Buenos Aires.

Ah where to begin. For the past couple days, I’ve spent my time in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires, for a school trip.

We left early Sunday morning (5:45 am) to be exact. The bus trip is about 6 hours, so Rose and I passed out in the back and woke up at this gaucho ranch. One of the classes that I’m taking is called Folklore. This trimester we’re learning all about the gaucho (Argentinean cowboy). Little did I know that the whole entire day would be dedicated to the gaucho.

The ranch was cool. You could ride horses, there was a cart ride you could go on and even a museum. We were all super tired so after we did that we sat around waiting for lunch. Everyone, not just our group, gathered in this big dining hall and sat down for lunch. They served us bread, salad, spaghetti, meat of all kind and dessert. During the meal, there was live entertainment from this man and woman who danced for us. There was also a guy playing the accordion and a guy playing the guitar.

It was about 5 pm when all was said and done so we got back on the bus and headed into the city to our hotel. I feel asleep once again on the bus. We stayed at a pretty nice hotel (nothing like the 5 star hotel we stayed at in Rosario though.) I roomed with Ashley, Chelsea and Sabrina. We chilled for a bit since we had free time and set out to find a Starbucks with about 6 other girls. We found out and enjoyed the coffee that we haven’t had in awhile. I got a Té Chai Latte (Chai Tea Latte), but it wasn’t very good. Oh well. After that we walked around the mall there. After awhile we came back because we had to go to an opera. So we all piled on the bus and set off for our next adventure. We got to the place and realized that it was an outdoor amphitheater. So we sat on the uncomfortable benches and waited for the show to start. About the second song, I realized that the singers were actually lip-synching. Now I realize that it was cold, they were dancing around outside in an area…etc. but I was still a little disappointed.

After that we went back to the hotel. The girls wanted to go out, but my leg was killing me so I decided to stay behind and rest. I turned the television on and found Sunday Night Football, so naturally I was going to watch that instead of going out. Around 12:30 am, the girls plus Adam, EJ and Luis came into the room and we stayed up talking. They were trying to figure out if they were gonna hang out somewhere and I just sat there with my leg up on a pillow waiting to fall asleep. That didn’t happen until 3 am.

The next morning we woke up and rushed off to do some more sightseeing. We saw Casa Rosada, which is the president’s house. It looks like the while house, but pink. Fitting since the president is a woman. We also saw the Plaza de Mayo, which I figured out I learned about in Spanish 4 in high school. Señora Orrego would be proud that I paid attention. We saw a bunch of other historical stuff…that I don’t exactly remember at the moment.

For lunch we went to the Adventist restaurant, Granix, that they took us to when we were first in Buenos Aires. It was alright. Reminded me of the cafeteria food, but a little better. Rose and I wanted to go back to the hotel. I really needed to take a nap since I barely got any sleep that night. So me, Rose, two other girls, James, Paul and Adam headed back. First we stopped by the Plaza de Mayo again so one of the girls could take pictures since she didn’t when we were first there.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned the vast amount of pigeons here in Argentina. But at this Plaza they were EVERYWHERE. We pressured James and Adam into feeding the birds. Paul got it on video, but the guys were surrounded by pigeons. It was kinda nasty. I’m not a fan of them since they poop EVERYWHERE here on campus, but it was pretty funny to see the guys scream.

We went back to the hotel and chilled there until about 6. We told the rest of our friends who wanted to shop that afternoon, to meet us up at the nearby mall so we could hang out the rest of the night. Well of course, that didn’t happen. Rose and I waited for about an hour for everyone to show up. By then we were tired and didn’t want to stay out late. We found this burrito place to eat (that doesn’t taste like Qdoba, Paul) and hung out there for awhile. It was the first time I had a burrito since leaving the US. Strange I know. After dinner, our group split up. Rose, James, Paul and I found a Coto, like a Walmart, and went crazy buying toiletries. While we were buying our stuff, Paul and James sprayed AXE for about half an hour trying to figure out which one smelled the best. At the end of the day, neither of them got any. We went back to the hotel and watched a couple episodes of Chuck before we went to bed. We were all so exhausted. On the elevator ride up to our rooms, Paul made the comment, “I’m so glad we didn’t go to the movie. It would’ve been an expensive nap.”

