Argentina 2008-2009

Hola! Happy New Year and merry late Christmas to everyone, I hope that you guys are all well and the the snow hasn't totally buried my family and friends in NY!
So now that we've had the holidays and vacations and I'm back here in Córdoba I guess I should tell you what I've been up to, and boy do I have a lot to tell. Alright so we finished out the year with Christmas parties and all sorts of get-togethers. The choir year ended with a concert in the big theater in the center of the city. A lot of my host family came and some of my exchange student friends from other cities bussed in to watch me. We did pretty well and the audience even demanded an encore. We also had a Christmas party for the the Special Needs kids from Equestrian therapy and the youth group from my church put on a movie and popcorn night for the kids that we teach. And then there was Christmas, Christmas here is very different than the Christmas we are all used to in The States. In all of my time here I think the one thing that I have missed the most from The States is our Christmas. First of all, as I'm sure most of you are aware the part of Argentina that I'm living in severely lacks cold weather, therefore I experienced the first non-white Christmas of my life. Now I know that in its self isn't enough to ruin Christmas, there are a lot of people in The States that have never had a white Christmas, but it was more than just that. The whole Christmas atmosphere that I am so in love with was just totally non existent, and they don't have Christmas Carols, that's right, the ever important Christmas carols just don't exist. Really, I would ask for songs of Christmas and all I got was "Navidad Navidad" to the tune of Jingle Bells and really scary attempts at Rudolph the red nose Reindeer. But it wasn't all bad, I learned a lot about the culture of this part of the world and got to experience a whole new way of celebrating Jesus' Birthday.
On December 24th all of the family (probably around 40 of us) gathered at the house of my host grandparents to celebrate the holiday and set off fireworks, yes fireworks. Fireworks are a huge part of Christmas and New Years with almost every family setting them off in the street or backyard at 12 o'clock. Were not talking sparklers either, this is heavy duddy, state fair style, considerably dangerous, fireworks, but then again it's Argentina. And with the population of the city being over 1.5 million I'm sure you can take a pretty good guess at what the sky looked like. We all ate a huge dinner at around eleven and then waited to ring in Christmas at 12am, the kids also open their presents at 12. The kids and their presents, this was another time that I was given the opportunity to see the true materialism of the United States. Each of my host cousins received one gift, yes one, gift from Santa, and not a huge gift either, like a shirt or a watch or a new movie, and they were all thrilled. The older kids and parents get something from Santa and the family but all of the gifts are bought with the money of the parents, like the Dad gives the 17 year old daughter money to go buy presents for him and the mom. For me it pretty much seemed like for the adults and older kids just do it to have a little something to open, like they were going to buy that anyway but they use it as their Christmas gift. So that and a nativity scene reenactment was pretty much my Christmas. The next afternoon we went to the house of my other host grandmother where Santa had again left each person one gift. We ate lunch and headed home to sleep for the rest evening.
New Years pretty much went the same as Christmas except without the presents and with more fireworks (which i didn't think was possible (I was wrong)). After the holidays we spent a couple weekends in the cabin of the grandparents out in the country and then before I knew it it was time to change my host family. My new host family, The Gonzales Family, OK where do we start. The father (Carlos) came to Córdoba to pick me up on the 14 of January because the family was already on vacation in their summer house in the mountains of Argentina (yes they are well off and we will just leave it at that). I spent two weeks there, four wheeling, going to the river, hanging out at the pool, and getting to know the family and relatives. In this new host family I have 2 host brothers but their guy cousins and friends joined us too. So at any given time I was out numbered at least 5 to 1. The third week I headed off to a town called Alta Gracia for La Fiesta de Los Colectividades with a whole bunch of other exchange students as a trip hosted by the Rotary Club of Alta Gracia. La fiesta de Los Colectividades is pretty much a huge gathering of all the different cultural groups in the province of Córdoba. Each represented country had a tent with native food clothing and other things. Every night there were shows and music all based around the fact that the families of these people had all come from different places in the world but are now all living together in Argentina. It was just a really cool thing to be able to experience as exchange students. We even got to participate in the huge parade of nations and hold our countries flag up on stage during the opening ceremonies. Apart from Los Colectividades the Rotary Club took us to do some other things as well. Alta Gracia is know for being the childhood hometown of "Che" Guevara so how could we spend a whole week there without going to his museum? It was really interesting, the museum is actually the house that he lived in so we got to see at the bedrooms and old furniture an other things like his bicycle and photos too. To end the week we had a huge Asado (Argentine version of BBQ(but so much better)) at the house, or rather mansion of world famous tenor Luis Lima, check him out, he has a wiki page. Being all world famous and what not this man also has 70 some horses for his own personal use, and this man has also invited me to come back and go riding with him and his family, oh yes and he was also drinking out of a John Wayne mug at lunch, life is good.
After saying good bye to all the friends and returning back to Córdoba I got to move in to my new house and spend a couple days with the family before starting at the foundation. I'm not sure if I have already told you this but my host mom (my new host mom) has a foundation for mistreated and abandon children, and under this foundation she runs an orphanage here in the city. Right now we have 13 kids, 3 of them are babies and all the others are under the age of six. I'm volunteering afternoons now, playing with the kids taking care of the babies and doing some other randome things as well. It's like once you've helped out at your moms daycare you are pretty much prepared for any child related situation in any part of the world. =)
I'm going to be starting school the 8th of March (like hardcore, private, you better be wearing your uniform school) and I'm really excited. The school is bilingual with half of the day in Spanish and the other half in English but I'll will only be attending the Spanish part in the morning. Right now everyone is still on vacation but come march the whole country gets it's butt back into gear. I will start teaching with the group from my church again, choir will start up, and I'm hoping to get back over to the equestrian therapy stable soon too. Well I guess that's about all for now, I miss you and love you all, updates as the occur, oh yes and I'm coming back June 30th!!!

