So, recently it´s been coming to my attention that sometimes I feel like a dog! Not because I´m growing more hair or drinking out of a bowl, but because I´m not a native Spanish speaker. Here´s the situation:
There have been tons of people that I´ve met through my host-mom, be it cousins, friends, parents, people working on the house, etc. And without fail, almost every time I meet a new person we´ll talk for a few minutes...they´ll ask where I´m from, what I´m studying, etc, and then they will turn to Vicky and say, in spanish of course, ¨She speaks very well in Spanish!¨ Almost like they don´t realize what they are saying because, if I can speak spanish very well, I probably can understand it as well! Yes, the compliment is nice, it just may be nicer yet if it was directed at me :-P
The other situation is this:
Again, meeting all of these friends and family members of Vicky, if they don´t right away come out and say something about my Spanish skills (like above) Vicky will undoubtedly find room to say (with me standing right there, mind you), ¨Yeah, her Spanish is perfect. She understands everything and speaks very well.¨ This cracks me up because I know that my spanish is FAR from perfect and there are still many things that I don´t understand. But it´s like I´m a show dog sometimes...let´s see who has the better American student! ha.
So that´s my rant for now. Nothing bad, just have found it funny the past few weeks.
But sidenote: I HAVE improved a ton in my speaking skills since being here...something I was afraid wouldn´t happen.
Sending my love!!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Livin´ life and lovin´ it!
So…last weekend was the missions project in the north, but I decided not to go because I didn’t really have enough time. It was like an 18+ hour bus ride one way and I would have only been able to stay for a day or so in order to get back for class. Boo…I was a little sad, but my weekend was busy enough.
Friday Andrea and I decided to investigate a religious theme park that BsAs has, called Tierra Santa. It was semi entertaining, although we were trying to figure out if it was sacrilegious or not. It walked you through the entire Christian story, from creation to the resurrection. Kind of hard to explain.
Friday night we went to Vida as usual. They had a short meeting and then decided to go bowling afterwards!! I haven’t been bowling in waaay too long…so I was excited. I even managed to get a score of 108, so it was just a good night overall. Yes, 108 is good for me. And good for an Argentine too apparently…because I was only beat by 2 Americans! Haha I should bowl with Argentines more often so that I can feel good about myself.
Saturday I had a soccer game in the am. Once again we lost 2-1, but it was a much better played game. They only scored to win Right at the end, which is the worst way to lose I feel. After the game a few of us girls went to a café for lunch and I had a black bean burrito. AND they had hot sauce to spice it up. You have no idea how happy that made me!! I haven’t had a burrito, let alone anything spicy in too long.
Saturday night I actually went out with Vicky. She was going to her cousin’s birthday party, so she invited me along. I though, why not? It was alright. Just a typical house party with alcohol, smoke, and music. Haha. But it was cool to meet some other Argentines and practice my espanol a tiny bit.
Today I had my cooking class and we made desserts. I’ll post some pictures from last week. I can’t wait to get home and try this stuff out!!
Next week I have a couple of pretty big midterms, so I’ve got to study my butt off this weekend unfortunately. :-(
Can you spot the two Americans??
Friday Andrea and I decided to investigate a religious theme park that BsAs has, called Tierra Santa. It was semi entertaining, although we were trying to figure out if it was sacrilegious or not. It walked you through the entire Christian story, from creation to the resurrection. Kind of hard to explain.
Friday night we went to Vida as usual. They had a short meeting and then decided to go bowling afterwards!! I haven’t been bowling in waaay too long…so I was excited. I even managed to get a score of 108, so it was just a good night overall. Yes, 108 is good for me. And good for an Argentine too apparently…because I was only beat by 2 Americans! Haha I should bowl with Argentines more often so that I can feel good about myself.
Saturday I had a soccer game in the am. Once again we lost 2-1, but it was a much better played game. They only scored to win Right at the end, which is the worst way to lose I feel. After the game a few of us girls went to a café for lunch and I had a black bean burrito. AND they had hot sauce to spice it up. You have no idea how happy that made me!! I haven’t had a burrito, let alone anything spicy in too long.
Saturday night I actually went out with Vicky. She was going to her cousin’s birthday party, so she invited me along. I though, why not? It was alright. Just a typical house party with alcohol, smoke, and music. Haha. But it was cool to meet some other Argentines and practice my espanol a tiny bit.
Today I had my cooking class and we made desserts. I’ll post some pictures from last week. I can’t wait to get home and try this stuff out!!
