Finals Week Grind

Hey, so remember that time I come home in 12 days? Yeah my life is insane.

We started finals today... What? Yeah these tests have snuck up on me like nobody's business. School in Argentina is very laid back, and there usually isn't work besides midterms and finals, so we're all feeling a little over loaded.

I had my first exam today which wasn't fun, but then two papers and three exams between now and Tuesday so my life is currently a joke. Also blogging without a laptop sucks. Sorry there are no pictures. There is no good way to add photos with an iPhone on the blogger app.

Last Friday we went to finally pick up our visas, because that makes sense with two weeks left, and then we explored Palermo and got some delicious American style food! After that a group of us went to the US Embassy to VOTE!! It was my first time voting and it was certainly a special way to do it. There was a children's Halloween costume party happening in the embassy and Disney background music. Perfect.

Catedral de San Isidro 

Saturday Jenn and I went and explored San Isidro in the suburbs and then back to Tigre. I'll post photos once I'm home! (UPDATE: I upload pictures to my roommates computer!) We were then super tired and crashed when we got home. Sunday we had a day event in San Telmo to go shopping, and it looks like I have some more last minute gifts to buy this coming weekend.

I can't believe how fast this is going. I can't wait to come home though!! Until next time...

- Meagan

An Iguazú Weekend

Before I start on how amazing my weekend was, I need to get this whole robbery story out of the way.  Yesterday I was sitting in a Starbucks with my roommate, and I left to go to the bathroom so I left my laptop with her. In the two minutes I was gone, a group of people distracted my roommate, and used that distraction to swipe my laptop off the table without her noticing. I had a major mental breakdown in the middle of the restaurant and I probably can't show my face there ever again but I did all I could. I filed a police report, and remotely wiped my computer using find my iphone, and that function went through today, so take that thieves.  Losing your laptop absolutely sucks, but i'll be home three weeks from today, and I know I can survive until then without any issues.

Back to happy talk.  

This weekend I went to Iguazú Falls with the group and it was quite possibly one of the best weekends ever! Unfortunately I lost the good files of all my photos from the weekend in the robbery, so the facebook versions will have to do.  

On Friday morning we left for Iguazú and of course, it was raining like it always is in Buenos Aires. We boarded our morning flight and made it to Iguazú before noon, and eventually headed to our hostel. Originally we were told we would be staying in a four star hotel, so we were all kind of upset to find out it was a hostel, but it turned out to be a really nice place besides the rooms we stayed in. The hostel had a huge pool and a restaurant and bar as well! On the bus on the way to the hostel a representative from an excursion company gave us brochures and we decided to do one of the packages that afternoon! It was pretty inexpensive, and we would be zip-lining, hiking, and wet-rapelling a waterfall! After we got to the hostel, we got ourselves situated and then headed out on our adventure. 

We started by getting into an open air vehicle, and our guide Andres showed us some of the more rural parts of the town on our way into the park. We were in a group with people from all over South America, which was pretty awesome.  Andres told us about Puerto Iguazú, and also informed us that zip-lining (or canoping, as they call it) would be our first activity of the day! We arrived at the location for zip-lining and I was beyond excited. Zip-lining has been on my bucket list, and what better place to do it for the first time than in the jungles of Argentina! The entire length of the line was 800m split up over three sections, one longer, and two faster. I wasn't nervous at all, and it was an absolute blast! 

When I ended up in the falls...

After zip-lining they told us to keep our harnesses on for our little hike, which turned out to be a leisurely walk to the wet-rapelling location. I was really excited for wet-rapelling, but as it turns out I was absolutely terrible at it.  The waterfall itself was 14m high, and it looked like it wouldn't be that hard. Unfortunately when it came to be my turn, I slipped before I could even take a real step and managed to body slam the waterfall rocks.  Once I finally got a footing I slipped again and ended up right in the waterfall instead of on the side. My knees took a beating from body slamming the rocks, but eventually I made it to the bottom to the laughter and applause of everyone watching... 