all my love always,
Justine

Greeting and Happy Belated Thanks Giving to everyone!!!! I hope you are all well and enjoying the cold that I'm lacking OK my trip to Patagonia, here we go.....

So I have returned from what I am sure will be some of the best two weeks of this year. There is no way that I can tell you everything but I will try to some it up as best as I can. We left Oct. 18th from my city, all 49 of us exchange students, and headed to the most southern town in the world. Our first stop was Puerto Madryn were people come from all over to see the Ocas that live of the shore of the city. We walk to the beach the afternoon that we arrived and and after two of my friends got themselves soaking wet they convinced me to go in to the ocean with them. I was totally clothed and it was freezing cold but it was so worth it.

The next day was filled with elephant seal watching and walking with the largest colony of Magellan Penguins in the world. We weren't allowed to touch the penguins but we got really really close, and at times they were almost literally underfoot. The day after seeing the penguins we traveled about an hour from the cabins and took a boat out to go whale watching. We got less than 10 feet away from Argentina's Southern Right Whales and we also saw two Orcas farther off in the distance. This was really awesome because that was one of the things I had most been looking forward too, seeing "Free Willy" in the wild.

After that we headed to El Calafate where we spent three nights in Cabins and my friends and I made a make shift birthday cake for one of the boys from Germany. I think it came out really well considering what we had to work with. It was in El Calafate that we trekked the glacier Perito Moreno, which covers over 17 square miles and is the most stable glacier in South America. (It was also shown in Al Gore's movie "Inconvenient Truth") We had to wear special spiked shoes and have lessons on how to walk so that we didn't fall, although that didn't really help my friend from Canada, she slipped and we all had a scary moment before we realized she was OK. The view from on top of the glacier was absolutely incredible, something that I can't really describe. It was so enormous, just walls and walls of solid ice, all different shades of white and blue. There were holes that went thirty or more feet down and ponds of the purest water on earth (which we all got to drink at the end of the hike). I walked on top of a glacier and that is something I will definitely remember for the rest of my life.