Next week I have a couple of pretty big midterms, so I’ve got to study my butt off this weekend unfortunately. :-(
Can you spot the two Americans??
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
This past week has been eventful, as usual. Julie came last Friday. She’s a new girl that will be living with us, from California. She’s very nice, but speaks little to no Spanish. I can’t imagine! I would think it would be hard, but she seems to be taking it all quite well. But I function as the translator quite often in the house, which is a good thing because otherwise I think it would be nearly impossible to communicate anything. Although at first I wasn’t sure if I was helping or hurting, because if I wasn’t there she would have to figure out the Spanish.
Last Sunday I went to a feria called Mataderos, which was fun. It was all gaucho themed, which are the old fashioned cowboys in Argentina. They had the old gaucho games that they played in the past, with horses and stuff. It was cool to watch.
Last week I started to practice soccer with the team finally! I swear the last three weeks I have wanted to go, and then it gets cancelled because of rain or whatever. So it was finally on and I got to play. It reminds me of when I was little playing soccer though, since it’s been so long since I’ve played on a real team. I feel bad that I’m like the worst player, but o well. It’s fun. Today we actually had a game! I didn’t realize it, but it’s actually the team for the University of Belgrano, where I go. So we play different universities throughout the season. I’m actually playing college level soccer! Haha, but it’s definitely different than the states…not as competitive or skilled. I mean it’s got to tell you something when I say we only practice once a week for a little over an hour. Oh, anyways, we lost 2-1, but like I said, it was fun.
So Thursday was an interesting day here. Andrea and I decided to go to the library to find some books on Tango because we wanted to get started on our super long paper that we have to write. Weelll, we arrived at the library, which is quite large, and went inside. We couldn’t understand exactly what the person at the front was saying to us, but something along the lines of we couldn’t check out books that day because of something that was going on. But he sent us up to the 6th floor anyways, so up we went. Well, we discovered that that was a room just for studying and reading or whatever. So we went in search of books. We had to have gone to at least 5 floors and never saw a book!
Last Sunday I went to a feria called Mataderos, which was fun. It was all gaucho themed, which are the old fashioned cowboys in Argentina. They had the old gaucho games that they played in the past, with horses and stuff. It was cool to watch.
Last week I started to practice soccer with the team finally! I swear the last three weeks I have wanted to go, and then it gets cancelled because of rain or whatever. So it was finally on and I got to play. It reminds me of when I was little playing soccer though, since it’s been so long since I’ve played on a real team. I feel bad that I’m like the worst player, but o well. It’s fun. Today we actually had a game! I didn’t realize it, but it’s actually the team for the University of Belgrano, where I go. So we play different universities throughout the season. I’m actually playing college level soccer! Haha, but it’s definitely different than the states…not as competitive or skilled. I mean it’s got to tell you something when I say we only practice once a week for a little over an hour. Oh, anyways, we lost 2-1, but like I said, it was fun.
So Thursday was an interesting day here. Andrea and I decided to go to the library to find some books on Tango because we wanted to get started on our super long paper that we have to write. Weelll, we arrived at the library, which is quite large, and went inside. We couldn’t understand exactly what the person at the front was saying to us, but something along the lines of we couldn’t check out books that day because of something that was going on. But he sent us up to the 6th floor anyways, so up we went. Well, we discovered that that was a room just for studying and reading or whatever. So we went in search of books. We had to have gone to at least 5 floors and never saw a book!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
What I love about Argentina
These are the things that I have come up with so far:
Dulce de leche- a magnificent creation. To me it is very similar to caramel that you would dip apples in, but to an Argentine it is peanut butter. Yes, sadly enough they do not use peanut butter in anything. The good news is that they have replaced it with something wonderful!
(A spoonful of my dulce de leche kept in the fridge)
Besos- I love the way Argentines greet one another. With a kiss on the cheek. How sweet! I just think it is very sophisticated and fun. And, hey, if a guy is cute...you get a kiss! ;-)
Jugo de Naranja- Orange juice! In the states I don´t like the stuff. I don´t know why...maybe it´s just too processed. Because here, it´s WONDERful! For the most part it is all fresh squeezed and unprocessed. Something I will dearly miss...
Caminando- I love just being able to wander the streets and walk wherever I would like. I do miss driving slightly, but I know that I will be back to my car before I know it, paying higher-than-ever gas prices...so for now I am going to enjoy it.