I showered and passed out. Woke up the next morning for more sightseeing. This was Tuesday. On our schedule, it was planned for us to see a whole lot more than we did the day before. I still was super tired, but stuck it out. We saw the Palacio Paz, that was super cool. We went to lunch at this buffet and then headed off to this Rose Garden. It was HUGE. Really beautiful. I took a ton of pictures, which will be on my Facebook later today. Then they took us to a cemetery, which was like the one in the movie Double Jeopardy with Ashley Judd. Kinda creepy, but cool at the same time.

We finally made it back to the hotel after getting everyone back together and checked out. They took us to this HUGE mall for dinner and hang out time until we were supposed to leave to come back to the UAP. Now, when I say this mall was huge. It was huge. Like Mall of America huge. James, Paul and I conquered that in about 2 hours. Of course, we didn’t really buy anything ‘cause we’re all broke and the stores were really expensive, but it was fun going around with them. Especially to the knife store.

After we conquered the mall, we got back on the bus. The four of us, James, Paul, Rose and I, sat together and watched a couple episodes of Chuck before we all fell asleep.

We got back to the UAP at 4 am. Went to sleep until about 11 am…Needless to say it’s 2:15pm and I’m gonna take a nap.

Fútbol injuries

Fútbol, or soccer as we know it in the States, is very popular. They live and breathe it here. So some of the ACA girls decided to make a soccer team to compete in this tournament. We had our first practice today and let's just say that it was very interesting.

A girl accidently kicked me in the shin and now I can barely walk. Here are some pictures to show how bad it is. Obviously, I take sports a little too seriously.

You would think that was my knee on the left leg..but it's not.

My Eventful Weekend in Rosario

Before I begin, I apologize for the length of this post, but I couldn't leave anything out. Please read to the end. But I have given you warning.

The original plan. To go to Rosario on Friday and stay until Sunday or Monday to celebrate Chelsea Powell’s 21^st birthday a week early. We would leave Friday afternoon at 3 pm and then come back on Sunday night. We would stay in a hostel for 2 nights and go to a club Saturday night.

What ACTUALLY happened.

Friday came. We had stayed out late the night before because the ACA guys were playing in a basketball tournament and won. I think we got back to the dorm at 12:30 am and none of us had done our homework for the class next morning. We had to talk to the deans and then decided to do our homework together. We also realized that we had to get leaves from the deans to allow us to go out this weekend. We were afraid that they wouldn’t sign since we were so late.

So after about 3 hours of sleep that night (Thursday), we went to class and started getting ready to leave that afternoon. We checked the bus schedule after lunch and found out that the bus didn’t leave until 5 pm. Some of us wanted to get the tickets then, but we all weren’t together and we had to have our passports so we decided we were gonna get there a little bit early to buy our ticket.

A little before 5, we went to the bus station to buy our tickets and be on our way to Rosario. Paul was in line first and we found out that there were only 5 seats left on the bus at that time, so we all decided we would get up at 5:30 am the next morning and leave. James was having a hissy fit because things weren’t going according to planned and we didn’t have a lot specifically planned out. So Friday night was spent in the dorm watching a movie. Sabrina and I were waiting up for Chelsea and Ashley because they had gone out to dinner. We went and talked to the deans to explain why we were there and if we had to fill out a new leave. We also had to get permission to leave the dorm early (before 6 am). So things were going to go well, we thought.

10 pm came. Still no Ashley and Chelsea. 11 pm. The same thing. Our curfew had passed and they were no where to be found. Rose had gone with them, but came back early so we really wondered if something had happened to them. Around 12 am, Chelsea found me on Skype and explained the situation. They hadn’t got done at the restaurant until late so they didn’t think that their leaves would stay legit because they were late for curfew. So they decided to stay at Shain’s house, which is off campus, because they thought that the leaves we had all filled out would be the same. Little did they know that we had notified the deans about how they were going to travel with us. On top of that, Sabrina had put all of her stuff in Ashley’s room because her roommates were cleaning their room and live right across from each other. So since Ashley didn’t come back, neither did her key to get into her room.

