New Years In Uruguay?

No way, you've got to be kidding me, just sounds too unreal. But no, my host family decided to spend New Years in Punta del Este, a beautiful city along the shores of Urugauy that explodes in population during the summer break. During the rest of the year Punta del Este seems a little strange, the few year long inhabitants with all this empty space and surounded by towering and vaccant hotels and the beach to themselves. It is THE PLACE TO GO. Like all of the movie stars, famous musicians and upper cream of Uruguay and its neighboring countries have beautiful houses in Punta del Este where, in the summer, they drive their Ferraris through the streets and take pictures with annoying turists.

Like this one of my host brother Carlitos with the lead singer of the very famous Argentine band, Bersuit.




So the 28th of December our family of six (normally six without two exchange students. Florencia was finishing up her exchange year in Austria and Paula was working in Buenos Aires but took a bus and ferry to Uruguay to spend New Years with us.) packed our bags and headed to Uruguay! We had an interesting start. The truck, which is a dream come true when you compare it to the normal argentine car that has no more space or seats than a slugbug, was missing some papers. Missing papers and traveling with two foreigners sounded a bit risky getting across the border so at the last minute we switched cars. A silver Buick with five seats. Six people. Five seats. Fourteen hour car trip each way. Mmmmm, cozy.


Punta del Este.

We embarked upon our epic journey. My host dad, Carlos, driving, host mom Marta riding shotgun, little sister Delfina crammed in between them, and then big brother Carlitos, me and Austrian sister Katja keeping our elbows and knees tucked in in the back seats. We left around 8pm and drove through a dry thunderstorm that lasted for hours and was really beautiful and then kept driving and kept driving some more. It was still hot and our legs and sholders would stick together. I was in the middle and hating the concept of body heat. All I could think about was jumping in the Columbia river off of the Linden Tree dock, it sounded like heaven at the time.

I couldn't sleep and so I watched a breathtaking (more like yawntaking) sunset over Rio de la Plata that separates Argentina from Urugay. We crossed the border almost without incedent, but they did throw away the 8 pounds of raw sausage that we had in the back of the car. After driving through the Uruguayan country side and passing through some really worn down pueblos we arrived in Punta del Este at ten am. We "camped" on some really nice private grounds of a friend of the Pellegrini's. There were cabins and a pool and a pond with swans and a little row boat, pool tables and a hired chief so it was not camping no matter what they said.

We stayed in Punta till the 8th of Jan. We went to the beach nearly everyday and into town. The beaches were...dream-like. I've never been to California or Florida but as far I know, Washington has nothing even close. People acted a little freaked out when I told them our ocean was more black than cystral blue,that dead seals on the beach is normal and yeah there are dangerous jellyfish but its okay because no one actually goes swimming. They didn't know that their everyday beaches are 'tropical get aways' to us.


Relax Liv, just relax. Forget about snow and high school essays and your locker combination....right now just enjoy.

For New Years my host brother Carlitos had the honor (or massive job) of cooking the asado for everyone who was staying on the grounds. That ment two whole baby sheep, meters of sausages and a kilo of every cut of meat in beween. We ate dinner and then, in true agrentine fashion, filled our glasses with champagne when there were only seconds remaining in the old year and went outside to watch the fireworks. From the top of the kitchen we had a great view of the city and the ocean. When the clock struck midnight I swear the city just...exploded. I have never seen such a mess of fireworks in my entire life. This was no 'show' organized by the city council, this was chaos! It so loud, even so far away, and fireworks filled every inch of the sky, sometimes running into eachother and exploding early. Non stop for five minutes. I will see lots more 4th of Julys but I'm not sure if I will ever see that many fireworks ever again. I can't even imagine being in the city and looking up to see that. I'd be scared.


Most of the Family on New Years, Marta, Delfina, Carlitos, Katja and I.

Then, of course, we went out to the city to go to the clubs and welcome in the New Year. We couldn't even drive, the streets were so full of people. There was music coming out of every building, people dancing in the discos, in the streets, on the beaches and just about anywhere they could find space. There was also a layer of broken glass and firework debris covering the ground.

