In Argentina 'oops' means 'oops'

It´s my (belated) month-iversary! Today marks the last day in March which means I´ve been in South America the whole month of March-- four weeks and four days to be precise. Exciting.

Today is the last full day we spent in Ushuaia. We made it a very low key day by splurging on a really good lunch then visiting the Martime and Penal Museum. The museum wasn´t the most exciting thing, but we got a student discount with our ISIC cards which all study abroad students need at UNCG (I finally found a place to use it!). The museum was held in what used to be a prison and all the cells had information about the prision, prisoners, and even information about Argentinan ship expeditions. Did you know Argentina owns part of Antartica?

Backing up a few days, we did other more exciting things like a combination bus-boat tour around Ushuaia. The tour was nine hours and we were able to see some special kind of bird that I couldn´t focus on because there were sea lions right next to them. I don´t know how to describe the sea lions in a way that makes sense. They were so ugly they were cute? Then we saw a real lighthouse and an island of pingüinos! Unforunately, the penguins had already started to migrate, so there weren´t a lot of them like there would have been if we went a few weeks earlier, but it was an island of penguins! On my list of things to do here was penguins, glacier, Chile, and hiking, so I was super excited when the bus ran onto the island a little bit and we had about 20 to 30 minutes just to stare at and take pictures of the penguins. Never while I was planning this trip did I think I would see penguins. It was a possiblity, but at the same time when you see something on T.V. so much you don´t think it´s possbile to actually see them. It was surreal. We transferred to land afterwards and toured the first ranch in Ushuaia. We, also, drove through the mountains on a bus, and went to a husky breeding center that served great hot chocolate. I highly recommend this tour if you ever go to Ushuaia. You get to sit down a lot in a warm place and get pretty close to penguins. So. Worth. It.

We, also, went hiking in Tierra del Fuego National Park. It was just Rachel and me, so we were able to take our time and enjoy the view of the forest and the coastline as we hiked for about three and a half hours. With how I walk in the streets of Ushuaia always having to hold on to things so I won´t fall completely on my face as I trip over everything, I´m surprised I didn´t twist an ankle or something more dreadful (word brought to you by a British guy in the hostel).

And yesterday we went on our last excurision where we went riding in a 4X4, had asado for dinner, and went kayaking. Best Excursion Ever. Our guide was perfect for the job. He had special CDs made just for these trips and would get out of the car, while it´s still moving, and dance on the hood of the car. He would turn the overhead light on and off like a strobe light, let us sit on top of the car while we went through dips and turns and puddles, and made all kinds of jokes like the one in the title of this blog. There was even one instance where he went through a huge puddle, went up a hill, put the car in neutral, rolled back, and did it again. I was on top during this holding on for dear life. So much fun! The kayaking was fun, too, because it was my first time. Kayaking is as hard it looks. I had Rachel to guide me, so I feel like that´s the only reason we did not tip over and thank God because it was cold. We then did get stuck on a sand bar that was made of mud and had to have our guide rope us in while everyone watched and took pictures. Hah.

There were days in between where we did much less significant things not worth mentioning, too, of course. We were thankful for it because this is vacation afterall and it gave us plenty of time to relax.

With our extra time here we cooked to save money. Ushuaia is such a tourist town plus it´s so separated from everything that prices are a little crazy. After spending about $15 USD on a chicken sandwhich with no fries or anything we knew we would have to cook. So, we´ve cooked stir fry, eggs in a basket, pasta with homemade garlic bread, and we bought soup for about 50 cents so we´ve had that more than once. They were simple meals that definitely helped out our budget.

Other culture things: People in Ushuaia WILL pick you up if they see you walking (I experienced this first hand and aparently it´s nothing to be afraid of). Even though this is a semi-isolated town they still have brand names and seem to have way more labels in their closets than I do. I´ve been told that while crab from Ushuaia is widely sold here it´s actually not good compared to Alaskan kind crab. Just about every business is fully biliginual here so you can get away with speaking all English, if you wanted to. They take their siestas seriously here in that around mid-day a lot of stores will close for about three hours. Lastly, Ushuaia is the southernmost city but NOT the southernmost town. There are two towns one on the Chilean side of the Beagle Channel and one on the Argentinan side that are actually more south but a city here has to have at least 10,000 people which they both don´t.

Other things: Met a guy from the UK who laughs and shouts in his sleep and gave us a demonstration. La Posta hostel is the place to stay here in Ushuaia. It´s the closest to the airport and the furthest from town. It´s my favorite hostel out of the four I´ve stayed and I highly recommend you check it out if you make it to this side of the world.