After leaving the glacier we travel to the National Park of the Glaciers were we got to see native animals and get a view of the other side of the glacier as well. We spent the following day and a half on the bus to Ushuaia which was filled with lots of so-so gas station food, movies, catching up on sleep and hanging out with friends. We crossed the border in to Chile (which was a customs nightmare) and when we took the fairy we got to see a type of dolphin very specific to that area; which meant that I won the bet that I had with the guy from Holland .

We spent a day and a half in Ushuaia, Argentina which is the most southern city in the world. Besides visiting the national park of Tiera Del Fuego we were given most of our time free to sight see and be tourists. We got certificates saying that we had been there and special stamps for our passports. The city its self wasn't all that incredibly impressive but its location and the fact that it is able to call its self "Fin del Mudo" is really what all the fuss is about.

Our next stop was Esquel which was about a day and a half of national park seeing and a break from all the Chinese buffet we had eaten the days before, seriously, as good as Argentinian Chinese food is that pizza might as well have been sent from heaven.

From Esquel we had another long bus ride to Bariloche which is one of the biggest if not the biggest tourist towns in Argentina. We stayed in a very nice hotel and on our first night there we were all given an opportunity to go out to one of the clubs in the city. But I, as well as a few other students, opted for a calmer night without having to pay the outrageous price of eighty six pesos for club entry. (Cordoba is so much cheaper). So instead our club director paid for the four of us to go bowling and we had a great time. The next day we all got up early and visited one of the famous chocolate factories of the area, we also drove to see the seven famous lakes that surround the city which almost no one actually saw on the account that they were all sleeping from the late night before. Afterwards we took a boat out to Island Victoria to tour another national park. On the boat ride to the Island they took us upstairs and we all got to take turns feeding the birds as they swooped down and took the crackers from our hands. It was also in this national park that I got to see Giant Sequoias, yes in Argentina NOT in the U.S. was the first time I saw the famous tree from California, how is that for irony?

Our last stop before the long bus ride home was San Martin de los Andes a small village known for its proximity to the Andes mountains. There we all pretty much chilled, I went out with the German girls for cake and my Canadian friend and I enjoyed the first waffles we had had since arriving in Argentina. That night one of the German girls and I sang for a church group that was staying at the hotel from Chile, afterward they got out the guitar and sang for us too. They gave us there group pin and told us what a pleasure it had been meeting us. It was a really nice way to spend our last night before going home. There are so many things that happened that I can't really do justice in this email, the things we saw, places we went, and so many inside jokes with friends. Just the very fact of traveling around the southern part of Argentina with a bus load of people was amazing. It was a great trip, something that I am very thankful I was able to take part in, and I know that there will be many more wonderful things to come.

All my love always,
Justine

Ok so here is the email that I sent out last night, I know it's kind of like cheating but now that I have my laptop up and running I will be able to write more frequently, so consider this a catch up.

