Saturday, March 14, 2009
Lo siento
This isn't really a blog entry, I was just going through the last one and realized just how many errors there are in it. Sorry for the typos! I'll try to keep it all in order from now on
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Sigo olvidando...
Hola everyone! Right about now you'd probably like to ask me "Charlie, where the H-E-Double hockeysticks have you been?" Well, I believe its been about 3 weeks since I last wrote? A lot has happened since then and I've just been busy living life. I'd love to keep you guys updated all the time, and I know you're all eager to hear new stories and whatnot, but I kind of just write this at my leisure. I want a record of the things I've done, but for the most part this experience for me is more about living this life than writing it all down. But it has been way too long, and a lot of things have happened, so I won't be able to go write all of what has happened. But the main points...
Exactly 3 weeks ago I took my final for the Intensive Spanish course, and did pretty well on it. All he kids in the program also went on a trip to El Tigre, only a bus ride out of the city. We all went kayaking and I, in my infinite, received the smallest most emasculating life vest. Once we actually got into the water, it too ka while for me and my partner Amy to get ourselves situated in the water. I was steering us (imagine how great a job I did) and we kept bumping into boats, even hitting the one some middle-aged couple was getting into as they left the little port area. Anyway, once we actually got out into the river, I got the hang of it all. It was a very peaceful trip, floating by quaint little riverside houses. For a while I felt just like Huck Finn, lazying his way down the river without a care in the world. The serenity was only really broken by large tour boats that made me paddle faster than I ever thought I could. We finally arrived at this little beach-like island, with a volleyball court, ice cream stand, and of course because it's Argentina, a bar. After that long trip we all got out and just chilled for about 2 hours, playing some V-ball, swimming in the river a bit, and downing our Quilmes yet again. A great evening.
That night was Emily's birthday, and we all went out to eat dinner at a Chinese restaurant, then pregamed our actual night out on the town with more than a few bottles of wine. We finally actually went out at about 2AM, but the bar we wanted to go to was closed, so we headed over to good ol' Plaza Serrano, which is always open. We danced and shared some drinks at a bar called Madagascar, then headed over to a 24 hour place at around 4AM. By that point in the night we had all partied pretty hard, but a few of us just kept going. Unfortunately, due to some of the activities of the night, me and Jessie got into a big fight, so I told her off and found a cab to take me home. The cab driver and I shared a lively conversation about how we didn't understand women during the ride home and literally 20 seconds after stepping out of the cab realized I left my phone in the car. Just my luck, he was too far to call back. By that time it was about 6 in the morning and there was no point in sleeping for 2 hours before class the next morning, so stayed up took the colectivo over there, groggy and still a little silly. This was our last class and when we got there, I was one of 6 ppl that had bothered to show up, so it didn't matter much when I left class early so I could get some sleep. I aced the final and needed nothing more.
Flash forward to the next week! Orientation for international students has begun! We got there early in the morning and I was refreshed to see the main lobby of UCA. For the last 3 weeks, we had been taking class with kids from this one abroad program, AIFS. Needless to say, we don't like them that much, so it was nice to see about 100 new faces and people from all over to interact with. The first activity we did was a scavenger hunt in groups and I got to meet some nice people. Of course, my team won and got free Mate gourds. By the way, I'm bringing mate back to hte states with me. It's a way of life down here and I'll look like a totally cultured, hip kid sitting on the quad sipping on some mate throughout the day...Anyway, the rest of the week was a mic of boring lectures that served almost no purpose except to bore us to death and wish we were out in a park just sitting and talking. I, in fact, did this on Wednesday when we were supposed to be having our tango lessons. I was kind of interested in learning it a little bit, but by that point I was getting tired of that scene and only about 30 kids actually attended anyway. Instead I made some new friends had a nice evening at the park. I also registered for classes that week and by the end of it all found UCA to be even more incompetent than AU. Yes, I know, pretty hard to believe. But when your registration system is comprised of two people standing at oppositesides of a stage, handing out numbered tickets for the order in which to register, without any sort of efficient line system so that a mob of kids just attack you to be able to register, then after that only have two guys with laptops registering students one at a time, you kind of lose your credibility. I mean, we're goin to what's considered to be one of the best schools in the city, if not the best, and they can't get their stuff together? No offense, but oh, Latin America! The nice thing is I only have class tuesday-Thursday, for 4 day weekends every week, sweet!