The last highlight of Uruguay was our trip to Montevideo, the capital. The family didn't want to go but they allowed Katja and I to catch a bus by ourselves and visit for the day. So we arrived in Montevideo after the two hour bus ride with just a little fold out map, money and water. Got off the bus, lost the map. Freaked out a bit being in a new city and new country with out a map,found a station where they were handing out free maps. What luck. Then we found a place to catch a free bus into the old part of the city. We were on the bus heading to the cuidad vieja, noses pressed to the windows. I turned to Katja, "I think I like Montevideo." "We've only been here ten minutes but I know what you mean, she said "I love it too."




If you ever visit South America, go to Montevideo. It is the best city. For a capital of a country it has the feel of a small town, totally safe (it doesn't put you on edge like Buenos Aires or even Seattle), easy to get around, cheaper than the rest of the country, colorful, on the ocean, full of venders and very friendly and helpful people. It just has great vibes and also the world's longest celebration of Carnaval, which I would love to return for. We had a great day to ourselves, walking the whole city point to point, eating lunch in the cafe in the middle of the street and buying awesome gifts and finding a world class bakery.





Uruguay is a great country, it made a huge impression on me in such little time. How ever, it was during the vacation that one of South America's downsides was demonstrated to me. The sickly huge gap between the poor and the rich. In Punta del Este they sell little wooden coffee tables for 2,000 US dollars. And people buy them. While in the rundown parts of town, a family of seven shares their scrap metal house with the horse that they use to get to the beach every day to walk,the mother with all her kids in tow, through the tourists trying to sell a pair of stolen flip-flops.

In all, it was a great New Years, a whole new experience like always. We drove back to a sudden family change and Katja left the Pellegrini's and Maren, from Germany, came to take her place. My plans were to stay in Pellegrini for the time being.


Maren and I after making chocolate chip cookies and a German cake that were gone after 14 hours.

Now its Valentines day as I write this, oh man I'm bad at this blogging, and a lot has happened and is about to happen. Like I said, right after Uruguay Katja changed families with Maren and Maren came to live with Pellegrinis and me. Also, Florencia arrived from her exchange to Austria and I was so glad that I got to met her because we get along great! She is such a sweet person. Carlitos left about three weeks ago on his exchange to Germany and so far he has told us that it is cold but very pretty and he doesn't understand a word. But he's a great kid, smart too even if his school grades couldn't prove that, so he will have a great time. In other family news, Lucas, my host cousin who's Dad lives in the United States and for this he was born there and is an American citizen and speaks flawless english, left aboout two weeks ago for the US to join the army. Lucas is an amazing person, full life and blessed with the gift of comedy, and to me seems more like a flag waving hippie marching in the streets against corrupt politics than a soldier, so it was kind of strange when he left. I'll miss having him around.


All of us kids at Carlitos' good bye party. Carloitos and Lucas in back being dorks, they normally don't look so bad, then blond Maren, Pia (Lucas' little sister so my host cousin), Florencia and then me!

In other news I had a great time here in Suarez during summer vacations and now I'm off to the north of Argentina!!!! I've been counting down the days till this trip since Christmas, it will be mind blowing. Bought a camera to document one of the 7 new wonders of the world, the waterfalls of Iguazu, and all the other amazing things we are bound to encounter.

Thank you SO much to Rotary for allowing me into the big wide world, it is AWESOME!

Love you all,

Oli la Yanqui(as they like to call americans here, yankees. but they say it shahn-key)


And proud!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas and happy 2011 to all! Here's just Christmas for now becuase New Years is too long to fit both together.
Christmas did not feel like Christmas to me in any shape way or form. Of course no snow and 90 degree weather gave it a strange atmosphere but there wasn't even that feeling of Christmas in the air or frantic shopping. My city was tranquil, like always, and my host sisters did some of their shopping the night of Christmas. Which they actually celebrate here the night of the 24th more than the day of the 25th. So that means that around ten thirty at night our family got together, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, about sixteen people, for Christmas dinner. The dinner was nearly all chilled foods because it was so hot outside that it's uncomfortable to eat hot foods. Lots of stuffed foods; deviled eggs, stuffed chicked, stuffed tomatoes, a type of bread that you roll like a cinnamon roll but is filled with tuna or veggies instead. And then for dessert, pan dulce, a sweet bread with fruit. It was crazy walking around in the super market and seeing an aisle totally, both sides and every single shelf, dedicated to pan dulce overnight. I think my family bought three.