OK, leaving Ushuaia tomorrow and going to spend two days in Buenos Aires then head back "home". Travelling is fun, but I did come here for school after all. :P

p.s. Made my first joke in Spanish that a native speaker understood and told me was very good. <---Progress!! What what!?

Ushuaia

So, remember how I said I was going to Caractas (I still don´t know how to spell it)? There was a change of plans. I´m traveling with Rachel who has been almost everywhere I was planning on going, so she convinced me late at night one night to go to Ushuaia. Ush-a-whata-ya? Oosh-why-ya. It´s the southern most city in the WORLD and has penguins. Those are the only reasons I´m here. It´s about 43 degrees fahrenheit here (and it´s summer time!) and there are snow-capped mountains everywhere. It´s so beautiful in that cold, mountainous way. Rachel said it reminded her of Alaska and me never having been to any place like this just went "WoOoOoOow."

We left Wednesday evening and arrived Thursday at about 2:00 p.m. We took a bus to Colonia then a boat to Buenos Aires where we spent the night. And from there we flew to the airport in Ushuaia. Unfortunately, we had a hiccup with the boat in Colonia and didn´t board until about four or five hours after we were suppose to. We thought the boat was going to be cancelled due to rough waves in the harbor, so we had just refunded our money to purchase tickets with another company when suddenly the first boat was boarding. We had to scramble and plead with the manager to let us re-buy our tickets and let us run to the boat to make it but we did it and happily made our plane the next morning on about four hours of sleep for me and two for Rachel. By the way, when I said WE had to scramble I meant Rachel. I was exhausted and being the calm one of the both of us, so I just sat down at some point and let her do everything. Whoops :P

Where exactly is Ushuaia, you ask?



Well, we´ve slept a lot of the day away already here, so we´re just gonna check out some museums, take more pictures of the mountains, and maybe eat out. Who knows! Adiós from the other side of the world!

¡Chau, Bella!

Another week in Uruguay. I´ve been here for only 3 weeks and one day and I feel like I´ve accomplished so much already. I´ve actually had people tell me already that they´ve noticed how my Spanish has improved. Say what?! The girls and me offically switched to Spanish last Monday and while we still speak in English more than we should I can see everyone improving.

We started to learn el voseo in our foreigner Spanish class on Friday and I feel like I understand people so much better now! El voseo is a verb form that is only used around the Río de Plata, so mostly Uruguay and Argentina speak using it along with some regions of Paraguay. It´s a simple verb tense to learn and I can definitely recognize it now, however, it will take me a little while to begin to use it. It´s easier to use ´vos´ when I don´t have to conjugate a verb after it, so instead of ´¿Puedo ir contigo?´ you would say ´¿Puedo ir con vos?´. Súper easy!

I haven´t really done anything new this week what with school and unfortunately contracting food poisoning on Friday. The school work isn´t that difficult, but I´m not used to having to read about 40 pages of Spanish for homework. It´s pretty slow going and a lot of the works were written in old Spain Spanish, so that means new vocabulary and old verb tenses that aren´t used anymore. The work isn´t impossible, though, and I can´t wait for next semester when reading 40 pages of Spanish won´t be such a hassle.

As far as the food poisoning is concerned, I´m still not 100% sure what caused it. I´ve been fixing a lot of my own food lately, so I think this is something I did to myself. No one else is sick so it can only be the food that I bought for myself that caused it. I want to blame the ham, but I really don´t know. It´s my second time having it and to be honest I´m glad it finally happened because part of traveling is food poisoning or the more common TD. Of course, I still need to watch what I eat, but my body should be more adjusted to the types of bacteria found in the food and the water here and that means I can be more adventurous when I eat out...not.

Edit: I actually had gastrointesti-something. It´s just like food poisoning except it´s caused by a virus and tends to last about a week and instead of a day or two. It didn´t affect me as much since I´m already lactose intolerant and experience stomach aches regulary. I only felt slight discomfort while Rachel, on the other hand, ended up missing a few days of school and couldn´t eat for two days. Probecita.

Semana Santa is coming up. It´s like Spring Break in the States except it´s really an observance of Holy week which is what Semana Santa stands for. Makes you almost think twice about what you are going to do during the break... almost. We found out our school is a super Catholic school (Opus Dei) so, of course, they would observe this holiday. This is our one chance before exams to go as far as we can in South America for a whole week and a bunch of people have already booked tickets for Río de Janiero and are working on their visas. The schedule for Río doesn´t work for me and my classes, so I think I´m going to head for Caractas (I hope I spelled that right). It´s a place with a big waterfall where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay join, so I would have an option of visiting either of the three countries when I get there. I still don´t know if I´m going by myself of not, but I refuse to sit here and do nothing during this whole week off, so if I must go by myself then I shall!