Moving on (this is already longer than I wanted it to be). After orientation week we all had one week before classes actually started, so me and 5 of our other friends went on a trip to Uruguay. We left that next Monday via ferry and arrived in the small, tourist town of Colonia. The place was simple and beautiful. We spent about one hour just hanging out on a pier, taking pictures and admiring the beautiful scene around us. It was probably the most peaceful moment that I had spent down here up to that point. Afterward we walked into the historical part of the town, up and down cobblestone roads, stopped at a little souvenir store, then headed over to the town lighthouse. Me, Brittany, Emily and Mark walked up the spiral staircase to the top where we had a ridiculous view of the city. I could see the whole town and looking out as far as I could see I knew that this had to be the beginning of a great trip. The pictures I took show an amazing view, but those photos don't compare to the feeling of being up there with a perfect sea breeze cooling you down in the hot summer weather.
A bit later we took a bus into the city of Montevideo and I arrived at my first hostel shortly after getting there. The hostel, Che Lagarto, was pretty chill and easy to live in. Me, Kim and Emily shared a room with 2 Brazilians and one guy from Uruguay. We didn't do much that night but get dinner cause we had been on a long trip. During dinner, however, we met some kids from GW that are going to UCA with us and I made a couple new friends. The next day we walked through the town and went to a little Feria Artesanal where people sold hand-made crafts that were absolutely stunning to look at. Windcatchers, jars, necklaces, leather bags, mate gourds, wind chimes, you name it. i made a purchase there for the sis and afterward we went to eat some lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out in the plaza outside of our hostel. At night we got dinner and went to a bar that was named....get ready for it....I'm already getting excited thinking about it.....The Prancing Pony! For those of you not cool enough to know, the Prancing Pony is the bar where the Hobbits were suppose to meet Gandalf in Bree after escaping from The Shire and where Frodo first wore the One Ring, and where they met Aragorn. Ring any bells? Guess not, but it was a cool moments for me when I realized and saw the movie posters on the wall. There was a chill live band there and we later met up with the GW kids and hung out with them the rest of the night. The next day we awoke to a freaking tropical storm. It didn't feel like much in the morning, and on the bus to the seaside beach town of Punta del Diablo, but once we actually got there it was a different story. The weather was ridiculous with the strongest wind I've ever felt and cold, stinging rain that we trudged our way through for about 45 minutes. By the time we actually found El Diablo Tranquilo, our hostel, we were soaked. We dropped our stuff in the room, and realizing that we were already soaking wet, decided to go out into the ocean for a little storm swim. The water was wonderfully warm (check out that alliteration) and it felt completely freeing. The fact that the storm hadn't calmed much didn't matter because that memory will be burned in my mind for the rest of my life. Afterwards we hung out a bit then got dinner at a restaurant where I ordered shark, which was muy rico. Sooo good. That night, the bars were closed so everyone came to the hostel to party and drink. There were soooo many people either under the influence or a bit tipsy, it was very surreal. I didn't get bad, but some people were just...idk...silly lol. And the power went out at least 3 times that night. At a certain point I had had enough and just went down to sleep. The next day was a bit better, not storm, just the occasional light showers so we were actually able to go chill out on the beach. While the others were laying down taking in some sun I sat on this little lifeguard post and just sat on hte edge of the wooden floor and stared at everything around me. Once again, any description or photo would'nt do justice to what the actual experience was like. That was the most peaceful moment I've had since I've been down here. That night, unfortunately, my allergies decided that I had had it too easy this entire trip and started kicking in, so I was unable to hang out with the others at night and went to sleep early. The next day was bright, sunny and gorgeous. We walked into town and went to the little craft stores in the area, where I purchased some more items and ate a nice seafood lunch with Mark. We spent the rest of the say just chilling on the beach laying on the beach and swimming through the water a bit.
Now, to conclude things, this week classes started for me. Unfortunately, I think God might have thought I had been enjoying my time a little too much because halfway through Monday I started feeling sick. I hung out with Mark, his visiting friend from home, and his roommate. We walked to the Botannical Gardens and took some pictures then headed over to the zoo, only to find out they were closed on Mondays. We then made a long long long long long walk to the Recoleta Cemetery which contains the graves of many prominent argentinos, including the heroine Eva Peron. You know, Evita, Don't cry for me Argentina, all that stuff... Once we stopped for lunch however, my knees were hurting, I felt really warm and weak and my skin was real sensitive. After buying some new sneakers (the other pair was ruined in Punta del Diablo) I went home and rested up. I had class the next day, which was alright. Unfortunetely, around 3pm I started feeling crappy again and didn't go to my last class of the day because I barely had the strength to hold myself up during the previous class. Today I didn't leave the house for fear that the sickness would come back, and only went out for some food and my International Migrations class, which was pretty boring. i though my sickness was done, but my headache came back a little later, followed by some very unpleasant stomach issues that I refuse to describe. Anyway, seeing as how it's 3:15 here and I have class tomorrow morning, I'm gonna hit the hay. Hopefully I'll be returned to full health tomorrow and will be able to have some fun instead of spending the day shut up in my room like the rest of this week has been. Night y'all, hope everyone in the states is alright and just want to let you all know that I miss you more than you know. This whole not seeing friends and family thing is not cool, but I'm at least living it up in South America with nice summer weather.