We ate dinner and then at midnight fireworks started going off in the street so all the kids ran out to see. When we got back Papa Noel had "come" and placed all the gifts for everyone under the Christmas shrub. (When I told them that sometimes my family goes into the woods to cut down our Christmas tree they laughed. At least our Christmas tree wasn't made out of plastic like most families.)



Then everyone opened gifts because it was now technically Christmas day. I realized that Americans go all out on the gift giving in the sheer quantity in comparison. I gave my host family my gifts brought from Washington; Appletes and Cottlets, smoked salmon, some Starbucks instant coffee, a nice picture book, a Martha Stewert magazine, dried apples, and some little American flags. They liked everything but I'm pretty sure that no one is going to touch the salmon because seafood is really uncommon here.

After gift giving the parents sat downstairs and talked while the kids who were old enough to go to the clubs went upstairs to get ready. In comparison to the strictly family Christmas celebration I'm used to I was pretty surprised that we were allowed to go out on Christmas day and even more surprised to find that this is the highlight of Christmas. So Katja and I went to a friend's house around two am and then at four thirty everyone headed to the clubs to dance past the sunrise and walk home around seven in the morning. Not a normal Christmas to me at all but it was really fun!


Las chicas!!!!

And so I know it's late but I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, wherever you were in the world and enjoyed spending time surrounded by the people you love.

Love and post holiday wishes,
Liv

Latin Time

So this blog is really really late and as much as latin time is a valid excuse here, it really can't justify nearly two months without an solid entry. Yes, my littlest laptop who could broke about a month and a half ago and is still out of action but my family has a computer that I've been using. Actually I have the worst luck with technology. On top of a broken computer my camera broke too. One hour before getting on the bus to go on the South trip there was an issue with the zoom and now it just doesn´t take pictures. Not fair, not fair at all because I didn't do a thing to my computer or camera. Did't drop them or go on freaky websites or anything. So I was more than really bummed when my camera broke just an hour before going to the most beautiful and scenic part of Argentina, but as the tears were welling up in my eyes over the stinging injustice of it I had to remind myself of the serenity prayer. To accept the things in life that I can't change and have the courage to change the things I could. So I put my camera and computer out of my mind the best I could and went to Patagonia hoping to develop my photographic memory.

I had the most amazing time of my life.


(This is everyone. 41 exchange students and 2 adults, I'm not sure if that would fly in the states but we didn't have any problems really. We are on a boat heading to the first european ranch that was built in Tierra del Fuego. We passed a penguin colony and saw some sealions too. We traveled though the Beagle canal, which runs between the limits of Chile and Argetnina. So I´ve seen Chile, been so close I could have swam to Chile if the water was warmer and I've even been in the air above Chile, but never actually set foot there.)

Okay so I have been really busy during the chunk of time I didn't write too, I went to Córdoba with the city band that I play in, my family took me to Sierra de La Ventana and the most amazing beach in Monte Hermoso and finally got a tour of the city (the cemetary is so strange to me here, nothing like the states at all. Picture graves as poor as a mound of dirt and a wooden cross to huge houses of marble for a whole family or what looks like a tombstone you could find in the US except that there's the whole family down there stacked on top of eachother or a wall that reminds me way too much of a post office on a much bigger scale and with out letters inside the little doors. And then there is a seperate place for all the Jews. Like i said it was a very differnt experience.) But this blog would be miles long if I went into that in detail so I will stick to what is most recent.


(Some Americans showing off Old Glory in front of the glacier Perito Moreno. Yes, all of that giant white mass is a glacier. It was breathtaking. Everything was post card perfect. There were actually like 12 Americans, all girls for some reason, but this is Katie from Cheyenne, WY (never thought I'd find another person from Wyoming in Argentina), then me with my eyes closed, Emily from Fort Collins, CO and Julia from Ojai, CA.)

So we did some amazing things in the south of Argentina, just amazing simply to BE in the south of Argentina because it is so beautiful. I'll try to sum the whole week up as best as I can. Started with a tour of La Boca, one of the most famous neighborhoods of Buenos Aires. And without a doubt one of the most colorful. We flew to El Calafate, a town in the way south of Argentina where the wind in the summer can blow up to 80 miles and hour and pretty much never stops. We went to the glacier national park and saw the Perito Moreno glacier (above) and also got to strap on some crampons and HIKE ON IT. In addition to drinking the glacier melt right off of the glacier, that was some really cold water, we also got to have whiskey with the glacier ice once we got to the top. No I'm not kidding. Rotary approved whiskey on top of a glacier with an alfajor on the side. Life does't really get any better or stranger than that. The whiskey was because of urban myth that if you drink it with ice from a glacier then you will return to Patagonia someday. Right.


