Another week has already flown by and I leave for Peru in just 5 days! Just have to get through midterms this week...
Last Sunday I went on an IES field trip to San Antonio which is a town about 2 hours out of Buenos Aires. We first explored the town but since it was Sunday there wasn't too much going on. Then we went over an estancia close by and spent the rest of the day there. We went there to witness gaucho culture in the campos (country side) even though in current time it is all played up for the tourists. We ate a bunch of good food, saw some traditional dancing, watched a horse game with gauchos, rode horses and just enjoyed being out of the city! My favorite part was riding the horses. Most of my friends had gone to Lobos the previous day so it ended up just being me and a group of boys on Sunday meaning the gauchos gave me a little extra attention! We didn't have much time left before we had to leave but a couple of us wanted to go for a real quick ride. I didn't think there was going to be enough horses but then one of the gauchos let me get on the horse he had been riding in the games earlier! Because he had been running at high speeds the horse was so so sweaty but I decided to give it a go. It turned out that this was definitely one of the fastest horses and it felt so good to be back on a horse. We just rode down a path and as everyone was turning around the gaucho pulled me aside and told me how pretty I looked on the horse. He just let me open the horse up to go as fast as he could. I was just thinking to myself how incredible it was to be having this experience in Argentina. I will remember this moment looking back on the whole semester. It seems like such a little thing to be riding a horse but that special attention to let that horse run was amazing. It made me get even more excited for the ranch this summer!! But another exciting/unique/scary part of the day was on the bus ride home. We were on the highway coming back to Buenos Aires and there was probably 20 minutes straight of lightning lighting up the sky. It seemed just like heat lightning but went on forever!
One of the IES ladies said that when that happens usually hail comes after. Sure enough she was right. I have never seen hail like this. There were balls of hail MUCH bigger than golf balls and probably every other car either had its front or back windshield busted out and very view made it through with out some sort of dents! At one point we had to push against the window of the bus due to wind! I'm just glad to say that I was in a bus with vertical windows and not a car with slanted ones! It was scary but very interesting at the same time.Monday morning I went to get my visa which was an interesting experience. After our cab driver drove around probably 10 minutes extra and ask probably 3 people where the immigration building was we finally arrived and I was so glad to see other IES students! There were tons of people all speaking spanish and I don't even know why all of them were at immigrations! It seemed easier on the front end coming to Argentina when we didn't have to apply for a visa before departure but things are just not organized and regulated here like they are in the US! I triple checked to make sure that I had all I needed (passport, criminal record, head-shots, 300 pesos, copy of every page of my passport) and so it went as smoothly as possible! I just have to remind myself how much worse it would be to be deported since my tourist stamp in my passport only lasts for 90 days! They said I had to come back in about 8 days to pick up my visa but other groups of students had had to return 4 hours later. Because this seemed like such a long time in comparison the lady from IES talked to them and they said to go back Friday between 8 and 1 and trying to stay on top of things of course I went on Friday but guess what? Thanks again Argentina the lady told me it wouldn't be ready till next week. Such as life.
Monday was also an exciting day because I got my new apartment :) I just needed a little more space and this was the perfect way to do it! It is just 3 blocks from my homestay so its really easy for me to go back and forth! I love just having a place to escape to and relax a little! We had our first dinner party on Friday which was a blast!
Thursday night I went to a milonga which is a place to dance tango. We went to a place called Salon Canning. Although I had to go for my cultural icons class it was actually fun and interesting! Jackie and I brought our tango shoes and so we ended up dancing with some older Argentine men who were really good! It was fun practicing what I've learned at IUNA and just trying to blend in. There were people of all ages and you could really tell they were passionate about tango. Hopefully I will be able to go back another time before the end of the semester when I am even more comfortable in my tango-ing abilities!
Friday we had a girls night at the apartment with lots of yummy food and wine! Saturday I did some work during the day and then had a pizza dinner with a smaller group and today I did SOO much work but such as life during midterm week! Just have to get through Thursday at 12 and I'll be home free for spring break! I can't believe it's already here!!
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