(A view down the street when you walk out of my house)
El Super- Believe it or not, I love going grocery shopping for myself. Im sure one day when I get all grown up and have to shop for myself for the rest of my life, I won´t enjoy it so much. But for now it´s something that I enjoy. I can wander down isles and pick out whatever I want.
Tango- Surprisingly enough, this is not something that very many Argentines take part in. I have been taking lessons and it´s a very cool dance. Of course the guy has to do the majority of the work, so it´s easier for me. But I have also started a class where we are learning to appreciate the music, art, and culture behind Tango. It´s all so very neat!
(A photo taken at San Telmo where these dancers can be found every weekend)
The Smell- Not the smell of the stinky ol´city, but the smell of the people! Okay, before you think I´m completely nuts, it´s true! Everyone (okay I´m over-generalizing) smells good! And if you know me at all, you know that I love the smell of a good cologne. :-) But it´s not just the guys! Walking down the street you get whiffs of many good perfumes. Weird or not, it´s something I love!
Mate- The famous tea of AR that, no joke, just about everyone drinks. You see it in the streets, on the subway, and everywhere else you can think of! Believe it or not, the stuff grows on you! I absolutely love the smell of the yerba when I walk through the store or smell someone drinking it. Mmm...
Come and enjoy everything wonderful that BsAs has to offer!
Oh, and if you´d like to see more pictures, here is a link you can go to! Check em out!
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019968&l=4c4fe&id=152001485
Dulce de leche- a magnificent creation. To me it is very similar to caramel that you would dip apples in, but to an Argentine it is peanut butter. Yes, sadly enough they do not use peanut butter in anything. The good news is that they have replaced it with something wonderful!
(A spoonful of my dulce de leche kept in the fridge)
Besos- I love the way Argentines greet one another. With a kiss on the cheek. How sweet! I just think it is very sophisticated and fun. And, hey, if a guy is cute...you get a kiss! ;-)
Jugo de Naranja- Orange juice! In the states I don´t like the stuff. I don´t know why...maybe it´s just too processed. Because here, it´s WONDERful! For the most part it is all fresh squeezed and unprocessed. Something I will dearly miss...
Caminando- I love just being able to wander the streets and walk wherever I would like. I do miss driving slightly, but I know that I will be back to my car before I know it, paying higher-than-ever gas prices...so for now I am going to enjoy it.
(A view down the street when you walk out of my house)
El Super- Believe it or not, I love going grocery shopping for myself. Im sure one day when I get all grown up and have to shop for myself for the rest of my life, I won´t enjoy it so much. But for now it´s something that I enjoy. I can wander down isles and pick out whatever I want.
Tango- Surprisingly enough, this is not something that very many Argentines take part in. I have been taking lessons and it´s a very cool dance. Of course the guy has to do the majority of the work, so it´s easier for me. But I have also started a class where we are learning to appreciate the music, art, and culture behind Tango. It´s all so very neat!
(A photo taken at San Telmo where these dancers can be found every weekend)
The Smell- Not the smell of the stinky ol´city, but the smell of the people! Okay, before you think I´m completely nuts, it´s true! Everyone (okay I´m over-generalizing) smells good! And if you know me at all, you know that I love the smell of a good cologne. :-) But it´s not just the guys! Walking down the street you get whiffs of many good perfumes. Weird or not, it´s something I love!
Mate- The famous tea of AR that, no joke, just about everyone drinks. You see it in the streets, on the subway, and everywhere else you can think of! Believe it or not, the stuff grows on you! I absolutely love the smell of the yerba when I walk through the store or smell someone drinking it. Mmm...
Come and enjoy everything wonderful that BsAs has to offer!
Oh, and if you´d like to see more pictures, here is a link you can go to! Check em out!
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2019968&l=4c4fe&id=152001485
Monday, September 8, 2008
My Crazy Day
I know you´re all so excited to hear about this insane day I had, so I´ll get started.
Last Friday I was supposed to meet up with my Tango dance professor and some students to go to a ¨fabrica¨ of Tango shoes...just a place where they make the shoes and obviously sell them. I´ve been wanting to buy some...so we were going to meet at 11am. Well, I left my house about 30 minutes before, which I should have known wasn´t going to be enough time. By the time the subte came, I was already running late. I sent a text to my professor, not really even knowing if he could recieve texts, just saying that I was coming but would be late. Well, I finally was able to get off the subte and I started walking towards what I thought was the meeting place. Turns out I walked a couple of blocks in the wrong direction, so I had to backtrack and I ended up being even later than I thought I would be. So hooray for Sarah becoming more Argentine-like. I arrived probably about 45 minutes late. Luckily the group was still waiting for the bus to come, so I made it!! *phew* One big hurdle crossed.
