my chance to see them for myself. I talked to my Danish friend from the orientation camp about it that night and he said "Don't get too excited cause Americans aren't allowed to enter Brazil." What? He said that on the AFS trip, when the kids passed to the Brazilian side of the falls, the Americans weren't allowed to because they needed visas. I was going to tell my host mom about this the next morning but she told me. The travel agency called our house before I woke up and told her the situation.

Brazil requires Americans to have visas as part of a payback for how incredibly difficult our government makes it for Brazilians to enter the States. So the next morning, we went to the Brazilian consulate in Buenos Aires. It was about an hour and a half travel by train and from the train station we took a bus and got off a few blocks away from the consulate. Once inside, they told us that we needed an appointment to apply for a visa so we took the first available one which was for the following Monday.

The next Monday we took a bus to Buenos Aires which was twice as fast as the train. We arrived early and stood in line but the lady took us early. We were done before our appointment was supposed to begin. I was surprised and happy by how easy it all was. On the website, there was a big list of documents needed in order to apply, but the woman only took my passport and the form I filled out on their website. She told us to come back the next day to pick up my visa. On the way out the security guard was arguing with a group of friends who were trying to apply for a visa without an appointment. He said "You guys want to come to Brazil, Brazil doesn't want you guys to come." I laughed about this with my host parents on the way to the bank to pay the special USA payback fee of $150, twice as much as any other country's Brazil visa fee.

When we got back home, I went online and wished my brother Eric a happy 15th birthday. That evening I Skyped with my family and helped them sing happy birthday to Eric. It was nice seeing everyone, but it also bummed me out.

The next day I went to BA with my host mom to pick up my visa. In the office were some Americans who didn't have the proper paperwork for the visa and they said as they were leaving "Whatever, let's just go to Uruguay!" My host mom asked me why I didn't talk to them and I said "I no speaky english." After I got my passport back with the visa stamped inside it, we went down the street to get something to eat. We observed all the tourists walking by through the window of the cafe where I had my first omelette in 21 weeks.

On the bus ride back I felt very relieved and excited to be legal for the Brazil trip. I can't wait to see the Falls in person. Here's a photo of them: http://www.propertyworld.com/assets/brazil.jpg

weeks sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen

Summer feels weird. I was just starting to get used to the school swing and then we broke for vacation. One of the weirdest things is how hot it is. I'm used to snow and heavy coats in December, not 90+ degrees. I've also got too much down time. By week seventeen, I was in need of something to do.

Lucas came by on tuesday to invite me to play Futbol Cinco at the newly finished field two blocks away. He also told me that his team, Cambaceres, was holding tryouts from wednesday to friday. Cambaceres is a professional club located in Ensenada, about a half hour away from my house. In every pro club there are youth divisions, and the tryout was for the '91 age group, Lucas' team. The '91 age group is the oldest group in the youth program, so some of the players in it are soon to be professionals. Needless to say, I was excited.

After Futbol Cinco, he told me he would come by the next morning at 7:30 so we could catch the 7:45 bus into the center of La Plata. From there we would wait for a bus to take us the 20 some minutes to Ensenada. I was too excited to sleep that night, which wasn't ideal for a tryout. We got to the stadium early and I talked to the coach. He is a fan of Independiente, bitter rival of Racing, so he joked with me that I couldn't tryout because I liked Racing. He asked me my full name and what position I play. Other kids started arriving and there was an air of excitement and anticipation. The tryout was to be an 11 v. 11 game. The tryout wasn't only for new kids, but was for the Cambaceres players as well. The coach split us all into two groups. I looked around and I was the only kid in my group who wasn't on the team.

The coach blew his whistle and we started the game. I was playing with 10 Camba players against 11 other Camba players. I was very satisfied with how I played. The coach invited me to the 2nd day of tryouts. Afterwards, all of the kids were talking to me and I took that as a good sign. They weren't talking to any of the other kids who were trying out. I came back the next day, but the coach had to leave after only 10 minutes. The assistant coach told me to come back the next day. So this was it, I would find out if I made the team or not on friday. I didn't sleep at all. I was half dead on the bus ride to the stadium on friday morning. I had slept less than 6 hours in total throughout the 3 days. We got there early again and the coach started walking up to me... He told me I made the team.