Wet-rapelling concluded our adventure for the day, and we climbed the stairs back up to our ride which took us home. After that we all got in the pool and swam until it started thundering, so we headed to our rooms and siesta-d for a bit. We were told that dinner would be provided for us, so we headed to the common area of the hostel where we got some drinks and passed the time before dinner! Overall the milanesa dinner was really good, and we had a great night. We met some obnoxious guys from Australia that tried to get us to hang out with them and kept telling us stories about the "Drop Bear." Google it.  

Saturday was the day I had been looking forward to on this entire trip, and unfortunately it was a little chilly an rainy. I'm not going to lie, I was an absolute debbie downer all morning because of not having a jacket or anything, and I was dreading every time it would rain. So for the morning I put on a brave face and went with it.  We took a bus into the park where we met our tour guide, Carlos. Carlos took the entire group to the train that would take us to the largest waterfall in their system: La Garganta del Diablo (The Devil's Throat). Once we got off the train we walked along a bridge which crossed over a river and eventually we made it. I have no true words to describe just how incredibly massive this waterfall was, but let me just say that niagra looks like a faucet.  We spent about a half our or so just appreciating the falls and the view that we have, and despite it being overcast and raining, the view was spectacular.  

We re-boarded the train and it began to rain again, and then we did some more walking through areas of the park. We took a break for lunch and to dry off and then finally the rain let up! We continued to walk and see some of the other amazing waterfalls along the paths, and the sheer magnitude of how many falls there were is just incredible.  Every stop seemed picture perfect, and my day really started to pick up then.  We eventually got to the bottom of one of the falls, and we saw all the people in ponchos because of the spray at the bottom of the platform. Naturally, we didn't have ponchos, so we all went to the edge and just played in the water and took silly pictures and laughed and it was wonderful. By that point, I didn't care about being cold or wet anymore, and it only made me more excited for what we'd do next...

The boat ride. We had an excursion paid for that would take us under the falls in a speed boat, and we were all extremely excited.  We made our way down the path to the boat, where they gave us rubber bags to store anything we needed to keep dry, and we were given life-vests and got on the boat! I don't think any of us realized how soaked we were going to get, but it was beyond anything we thought. First the boat took us to the bottom of a smaller set of falls, where we were able to take pictures until they told us to put our cameras away (I had a waterproof case). They got really close to the bottom and the water poured in the boat and we all just screamed and laughed. They then sped out of that area and started towards a HUGE set of falls, where they did the same thing until we were so close to the fast moving water that the boat was spinning and rocking like crazy! We were literally soaking wet with water, hair dripping not caring whatsoever about it.  

The view

The boat then continued back to the original waterfall for some more fun, and then down the river to our drop-off point. We were able to see Brazil, and then we got off the boat for our "jungle tour" which was basically just a time to get us back to our tour guides. We were all wringing out our clothing and we stopped at a little market before we re-boarde the bus.  After this adventure we headed back to the hostel where there was an asado! 

Attractive

For dinner there was different kinds of meats, along with some free drinks and salads, so we had a great night! We spent the night playing games and talking, and eventually we all made it to bed.  Sunday we didn't have much planned so we headed to a precious stones store in the town, but then just hung around the hostel for the rest of the day.  Our flight was in the evening so we got back to Buenos Aires around 8 ish, and I was back in my apartment by 9. Overall, it has to be one of my favorite weekends of the trip. If you ever have the opportunity to go, I absolutely recommend it! It's one of the NEW 7 Wonders of the World! 

So yeah, I'm not going to let the absolute let down of being robbed of something as valuable as my laptop get me down. I've accepted the fact that it's gone and I've done everything in my power to keep myself secure, like changing passwords and wiping the computer itself with find my iphone.  Things like this happen, and I literally have less than three weeks here. A little lack of computer never hurt anyone.... 

As always, I can't wait to see everyone! Until next time... 

- Meagan 

A Quick Update...

I had the adventure of my life this weekend and I'd love to tell you about it, but I was robbed of my laptop today and will update when my life calms down a little bit. Argentina- 10,000,000,000,000,000, Meagan-0.

Besos.

- Meagan

Argentina- 1000, Meagan- 0

I got my behind handed to me by Argentina over the past week or so. It's been a rough past few days for me, in that I got my first migraine as well as what appears to be a stomach-flu type bug. It's cool, Argentina, thanks for waiting until the week before a HUGE adventure weekend to practically kill me. I can only hope that I'm better by this Friday for IGUAZU FALLS!