I am still enjoying it here and even plan on starting to read the newspaper, so I can know what´s happening and get more of an idea about the culture here. I, also, want to visit the feria, or an outside market, in Parque Rodó which is a short walk from where I live. I´ve read about it online and want to check it out for myself.

¡Chau, bellos! (I don´t think this is actually said here but I said it to Analía one day and she laughed, so why not?)

Funny, Funny

I made a funny in class yesterday. Accidentally, of course, but the whole class laughed and even the teacher. We were doing roll call and, being an international student, my name wasn´t on the attendance sheet. So, when the teacher asked for whoever they didn´t call I had to raise my hand. After about eight people with Spanish names, she calls on me and I´m thinking ´Oh, boy, my name is going to stand out´. And it did. After hearing my name, everyone laughed and then I had to spell my it. I thought I would recover here and not sound so like international student when I knew how to spell my name. I even asked Rachel how to say the letters ´A´ and ´E´ because they sound so much alike that I mix them up sometimes. I so had it until I realized that I spelled my first name first when I was suppose to do my last name first. I guess I was nervous. Then the whole class laughed again and I had to actually speak to the teacher, so it became very clear that I am indeed an international student who can´t speak Spanish when she´s flustered. I loved it though. It was a nice icebreaker and you have to learn to laugh at yourself in those situations.

Also, I forgot to mention in my last post that Hayley, Kelsey, and I went to the beach earlier this week. We went late, so it wouldn´t be so hot and only stayed for a little while, but it was fun. I liked it a lot because it was fun to see all the people and it was way more relaxing than I though it would be. By the way, I know I haven´t posted any pictures but as soon as I get my laptop (Bestbuy STILL has it) I will go back and put up pictures of everything and post a link of whatever website I will use for photos on here.

On culture: I love trying to ride the bus in Montevideo. If you try to ride them like you do in the states you will never be able to get off. What I mean is you have to stand right at the door to show that you want to get off. There is no string to pull so you have to literally walk up to the door bus while it´s still in motion and stand there as the bus continues to turn and stop and whatever until you get to your stop. The closer to the door you are the better. To hail a bus you need to stick your hand out like you would for a taxi because if no one is getting off and no one hails the bus then it will not stop.

La Semana Santa is coming up and we´re in the midst of making plans! We´re thinking of going to Punta del Este (a great tourist beach area) the weekend before then heading to Brazil afterwards. We met some people in a hostel that will let us stay with them while we´re on our way to Río de Janiero. I´m so excited about this trip. Getting to see this place so soon after arriving is awesome. I just hope we can find an inexpensive way to do it since I have to make my money stretch for the rest of the year.

And last but not least, I finally found an apartment! I keep making corny jokes about it like when I take the keys out to open the door I´m like "Let me pull out MY keys to MY apartment." I´m a nerd, but it´s my first apartment ever, so I´m allowed to be a little over excited.

I Miss Los Estados Unidos

America. The US of A. The land of the red, white, and blue. I miss it terribly today. I think I´m experiencing culture shock because I definitely find myself frustrated over little things lately such as the fact that a hot dog here does not taste like the hot dogs I´m used to. I´m tired of people always brushing up against me and walking to the left and not the right. And I want to have an amazing homecooked meal with American Coke (even though it tastes better here but doesn´t have as much of a kick) that ends with chocolate chip cookies.

But at the same time I still love it here. We finally found housing. Hooray!! Life should be way more stable now and if you want to send me packages of cookies I can give you a solid address now ;).

Our new apartment is pretty small and there are a total of five people living in it, but the two people who own it won´t be there much and guess who has her own room? Yup, I have my own room mostly because I´m a light sleeper and I love my own personal space. We have to buy our own food but Chef Hayley, will hopefully be fixing a lot of meals, so I should start eating much better now. I can tell I´ve already lost weight because my belts almost don´t fit me anymore... I think it´s in large part due to the strange meal times here (breakfast=before 10; lunch=1-3; 5ish= tea time or snack time; dinner=around 10). Well, dinner is mostly different with the added tea/snack time but that´s what´s killing me. At about five I´m ready to EAT, but a bunch of places aren´t serving dinner yet.

I think it´s funny that Hayley, Kelsey, and me have already gotten a rhythmn going after only a week. Hayley is the forgetful one. She is no longer allowed to hold keys to any of my locks as she is always misplacing them or almost losing them.