I was so satisfied and proud of myself. It's always been a dream of mine to play in a pro club's youth system, and to do so in Argentina of all places is just amazing. We will have practice monday to friday, 9 am to 11:30. That means I need to change to an afternoon school. I'm not sure what I'll do from here with Club For-Ever, because Cambaceres is a much higher level of soccer. We're still waiting to hear whether or not I'll be able to play in games with For-Ever, but now that I'm in Cambaceres, the verdict is much less important to me than it was before.....

Christmas was interesting. Apparently in all parts of the world besides the US, people celebrate on Christmas Eve and exchange gifts at midnight. So on Christmas Eve we went to my host grandma's house about 20 minutes away in City Bell. At midnight we opened our presents and I was pleasantly surprised to open a Racing jersey. At 1:30, the taxi driver who took us there was supposed to come take us home, but he didn't show up. We waited until 2:30, calling every taxi service we could, but nobody was around. We set off on foot to try to find a taxi or a bus that we could hail. We waited until about 3:30 when finally a taxi came by. He said he didn't have enough room for all 5 of us, so my parents stayed back and Marco, Ana, and I got in. We set off for the house and I realized we didn't have the keys. I told Marco and he said that there was probably a key in the mailbox. We arrived, and there was no key in the mailbox. Marco climbed over the gate and entered a side window of the house and let Ana and I in. We waited for our parents to arrive and they did, at about 4:30.

Christmas day was tough for me. We don't do anything in Argentina on the 25th, and I'm used to it being special. I talked to my family back home and we compared our respective Christmas experiences. It is very common for exchange students to feel down on Christmas. I found it helpful to talk to other exchange kids.

The day after Christmas, Lucas and Dante came by to see if I wanted to go watch the annual game between Gimnasia fans in the area vs. the Estudiantes fans in the area. I said sure and we set off. We got there early and one of the Estudiantes players told Lucas and I to get our stuff because they needed a couple more players. So we did. Many fans of both teams came to the field to watch and cheer on their fellow "hinchas". The first half ended 0-0. The atmosphere was tense. Gimnasia and Estudiantes hate eachother, and even though these people have this game every year without problems, there was a definite tension in the air. About 5 minutes into the second half, an Estudiantes player was fouled about 30 yards from the goal and he set the ball down and quickly played it to me. I took a touch and looked up and ripped one near post to mark the first goal of the game. All of the players ran over to kiss me. All of the fans went nuts, screaming and shooting off fireworks. Shortly after this, Gimnasia scored 3 straight goals. We got one back later on but lost the game 3-2. After the game, fans from both teams shot off fireworks and everyone gathered together for a party.....

New Year's Eve was very memorable. My host mom's family came over for dinner and when the clock struck 12, it sounded as though every single household in La Plata was shooting off fireworks. In La Plata, it is a New Year's Eve tradition to build giant sculptures out of wood and paper mache, called "Muñecos" (moo-nyay-koes) and to burn them to bring in the new year. The closest muñeco to us was one of Taz from Looney Tunes. It was at least 20 feet tall and was very well done, with a mini tornado surrounding it. I rode my bike over there earlier in the day to ask what time they would burn it. They told me 2:30. So at 2:15 we set off to see the burning of the Taz muñeco. There were easily 1000 people there when we arrived. The group who made it set it on fire with a big torch and the entire thing was ablaze pretty quickly. It was filled with explosives and it was SO LOUD. When it was blazing full, the group who made it shot off a ton of really nice fireworks. It was about 10 minutes in total, but it was an exceptional presentation. Everyone watching gave the group a round of applause.

The local newspapers give out awards for the best muñecos. Some of them are so well constructed that it's a shame they have to burn them. Here is a link where you can see the first place winners of years past: http://www.muniecoslaplata.com.ar/quienesSomos.htm

Feliz Año Nuevo from Argentina

weeks fourteen and fifteen

Thursday of week fourteen was my last day of school. After school, I talked to our class advisor one last time and he wished me "feliz vacaciones." Then some classmates asked me if I liked to shoot pool and I said yeah and we headed to the pool hall down the block. When we were finished I returned home and while I was on the bus I realized that it was Thanksgiving. What's Turkey-Day without turkey? I guess it's the first day of summer vacation.

Saturday was my 18th birthday. I told my family here that I didn't want a party or anything big. All I really wanted when Saturday came around was to teleport home for 24 hours. Skype was the next best thing, and it was nice talking to my whole family at once. I introduced my host family to my real one... what a trip that was! I was able to translate the little thoughts that each end was able to come up with. That evening, Lucas came by to wish me a happy birthday. He told me to come over to his house the next day, so I did.

