it is cold as isonza here

greeting from 1.7 miles above sea level!!! appologies in advanced, still havent figured out the english spell check or certain symbols on this computer

today is our second day at Isonza and so far it has been quite the adventure. we arrived yesterday around 10 30 am after what might have been a three hour drive through the most beautiful landscape i have ever seen. we were introduced to all the kids, broke into groups to make name tags, and were given a tour of the school.

basically isonza is a plot of land with two classrooms, a kitchen, living space for the students, a church, farm animals, and the house we are staying in. In previous years robertsons have lived in a room at the school house but becuase there are six of us this year we are living in a separate cabin. we dont have heat but do have about three hours of electricity every night from about 7 30 to 10 30 and apparently tonight... some hot water!! we eat breakfast and lunch on our own in the house and then walk over the the school where we spend the day with the kids. the cold is taking some getting used to but over all its very comofortable here

more importantly, the kids are adorable! we had our first day of teaching today and I think the English classes went pretty well. emma, tess, and i taught english to two groups, one older and one younger. the younger group was especially excited to be learning english and ran around afterwards repeating the numbers and saying my name is blank, what is your name

must get back to the kids but will post again soon, assuming the school doesnt lose internet. phone doesnt work here but will be back in the city thursday night so speak to everyone then!

Survived the bike ride!

Hola from Salta!!

Internet has been difficult to come by the past few days but Salta is beautiful. When we arrived we were taken to a bed and breakfast type hostel deal (not really sure what it was) outside the city of Salta. Even flying in, it was beautiful; while everyone else was sleeping i took pictures of the mountains above the clouds from outside the window! We spent two days in the first town (cant remember the name but will add when I do) visiting some schools, making instruments out of bamboo, and yes- bike riding which i actually really enjoyed!! I was given the option of riding in the van instead of a bike but decided to try out the bike ride and warned everyone to steer clear of me because i could not control my bike, held on to the handle bar very, very tightly and actually had a lot of fun. On the way back i decided to ride in the back on the pick up truck with Emma and Tess after realizing I was so focussed on not falling that I was missing out on just how beautiful everything around me was. Lots of big meals later we moved onto our home stays inside the city of Salta

I have been living with a young architect named Mercedes and her two roommates. They are all very, very sweet and have made me so comfortable. The best part about my home stay is that I am ten blocks away from city center, La plaza nueve de julio. Unlike Buenos Aires where there were many neighborhoods worth exploring, mostly everything in Salta is situated around the main plaza and on one street, Balcarce. I was able to meet up with Ronald, Emma, and their host siblings yesterday which was really fun. We went on a cable car up above the city at sunset and drank mate. It was sooo pretty and I got some great pictures!!

Last night after a very good dinner with Mercedes and her roommate I met up with Ronald, Emma, their host siblings, and some if their friends and went to a boliche on Balcarce. All the friends know each other from an English class they are taking together and told the bouncer they were from the US so no one had to show any ID (the legal age here is 18 so it didn't matter for us anyway but I thought it was so crazy that just because they were able to say they were from "Miami, Florida" they were let right in!)

Overall, Salta has been a nice change from all the craziness of Buenos Aires. While there is plenty to do, it is definitely more of a small city feel and some peace and quiet is not hard to find. Tomorrow we head up to Isonza, which I am so so excited for!! Details to follow as soon as possible

And the month of curly hair begins...

I am an awful blogger (please forgive me Jane). To be fair, I am pretty sure all two of you reading this were warned before I left that this would be the case

Most importantly, special birthday shout out to LAR.

Tonight is bittersweet. As of a week ago, or even two, I was very ready to leave Buenos Aires and move onto Salta. Now that it is my last night here, I am kind of sad to leave this city and little hotel with hot pink lettering that we have (embarrassingly) come to call "home." (Picture to follow as soon as I upload)

So after a month of museums, spanish lessons, tango, cafes, more Spanish, more tango, markets, an opera, and more cafes I am leaving Hotel Reina (at 4:45 am mind you) and starting the second part of my Argentine experience: Isonza.

For the next four weeks we will spend Monday- Friday living at a school (Isonza) in the Province of Salta, team teaching English & physical education, developing a micro finance project & a garden and best of all: wait for it, wait for it.... building a pig pen.

GOALS FOR SALTA:

1. do not let the kids find out that i am the lazies person... EVER, while teaching PE

2. continue to improve my Spanish

3. teach English that will be useful and do it in a fun way

4. spend as much time as possible learning from the students

5. name every pig

6. never lose a game of apple scrabble

7. blog frequently

8. take pictures

9. not fall off a mountain during tomorrow's group bike ride

10. try to enjoy every moment

not sure what the internet situation will be for the next month. one night in a hostel tomorrow, then 4 in a home-stay before my first week at Isonza. send good luck vibes for the bike ride pleaseeeeee.

oh, did i mention that electricity goes off at 10pm every night at Isonza? Something tells me this and my sleeping habits are not exactly going to mesh.

adios buenos aires. "see you next time"

ihw, puede nina go first, and 30 other things I have learned, tried, done, and failed to do since the last time I blogged

setting: Ronald is singing show tunes while nina, emma, him, and I congregate in the hotel lobby (slash dining room table?) attempting to use wireless. i heart hotel reina.

I have failed at my blog. I am too lazy to type a narrative of everything that has happened since my homestay so instead i will make a list, as suggested by the title of this post

1. Arrived at hotel reina, our home while in buenos aires. Nina Emma Tess and I are sharing a room and Kenny and Ronald are next door.