Kelsey is the FML (F*** my life)one because things are always happening to her and it´s hilarious. For example, somehow on the bus someone stole her passport from her purse and the lady called to ask for money in exchange for the passport. Well, Kelsey had to call the embassy and the police and in the meantime she´s passport-less which is definitely not good. It´s not really a funny story, but when I add that the same day, if not the day before, we had orientation where they told us all the things that we should not to do, like carrying your actual passport on your person, then it makes you smile. Also, one of the number one rules when you go abroad is do NOT carry your original passport on you! Make copies and carry those instead. So, it was an FML moment for sure.

And, me? I´m the one who knows where to go and just general info about Montevideo. I did the most research and am the most advanced in Spanish so I have most of the answers. We`re like the three musketeers.

So, I´m sitting in the computer lab typing this up as I wait for my 7:30pm class. Most of my classes are really late and I need to ask someone why classes are so late here. I´m not really complaining though. More sleep for me.

And I think it´s so awesome how I am a foreigner here. All the things we do to foreigners in the US is what they do to them here and my obvious accent is not helping. Plus, I don´t look like most people here and especially at my school so I alone stand out. Someone did ask if I was from Chile the other day (even after they heard me speak Spanish) and I almost said yes.

First Week in Uruguay

You can read all you want about study abroad and the country you're going to, but it´s a whole different thing in person! I absolutely love it here and I'm glad I chose Uruguay. It is indeed tranquilo for a major city and I just love being surrounded by all Spanish all of the time.

I wish I could write more blog posts but I still don't have my laptop and the time I do have to get on a computer I am emailing professors, Skype-ing my parents, or looking for housing. My life is so unstable right now with classes beginning Tuesday but I think I found an apartment, so things should be a little less hectic in the upcoming week.

I feel like my Spanish is already improving after a week albeit not as fast as I would like it too. Something that makes learning Spanish harder here is the typical Uruguayan accent to pronounce ´llamo´ like ´shamo´ instead of the typical ´yamo´with emphasis on the 'sh' so I have to re-retrain my ear to listen for that sound. It's an obstacle sometimes especially when I discover a new word with the 'll' or ´y´ sound that is pronounced with the 'sh' sound, but with classes starting on Monday I'm sure I'll get accustomed to it real fast.

Living in hostels has been so much fun and dare I say too much fun? We get to meet travelers from all over the world who are traveling for different reasons with different accents. A lot of them speak English and very little Spanish so we do end up speaking English a lot. Hayley, Kelsey, and me said that we could talk in English as long as we lived in a hostel, but as soon as we moved into a permanent place there would be no more English. We did this mostly because it´s stressful living in a noisy hostel and trying to wake up early and go to orientation, do homework and discover a new city with the added pressure of speaking Spanish all the time. As we get more accustomed to where we are and more confident with our Spanish, we are speaking more in Spanish.

There are about 12 other international students here with the US students being the majority. I was glad at orientation that we finally got to meet them, so we could compare notes and help each other find housing and avoid the mistakes that other people have made since they arrived.

I've discovered so much these past seven days and learned so much about this new culture that this one blog entry can't do it justice. I experienced an asado, had to change my definition of clean several times, learned to trust people way more that I ever have, walked for miles just to see this beauty city, struggled with my American accent to simply order hot dogs and so much more. I wish I could write more but I'm hogging Hayley's computer.

But I'm really glad I came here and I am really excited that for the next ten months I get to call this place home and eventually help new international students explore this little known country.

after our 10 hour flight we made it!

Anti-climatic Flight Cancellation

So, about 20 minutes before our flight it was cancelled due to the blizzard in New York. The phrase of the day is ´anti-climatic, much?´ We used this to describe our situation a lot and we waited over an hour for Kelsey´s friend to come back to Raleigh and pick us up just as she got back home. It was so crazy to be so nervous and so excited and then 20 mintues before you embark on this epic adventure you find out you have to wait another day even though you've already psyched yourself up. Man... So, I just got home and I have all these people to email like our hostel and our university to let them know what's going on and to save money so we don't get charged fees.

Our new flight plan is to leave Raleigh at 7:25pm and go to Miami. We'll arrive in Miami at 9:25pm then we'll have an overnight flight from Miami straight to Montevideo from 11:10pm to 11:20am. I hate that we are no longer going through Brazil but we're going to try to make it to Rio de Janiero at some point so we'll make up for it.

I only got three hours of sleep last night in an effort to exhaust myself so I could just sleep on the planes and also to clean and pack so I'm really exhausted right now. Well, good thing Raleigh isn't too far away from Greensboro so I can sleep in my own bed for one more night. I'm actually going to get eight hours of sleep this time as we get to do it all over again tomorrow!

Today is the day!