Exactly 3 weeks ago I took my final for the Intensive Spanish course, and did pretty well on it. All he kids in the program also went on a trip to El Tigre, only a bus ride out of the city. We all went kayaking and I, in my infinite, received the smallest most emasculating life vest. Once we actually got into the water, it too ka while for me and my partner Amy to get ourselves situated in the water. I was steering us (imagine how great a job I did) and we kept bumping into boats, even hitting the one some middle-aged couple was getting into as they left the little port area. Anyway, once we actually got out into the river, I got the hang of it all. It was a very peaceful trip, floating by quaint little riverside houses. For a while I felt just like Huck Finn, lazying his way down the river without a care in the world. The serenity was only really broken by large tour boats that made me paddle faster than I ever thought I could. We finally arrived at this little beach-like island, with a volleyball court, ice cream stand, and of course because it's Argentina, a bar. After that long trip we all got out and just chilled for about 2 hours, playing some V-ball, swimming in the river a bit, and downing our Quilmes yet again. A great evening.
That night was Emily's birthday, and we all went out to eat dinner at a Chinese restaurant, then pregamed our actual night out on the town with more than a few bottles of wine. We finally actually went out at about 2AM, but the bar we wanted to go to was closed, so we headed over to good ol' Plaza Serrano, which is always open. We danced and shared some drinks at a bar called Madagascar, then headed over to a 24 hour place at around 4AM. By that point in the night we had all partied pretty hard, but a few of us just kept going. Unfortunately, due to some of the activities of the night, me and Jessie got into a big fight, so I told her off and found a cab to take me home. The cab driver and I shared a lively conversation about how we didn't understand women during the ride home and literally 20 seconds after stepping out of the cab realized I left my phone in the car. Just my luck, he was too far to call back. By that time it was about 6 in the morning and there was no point in sleeping for 2 hours before class the next morning, so stayed up took the colectivo over there, groggy and still a little silly. This was our last class and when we got there, I was one of 6 ppl that had bothered to show up, so it didn't matter much when I left class early so I could get some sleep. I aced the final and needed nothing more.
Flash forward to the next week! Orientation for international students has begun! We got there early in the morning and I was refreshed to see the main lobby of UCA. For the last 3 weeks, we had been taking class with kids from this one abroad program, AIFS. Needless to say, we don't like them that much, so it was nice to see about 100 new faces and people from all over to interact with. The first activity we did was a scavenger hunt in groups and I got to meet some nice people. Of course, my team won and got free Mate gourds. By the way, I'm bringing mate back to hte states with me. It's a way of life down here and I'll look like a totally cultured, hip kid sitting on the quad sipping on some mate throughout the day...Anyway, the rest of the week was a mic of boring lectures that served almost no purpose except to bore us to death and wish we were out in a park just sitting and talking. I, in fact, did this on Wednesday when we were supposed to be having our tango lessons. I was kind of interested in learning it a little bit, but by that point I was getting tired of that scene and only about 30 kids actually attended anyway. Instead I made some new friends had a nice evening at the park. I also registered for classes that week and by the end of it all found UCA to be even more incompetent than AU. Yes, I know, pretty hard to believe. But when your registration system is comprised of two people standing at oppositesides of a stage, handing out numbered tickets for the order in which to register, without any sort of efficient line system so that a mob of kids just attack you to be able to register, then after that only have two guys with laptops registering students one at a time, you kind of lose your credibility. I mean, we're goin to what's considered to be one of the best schools in the city, if not the best, and they can't get their stuff together? No offense, but oh, Latin America! The nice thing is I only have class tuesday-Thursday, for 4 day weekends every week, sweet!
Moving on (this is already longer than I wanted it to be). After orientation week we all had one week before classes actually started, so me and 5 of our other friends went on a trip to Uruguay. We left that next Monday via ferry and arrived in the small, tourist town of Colonia. The place was simple and beautiful. We spent about one hour just hanging out on a pier, taking pictures and admiring the beautiful scene around us. It was probably the most peaceful moment that I had spent down here up to that point. Afterward we walked into the historical part of the town, up and down cobblestone roads, stopped at a little souvenir store, then headed over to the town lighthouse. Me, Brittany, Emily and Mark walked up the spiral staircase to the top where we had a ridiculous view of the city. I could see the whole town and looking out as far as I could see I knew that this had to be the beginning of a great trip. The pictures I took show an amazing view, but those photos don't compare to the feeling of being up there with a perfect sea breeze cooling you down in the hot summer weather.