But anyway...

Thursday I got the absolute worst headache of my life, which turned out to be a migraine, and I was basically bed-ridden the entire night after school.  It was not a fun experience and I don't recommend it to anyone.

Friday my migraine had gone away so a few of us decided to get together to make guacamole! I had never actually had it before (believe it or not), so I was super excited to try some homemade guac! We took a trip into Chinatown to find tortilla chips, because yes, that's the only place you can buy them in this entire city.  After Chinatown we headed to a fresh produce stand and got our avocados, onions and tomatoes and headed back to one girl's apartment to start preparing. We had an awesome afternoon and the guac was absolutely delicious until...

I got absolutely sick to my stomach later that night. I literally couldn't even function as a normal human being I was in so much pain. I figured it would go away over night and I'd return to normal, but I was definitely wrong. Saturday I was feeling a teeny bit better so Jenn and I headed back to Recoleta so she could see la Flor and we could do some shopping for people at home. I felt kind of weird all day so I was excited to get back in bed when we got home. I, once again, started feeling very sick as soon as we got home and I couldn't get out of bed. I started getting some more flu-like symptoms like heat flashes and freezing, but I powered through thinking I'd be good by yesterday morning.

Wrong.

Yesterday our group took a day trip to Tigre, which is about 45 minutes away by train and is located in the Buenos Aires province. It's this beautiful little delta town with boats and beautiful scenery. On the train ride there I was fine until about 3 stops away when I started feeling absolutely terrible and had to physically sit down on the floor of the train so I wouldn't get sick. Attractive, I know.  Once we got off the train and into some fresh air I was better, but by the time we waited in line for our lunch at the buffet in the casino filled with stale casino air, I was absolutely feeling sick again and wasn't able to stomach or each much of anything during lunch. The buffet looked delicious and I really wish I could have eaten there.

After lunch we had a boat ride scheduled and I had a feeling it wasn't going to end well for me, but I felt surprisingly normal on the boat and had a beautiful time as we cruised around the various delta branches.  The views were spectacular and it was a great way to bring my spirits back up.

On the Delta!

They really like wicker

We got off the boat and Jenn and I went to explore the markets, but eventually decided we had enough and hopped on a train back home where I was luckily able to sit for the entire ride.  We got off at our stop and worked our way home, and my stomach was bothering me again, but I wasn't sure if it was me being sick or being starving from not eating lunch. I couldn't finish my dinner when it was served to me, and I ended up sick to my stomach again last night. I really just need to be better by the end of this week so I can have a normal weekend trip with my friends.

Today I'm actually feeling a lot better (knock on wood) and I'm hoping I'll be able to make it to class assuming I feel fine in about two hours or so, only time will tell.

In other unrelated news, I'm officially under the one month mark until I'm home, which is extremely bitter sweet. I also have over 1000 views on this blog, so that's kind of awesome too. Thanks for reading! :)

I hope I start to feel normal again and can start enjoying my last few weeks in the city, I miss everyone very much!

- Meagan

Frank Walsh comes to Argentina!

I wouldn't trade this past weekend for anything.  I had the wonderful opportunity to have my Dad come down to visit me here in the city, and it was absolutely wonderful!

My dad, me and my host mom!

He arrived Thursday afternoon after some interesting experiences traveling, but nonetheless he made it! I walked to his hotel after school and then we walked from his hotel to my homestay to meet my host mom! My host mom had invited him over for a "reception" as she called it, but in a weird turn of events she actually half forgot about it. In a way, I'm glad that happened because my dad was able to see my host mom in her true colors, frazzled, frantic, and absolutely hilarious.  When she arrived home she was in an absolute panic and it was pretty funny, but we calmed her down and gave her the book my dad had made of pictures of my hometown, which she loved.  She made appetizers and offered us drinks like "vino tinto." (Yes, just red wine.  The bottle literally just said red wine, no actual type.) Thursday night had to have been one of my favorite nights on the trip so far, and I'm so glad my dad got to meet my host mom.