This post isn't going to be long at all, but I won't have time to do it tomorrow so here we go!

At the moment I'm taking a brief break from my frantic packing to take a breather and open a gift a friend gave me (Thanks, Kelli, even though I haven't opened it yet!) Packing for 10 months is so hard to do and keep your suitcase under 50 lbs. I haven't weighed my suitcase yet, but I already know I'll have to take a lot of stuff out. I'm really exhausted and stressed and I hope that this means when I do get on the planes I will pass out before we even lift off. I HATE flying and it would be awesome to just skip the flights and just go through the airports.

I am just really nervous for this big adventure and hope that I can arrive safely and find a laptop or computer somewhere that I can get on before mine arrives in the mail. Bestbuy headquarters is STILL fixing my laptop over a month later and I'm just not going to get it back before I leave tomorrow. This presents a huge problem in that my cell phone probably won't work and if something happens... I'll just have to pay the outrageous international fees and call my parents somehow. I might just have to go to school early and see if the Director will let me use her computer. Who knows, but it's really stressful not having a sure way to tell my parents I arrived and I'm okay.

But yeah that's everything in a nut shell. I really hope everything goes okay and I would really appreciate prayers and thoughts for me and my travel companions for the next 48 hours as we travel and adjust to our new envrionment. Adios, amigos!

Almost there!

Six more days until I take a 23 hour journey to my new favorite place! I can't be as excited as I want to be right now since I received three vaccinations yesterday and am currently experiencing flu-like symptoms. Not fun... but I will now be able to fight off Typhoid Fever, Hepatitis A, and Yellow Fever. Whoo!

For the first six days the girls and me have everything figured out so far. We've booked a hostel and met a girl, Rachel, who can help us get situated. She's from UNC- Chapel Hill, which is really close to our university, so I immediately feel comforted in that she will be the one to help us out.

A lot of people have been asking me about how I feel with the departure date looming and if I am excited. It really depends on the day how I feel about everything. I have days where I'm so excited then days where I am just making lists in my head. There's just a lot to think about and so many ways to feel about this situation. I've never left the country, even home, for more than ten months by myself yet I love Spanish and the fact that I'll be in an evironment where people, signs, and TV will all be in Spanish. I guess if I had to pick one word for it it would be that I feel overwhelmed. In both a good and bad way, but I'm keeping a positive attitude about the whole thing and taking everything in stride.

Nothing is set in stone yet after those first six days. I'm not sure if it´s just Latin American culture or the University I am going to. Or maybe it´s just an American thing to want to know exactly how things are going to happen and what to expect when you arrive to a new place. I know this is probably just typical study abroad things that people learn in my situation, but it´s harder dealing with it even though I knew it was coming. But everything will work out mostly because it has to! After all the research I've done, I feel good about this experience and that I will be able to manage it with the help of the other students from UM. There are only 13 international students including myself and we've already been emailing each other so that's a good sign.

And I would say the second most common thing people ask me when they realize Uruguay is a Spanish-speaking country is "Can you speak Spanish? Will you be able to get around?" Yes, I can speak Spanish though not fluently yet and yes, I will be able to get around. People always ask me this like they can't believe I'm attempting to go to a country that isn't too English-friendly, but I really don't think it will be too bad. I'm far enough along in the Spanish major where I can take the basics I've learned and start to really use them and build upon them to gain fluency. It definitely won't be easy going from speaking my broken Spanish to my American Spanish teachers to being able to speak fluidly to any Spanish speaking person, but I'm confident that I can accomplish this before I leave Uruguay. Plus, I'm pretty sure I have the most classroom hours in my little group of three people so I'll have to step my game up and make sure I can help us find housing and get around the city, and explore our new school. I write better than I speak Spanish, though, so if worse comes to worse I'll just whip out an empty notepad (International students would do this to me at UNCG and it seemed to really help them) and just write down what I want to say on it.

The only big thing that still needs to be done is for me to get my laptop back from HP headquarters. I reall need it before I leave, so I can contact my parents when I arrive via Skype and, of course, I'll need it for school. The next biggest thing is packing... oh, goodness. How on earth does one pack for 10 months?

I wrote this post over a few days and as I'm finishing it I have four more days until I leave. I find myself being very nostalgic as I spend my last days in this familiar place and even saying "Oh my gosh" out loud a lot as it keeps hitting me that I really signed up for this. I'm really looking forward to it and thankful for all the people that have helped me get here by filling out papers on my behalf and holding my jobs and just supporting me as I've had to watch all the other international students leave while I'm still here. So, thank you guys and the next post will be on the day that I leave... in four days... on Thursday!