Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Manzanitas y sal

HOLAAAA A TODOS!!!! Now that I have more time to write, i´ll tell you about what ive been up to so far. So first, orientation. Overall, Id have to say that the orientation experience wasnt really that great. After waiting in the Bs As airport for over 4 hours, AFS split all of us into two groups to go to different orientation camps. When we got there, we threw all of our bags down and went to eat lunch. The Thai kids were already there, and we met them. During the rest of the day other students from different countries arrived. The thing I was probably most disapointed with was the orientation activities. Before coming on exchange, everyone has to read this book called Culture Trek, its a bunch of stories you have to interpret about communication and cultural differences. Basically, they took that book and made us do all of that material again. It was pretty tedious and pointless, mostly becasue all of the information is common sense. But anyway, another thing I didnt like was the fact that all of the volunteers spoke in English. Some of the Thai kids only spoke Thai and some English, so during discussions we all had to speek in English. There was this girl, Mizuho, from Japan in my group, and the only language she spoke was Japanese. It was really hard for her to understand what was going on. It is amazing though, all of the things you can communicate just by miming and moving your hands, as we figured out. I understand that some things needed to be said in English, just so everybody knows what was going on, but the volunteers didnt speak to us in Spanish at all. I feel as if they transition process from orientation to our families would have been a little easier, especially for the Thai kids and Mizuho, if Spanish was spoken as well as English. But anyway, there were some good parts of orientation. On Saturday we took a tour of Bs As; we got to see Evitas grave, the Casa Rosa, the Plaza de Mayo, and La Boca. When we got to the Plaza de Mayo, there was a protest going on. In Argentina protests are very common, because there is still a lot of corruption in the city and maybe even the government, I suppose. But anyway, the only thing that made orientation tolerable were the other kids that I met. It was really weird how strong a bond we all had after just a few days together. I find that Im missing the other exchange students more than home right now, just because we can all relate to eachother about this experience. So orientation wasnt all that bad, I suppose. There was a good end to it, too, on the last night there was a talent show. We did it by country, and I have to say the Americans put on an amazing performance of I want it that way by the Backstreet boys. Theres a guy from Sweden playing the guitar, and the girl from Finland does a pretty sweet flute solo. Ill put up the video of that and other performances when I find a computer that I can upload to...So then on Sunday we all went to the airport and had to say goodbye. It was actually pretty sad saying goodbye, especially to Isabelle and Ellen, and then to Olivia, our favorite volunteer <3 Then I was on a plane to Neuquen with my chapter group. When I got off the plane I could see my host family past the security. We were all really excited and nervous, because we could see them past the gate and they had a bunch of AFS signs with our names. There was a quick goodbye, and I didnt get to say goodbye to Eai, my favorite Thailander, and to some others, which was sad, but I forgot about that pretty quickly when I realized how much spanish I couldnt understand with my host family. My host family is really really nice and I like them a lot. When we got back to the house, I unpacked, and then we went to meet my host moms brother. At his house, we sat around and talked, and then I went outside with Victoria and her uncle and we picked grapes in their yard. When we left, we took like three bags of grapes, and we still have a bunch left after almost a week. After that we drove to Martas house, Vickys granmother. She owns the neighborhood kiosco, its like a general store. There are always a lot of kids and people there because its basically a candy store, jaja. After that, we walked back to the house, which is about a block away. I finished unpacking, and then around 10 we all had dinner. One thing that was really hard to adjust to is the eating schedule and the day. We wake up pretty early, and then we dont go to bed until at least 12. Also, it gets dark here around 10, so it could be 8 but it feels like is 3 or oclock. Afer dinner we went to the centro, and there was a huge festival going on. It was kind of like arts fest except much much bigger, with arts and crafts and performances and magic and such. It was pretty cool, but i think I was a little to tired to fully appreciate it. I´ve had to adjust to the different sleeping-eating habits here. In the morning we eat breakfast, which is milk, tea, or coffee and pastries and cookies. Then lunch is around 12, and its the biggest meal of the day. Then theres a snack at 7 or 8, which consists of milk, tea, mate and facturas, the pastrie-like things with dulce de leche or pate. I think pate is kind of like spam, but its actually really good. Then dinner is around 10 or 11, which is really strange for me, because we go to sleep right after dinner.

This is getting pretty long, so Ill stop here right now. Next time Ill talk about San Martin de los Andes, where we are right now for vacation. Ill try and put up fotos, because it is absolutely gorgeous. Besos <3<3

No comments: