¡Éxito! Al fin!

So I finally conquered the oven. Success at last!!!! Saturday night we had this big joint service/party at the church and all of us were supposed to make/bring something dulce. So I wanted to make brownies again. Actually people had requested that I bring brownies again, which considering the fact that the last batch was all completely crumbled when we ate them, so I felt pretty good. But I was afraid I was going to have to ask my neighbor to come turn on the oven for me, which would have been really embarassing. However, I figured it out all by myself and didn't even burn the brownies! Hooray!
And Friday was really fun too! After my Spanish class I went and got coffee with some of the girls, and then later that night, we all went over to this girl Fanny's (first of all, I'm friends with someone actually named Fanny, isn't that great? Second of all, she's from Finland! And very sweet and funny) apartment. And my friend Agata came too, so that was really fun. It was just a lovely evening hanging out with such wonderful girls!
And then Sunday I met some other girls for lunch and went and saw a movie, Un Noche Fuera de Serie (Date Night, haha) with Ann. ¡Bárbaro!
And I had a presentation in Estructura Social.... tonight but it went alright. More importanly, it's done!!!! I've decided I'm done stressing about that class and just going to roll with it.

In other news, my house no longer smells like apple cider vinegar. Which is really a whole other story. But last weekend Miriam had asked if I could be in the house on Saturday morning for this new woman to come and do a bit of cleaning. So this woman comes, but rather than clean, she paints the walls with apple cider vinegar (except for my room, thank goodness!). I had absolutely no idea why. I thought maybe it was some sort of cleaning technique, but it kind of just made the walls look dirtier. The whole thing seemed very strange and made the whole apartment smell soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad. Then later I mentioned it to my friend Karina and she told me it's something some people here do before they paint, but, get this, it's to ward off spirits and cleanse the room of negative energy. Also, Miriam keeps random plain rocks all over the place, which is apparently a thing too. So while the house did smell horrendous for a few days, at least it should be free of negative spirits right? Haha, I mean, just what is this life I live? Insanity, but you gotta love it!

Thursday I go to Iguazú falls with ISA! Yay! Going to be so much fun!

¿Cómo se dice.... en inglés?

So this past week has been super wonderful! On Tuesday I started giving English lessons to this boy, Matías (11), from my church here. So much fun. And I absolutely love his family. Last weekend he and his mom, Karina, asked me if I could start giving him lessons, and at first I was really nervous that I was just going to confuse the kid more, but it's actually been really fun so far. So I went over to their apartment Tuesday night at like 7:30 and didn't even end up leaving till 1:30. Ha! Crazy. But don't worry, I wasn't teaching English that long. Matías is also learning English in school, but he really doesn't like the teacher and the way it's taught, so hopefully I can make it easier for him. He already knows a lot of the basics, so we started out with just some vocab and working on stuff he missed in class, and then I had bought this Sherlock Holmes book for English beginners and we read from that. Matías really doesn't like to speak it, but he understands a lot. And did I mention that I love his family? They're so wonderful. Karina is oficially one of my new favorite people ever. She's really young, like 33 or something, and so funny, and the sweetest person ever. And then there's the dad, Sergio, who is also hilarious and very nice. And the grandma, very sweet and grandmotherly, and then the brother, Joaquín, who's 5, and the most adorable thing in the entire world. Later that night Joaquín got all into the English also and kept pointing to different things and asking me how to say them. It was so cute. And then, one of my other favorite people in the entire world, Agata, came over and we all ate dinner. So I was just hanging out with some of the best people ever, and just chilling and talking the rest of the evening and eating comida riquísima. Such a great day.
I went over there again on Thursday and we worked on identifying verbs and subjects and such in sentences with the verbs to be and to have. And then we played Guess Who? completely in English. Hilarious. We used a lot of hand motions and pointing and things like that, but after a few rounds Matías was really getting the hang of it. I really thing this whole thing helps me just as much as it helps him, because whether I teach in a bilingual program or not, I'm going to have ESL students. So this is great practice!