So we took the bus to the middle of nowhere, and began searching for shoes! It was fun and I found a pair that I liked, so I am now the proud new owner of a pair of official tango dance shoes. Mine are actually quite simple because I wanted to be able to wear them to places other than Tango class. Anyways, I was meeting a friend for lunch at 2pm, so I decided to leave around 1:15 to catch the bus and head back. This bus would take me near where i needed to be. Turns out the buses were quite delayed that day, so I had to wait a good 15 minutes just for the bus to arrive. Well, at around 1:50 I knew that I would be late because the bus still had quite a ways to go. I texted my friend and let him know I would be late, and he assured me it would be fine because he is usually the late one. It was about 2:20ish and we still had about 10 blocks to go until we got to my stop, when the bus BROKE DOWN. I have never had this happen! But of course it happens when I am quite late. So, I set out on foot and, again, assure him that I am coming. FINALLY I get to the restaurant arount 2:40, quite late and hot from walking so quickly. I send a message letting him know I was there, and he called, with the following conversation:
Me: Hey, I´m here, where are you sitting?
Him: I´m at the entrance, where are you?
Me: Umm, I´m at the entrance...I don´t see you.
Him: Where are you??
Me: Umm, would there happen to be more than one location for this restaurant?!?
Yes, folks, I was on the complete other side of town. Turns out there are two locations and the website just happened to only display one. How was I supposed to know?? I did feel quite ridiculous though.
What a day!!
Last Friday I was supposed to meet up with my Tango dance professor and some students to go to a ¨fabrica¨ of Tango shoes...just a place where they make the shoes and obviously sell them. I´ve been wanting to buy some...so we were going to meet at 11am. Well, I left my house about 30 minutes before, which I should have known wasn´t going to be enough time. By the time the subte came, I was already running late. I sent a text to my professor, not really even knowing if he could recieve texts, just saying that I was coming but would be late. Well, I finally was able to get off the subte and I started walking towards what I thought was the meeting place. Turns out I walked a couple of blocks in the wrong direction, so I had to backtrack and I ended up being even later than I thought I would be. So hooray for Sarah becoming more Argentine-like. I arrived probably about 45 minutes late. Luckily the group was still waiting for the bus to come, so I made it!! *phew* One big hurdle crossed.
So we took the bus to the middle of nowhere, and began searching for shoes! It was fun and I found a pair that I liked, so I am now the proud new owner of a pair of official tango dance shoes. Mine are actually quite simple because I wanted to be able to wear them to places other than Tango class. Anyways, I was meeting a friend for lunch at 2pm, so I decided to leave around 1:15 to catch the bus and head back. This bus would take me near where i needed to be. Turns out the buses were quite delayed that day, so I had to wait a good 15 minutes just for the bus to arrive. Well, at around 1:50 I knew that I would be late because the bus still had quite a ways to go. I texted my friend and let him know I would be late, and he assured me it would be fine because he is usually the late one. It was about 2:20ish and we still had about 10 blocks to go until we got to my stop, when the bus BROKE DOWN. I have never had this happen! But of course it happens when I am quite late. So, I set out on foot and, again, assure him that I am coming. FINALLY I get to the restaurant arount 2:40, quite late and hot from walking so quickly. I send a message letting him know I was there, and he called, with the following conversation:
Me: Hey, I´m here, where are you sitting?
Him: I´m at the entrance, where are you?
Me: Umm, I´m at the entrance...I don´t see you.
Him: Where are you??
Me: Umm, would there happen to be more than one location for this restaurant?!?
Yes, folks, I was on the complete other side of town. Turns out there are two locations and the website just happened to only display one. How was I supposed to know?? I did feel quite ridiculous though.
What a day!!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
So I know it’s Wednesday already, but I’ll recap my weekend anyways. On Friday I went with Andrea to an “international night” put on by our university. I was assuming that it would be something like what our university has put on…pretty quiet with some cool food to try. Well, was I in for a surprise or what. I went down to the basement of the university, where the even was being held, to discover blaring music and something that resembled a crazy dance club with beer chugging at the United States table to tequila at the Mexico booth. Just about every booth had alcohol and most of the students were taking full advantage and getting quite “borracha” (drunk!) Needless to say it was a surprise…and something I don’t think I would ever find in a building on our campus!