A bit later we took a bus into the city of Montevideo and I arrived at my first hostel shortly after getting there. The hostel, Che Lagarto, was pretty chill and easy to live in. Me, Kim and Emily shared a room with 2 Brazilians and one guy from Uruguay. We didn't do much that night but get dinner cause we had been on a long trip. During dinner, however, we met some kids from GW that are going to UCA with us and I made a couple new friends. The next day we walked through the town and went to a little Feria Artesanal where people sold hand-made crafts that were absolutely stunning to look at. Windcatchers, jars, necklaces, leather bags, mate gourds, wind chimes, you name it. i made a purchase there for the sis and afterward we went to eat some lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out in the plaza outside of our hostel. At night we got dinner and went to a bar that was named....get ready for it....I'm already getting excited thinking about it.....The Prancing Pony! For those of you not cool enough to know, the Prancing Pony is the bar where the Hobbits were suppose to meet Gandalf in Bree after escaping from The Shire and where Frodo first wore the One Ring, and where they met Aragorn. Ring any bells? Guess not, but it was a cool moments for me when I realized and saw the movie posters on the wall. There was a chill live band there and we later met up with the GW kids and hung out with them the rest of the night. The next day we awoke to a freaking tropical storm. It didn't feel like much in the morning, and on the bus to the seaside beach town of Punta del Diablo, but once we actually got there it was a different story. The weather was ridiculous with the strongest wind I've ever felt and cold, stinging rain that we trudged our way through for about 45 minutes. By the time we actually found El Diablo Tranquilo, our hostel, we were soaked. We dropped our stuff in the room, and realizing that we were already soaking wet, decided to go out into the ocean for a little storm swim. The water was wonderfully warm (check out that alliteration) and it felt completely freeing. The fact that the storm hadn't calmed much didn't matter because that memory will be burned in my mind for the rest of my life. Afterwards we hung out a bit then got dinner at a restaurant where I ordered shark, which was muy rico. Sooo good. That night, the bars were closed so everyone came to the hostel to party and drink. There were soooo many people either under the influence or a bit tipsy, it was very surreal. I didn't get bad, but some people were just...idk...silly lol. And the power went out at least 3 times that night. At a certain point I had had enough and just went down to sleep. The next day was a bit better, not storm, just the occasional light showers so we were actually able to go chill out on the beach. While the others were laying down taking in some sun I sat on this little lifeguard post and just sat on hte edge of the wooden floor and stared at everything around me. Once again, any description or photo would'nt do justice to what the actual experience was like. That was the most peaceful moment I've had since I've been down here. That night, unfortunately, my allergies decided that I had had it too easy this entire trip and started kicking in, so I was unable to hang out with the others at night and went to sleep early. The next day was bright, sunny and gorgeous. We walked into town and went to the little craft stores in the area, where I purchased some more items and ate a nice seafood lunch with Mark. We spent the rest of the say just chilling on the beach laying on the beach and swimming through the water a bit.
Now, to conclude things, this week classes started for me. Unfortunately, I think God might have thought I had been enjoying my time a little too much because halfway through Monday I started feeling sick. I hung out with Mark, his visiting friend from home, and his roommate. We walked to the Botannical Gardens and took some pictures then headed over to the zoo, only to find out they were closed on Mondays. We then made a long long long long long walk to the Recoleta Cemetery which contains the graves of many prominent argentinos, including the heroine Eva Peron. You know, Evita, Don't cry for me Argentina, all that stuff... Once we stopped for lunch however, my knees were hurting, I felt really warm and weak and my skin was real sensitive. After buying some new sneakers (the other pair was ruined in Punta del Diablo) I went home and rested up. I had class the next day, which was alright. Unfortunetely, around 3pm I started feeling crappy again and didn't go to my last class of the day because I barely had the strength to hold myself up during the previous class. Today I didn't leave the house for fear that the sickness would come back, and only went out for some food and my International Migrations class, which was pretty boring. i though my sickness was done, but my headache came back a little later, followed by some very unpleasant stomach issues that I refuse to describe. Anyway, seeing as how it's 3:15 here and I have class tomorrow morning, I'm gonna hit the hay. Hopefully I'll be returned to full health tomorrow and will be able to have some fun instead of spending the day shut up in my room like the rest of this week has been. Night y'all, hope everyone in the states is alright and just want to let you all know that I miss you more than you know. This whole not seeing friends and family thing is not cool, but I'm at least living it up in South America with nice summer weather.
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