2. Went to China town/ took a picture with a rice hat/ found wanton soup

3. took a picture making awkward turtles under a sign for calle 11 de septiembre

4. turned 20

5. started volunteering at Pupi-- a foundation started by a famous futbol player here that works with children living in poverty in a few parts of buenos aires

6. had a tango lesson

7. started spanish classes

8. had a tango lesson while taking spanish classes

9. got stuck on a subway... twice.

10. experienced the bicentennial celebration

11. got stuck in a real live mob because of the bicentennial celebration

12. wanted the bicentennial celebration to end

13. found the remote for the "non existent air conditioner" in our room-- good thing we have been living with the heat on instead

14. avoided all social networks/ contact until the series finale of lost downloads

15. saw the ghost writer

16. got sold out of robin hood

17. went to an art museum

18. spent over half of my time at the art museum making sense of two abstract paintings, apparently i am a larger fan of modern art than traditional

19. took the subte to the santelmo market/ sat in a cafe while we waited for the rain to pass before turning around and not ever visiting the santelmo market

20. ran across 9 de julio in one light (16 lanes= huge deal, I promise)

21. met wanda

22. ate SUUUUUUUUSHI

23. danced to hotel room service and what a feeling in one night at a club

24. ate empenadas

25. got cat called with emma by a group of police officers

26. found out that McDonalds has a wonderful way of lifting our spirits, especially when we bring food from California Burrito Company

27. skyped with sarah tippy, emi, and other less exciting people

28. put off doing laundry

29. ran out of argentine cell phone credits

30. made a list

So, that is your catch up aka my life. When you speak to me I highly encourage you to ask for details specifically on numbers 5, 8, 21, and the bathroom at my homestay

"YO VEO."

theme of the day: no comprendo.

So yesterday Tess and I woke up to a note from our madre that said she went to the store and would be back in a little. she left us her phone number and said to call if we needed anything. With no phones and no key, Tess and I waited a little for her to return. After about 2.5 hours we told her daughter we were going to go out and get lunch (in such need of a salad, or just something other than pizza) and try to buy cell phones. She called her mom and threw around some words consisting of "mom, I CAN NOT understand them!" and then walked with us to try to find phones. FAIL. we didn't realize how much they would be and didn't have our ids with us which apparently you need. So we went for lunch and she told us to just come back to the house when we were done and her mother would take us to get phones.

We went for lunch, drank some vino, bought flowers for the daughter to apologize for our inability to communicate and walked back to the house. while it may have been a bit over the top to buy flowers, good thing we did-- when we got back the gate in front of the door was shut and the only way to ring the doorbell was to stick the stem of the flowers through the gate. SUCCESS.

The mom took us for phones which seemed to go very smoothly until we realized that neither of us could make calls. apparently we need to go buy cards to add minutes which we thought we paid for and were receiving. whooo knows. Unfortunately, Emma was in the same situation as us so basically Nina played middle man and tried to communicate for all four of us all night, which as you may guess, got sort of complicated.... oh, and then my phone died when we were in separate cars. FAIL

So at this point Tess and I were out with the daughter at a pool and bar trying to meet up with the rest of our group (which did finally work until the phones died). We felt sooo bad because we were having fun but again, with the language barrier, the daughter could not understand us at all (actually could not understand me at all, Tess is much better) and we heard her telling her mom we were like tourists, which we are. So the daughter and her friend called another one of their friends who showed up and SPOKE ENGLISH! so basically he played translator for the entire night. we ended up at what seemed to be a very trendy club. Apparently it cost 50 pesos to get in and another 200 for the VIP section we were in (around 70 dollars) but I guess her and her friends are very cool because she just gave the bouncer a kiss hello and we walked in without paying or waiting. SWEET.

It was a really fun night and the daughter is soo soo sweet and cool, we could just tell that she was under strict orders to stay with us, not give us our own key, and make sure we were okay. we tried to tell her that it was okay and we were having fun and go out all the time at home, but I don't think we communicated that very successfully.

Today's goals:
1. find the ability to make outgoing calls
2. make a successful plan to meet up with the rest of the group
3. convince the mother and daughter I am not totally lame and incompetent.

...wish me luck.

Estoy en un barco

Buenos Dias!

Woke up a little while ago. The house is beautiful and I slept great except for the fact that I think they make walls here about a centimeter thick. Every time a car goes past it actually sounds as if it is coming straight for us.

So yesterday we spent mots of the day in Tigre before we left for our home stays in Buenos Aires. We went to a puerto de fruta, or fruit market, in the morning and then took a boat down the delta to another island for lunch. After some mate, we left Tigre and drove to our home stays. Tess and I are together in Polerma (??) (a neighborhood in the north of the capitol city). Our madre has three children, two of whom we have met.

We ate dinner with our madre and her younger daughter who is a little older than us and then went to a tango club. The tango was really cool to watch. Apparently last night was a more "serious" night than they like so neither of them danced but Tess and I did both danced with an 80 yr old man. COOL.

All day yesterday we tried to only speak in Spanish, or at least mostly speak in Spanish. Clearly, not easy for me, but as ridiculous as this sounds, I think I got a little better even in just one day. By the time I was going to sleep I felt as if it was easier to try and think in Spanish than English because my brain was automatically trying to translate things even though I didn't need to. Hopefully my brain will hurt a little less and less each day.

Our host family speaks approx. ZERO english. thank goooodness Tess is here with me or I would probably spend three days nodding my head and saying "esat bien, si, perfecto." Either way, our host mother said something to us possibly including "no no sleep more I am going shopping my daughter is upstairs" but then again, who knows. Today should be rather adventurous...

no funcionado?

just typed a long post. realized i typed it in a comment box. tried to copy but now wont let me paste. phone is not working . Technology= FAIL.

brain hurts from trying to speak spanish all day. will post later but had a great day, now at a homestay with Tess and going to go out and tango with the family!

adioooooos