The weather forecast for the entire weekend looked grim, but I secretly hoped that we would get some sunshine, and luckily we did! Friday was beautiful and sunny, and I wasn't going to complain.  We walked from his hotel along the Bosque de Palermo, and eventually made our way towards Plaza Italia.  While walking along the road, my dad and I were stopped by a man, who asked to see the photos on my camera because he had gotten a phone call from inside the United States embassy that they thought I was taking pictures of the building (which is apparently not allowed) and that security outside had to check it out.  Ironically enough, I hadn't even taken my camera out of my bag since the night before, and my dad was the one with the huge DSLR in a backpack behind him. I spoke to the man in spanish and explained that I hadn't taken any pictures, but for some reason they thought I was some sort of threat to american national security. Not only that, but the US embassy wasn't even pretty and I wouldn't have wanted photos of it anyway.

Once we got to the plaza we explored the Botanical Gardens of the city, and then made our way down towards Plaza de Mayo and the Puerto Madero area. I wanted to show my dad all of the cool touristy things when I knew the weather would be nice, so we did a lot of walking! Eventually we were both exhausted and headed back to his hotel just to lay around and watch some television. That night I took him to his first parilla restaurant (steak, chorizo, etc), and we had a wonderful evening.

La Flor

Saturday was another surprisingly beautiful day in the city. The rain held out and we headed down to Recoleta so I could show him the Recoleta Cemetery and the weekend artisan's market.  First we stopped so I could FINALLY see the flower! La flor is this giant metal sculpture in Recoleta that  looks like a flower and actually opens and closes like a real flower! It was extremely impressive in person. After that we headed to the cemetery, where we walked around the majority of it, getting lost between the mausoleums and monuments and appreciating the beauty.  After the cemetery we walked around the market and bought a few things as gifts. It was a really beautiful day overall and I had a great time. Saturday night we had tickets to a tango show (starring my professor), so we went to go see it at the legendary Cafe Tortoni! It was a great show, and I even got to dance on stage with my professor mid-performance!

Café Tortoni, and the stage where I danced

Sunday the weather was unfortunately not in our favor, but luckily we were able to head to San Telmo for the antiques/crafts market that morning before the rain hit! We were able to take shelter in a shopping mall and get some lunch before walking back towards El Obelisco in the center of city. While walking in centro we stopped outside El Teatro Colón, and then saw something super weird...

Do you ever have one of those stories that just no one believes? Well ours starts with a man on a little bike.  We were walking through centro when my dad told me to look up. When I did I saw a man riding a tiny bike with a 2 foot tall potted plant on his head.  Believe it or not, this isn't the weirdest part of the story.  It was raining too, which made it strange.  As we were standing across the street we saw another man come up with a two liter bottle of coke, and subsequently pour some of it into the other man's potted plant. The man with the plant stood up, yelled at the guy, and then tried to pour the coke out of the plant.  Clearly angry, the man with the plant told the other guy off for trying to kill his plant.  Surprisingly, the man with the soda then physically pushed the guy with the plant into the street, who then rode off in the rain.  I had no real words.

After that little moment the weather started getting pretty crappy, so we headed back to his hotel and were miserable excuses for human beings for the rest of the day.  We went out for dinner that night, got some ice cream, and overall just had a nice evening.  The next day the weather was so-so, but we decided to go out and explore some other stuff anyway. We headed back to Plaza de Mayo so we could find the San Ignacio church which has a series of underground tunnels. Unfortunately due to the holiday the church was completely closed.  After that we took a walk and I finally got to see the congressional building, which was very impressive! We walked back towards the plaza and along Calle Florida until we reached Plaza San Martin, which was very nice and had a cool clock tower.  My dad and I spent a lot of time just walking around his neighborhood and exploring all the city has to offer.

Unfortunately I had to say goodbye to my dad yesterday, which was not an easy thing to do because the weekend was not nearly long enough. Overall this weekend really made me appreciate home so much more, but it also gave me a greater appreciation of the city.