Lucas greeted me at the door with a 2006 Racing Club jersey, signed by all of the players from that season's team. What an awesome gift, right? It was a long time coming, but the signed jersey placed my fandom in the corner of Racing Club de Avelleneda. Our neighborhood friend and fellow Racing supporter, Dante, was also at Lucas' house. Dante is the craziest fan I have ever met. When questioned "illness on a family member or a championship season for Racing," he chooses Racing. During games, he holds a lucky spoon in his hand and waves it at the TV screen when the other team is attacking. It's awesome.

On thursday, Lucas came over to see what I was up to. I had no plans, and he told me that Dante was acting in a show at 9 and suggested we go see it. We went over to Tobias' house to get Tobias and headed off to the theater. The play was called "La Fiaca." It was about a guy who just won't go to work, not because he has a stomach ache, or a fever, but because he has "fiaca." It was pretty hard to follow the dialogue but I got the larger picture and Dante was very funny and very natural on stage. After the show ended we greeted him and told him that he had to come with us to see Racing the next day. It didn't matter if he didn't have the money for the ticket, we would pay for him.

The next day I threw on my Racing jersey after lunch and headed over to Lucas' house. From there we got Dante and walked to the train station. We arrived in Avelleneda at around 6 and walked the 8 blocks to the stadium. We got there about 3 hours early because we wanted to be sure to be able to get our tickets. We bought our tickets and headed out to find something to eat. Then we returned to the stadium and waited for them to open the gate. At around 7:30, they opened it and we went through the security check and looked around for a spot with a good view. We settled on a spot and sat and waited for kickoff.

The stadium slowly filled with people and I could feel the anticipation building in the air. I turn to Dante and he is very nervous, almost shaking. At around 8:45, 30 minutes til kickoff, the stadium is full and everyone is singing. I look around and people in the upper sections are hanging up their flags. Above us, people were preparing the giant flag that is a tradition in Racing's stadium. I mean GIANT flag: http://sp3.fotolog.com/photo/3/45/68/tecomolaboca_09/1256309287483_f.jpg

With about 5 minutes until kickoff, the giant flag starts cascading, people helping it down on it's way. It covers us up for a few minutes until they pull it back up just in time for us to see Racing take the field. When this happened, confetti machines around the field filled the air with blue and white. People shot off the fire works they managed to sneak through the security check. We watched the players take their spots on the field through the blue haze caused by people's smoke machines.

Some 15 minutes into the game I experienced my first professional goal. The stadium errupted. Lucas hugged me and then Dante and then the people in front of us. We were screaming, jumping with joy. Dante let out a shout of what must have been relief. A few minutes into the second half, Racing scored again. It was on the other end of the stadium but we saw it perfectly. The two goal lead didn't stop Dante from throwing up his devil horns at every corner kick that the other team had. With about 2 minutes left in the game, the giant flag came down once more and people were going nuts underneath it. They pulled it back up just in time for us to hear the final whistle and we sang one more song and applauded our team.

weeks twelve and thirteen

On Thursday of week twelve I had soccer practice. I went to Lucas' house after for a glass of juice and at 10, I headed out so I would be back in time for dinner. As I turned onto my street I heard a kissing noise, so I turned to look. It was really dark, as my street isn't lighted, but I made out two women on my corner. I biked down my street until I reached the gate, and I looked at the corner and saw a girl waving. I was a little confused because I couldn't see very well. I wasn't sure if she was waving at me or what, so I waved back to see if that would do anything. She started walking towards me. She stepped into a patch of light and I noticed she was very fat, so I opened the mailbox to grab the keys. They weren't there. By this time she was close enough for me to see that she was in fact a he. I started ringing the doorbell like a madman. My dad was a little slow answering the door, and the transvestite prostitute got her question in, "Quieres algo?" (want anything?) I was flipping out. I think I managed to say no and then finally the door opened, and it left. As it was walking away I showed my dad and we shared a laugh.

My classmates and teammates had a good laugh at this story, too. They all know the kissing noise means run away. I didn't, but I do now.