(Cheers to Argentina!!! And so this is how I discovered that whiskey is nasty, no matter what kind of ice you put in it.)

The next day we traveled to El Chalten which is just increíble! Took some pictures and hiked around a bit. They put in a movie during the trip back about a rebellion that took place in Patagonia and I was following it pretty well and feeling pretty good about my spanish when I fell asleep. I woke up in the middle and everyone was shooting each other and nothing made sense anymore so i just went back to sleep. Something bad happened in Patagonia in 1921 but I'm not sure what or who won....

So the next day we went to Ushuia, which boasts of being the southern most city in the world. Which is hard to grasp when you are there that in reality you are as close to the pole as you are every going to get. To find Ushuia you turn a globe upside down, that's how far south we were. Crazy crazy, mind blowing crazy!!! But that was the most stunning town I've ever seen and when we landing in the plane, flying over the Beagle canal with the sunlight just barely coming through the clouds, wow. Just wow. I wish I could have captured it.

So in Ushuia I held the inner ear of a dolphin while standing in the largest whale bone museum in the world and understanding our guides explaination in spanish and that was, without a doubt, a moment to remember. We walked around in Tierra del Fuego national park, dressed up as prisioners from the old jail in Ushuia for a theater tour and got screamed at by the guards,learned some super interesting history, saw penguins, sealions, and Chile, I met a woman from dear Washington state (first one I've met here) who didn't know what to do with her life so she set out to learn spanish three years ago in Mexico, fell in love with an Argentine and now lives in Ushuia as a tour guide speaking flawless Argentine spanish (rock on!)and also held snow for what will be the only time this Christmas. I also made 40 new friends from all over the world. It was an amzing week to say the least. Oh. And I got pooped on by a falcon. In Tierra del Fuego. So it wasn't half bad.


(the american girls being American girls in El Chalten.)

So that was the south in a nutshell. I promise to be more frequent with my posts and will try to fill in the gaps I missed. I'll get one more in before Navidad but if I don't, Merry Christmas to all and enjoy the snow!!!!

Thank you so much to everyone who made this trip possible, my parents, my amazing Rotary club back home who I have learned to appreciate so much this year, my friends from here there and everywhere, Jorge Cantar and Chechu for taking on the task of controling 41 extranjeros, Robin and Richard DeRock, Micha for giving me a job to help pay for this amazing experience and to EVERYONE who helped me out financially to make this dream come true! Couldn't have done it without you!

Love from the girl who misses mountains,

Olivia

Proof

Just a quick little post. Being immersed in a foreign language nearly all the time is a roller coaster, to say the least. There are days when I feel like Spanish just rolls of my tongue, and then there are days when I feel like banging my head against a language barrier the size of the Great Wall of China. One those rougher days I try to tell myself how much I really have improved but it's difficult when dinner conversation sounds like white noise. Good solid proof is really the best medicine.
For example this commercial from Argentina. I'm not sure how to ut it on here but I think this is the link below. I watched it on Youtube before I left and honestly I didn't understand a word. For you guys who know a bit of Spanish it will be obvious to you just how CRAZY the accent here is, and for those you you who don't, don't worry because the commercial is still funny. Enjoy.

Here

And now I can understand it!! I was so excited to be able to see some progress that I had to share.

Here's to the small victories in life!!!! Like understanding a Doritos ad.

Mud and Mayo

Well this blog is a little behind schedule partly because I didn’t realize that La Rural was two weekends ago, not one, and when I did sit down to write the blog, my family mysteriously didn’t have internet for five days. I guess it’s because of the construction on the house, doctors here (well at least the pediatricians) have house practices as well as some work in the hospital and now half of our house is a brightly colored waiting room filled with toys, tiny chairs and magazines. It’s a little bit strange to me. Like I walked downstairs this morning and the living room is filled with boxes and boxes of plastic gloves, various medicine, Band-Aids and Shrek stickers. I guess it means that my parents will be home more often.