Beyond that, this was the weekend I finally realized how much I've learned here. Three months ago, I would never have been able to fully translate for my dad who speaks no spanish to my host mom who speaks no english. My confidence now is so much higher speaking spanish, and I finally realize how much I've grown as a person. This experience is one of those that I'm never going to forget and one that truly affected me as a person, and made me a better version of who I was.

The next coming weeks are pretty crazy looking. I have a day trip this coming weekend and a full weekend trip the following weekend to Iguazu falls! In reality, I only have ONE MONTH left here and I'm not quite sure I'm ok with that.  The days and weeks seem to be going faster and 33 days will be here before I know it.  It's a bitter sweet feeling, but I know for sure I'm going to be upset to leave this place. Argentina has it's ups and downs but the goods far outweigh the bads.

In the words of my host mom, "Qué voy a hacer?"

Love and miss everyone at home! Besos!

- Meagan

Uruguay, Where Buses Wait For No One.

This weekend was absolutely wonderful! After finishing up the last week of midterms (thank goodness), we headed to the lovely country of Uruguay for the weekend to do some adventuring!

We started off our Friday morning by meeting at the university at 7 am... which meant a very long morning for all of us. We took a van to the Buquebus boat port where we would get on our boat to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay! We originally thought we were going to take the slow boat (about 3 hours) but we ended up on the fast boat which took about an hour to get there! I was super excited because now I have new stamps in my passport... it's the little things.

Once we got to Colonia we headed to a tourist center where we watched a multimedia presentation about Uruguay as a whole, which was really cool because it was projected onto all the walls. After that we took a walk with our director and headed into the old area of the city, which is really well known. Along the way we stopped to look at the Uruguayan view of the Río de la Plata, which looks way more like an ocean because of how big it is.  We hung out down by the water, and then the sun started to go in and it got kind of overcast, unfortunately. After that we went to see their little harbor, and eventually headed out for lunch. After lunch the group split into those of us who would continue to travel in Uruguay, and those that were going to take the boat back to Buenos Aires that night. All in all there were 8 of us who were going to stay in the weekend in Uruguay.

After taking a little time to go see the lighthouse, the 8 of us went to the bus station and bought our tickets to Montevideo, and our transfer tickets to Punta del Este. Taking buses in Uruguay is much cheaper than in Argentina, and the buses aren't a bad quality either. On the bus ride to the capital I noticed that the country side reminds me a lot of home in Pennsylvania. Lots of rolling land in farms. At the same time, it feels a lot like going back in time because of the old cars and machinery. There was even a moment where I saw a man with a sheep tied to a tree that he was using to eat the grass on his lawn for mowing. Overall it was a nice bus ride.  For our bus to Montevideo, we would have about a half hour time between when we arrived and when our next bus would depart to Punta del Este.

Here's where things go bad. 

After the 3 hour bus ride, we arrived and were all pretty much starving. We decided to go to the McDonalds in the station and grab something quick.  By the time we were in line we only had a few minutes until the next bus left, so we were a bit crunched for time. In line, one girl in our group said she wanted ice cream, and when the mcdonalds told her she had to go upstairs to that one to get it, we told her it was a bad idea because of time.  Usually, in Argentina things are always late and never leave on time. Funny thing is, this isn't Argentina. Even though we told her not to go, she went anyway and the rest of us went to get on the bus.  First, we got on the wrong bus and were informed by the people in our seats that we had 2 minutes to get onto the other one... and to "hurry" if we could. So we ran to the second one and got on.  One other girl waited in the doorway and told the bus driver that we were missing someone and she would be here any minute. As it turns out, that means nothing to them.  

The driver literally closed the door on our friend so she had to come inside, and pulled away leaving our other friend in the station. There was a momentary panic among the group, so we emailed our director, who then called us and told us that he couldn't get ahold of her, and neither could any of us. Basically, we needed to trust that she would buy another bus ticket to Punta del Este for that night, and we'd find her at the station later. 

After the 2 hour bus ride we headed to our Hostel in Punta del Este and checked in. A few people went back to the station to wait for the other girl, and the rest of us just kind of sat around wondering what we should do. About an hour later they came back to the hostel WITH our friend so there was a collective sigh of relief with the group. We wanted to go out and explore the town that night, so we started off by spending the night hanging out with the guys that worked at the hostel, but eventually some of us were too tired to go out so we went to bed while others went. 