Asombrada por un Amor Incesante

So I came across a sample chapter of the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan the other day. I had completley forgotton how great it is and how much God uses it to draw my attention back to him. It can be so easy, especially while studying abroad here, to be selfish and think that life is all about me. But how ridiculous is that? Who am I to steal God's thunder? I was walking outside last night and caught the very beginning of a big storm. The whole sky filled with lighning and the rain just pelted down. Such power! I couldn't help but marvel at how powerful my God is! And it's definitely a very good thing that he's in charge and not me. I mean really, how ridiculous would it be if the world was in the hands of someone who depended on weather.com to tell her whether or not to take an umbrella? Who am I to think that I know better than God? Who am I that I have ever done anything that God, the creator of the universe has not first allowed me to do? God, GOD, for/by whom all things were created, “all things in Heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him" (Col. 1:16)
We get so mad when people steal our ideas/work, or when someone acts like they know exactly what they're talking about but really is just wrong. It's annoying. So how in the world is it, that God, GOD, who is the only one ever that has any sort of a right to pride, isn’t so completely furious or annoyed at me, tiny speck in comparison with the magnitude of the creator of the universe, with absolutely nothing that He didn’t give me? How is it that he doesn’t throw me out of His world completely? How on earth is it that I ever even had a second chancel, not to mention a million more chances? God demands justice. So there has to be consequences. And in that light, Jesus makes perfect sense. For "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Col. 1:17). Because God, GOD, creator of the universe, loves me (tiny speck that does nothing but trash His masterpiece and steal His glory and demand His attention and his blessings) soooooooooooooo much that He exercised the punishment that I deserve on His son rather than on me. It's completely overwhelming. That he would not only spare me but offer me an eternity more wonderful than I am even capable of imagining! Such grace is… I don’t even have words to describe it. That God pursues me! That God is jealous for MY attention! What? I mean, seriously, how backwards is that? How can there be love like that? I can’t even fathom how much love that is. That I could ignore, or worse, reduce such love and passion is completely absurd! How am I not completely overflowing with this love every second? I'm amazed, asombrada, by such an unceasing love!

Dejar para último momento

Leave for the last minute. That’s what the word procrastinate translates to in Spanish. And while I am not leaving anything for the last minute, I didn’t feel like starting this week’s reading for Estructura Social just yet… So right now, I’m going to enjoy this lazy rainy day a bit longer, and then start. This morning when I woke up, it looked like it might rain and I thought, wonderful! I could use a good rainy day. But what I did not take into account when I was hoping for rain this morning, is that rain might bring cold weather. Which it did. At least for today. But I’m hoping it’s just temporary seeing as I didn’t really bring any winter clothes.
Earlier today I got hooked in to reading several of my friends blogs, and noticed that a lot of them have little music things on their pages. It’s kind of fun seeing what other people are listening to right now. So here’s a little sampling of what I’ve been listening to lately here in Argentina:

1. Él Nos Ama- Seth Condrey This is a translation of the song How He Loves and a new favorite of mine! Actually I’m quickly becoming a fan of all of Seth Condrey. He’s kind of got a Jason Mraz-y sound, but with lyrics that center around the Lord. Fantastic. (I think he’s got a cd in English too).

2. Causa y Efecto- Paulina Rubio

3. Ni Roses ni Jugetes – also Paulina Rubio Yeah I’m kind of hooked on her now.

4. Dámelo- Juanes Always good.

5. Guapa- Diego Torres (Since I got here, I’ve heard this song EVERYWHERE!!! I kept getting it stuck in my head, but I didn’t know what it was called and could only ever remember the first few words of the chorus. And actually, I had those wrong. Needless to say it took me a very long time to actually find this song.)

6. The Beat- Ben Rector- Just when you thought every song would be in Spanish. This is from his new cd and I love it. Actually really the whole cd is fantastic. But if you’ve ever listened to him that wouldn’t surprise you.

7. Memphis- Coffey Elizabeth Templeton got me hooked on him. He’s different. But really good.

8. I’ve gotta feeling- Black Eyed Peas- Also played everywhere here.

And here’s a little look at my coming week: going to the movies tonight with some girls from the church, starbucks with Coni tomorrow morning, lunch tomorrow with a girl on staff with Cru here, birthday dinner for Ann tomorrow night, normative grammar class Thursday (which I love!), Barrio Chino with a family from the church Thursday afternoon, ISA tutoring and Myths and Legends Friday afternoon and then later hanging out with those girls I think, and then, who knows?

Ok, well anyways, time to start homework for real now, Chau~

Pasta/Manteca de Maní

So one thing that I’ve decided is definitely underappreciated in the U.S. is the ability to buy a jar of peanut butter for a couple of dollars in just about any store in the country. Apparently the obsession with this delicious fantastic condiment (is it considered a condiment? I’m not sure…) is strictly Estadounidense. Because it’s definitely not readily available in Argentina (Nor in Europe, I’m told). ISA told us that one of the big grocery store chains here sells it but one of my friends went last week and they definitely didn’t have any. In a city of 14 million people, you wouldn’t think it would be that hard to find, but it is. I actually hadn’t been craving it too badly until about three people mentioned it to me in one day. Then I couldn’t stop thinking about it. But did some research and learned about a few other places that sell it: Groceries stores in Barrio Chino (although you have to watch out for their expiration dates), Kosher supermarkets (where I bought mine), fancy Dieteticas (they sell all the organic things and dietary supplements etc…), or when all else fails, the U.S. embassy. It’s kind of expensive here, but so worth it I’ve decided.