On sunday I went to Buenos Aires for the first time since the day I flew in. I went with the German boy and his consejero. We met up with the AFS kids who were waiting for their bus to Iguazu Falls. We walked around a mall with them for about an hour until they had to leave. We ate at McDonalds inside of the mall, and the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese I had hit the spot. Then we left the mall to explore the city. Everything was very expensive, and I saw a lot of tourists. Most signs were in Spanish with English translations beneath. We walked a crowded street with vendors and their tables. I found an awesome pair of old sunglasses and asked how much. The guy told me 300. I said ok and then he said dollars. "Armani originals, 1200 pesos." Haha yeah right, thanks anyways.

We took the subway to a place where we could get a nice view of the skyline. It was quite nice. My friend's consejero said "Buenos Aires has many old buildings and new buildings" and we all laughed at how silly of a statement that was, but I got what he meant. Looking at the skyline there were very beautiful old buildings mixed in with very modern, fancy buildings. By the end of the day, we were all very tired. I was happy to return to La Plata. I called my house when we were close, so my dad would come pick me up from the bus station.

I was waiting for about a half hour, and my mom called me saying that he had left right after I called. I knew something had happened. He came running up and informed me that the car caught on fire when he was coming to pick me up. We walked to the car to get the chairs out of the trunk. The hood was a wreck, and the front windshield was shattered. "Are you ok!?" "Si." He said it started smoking first, so he got out. Anyways, we took a cab home.

So what happened with the soccer thing is this: I came into the picture past the deadline for adding new players, so Luis had been seeking an illegal way to get me into a game. I didn't have a DNI (an Argentine ID card) and there was no way he could put a passport number down on the roster without the ref noticing. So he said I needed to try to obtain one in order to be able to play. Yeah right, I thought. How could I get a DNI when I'm not Argentine? We tried, though. On Monday of week thirteen, we went to the government office for DNIs but they just sent us to Immigrations. Immigrations told us it is a really long process and it could be completed by April at the earliest. I wasn't going to give up, though.

We went to the league office that night, and spoke with the vice-president of the league. We told him the situation and he was sympathetic. I had prepared an entire speech for changing his mind, but he said everything I wanted to hear. He said they had never had this case before, and that the rules of the league all state DNI as the part you need to be officially rostered. He said there is a league meeting in early December with all the presidents of the clubs, and he would present the idea of making an exception for me to play with my passport. As I shook his hand and thanked him for his time, he said "I hope you play." It was nice knowing that I have him on my side. All I can do is wait. I've learned not to get my hopes up with the soccer thing anymore, but I have a feeling I will be good to go come next season in February. If I do end up playing, I will be the first foreigner to play in the Liga Amateur Platense in 97 years!

On Sunday, I went with my parents and Marco to see Gimnasia play against Velez. Velez is top of the league, so I was expecting to finally see my first goal in a professional game. The stadium is within walking distance, so we set off down the traintracks towards the stadium. All of the stray dogs in our street followed us; into the stadium even! I think there were four of them. 3 Left before kickoff, but one stayed with us in the stands throughout the entire game. The game ended 0-0, and I've still not witnessed a professional goal, but it was a very good game. Velez was an excellent team, and it was nice to see soccer at that level. After the game, Marco carried the dog home.

This is my last week of school before I get out on summer vacation. I'm looking forward to vacation, but the real work here is in the Language acquisition, and there's no break from that. This will give me some quality time to work on my Common App, though. It's hard to believe it's been almost 100 days since I left home. Time flies when you're havin' fun.

weeks ten and eleven

It's a little hard to believe I am writing the post for my tenth and eleventh weeks here already. Last night I looked at a calendar and saw that I have been living in this house for almost 80 days. The time flies.

Being gone for so long, homesickness can come and go, and in these last two weeks it was pretty strong. I had a lot of trouble sleeping in these last two weeks - I mean, I literally didn't sleep many nights, would go to school with a killer headache and would often have to leave early to take some advil and get some much needed sleep. My sleep schedule was a mess, and so was I. I realize now what the problem was.

About two weeks ago I started taking the modem into my room before bed so I could talk to people back home, usually my family. After we would finish, my mind would be filled with things that a person here wouldn't think about. Living in this different culture and environment, it is important to try to be as much like the people here as possible. Obviously I can't forget about my family and friends back home, but the people here aren't always thinking about people in another country when they are trying to sleep. I need to always be thinking about what an Argentine person would do. It's sorta like a WWJD bracelet.

