¡Hace demasiado tiempo!

So it's been quite a while since I've blogged and I truly apologize for this. Now I'm completely lost and don't know where to begin, especially because so much has happened within the past month and a half. I believe I left on Valentine's Day weekend. We had an Anti-Día de los enamorados fiesta/asado, which turned out to be quite fun. Then came my 3rd week of the Spanish class, during which nothing exciting really happened except reviewing how to give commands and say things in the past tense. Friday, February 19th, I went to Mina Clavero with my "American" friends Becky, Allie, Kelsey, and Patrick, which is a little town in the Sierras. Córdoba is surrounded by mountains, which is why a lot of people take advantage of short weekend trips to small towns in the sierras during the summer where they have houses on lakes and such. In Mina Clavero, we went out on Friday night and saw a live band. They played a lot of classic rock, which is funny to hear sung in with a Spanish accent. Then on Saturday we went kayaking on a river, saw some rock formations, went swimming, and did a little shopping. It was a really fun, relaxing day. We were supposed to leave in time to go out in Córdoba that night, and when we bought our tickets the lady told us that the bus got into Córdoba at 21:00 (9 o'clock), but we found out that it didn't actually leave Mina Clavero until that time. Add on 3 hours on the bus, and that gives you an arrival time of midnight. Oh well, I'm beginning to realize that things work a little differently down here and aren't as dependable/efficient, but nevertheless they make for some great memories. It's all part of the experience. However, it did only cost about $50 USD for bus fare, hotel, and food, which I would say is pretty cheap. Sunday, my friend Karina from USF got in, so Patrick and I went and met her at her house to give her a big welcome. She lives less than a minute away from me, which is great. After Patrick and I had had a few confusing conversations with the locals, it was nice to finally have a native Spanish speaker who could translate for us in case we get lost. But I still realize that I shouldn't only rely on her. Unfortunately, that same Sunday night/Monday morning, I woke up really sick and stayed in bed all day with a fever, body aches, and a little bit of delirium. However, thank God it only lasted a day and I was much better on Tuesday and could finally give my presentation on Juan Perón, a very influential Argentinean president. The end of my Spanish course went really well, and I was said that it had to come to an end. The weekend that it ended and before our orientation week started, a bunch of us took a 4-day trip to Mendoza. It took about a 10-hour overnight trip to get there. Saturday we did a tour of the bodegas/wineries on bicycles. It was one of the coolest things that I ever did. Picture a beautiful day in Napa riding a few miles (actually several) on a bicycle and stopping at a bunch of wineries, olive oil factories, and chocolate/liquor shops. So much fun! Sunday we walked around Mendoza all day, went to a few museums, plaza, and the main park. Then Monday, four of us went white-water rafting in the Andes. It was super cool! It was very nerve-wracking at first, but it didn't take very long to get used to. It was just hard to believe that I was rowing down a river with the huge Andes mountains all around me. Overall, the weekend in Mendoza was amazing and really enjoyable. We returned to Córdoba on Tuesday (03/02) just in time for our first day of orientation. It was so great to meet the other exchange students. There are people from all over, Germany, France, Mexico, Brasil, Italy, Spain, Austria, England, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Japan, and of course the States. The one thing that I've been learning about myself after having met and gotten to know people from all over the world is just how interesting and powerful language is, especially one's own language. I'm taking a class called Contemporary Linguistics and we've been talking a lot about how one learns and practices languages and the things that influences this. Anyway, just wanted to throw that out there. March 9th was my first day of classes. The first week, as they told was, was just to go to a bunch of classes that seem interesting to us and then decide we wanted to actually take at the end of the week/beginning of the following week. Well, needless to say, I had a few issues with this little process. They didn't tell us until the census date that we have to pay extra for the courses that are offered by the study abroad office, and I was planning on taking 3 of these courses (History of Argentina I & II, and Latin American Literature I). After having to pay all these other hidden costs (visa, translation of documents, etc.), I was a little irritated and gave them a little piece of my mind. In the end, they told us USF students can take 2 of the classes for free and the rest we have to pay. So now I'm taking History of Argentina I, Latin American Literature I, History of Latin America of the 20th Century, Contemporary Linguistics, and Communicative French Level I. I've always wanted to learn French, and I've figured that seeing as the majority of my friends here are French it would be a great time to learn while being able to practice with natives. Despite the practially 3 week delay of classes, I feel like I've gotten into somewhat of the academic groove. As far as traveling since Mendoza, I've been to La Quebrada del Condorito en el Parque Nacional. and Chile. The National Park and Condor Reserve was super cool and had amazing views. My friend Becky and I hiked (and I really mean we hiked) for a good 6-7 hours. As exhausting as it was, it was totally worth the amazing views. There was a huge mountain valley with a river where the condors soared around. I was able to get a lot of great shots that I'll share in my next post. As far as Chile, we went during Semana Santa (Holy Week) from Holy Thursday until the following Monday. It took a good 17 hours to get to Santiago de Chile. We stayed in, what they say, is the best hostel in Chile for only $15 a night and met a lot of cool people who come from and are traveling all over the world. We spent a day in Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. Valparaiso is an old port city that used to be a very vital port for Pacific trading and commerce. Viña del Mar is an upscale beach town set right on the pacific ocean. Here we finally found Mexican food that actually tasted Mexican (and some half-decent margaritas). We also randomly stumbled upon a Starbucks. That was very exciting, especially for my friend Patrick who is addicted to coffee. And mind you, this Starbucks was the nicest one I've ever seen, go figure that of all places it's in Chile and not the States. It had an upstairs with nice sofas/Lazy Boys and a sunroom/screened in porch. I finally fulfilled my 2-month-long mocha craving. The rest of the weekend we spent exploring different parts of the city. The city was very quiet due to it being Holy Week and Latin Americans loving Jesus so much, so we did a lot of walking. Also, a couple of museums that we had wanted to go to were closed due to internal damage that they experienced from the recent earthquake. Other than that, we didn't see much evidence that there had been one. Santiago has some really cool hills that you climb and get awesome views of the city, so I have some great picks of those. I would even go as far to say that it was better than Twin Peaks in SF. Also, Chile has a lot of Asian immigrants and therefore a lot of Asian restaurants. We ate at this really great Chinese restaurant, and I finally fulfilled my craving of Mongolian beef and sweet and sour chicken. However, we did notice that it was very hard to find what exactly was "Chilean culture." We only found one restaurant that served true Chilean food (this corn casserole, chicken soup, and various meat dishes). What they did lack in true Chilean culture, they did make up in having the things that we've been missing in Argentina (Starbucks, Mexican/Chinese food, and KFC). So we ate our way through Chile, oh well. Overall, it was a successful and enjoyable trip. Well I guess this is all I have to tell for now. I plan on getting back into the more frequent blogs (hopefully!). I'll post another one with various pictures from the past 2 months. Until next time chicos! Besos y abrazos a todos :)