So naturally, right after buying my peanut butter and bread I was ready for my peanut butter toast. And I lucked out because when I got home Mariela, the woman that cleans the apartment, was there. Usually she’s not there on Friday afternoons, but this week Miriam needed her an extra day. Because Miriam doesn’t have a toaster and I didn’t know how to turn on the oven (it’s a gas stove and you have to light the pilot light every time). So, everything was great and I enjoyed my peanut butter toast and a bit of dulce de leche :)

So the next day, I was going to make some more, but I guess I didn’t pay very good attention when Mariela showed me because I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out… And we just have this little cigarette lighter to light it. Anyways, I fought with oven very hard but it definitely won. The oven remained un-lit and I just burned my thumbs. One day I swear I will master this oven. But for now, we are definitely not friends.

¡Adelante con fuerza y cariño!

So continuing with the crazy fastness of life here, practically right after I got back from Rosario, I left for Mendoza for Easter Break. And this was the most crazy trip ever. My friend Ann and I really wanted to go, and several of our other friends were going too. They had already made their plans and everything, Ann and I were just being kind of slow. So Friday night we're frantically trying to make hostel reservations and buy bus tickets. The hostel worked out great and we ended up with reservations at the same one as the other girls, so that was really good. But we didn't end up getting bus tickets till Monday night. To leave Tuesday night. Crazy! So we left Tuesday night at 10:30, and this is something so different about Argentina too, I'm constantly amazed at how relaxed everything is here. Even on our bus tickets, it doesn't say a terminal and a little gate thing, just 15-25. So you just kind of have to find the right terminal and the bus is going to pull up between gates 15 and 25, so you just watch for it. Oh and of course we get there an hour early, just to be safe, but end up being completely rushed because all the people we ask have no idea which terminal we need to be in. So we get on the bus at like 10:25 before it leaves at 10:30. I have no idea what happens if you miss it, I'm just glad we didn't have to find out. So we had a 14 hour bus ride, but it wasn't so bad because the seats lean all the way back, and we left in the night so we just slept most of the way. Except that when I woke up the next morning I was very car sick. So that wasn't so fun. But we got to Mendoza around 12:00 the next day, and the other girls weren't arriving till 7:00 the next morning, so Ann and I had the whole day to just hang out and see the town. It's such a pretty town. It reminds me so much of just any little mountain town in Colorado. So pretty. We walked around a lot and this guy at our hostel had invited us to an asado (huge argentine barbeque thing) at the hostel for dinner that night. So we get back to the hostel between 8 and 9, when he told us to be there, but there was definitely no asado happening. We waited around a bit and then right as we were leaving to go get food on our own, we see the guy, Jota. He tells us that it's still happening and he's just about to go buy the meat with these other girls. The three of them are all friends from Buenos Aires. So we go with them (to Walmart, ironically) and by this time it's like 11. So there we are, 11 o'clock at night, at Walmart, in Argentina. What? And by the time we get back to the hostel, it's already after midnight. So we're waiting and waiting, thinking surely they're going to start cooking soon, but apparently the guy that was supposed to bring the wood for the fire didn't come. But nobody seemed too concerned, just me and Ann. We were hungry. So then one of the girls starts cooking the meat in the oven, but by the time we start eating, it's 2:00 or 2:30 in the morning. Ridiculous. But we were just hanging out and eating dinner with a bunch of people from the hostel and having a good time until about 4:30. Crazy.