La Mano!

The next day would be our day to explore Punta del Este. The city is what south americans believe is the equivalent of Miami, but much smaller. I can see what they meant, but the weather wasn't exactly in our favor. Normally there are blue skies and beautiful beaches, but it was rainy and miserable for the majority of the day. Originally, our plan was to rent scooters and explore on our own, but the lady at the hostel advised us against that and also told us we'd be much better off on a bus tour. We were all kind of disappointed because the scooters seemed awesome, but scootering in the rain seems less than fun.  

We ended up booking a bus tour for 3:00, so we had some time to kill before that started. We went to La Mano (The Hand) on the beach that morning, which was sculpted in 3 days in the early 80s. It was so cool! Despite the rain, we had a lot of fun taking pictures with the hand as well as the beach. After that we walked across the peninsula and saw the river side of it and walked on a boardwalk along that. We had a constant companion for this portion of our day, which was a stray dog who followed us everywhere, but he was pretty cute. At one point Jenn and I walked under a pier where Jenn found some sort of bone... so that's the day Jenn became a paleontologist. 

We then walked towards the harbor, which was really nice, and after decided it was time to go to the grocery store to buy food to make lunch. It was a successful meal, and then it was time for the bus tour! I have to say, I normally fall asleep on bus tours but this one was great. The woman who gave it was really engaging and nice and we could understand her completely. She showed us around the town, and then off into other areas of a surrounding town, Maldonado. We got to see the Beverly Hills neighborhood, as well as stop off at lots of look-out spots in the rain. Eventually, we made it to a look out spot and it stopped raining! As soon as the sun came out the scenery changed and it was so beautiful. We then took the bus to Casapueblo, which is the house of Carlos Páez Vilaró, an Uruguayan artist. It was absolutely incredible! The sun started getting lower and the orange and yellow light was shining on the white structure. I could have spent all day just looking over the water there, but eventually we needed to head out to our final destination where we would watch the sunset on the beach. Luckily the clouds had broken so we could see the sun, and it was a great ending to the day. 

Casapueblo

We went out for dinner that night, and then got back to our hostel where we decided that we would go out that night, but unfortunately I started to get a headache, and pretty much everyone was too tired to function so most of us went to bed.  The next morning was another early day because we had a lot of traveling to do. We came outside to an absolutely beautiful day in Punta del Este, and had to get on the 8:45 bus to Montevideo. After getting to Montevideo, we had 4 hours until our next bus, so we decided to find Plaza Independencia which was recommended to us by our tour guide. Turns out, the plaza was WAY farther than she told us, and overall not that impressive. We grabbed some lunch, eventually reached the plaza and decided to go find the water. We walked along the water for a little bit back to the station, where we ran into a man selling puppies on the street. Naturally I grabbed the fluffiest one and was instantly smitten. I wish I could have stolen that puppy but that would probably end badly. We also saw a little fountain with tons of locks that couples add to (like the ones in Europe), and I thought that was pretty awesome.

Plaza Independencia in Montevideo

Smitten

We got on our bus to take us to Colonia, and we had a pretty uneventful ride. Straight off the bus we got back onto the boat (yay more stamps!) and headed back to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately we were stuck on the slow boat, so it took over 3 hours. Luckily, we were able to go up on deck and watch the sunset and see the moon. We arrived back in the city around 10, and caught a bus back to our apartments and finally got some rest! After lunch yesterday I had started getting a little sore throat, but by nighttime it was absolutely terrible. I convinced myself that it was a result of all the traveling/buses/weather/dehydration/tiredness and that it would go away overnight, but I woke up this morning to it being worse, unfortunately. I ended up not being able to go to class because of my headache, so I'm really hoping that I start to feel better tomorrow.  

In other news, my Dad comes to Buenos Aires on THURSDAY!! I am so excited to get to spend some time with him and I can't wait to show him the city on my long weekend! :) Also, Exactly one month from today is my last actual day of classes, and the week after that I have finals, and then I'm home... what? This is going way too fast.  

As always, I miss everyone at home! Ciao ciao! :)

- Meagan