After that Andrea and I went to the weekly Vida meeting to chat with friends and hear about the recent missions project that went on in the north. It sounded very cool and I’m sad I missed out on it! BUT there is a mini missions project coming up later this month that I am hoping to take part in. I’m not sure on all of the details, but they are doing it for “dia de los estudiantes” (students’ day) to show young people how to have good, clean fun. It’s a day that all students get off of school (too bad it falls on a Sunday this year!) and get to enjoy the new spring weather. I hope I can go!
Saturday Abby, Katie, Andrea and I decided to try and attend the semi-finals for the tango festival that had been going on all that week. Well, when we got there we found out we had to wait to see if there would be room because everyone already had tickets. Luckily we made it in! It was very cool! It was an international competition with people from Japan, Italy, Germany, Colombia, Argentina, etc. There were some very cool performances and I’m so glad we went. And to top it all of, it was free!! You can easily pay at least $30 bucks for a tango show with only one couple, whereas this one was at least 25 couples…and we left early!
Then that night the four of us went out to eat at a restaurant with Indian food. It was actually my first time eating Indian food and I enjoyed it. It was spicy, which was a GREAT change from the quite bland food that you usually encounter. Argentines don’t like spice in their food.
Sunday, like a faithful little girl, I went to church. However, someone neglected to inform me that there were no services! Haha, I felt quite silly…but it all worked out because I had some errands to run anyways. I went to the feria in San Telmo and got to have quite a long conversation with a guy who was selling scarves. He didn’t speak much English and, therefore thankfully did not want to practice it, like most people here. So hooray for actually practicing my Spanish!
Last night I went with the stinters and Vida people to eat tacos at a place called California Burrito Company. It’s actually like Qdoba, which is amazing, because no one here sells burritos or tacos. I’ll be going back there J I also learned how to make gnocchis yesterday in my cooking class, which are traditional pastas here. I can’t wait to get back home and start baking all of this stuff!!
And lastly...I will be living out of a suitcase for about a week now. We have a new girl coming from California named Julie to live here and she's taking over my room. I will be moving upstairs into a bigger room actually, but it's not done being painted yet. So I'll be sleeping in the kids' loft until next week or the following.
So that's it!
After that Andrea and I went to the weekly Vida meeting to chat with friends and hear about the recent missions project that went on in the north. It sounded very cool and I’m sad I missed out on it! BUT there is a mini missions project coming up later this month that I am hoping to take part in. I’m not sure on all of the details, but they are doing it for “dia de los estudiantes” (students’ day) to show young people how to have good, clean fun. It’s a day that all students get off of school (too bad it falls on a Sunday this year!) and get to enjoy the new spring weather. I hope I can go!
Saturday Abby, Katie, Andrea and I decided to try and attend the semi-finals for the tango festival that had been going on all that week. Well, when we got there we found out we had to wait to see if there would be room because everyone already had tickets. Luckily we made it in! It was very cool! It was an international competition with people from Japan, Italy, Germany, Colombia, Argentina, etc. There were some very cool performances and I’m so glad we went. And to top it all of, it was free!! You can easily pay at least $30 bucks for a tango show with only one couple, whereas this one was at least 25 couples…and we left early!
Then that night the four of us went out to eat at a restaurant with Indian food. It was actually my first time eating Indian food and I enjoyed it. It was spicy, which was a GREAT change from the quite bland food that you usually encounter. Argentines don’t like spice in their food.
Sunday, like a faithful little girl, I went to church. However, someone neglected to inform me that there were no services! Haha, I felt quite silly…but it all worked out because I had some errands to run anyways. I went to the feria in San Telmo and got to have quite a long conversation with a guy who was selling scarves. He didn’t speak much English and, therefore thankfully did not want to practice it, like most people here. So hooray for actually practicing my Spanish!
Last night I went with the stinters and Vida people to eat tacos at a place called California Burrito Company. It’s actually like Qdoba, which is amazing, because no one here sells burritos or tacos. I’ll be going back there J I also learned how to make gnocchis yesterday in my cooking class, which are traditional pastas here. I can’t wait to get back home and start baking all of this stuff!!
And lastly...I will be living out of a suitcase for about a week now. We have a new girl coming from California named Julie to live here and she's taking over my room. I will be moving upstairs into a bigger room actually, but it's not done being painted yet. So I'll be sleeping in the kids' loft until next week or the following.
So that's it!
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