Then the next day, Ann and I did a Bike and Wine tour, because Mendoza apparently is famous for their wine. So that was really fun, we just rode around this town on these bikes and toured all these vineyards and wineries. The first place we went to was really small, but the people that worked there were so nice. One of them is an artist and Ann is an artist too, so they invited us to come back and paint with them later. So cool. Then we went to a couple chocolate/olive oil factories. Soooo much fun! We tried this fresh olive oil, and then all these different olivy spreads on bread. And then all these different marmelades and dulce de leche spreads. And then chocolates, and then licqueurs. Everything was so good! And then of course we went back to the first place and painted for a bit. And they let us keep them and everything for free! Then they took us back into town because our bike deal didn't include transportation back to the city of Mendoza, and one of the guys just hung out with us and showed us all around. We went up to this big monument of General San Martín (he helped practically all of South America gain independence from Spain) and watched the sunset over the mountains. So pretty. Then the next day we went whitewater rafting with the other girls. Sooooooooo much fun. But also really hard. We drove up to this really pretty place in the Andes mountains and it was just the 6 of us girls in our raft with the guide, and Federico, who went along with us in a kayak for safety. The river, río Mendoza was a class 3. So that was really cool. And we looked really awesome, because we had to wear all this gear, like wetsuits, fleeces, jackets, life vests, and helmets. We were intense. When we got started, our guide taught us all the commands and how to row. Adelante- forward, Atras-backward, Todos Adentro- everybody inside, Alto- stop, etc... And he was hilarious. And not afraid to call you out for not rowing strong enough. Which was kind of intense. And sometimes he would say the most random things, like "Adelante con fuerza y cariño" which literally means Forward with force and care. It was so funny. And right as we were pulling up to the shore to stop for lunch, two of the girls fell out of the boat. It was hilarious! And good that it wasn't in a dangerous part of the river. And then they set up lunch and made it all look so nice. 10 points for presentation. Then after lunch we switched sides and that made it a lot easier. The whole trip was so so fun and the whole time I kept thinking, "wait a minute, I'm whitewater rafting through the Andes mountains right now, what?!" But we were sooooo sore afterwards. Every single muscle in my entire body hurt the next few days. That night I came down with some sort of stomach bug, so that was no good, but I was mostly better the next day. That was our last day. The other girls did their bike and wine tour (and I was so glad we did ours before, because we were so so sore from rafting) and Ann and I just kind of hung out. We walked around and went to some of the artisan fair things, and then just hung out at the hostel. We ended up playing Texas Hold 'em with this guy from Brazil and two girls from Sweden. So much fun. And hilarious, because the guy just really wanted to play poker, but with 3 girls we were talking the whole time and he had to explain everything like a thousand times. But I won!!! But I'm pretty sure it was just luck, because one time I had a flush and won and didn't even realize it. So then that night we left for Buenos Aires. This time it was a 16 hour bus ride and we were so sore and exhausted that it was a little bit miserable. But we made it. And then right after I got off the bus in Buenos Aires, there was this news crew doing a story about people traveling for the long weekend and they interviewed me. It was crazy. I didn't have any idea which station or if they'd even air it, but later that day one of my friends told me he saw me on the news!!! Crazy!!! So yeah that was a completely wonderful trip, so much fun, but it's good to be back and relax just a little bit. Except all my professors just assign all these things they expect us to do and read, not sure what that's about, but either way, I've decided I pretty much have the best life in the entire world.

Rosario

So it's been kind of a long time since I last posted, but these past couple of weeks have been crazy! Two weekends ago I had an excursion to Rosario with ISA. Rosario is another city in Argentina, about 4 hours away. So that was really fun. We left Saturday morning around 9 and got to Rosario around lunch time. I wasn't sure about the trip at first, because during the trip meeting the day before, I didn't see a single person that I knew. But as always, it all worked out, and it turned out that several of the people I met on the día de campo excursion were on this same trip. Once we got there, we basically had the whole day free, and then a light show on the lake that night. My roommate for the weekend was this girl named Ashley, who was actually the real life roommate of my friend Michelle (the other girl that goes to USAL). She's really sweet. So that day, we just kind of hung out and walked around the city. We went to el monumento de la bandera which is where the Argentine flag was first created and raised. It was really cool, and kind of reminded me of what the washington monument must be like. We got to go up to the top and see the whole city, which was pretty cool too. And the town is right on the Paraná river, so it was really pretty. It's actually a pretty big city, but I don't know, I guess compared to Buenos Aires it felt really small. You could still walk everywhere, but during the day the streets were mostly empty and everything was so quiet. Later that night we went to el parque independencia where we saw a light show on this lake. That was pretty cool, kind of like fireworks except with fountains. And the best part was that the whole thing was choreographed to the most random music. It started out instrumental stuff, then some opera, and then My Heart Will Go On, from Titanic. No joke. Oh and then some Walking on Sunshine and random stuff like that. It was hilarious. The funny thing about Rosario was that even though it was so quiet during the day, there were about a thousand people on the streets at night. It was insane. Walking around at midnight every single restaraunt was packed. Young, old, it didn't matter. Crazy. Then the next day we had a really delicious breakfast and then a city tour. Our city tour was on our bus, but it was cool because we got to get off every now and then and see things. So that was really fun and I feel like I got to know some of the ISA people better. And there's this one girl, Sol, who works for ISA and was on a couple of the other excursions and always kind of intimidated me. I don't really know why, she just always kind of has this "too cool" vibe and she's really really pretty, and on the other excursions she was just always kind of off on her own and never really talked to anybody. But then the day before the trip I just happened to be on the same Subte car as her and we started talking and she's so sweet and such a cool person!!! She's only like 26 or 27, has studied just about every subject in the world and now works for ISA and is doing photography. And then on the excursion she was a lot more open too. It could be because it was a longer excursion and she had more time with us or I don't know, maybe just the other ones she was having a bad day. Who knows. But I really liked getting to know her better and now I can't wait to see her again with the other ISA stuff. So the whole trip was realy fun, but so so fast. We left Saturday morning and got back Sunday night, and I feel like we did a thousand things in between. Crazy. But really good.