After talking some time with Chelsea on Skype and telling her of how irresponsible and how I disapproved of how things went down, we decided that I would get up early at 5 am to meet them at the gate, to get the key (‘cause they couldn’t swipe in,), to open their room to get Sabrina’s stuff so she could get ready for the day, and to bring Ashley and Chelsea’s stuff to them. I finally went to sleep around 2:30-3 am. Unhappy knowing that I wouldn’t get any sleep. So the time came for me to get up and I completely got ready for the day. I went to open the dorm door and it was locked. No one was around, so I had to knock on this girl’s door so she could open it for me. As soon as I got out of the dorm, a dog started to follow me. Something you need to know about this campus, is that there are dogs everywhere. I hadn’t seen this one, so I was a bit weary of it. I haven’t had many good experiences with big dogs so I was little fearful. It started biting my leg and jumping up on me. I was in no mood to deal with the dog because I was tired and cold. It followed me all the way to the gate. I got the key and walked back to the dorm. The whole time this dog is jumping up and down on me, biting my leg and my purse. I finally prayed that God would stop the dog. It didn’t occur to me that I needed to be yelling to this dog in Spanish—it was way too early for my brain to be thinking that. So the dog finally stopped and I got to the dorm.

I opened the room, Sabrina got ready and we gathered all of our stuff together. We met Rose and started to the bus station. I made a comment about everyone having their card and Rose couldn’t find hers. So we waited for her to go back up to her room (on the 3^rd floor) and get it. We were cutting it close to the time the bus was going to leave. We had already bought our tickets the night before so I wasn’t worried about that. We finally got to the gate, Jamel met us and helped us carry all the extra luggage to where we were meeting Chelsea, Ashley, Shain and Javier.

We got to the bus station and found out that two more people, Isaiah and Elijah, were going to come with us. As they were about to buy their tickets, the lady told them that there weren’t any more open seats on the bus so they would have to wait til the next bus left.

So on our trip we had me, Sabrina, Ashley, Chelsea, Rose, James, Paul, Jamel. Javier and Shain. It was a good group and we knew we were all going to have fun. We all basically fell asleep on the bus ride to Rosario because we were all tired and got basically no sleep that night. We got to Rosario and bought our tickets back to Libertador, San Martín JUST to make sure we would have spots. We divided ourselves up into 3 taxis and were going to meet at Plaza 25 de Mayo because that’s where some of the hostels were going to be. Two of our taxis arrived, but the one with Sabrina, Shain and Rose was no where to be found. We ended up standing at the Plaza for about 45 minutes waiting for them to show up. James and Paul decided to go check the hostels out and try to get us rooms. They came back empty handed. Apparently, this was a huge holiday so everyone had come to the city. We had been told to make reservations at whatever hostel we wanted to stay at, but we thought they all couldn’t be full. Well they were. We finally found the missing group. For some reason their taxi driver had no idea where this location was so they were driving all over the city. They finally got a new driver and made it. So we still needed to find a hostel. So we dragged all our luggage around the town, literally trying to find EVERY hostel possible to stay at. Since our group was a group of 10, no place had a place for us to stay. Since we didn’t have cell phones, we decided we would stay together and not split the group up. I didn’t realize how helpful having a cell phone would be down here. I really miss mine.

Anyways, we come to this tourist center and the lady there helps us find a couple more that we were going to call instead of hauling everything around. We were planning to stay at this hotel, but then found out that it was way out of the city and around nothing. So if we wanted to go anywhere we would have to get a taxi. We called around a bit and found a hotel that was closer. It was a 5 star hotel and kinda expensive ($130 USD a night), but we decided to get it. They would only allow 2 people per room so we ended up dropping a ton of money on it, but we had no other choice.

Jamel decided that this trip was costing too much, so he headed back to the school by himself. We were all kinda bummed, but tried not to let it affect our weekend. Things weren’t going planned and I wasn’t all that upset about it. Little did I know that nothing we planned this weekend would go according to planned. Jamel tried to get a hold of Isaiah and Elijah to let them know not to come, but we found out later they ended up coming anyways.