On monday of week ten I had soccer training. Wednesday was the country census. Back home we do it in the mail, but here they have government workers come to everyone's door. So for this reason we didn't have school. The bigger news from Wednesday was that the ex-president of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, died. He was much-loved by the people here, so the whole country basically shut down for a while. School was cancelled Thursday, and the stores were closed. National mourning. All soccer games were postponed that weekend too. I found it really cool that the people here have so much respect for an old leader that they would postpone something they are so passionate about. The Boca vs. River match was to be played that weekend (Boca-River is the biggest rivalry in all of sports in the entire world, by the way), but even that match took a back seat to what had happened. I watched some of the funeral on TV with Lucas. Thousands of people came from all around Argentina to pay him respects. It was amazing.

That did mean that I didn't get to play my first match for For-Ever, but that was ok. I slept funny on my neck and couldn't turn my head, so I would have been worthless anyways.

Week eleven was a long week. The sleepless nights really caught up to me and I felt pretty miserable the whole week. On wednesday, I biked in the rain to the practice field to find that nobody from my team was there, so I biked back home. I talked to Lucas on facebook and he said that Tobias' older brother had invited us to play football cinco at 11 that night. Even though it was a schoolnight, I couldn't turn him down. I hadn't played since the 11v11 match a few weeks back, so I was excited to have the opportunity. After some convincing, my parents said I could go.

Lucas came by at about 10:45, while we were finishing up dinner, to pick me up. I forgot to grab a different jacket so I was stuck in the same one I had been in the rain with a few hours earlier. We went to Tobias' house and talked for a while. Then we set out for the indoor soccer place with Joaquin, Tobias' older brother. The other people were already there, and I recognized them from the 11v11 match. We had three teams of five, and played first to two goals wins, winner stays. Me and Lucas were on the same team and the combination of Lucas in the back and me up top, we literally won every single game. Luckily we would rotate out after winning three games in a row, because I would have passed out. Even more lucky is that my body was fully accustomed to the water here, so I was able to drink from the sink thing next to the field.

We finished playing at 1am and walked home. I was sweaty, my jacket was wet, and it was a pretty cold night. Yes, I got sick. I woke up the next morning with a slightly sore throat, but I still went to soccer practice that night. Luis told me that he didn't think I would be playing in the game on saturday. "Wait, why not?" He said it was my papers. Damn papers again.

Friday was Simon's birthday. I told my parents here that and they asked me if I wanted to call him. "SI!" I hadn't called home yet before this. I knew it was very expensive to do so, so I had been communicating with my real family through emails. I went online to see what I had to dial first for a call to the US, and dialed my mom's cellphone.

"Hello?" "Mom" "Dub!" I wasn't sure before I called if hearing their voices would make me feel worse, but it really made me feel a lot better. As I had hoped, I caught them coming home from school. I talked to Simon and wished him a happy birthday. It was very very weird talking to my Mom, Simon, and Eric. We hardly knew what to say but it felt like I was just calling her from a friend's house. My mom pointed out to me that the nighttime chats might be responsible for my homesickness, I agreed. We agreed it was nice hearing voices again, so I talked to Eric about skype. I said I would download it and they passed the phone around for I-love-yous and that was that.

That night, I went to my club for the 19th birthday party of one of my teammates. We grilled hamburgers and just hung out. I really felt apart of the team. Luis came, and he pulled me aside to talk to me. He explained everything. He said that since it is midseason, I can't be "legal legal." I would have had to be here when the season started to be fully documented with a picture and signature and all that stuff. I can be "legal," though. He has been talking with some kind of contact, I don't know if it's a league official or what, and is in the process of falsifying my papers so that if someone challenged us, I wouldn't be kicked out of the league, Luis wouldn't be suspended and Club For-Ever wouldn't be fined. He said that my papers will be ready so that I can play next weekend "si o si" (yes or yes).

Between the phone call home and finally knowing the reason why I hadn't played in a game yet, I got a long awaited good night's sleep. But I woke up really sick! I was too sick to go to the get-together with all the AFS kids in La Plata on saturday. I had a fever, a sore throat, and lots of congestion. On sunday my sorethroat was better but I still had a fever and developed a nasty cough. Even if I would have been allowed to play with my team on sunday I would've been too sick.