Thank you so much Sunrise Rotary for all your letters!!! It feels good to have mail, it is a million times better than an email. I got a very brightly colored post card today, happy late birthday Kaitin! And thank you Alice for your advice on keeping a journal. I had been keeping notes on what I did from day to day but I stopped around day twenty two, once things got semi normal. But after reading your postcard I started up again, to capture the little moments that otherwise might be forgotten.

This past weekend there was the last hockey game of the season. I didn’t play and that was great for me because I still play with the thirteen year old girls and they crack up when I swing, miss and almost fall over. The girls won the match by a lot and celebrated afterwards by smearing mud on each other. At first I was really surprised, is this some strange Argentine celebration? Then I remembered the last lacrosse games of the season when we smeared cake and paint all over the seniors.Similar but not quite....


Las chicas!!!! Okay I don't know all the names but here we go, from left to right top row first: Clarita, forgot!, Augustina, Lujan, forgot and forgot, Sofi, Eugenia, Pilar, forgot, Camila, Miru and Luz. I'm so bad with names...


Miru and Egue after Egue got chased down and smeared with some fresh mud :)


Then came the condiments....


And now Augs looks like this...


And this...hahahaha so evil!

Katia went to Buenos Aires with her school and we were separated for the first time in almost two months. It was odd because I hadn’t realized just how much time we share just because we live together. We often find that things are more similar in America and Austria than they are in Argentina and I guess we will find out if the similarities really are true when we visit each other in the future. :) Yes, we dream big.

School has been going really well lately. I’m a nerd and took the math test last week. There were some word problems that went right over my head. The test got handed back today and I didn’t get a grade for it or anything but my classmates started clapping and it made me feel so good. I just get bored stiff in school sometimes, this makes any boredom in WHS seem like absolutely nothing. I would love nothing more to be able to do something because I hate feeling stupid and so I’m trying when I can.

But the best part of school is my classmates. They all just have so much personality and they make me so optimistic about having the rest of the year with them. And guess what? I’m off to another birthday party. Hahaha it’s pretty insane because I didn’t know a soul here two months ago.

It is when my friends talk that it is so clear that I am not in the states any more. I have never seen so much PASSION. They talk like the stereotypical Italian, I guess is the best comparison. I wish you all could see it. When the story they are telling gets too intense for sitting they stand up right there and continue with even larger gestures. They talk so loud and laugh so hard, it makes my American friends and I look like dead stumps. And this is all the time, not just when something super special happens, so much passion for everything! If they need a model and I’m sitting next to them then suddenly I’m a demonstration of how the drunken guy in the club was flirting with them. I crack up just watching them because they are just SO animated and it’s even funnier when I only catch handfuls of words.

So far my time here has been so amazing and I hope it stays like this. I don’t want to hit culture shock or get super homesick all of a sudden. I wouldn’t say that I’m madly in love with Argentina because there are for sure somethings that I prefer in the states but there are other things that I just love. And I love them even more because there is nothing like it back home.

Thank you all so much for giving me this chance!

Love,
Liv

I'm Sorry My Elbows Are Above My Ears, I've Never Eaten with My Left Hand Before

Ah. It’s been a month. Where did the time go? I feel like I’m just starting to get my footing here but it’s a long way from seeming like home. I know that I’m starting to adjust because I don’t fall asleep right after dinner every night anymore.

My list of words in the back of my notebook has grown to a good ten pages now and I’m reading some stories of Hans Christen Anderson in Spanish. I still think it’s weird that I can understand nearly everything in my Biology, math and Geography classes but sometimes not a word that my classmates say. I wish it was the opposite but my brain panics when they start talking two or three at once.



So this past weekend all of the exchange students went to Mar del Plata for a Rotary reunion. (The joys of twelve hours in a combi.) I keep wishing the reunions were longer so I could meet everyone but I’ll be spending plenty of time with the other exchange students on the trips! The first trip is in December and we will go to southern Argentina for a week. We’ll visit the southernmost city in the world, walk on some glaciers, see penguins and probably be really cold the whole time.
The next trip is in February and it is a three week long bus tour of the north of Argentina. Hopefully all forty of the exchange students are going because it sounds like it’s going to be crazy.

The day after we got hope from Mar del Plata I finally went out with my friends to Yamo. Yamo (shamo) is the most popular boliche (club) in Suarez and most of my classmates go out there every weekend. Of course we didn’t actually go to Yamo until four in the morning. “Why so late?” I asked. They laughed, “Because it’s completely empty if you go earlier.” Silly me. So we hung out until four and then went to Yamo and danced for two hours. I wasn’t tired at all so when we walked out of the club and it was light out, I couldn’t believe it. Then I slept till three in the afternoon.