We headed off to the hotel. We were gonna try and cheat the system to get at least 3 people per room, maybe even 4. The hotel wouldn’t have any of it. So we ended up getting 5 rooms and splitting it. The room that Sabrina and I got was big enough that all of us could’ve slept in it and it would’ve been super cheap. They only had one room for us that was ready so we all piled into a small room that Rose had and watched tv, took showers for those who hadn’t since the day before and took naps. We all started getting hungry so we freshened up and went out to find something to eat. We found this nice place on the river, which was quite dirty looking, but ended up having a good time. We were gonna go swimming, watch a movie, then go to the club later.

We walked back and none of us really felt like swimming except for Paul and James, so they did that…they stopped by Sabrina and I’s room and asked if we wanted to work out. We were bored so we agreed. So we went down to the gym and worked out. Sabrina and I did Ab Ripper since we really didn’t want to lift and James tried to keep up. We then decided that we were gonna go get ready for the club and just chill. Here in Argentina, the clubs don’t even really get crowed until 2 am so we had a couple hours to burn.

We went to the guys room to figure out what club we were going to, when, how we were gonna get there etc. We took forever and made a decision. Paul said that he wasn’t going to go and we left a little sad. Sabrina and I found Chelsea to go through everything and make sure it’s what she wanted since we were here for her. It seemed that everyone was gonna go to the club except for Paul, so we went back to the room to convince him. When we got there we found out that James wasn’t feeling like going either. So now our plans had changed again. It was starting to get a bit frustrating, but I was determined to have a fun time.

After much discussion and changing where we were going, everyone was on board and we were gonna leave around 1:30 am. We all met in the lobby and found taxis to take us. 3 taxis again. To a location that was pretty close. It was free admission only until 2:30am. We thought we would have plenty of time. So were all caravanning there, when the taxi that Chelsea, Ashley and Shain were in takes a different turn than the rest of the taxis. We don’t really think anything of it until we get to the club and they’re not there. We waited for about 45 minutes out in the cold for our people to show up. It’s close to 2:30 am so we decide to go in the club and then we’ll come back out to find them. We got in line with the guys and almost got in, but they said that us girls had to get in the other line. The guys were already in there and I was a bit worried. Our group was getting split up and I don’t like that especially in an unfamiliar place. Right as we got to the door, Chelsea, Ashley and Shain show up. Apparently their cab driver took them to the wrong club. It was just a confusing mess. We went in to the music loudly bumping and dancing. We danced until 3:45 am when Rose said she wanted to go back. Paul was going to back with her. I felt bad so I said I would go back with them. I was super tired since I had only slept in nap intervals the past two days and knew I needed the sleep. James decided to go back too so the four of us set out to find a taxi. They must not like us because it took more than 30 minutes to find one.

We finally got back to the hotel and I was ready for bed. I had the only room key so I had to stay awake to let Sabrina in, but at least I was super comfortable. I started falling asleep and just then realized that I hadn’t left the door open and there was a knock on the door. Sabrina and Chelsea were there. After making sure everyone was back, I passed out. We got breakfast in our rooms the next morning. Sabrina woke up and told me, but I just rolled over and went back to the sleep. Food could wait. I randomly woke up and we decided to eat. We didn’t know what time check out was so we decided to go back to bed until around noon then go do some sightseeing or something until our bus left at 4:15 pm.

I heard a loud knock on the door and opened to find Chelesa, Shain and Javier standing at my door. Apparently our check out time was noon. It was 11:30ish. We had no time to get ready and pack. So we all threw our stuff together and met down in the lobby to figure out where we would go. We all had our luggage with us, so we didn’t want to go major sightseeing. We thought maybe we could go to a movie since we could just sit down and have our luggage with us.

The people at the hotel were nice enough to let us keep our luggage there and we could go out without all of it. We walked down to the monuments and took a lot of pictures. We found a little flea market and walked around there until we got hungry for lunch. We stopped at McDonalds because we didn’t have enough time to go to a sit down restaurant because they take forever down here.

After lunch, we went back to the hotel, got our stuff and took 3 taxis back to the bus station. I went with Shain this time because he was the common denominator for the taxis getting lost. We made it to the bus station with plenty of time to get on our bus. Were we ran into Elijah and Isaiah. So I’m sitting on the bus on my way back to LSM. Ready for some more chill time and a LONG time to sleep.

We don’t have school tomorrow for some holiday (the reason why everything went so wrong this weekend), which I am very grateful for.