I didn't go to school today and I don't know if I'll be better tomorrow but we'll see.

weeks eight and nine

I spent a lot of the free time of my 8th week here with two teammates, Lucas and Tobias. They both live within two blocks of my house. Lucas would pick me up and we would head over to Tobias' house to play Winning Eleven Soccer on PC, drink mate, or talk about unexplainable events that we had experienced. I thought it was pretty cool that on my first day I could hardly say "yes I want to go to the stadium," and just two months later I was able to explain the time I saw a hand waving at me from behind the fireplace in my cottage. Tobias told a story about how a spirit called his friends and him "putos" through a ouiji board. Lucas told a story about how he was in his house, watching a game with his friend, and the lights cut out and they both saw a figure run across the room. It was nice being able to hold a conversation that specific.

After Winning Eleven or whatever we happened to do, we would hit the gym. The first day we worked really hard and I felt sore for two days after, but the other days were much easier. There was no soccer practice in week 8, because we had a week off. Lucas told me that Tobias is a master chef. One day he made us all pizza, and I saw that Lucas was right. I got sick the day after we had mate in Tobias' house, because the water was from the tap. My body still wasn't accustomed to the water here, so I was curled up in the fetal position under my covers the following day.

Tobias' older brother invited me to play in an 11v11 game with him and his friends, some local university students, on saturday of week 8. I was happy to accept that invitation. Tobias and Lucas came by my house before the game and we all walked over to the field. The first time I got the ball I intercepted a pass and beat the last defender, looked up and ripped one side netting. Lucas said "bien!" I proceeded to score two more goals in the game, marking my first hattrick in Argentina. I was wearing my Germany jersey, so they all thought I was German. They called me Alemania. My team won 4-2, and after the game I heard the other players saying "Alemania era buenissimo." (Germany was very good) I felt great.

We all walked home together and I told my family how it went. I went over to Valentina's house that night, and we ordered some ice cream. A delivery guy brought it to us and we ate it. Ice cream is so much better here! I think it's the cream that they use. Anyways, I went home that night and went to sleep.

Sunday of week 8 was Mother's day here. My mom's mom and my mom's sister and her husband and kids came over. We ate asado, which is like slow-cooked steak. It was great. Later that evening I went to Valentina's house again for and hour or two. On the way home I bought some flowers from a street vendor and gave them to my mom.

Week 9 was tough, probably the hardest week I've had here so far. I felt the most homesick that I have felt so far. I miss my brothers, I miss my parents, I miss my friends, I miss my pillow, I miss being able to understand people all the time. Sometimes when I feel down I think about how I am only 2 months down and 9 months to go, and I get very scared. I know I can do this, it's just impossible not to have some rough patches. Talking to my parents or brothers back home helps, but what seems to help me the most is talking to the other exchange students that I became friends with in the two orientation camps. It's amazing how deeply we can all connect with eachother. It is such a unique situation to be in, being on exchange, and sometimes the only people who can really understand are the people who are in the same boat.

On monday I had soccer training. We ran for 4 kilometers, did push-ups, sit-ups, etc. and then ran 4 more kilometers. After the first 4 kilometers, the coach passed a water jug around, but I couldn't drink it. I was absolutely exhausted when we finally finished running.

Tuesday was just a really bad day. That's all I want to say about it. Wednesday I had soccer practice but the field was such a wreck that the ball kept popping up on me, and on top of that we were in the dark again. In the scrimmage at the end I did some cool stuff, so I knew my teammates knew I was skilled. On thursday I had practice again. This time we were on a new field, if you can call a big dusty dirt strip a field, with a little more light. After this practice Luiz told me that my papers still weren't ready, and that I would only be watching this weekend's game. Dammit. But he also told me that he thinks I have very good technical ability and I am very quick to accelerate, so he wants me to be his "enganche." Enganche is the #10 position, like where Messi, Kaka, and Ozil play, oh and of course DIEGO MARADONA. My mind was racing on my way home from practice. "Wow a new position... but I have always been a forward... I can't believe he wants me to be his #10, that's so cool... I wonder if I can do it..."

I talked to my Force coach and he told me I could definitely do it. So that was that, he would know that the best. At first I wasn't sure what to think of the idea but now I am very excited about it. To come to Argentina to play the same position as Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona is just awesome. My coach told me after saturday's game that the girl in the club lost my papers. (Seriously Argentina is so unorganized) Well, great. I'm going to bring my information with me to practice tonight, though, and this saturday I will make my debut for Club For-Ever!