This is me with a few of my friends at a birthday party. (Magi, the girl I'm sitting on I actually don't know, Eugenia, Luz and Camila)

That weekend I also went to two more birthday parties (will this ever stop?) and to a place called La Rural. To my American mind it was like the fair, minus the carnival part. There were a few horse races, tents full of venders, live music and lots of tractors. I was able to see some very Argentine things. Like this:




I made peanut butter cookies yesterday. Despite the fact that this butter does not taste anything like butter, the milk doesn’t taste like any milk I know and the only control on the oven is on and off, they turned out well! I made them for a girl in my class who had an operation on her spleen. (It took me two weeks to find out what organ they were talking about. The Spanish word for spleen is not in my dictionary, I guess they never thought it might be useful to know.) I have yet to give them to her but most people here aren’t the biggest fans of peanut butter. And my biology teacher asked me to make an apple pie next week…..a bit more complex. I kind of feel like their opinion of American food depends on my culinary skills. No pressure.

See you later alligator,
Olivia

Happy Birthday!!! x7

No, my birthday isn't until May. (And the picture doesn’t match the title at all. This is Katja and I during a dinner with all the exchange students in Suarez. We decided to get together, all eight of us. And I’ve been really bad about taking pictures so this is the best I have. Haha I’m such a bad tourist.)

But since I've been here, which is three weeks today, I've been to five birthday parties. I just got home from one and there's another tonight. So that's mostly what I've been up to. Besides starting field hockey, going to school, craving spicy foods and reading The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. (I keep dreaming in a jibberish that sounds like Spanish and it's driving me insane. The days when I read in English are the only days the dialogue in my dreams makes any sense. Thank you Howard Roark for keeping me sane.)

The birthday parties here are very different here. There are usually thirty or so kids (everyone from our class at school) and we sit in a circle and eat and talk (and they talk a lot here) for three or four hours. (Except for the fifteenth birthday parties, which are a huge deal and usually last until six or so in the morning.) Gifts are given sometimes and are usually very little things. But that's about it. They are very fun actually but it amazes me that they just talk for so long. Me, I sit and listen, follow the conversation and talk when I know what is going on. But they change topics so quickly, from blood types to cell phones and Michael Jackson, it's just hard for me to keep up.

They mostly just eat sweets at the parties. And you know you are in Argentina when everything you bite into has dulche de leche. Dulche de leche (literally sweet of milk) looks like caramel in color but is more liquid than solid. It is very very sweet andI like it, in modest amounts. But not in six layers or piled on every piece of cake. It is insane. Even the ice cream is dulche de leche flavored. ????
Last night was a really good night for me though. I went to my friend Eugenia's (I love that name) birthday party and talked for the whole time. It was incredible and for once I felt in on the conversation. It was once of my best moments here and I wish everyday could be as easy as that.

After the birthday party I went home and then took a taxi back to Eugenia's house around one a.m. (that's normal here) to go out with my classmates. I've become much more independent here. If need to get somewhere I walk, bike or call a taxi. If I need something I walk around until I find a store that sells it or ask someone on the street. It’s nice I guess but very different than what I did in America. It’s just that I can’t drive, most of the time there is no one to take me because my parents are at work and everything is so close that it isn’t really a hassle.
For a while I got sore throats and that gross sick feeling during the evenings and went to bed thinking I was going to be sick for a while. I woke up the next mornings feeling fantastic. The first time I thought it was really cool because I magically healed overnight. After feeling sick after six every night for five nights in a row I was just really peeved. Why couldn’t I stay sick long enough to miss a bit of school?

But now that has passed for the most part and compared to the other exchange students I’ve been in really good health. I am tired a lot and I try not to nod off in school, which is close to impossible when everything sounds like white noise. But I think I am finally getting used to the Argentine schedule and I’ve stopped feeling hungry during American meal times.

This coming weekend all the exchange students are headed to Mar del Plata and while I’m not looking forward to the drive I’m excited to meet everyone and hear about the trips we will be taking later this year! La la la yes, I’m playing hockey, I want to start dance classes and I think that’s about it!

Thanks to everyone for these weeks and thanks for checking up on me!

Love,
Liv