Ok so I believe that I am WAY over do to send you all another e-mail. Let's see, things here are....incredible! Because you all know me you probably also know that things very rarely end up the way I planned them, or had originally had intended, that is one of the reasons that me actually getting to Argentina is so mind blowing. Well the lack of predictability in my life has followed me here as well. I never ended up taking theater class, instead I am singing in the choir at the music arts school. The other singers are amazing and we have already had a concert at one of the most beautiful cathedrals in the city. I have also met a great group of people at the youth group of the church that my host family attends. On weekends some of us from the youth group travel to one of the very poor neighborhoods outside the city to teach the children. Some of these kids don't have access to any other form of education, but they are always really eager to learn. Last Saturday I taught multiplication to a seven year old boy named Andreas, it was really exciting because my Spanish has improved to the point that I was able to explain things when he didn't understand, although this is probably more of a testimony to his intelligence than mine. With kids and horses, it always seems that that's where I find myself. But I'm not complaining, not at all, I have been blessed with the opportunity to work for an amazing woman a the School of Equine Therapy here in Cordoba. Veronica, the owner of the the school, works with children with physical and mental disabilities, by having them ride and interact with the horses. She and her husband also ride at Argentina's national level and give lessons at the school. I groom horses, muck stalls and help with the kids in exchange for riding lesson and the opportunity to learn from her 20 plus years of experience working with disabled children. The stables are only a 15 min bus ride from my house and I'm able to choose when I want to work. It's a great setup because the patience she has from working with the kids really comes in handy when we don't understand each other because of the language barrier. The city has so many opportunities, there is a beautiful park close to my house that is perfect for running and my older host sister has talked me into taking combat Tae Bo classes with her. We go bowling, to the the four story mall in the center of the city, I've taken my host brother and his friend to the zoo, and this week I'm going to the Opera. Yeah we're definitely not in Poland anymore Toto.
So in other news, in about a week I'm going to be leaving for what will probably be one the most exciting trips of my life. It's the exchange student trip to the south of Argentina and its going to be 17 days of awesomeness. It's a trip that the travel agency puts together solely for Rotary, our primary destination is Patagonia, the most southernly inhabited place on the planet. Our trip will include many things such as glacier trekking, Orca whale watching, walking with the penguins and walruses, three days in the famous city of Ushuaia which is on the coast of the Southern Atlantic Ocean, hiking in over half a dozen national parks, a trip to Tirra de Fuego, sight seeing in the Andes Mountains, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I will tell you about after.
So if that all isn't good enough I also have a great host family, and host relatives, a lot of relatives. It seems like there is always a birthday or an anniversary or communion or something going on, and even when there isn't we are at each others houses for Sunday Asado (BBQ) or just to hang out. I have over 15 cousins that are younger than me and they all love the fact that they can speak better than the girl from the United States and they are fighting over my attention constantly, it makes "the girl" feel pretty good .
Well I guess that is about all for now, I have my computer up and running so I will be able to write more often and update my blog too. I love you all and I hope that everyone is well. I'm sorry if i can't respond to all of your e-mails but I do appreciate hearing from you. I will keep you all in my thoughts and prayers, until next time, Chau y Besos!!!! * **

All my love always,
Justine

• For any teachers reading this, I am currently exempt form taking responsibility for my spelling and/or grammatical errors, do to the fact that I can feel my English deteriorating a little bit each day... OK Mrs. Heneka? And if there is anyone else that wants me to email them just have them send me a quick note.

• * Also for teachers, please say hi to the class of '09 for me, thanks!

Hey guys here's my address, some people have been asking my family for it. Luv u all!

Monserrat 2124 Bº Crisol
CP: 5014
Córdoba-Córdoba-Argentina

I am offically in Cordoba Argentina!
Stuff here is great, but my trip was so long, I was in travel for over thirty-six hours and I was so excited that I didn´t sleep for more than an hour or two the whole time. After my family picked me up from the airport we went away for a weekend in the country. We stayed at this amazingly beautiful hotel and my host sister and I rode horses through the mountains while my family hiked and played Tennis. The language thing is quite interesting, right now my family and I are speaking a mixture of Spanish and English but its still hard for me to have even simple conversations with people who just speak Spanish. The problem isn´t just my lack of knowledge of the language its their accent too. Sometimes my host sister will say something to me in Spanish and I won´t understand, then she will say it in English and I will realize that I really did know what she was saying I just didn't recognize the word. The whole city thing is another interesting aspect, its so huge with over a million and a half people. I can walk pretty much any where I need to and the places you can´t walk to you can take the bus. As of right now I am not attending school, but next week I will be meeting with the director of the the University of the Arts here in Cordoba. Its really close to my house and I will most likely be studying theater, which think I will really enjoy. Anyway that´s about all for now I miss you all to death and I will write again soon.