Super happy fun times

I'm going to pretend that I didn't only post once last month. Can we all agree to ignore that little shortcoming? Yeah? Alright, now that that's out of the way, leave us continue onto other things.

So. It seems that back home, things are winding down towards the end of the semester, with finals literally right around the corner (A&M classes end tomorrow, and finals will be done on Wed. next week). Very exciting. Here, we are mostly mired in the middle of myriads of malicious midterms. That is to say, I had a partial exam last Thursday in Historia Latinoamericana (which I think went well), I have another tomorrow in my Taller de Escritura (my writing class... have a take home exam to finish and an essay to prepare to write tomorrow in class), and I have another on Wednesday in my clase de Espanol Avanzado (advanced spanish, which will be basically like advanced grammar, only with reading comprehension and writing portions as well). So that should be all kinds of fun. It'll be a good week though, because we have our last planned excursion (via ISA) this weekend - to Iguazu Falls.

Iguazu Falls is way up in the northeastern corner of Argentina in a little arm that more or less extends into Brazil. We're leaving Thursday evening to take a bus up there all night (love those all-night bus rides) and we're coming back on Sunday (flying, I believe, though I'm not positive on that). There have already been two trips there, and everyone who has gone has said that it is amazing. The link to the Wikipedia article would seem to support that opinion rather heavily. So, looking forward to that.

We went to Rosario a couple of weekends ago on another excursion, which was neat. Apparently, Rosario was never founded as a city. It just kind of grew up around an estancia (ranch) into the city it is now. Probably its most notable sight is the Monument to the Flag of Argentina. Pretty impressive on the whole. We didn't have a whole lot of time there, as we left Saturday morning, got there at noon, and left again at about 3 o'clock on Sunday. Still, it was a nice weekend; relaxing on the whole, and it was nice to get out of BA for a bit.

Hard to believe it's already May... and that we're in the middle of fall. Every time I see someone post on Facebook about what they're doing this summer, part of me gets confused. I know that it is almost summer back home, and yet, when they say that I think about summer next year, because it's fall right now, and winter comes next. Every once in a while I wonder just how messed up my sense of time/the seasons is going to be messed up when I get back.... Especially since, by the time next spring rolls around, I will have experience 3 cycles of summer-fall-winter without seeing spring. Fun times. I guess we'll see what happens with that.

In other news, I'm kind of in a constant state of freaking out about Brazil, since I still don't exactly know all the details on what's going on with that. I guess I just have to wait some more to see what falls out in the end. Wheeeeee. At any rate, I'll be home sooner than I initially anticipated (the program in Brazil ends on the 14th of August instead of the 19th or whatever it was).

As time goes by...

So, once again I realize that I am not very good at keeping you guys up to date on things down here... I guess that's just how it goes. Apologies.

In any case, things are still going pretty well... We had Easter break last week, which means that we didn't have class on Thursday and Friday. Since we don't have class on Friday anyways, that just means that the University is closed and I couldn't go use their free internets. Since the ISA office was also closed, same problem there. I did get a 5 day weekend though, since I don't have class on Mondays, so that was nice. I didn't go anywhere, either, partly because I was still trying to get over a cold that I got about 2 weeks ago (I think it's from when I went onto the roof at night in a T-shirt and shorts... gets chilly at night here, especially up on the roof where it's quite windy. That and I'm getting soft). The other part of my reasons for not going anywhere was that it was a vacation for everyone else in the city as well, so the beach and places like that were packed and transportation out was hard to find on short notice. So I spent a long weekend just relaxing and not doing homework (that is, the 2 essays I had to write for this week). Saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D as well... I don't know who all of you has seen it, but I wasn't terribly impressed. It was entertaining, but lacking in some aspects (imho).

On the subject of classes, I think next week should be interesting... I have 3 writing assignments due, and 2 extra classes (to make up for classes that we missed for various reasons). Not too excited about that, but....meh.... It's still less work than I had on a weekly basis the last few semesters (and less class, though that goes without saying). One thing about it though.... I miss math and physics and engineering in general. I miss my engineering classes with their ridiculous homeworks and ridiculous problems that took forever to figure out.... I suppose that's a good thing. I'm just worried that I may have forgotten how to math. I suppose I'll find out in July. Should be fun.

So even though I've been here since February, I still see things that surprise me here about how different things can be.... For example, as I was walking to class this morning, I walked past a spot on the sidewalk which was roped off because of some construction on the building's front. Since the sidewalk was roped off (and they had a truck on the street next to them), there was an area enclosed with cones out into the street for pedestrians to walk around. In the middle of the enclosed area there was a guy with a saw of some kind, which he was using to cut metal bars (like rebar or something like that). When you cut metal, though, there are going to be sparks, probably in copious amounts. Well, this was no different, and this is what was ridiculous... the guy didn't have any sort of canvas backdrop or anything like that. Nothing behind him. Just the street, and the 'pedestrian path' of cones. So there's this spray of sparks flying into the middle of the area where pedestrians would be walking by (not a huge amount, as he was a little ways away, but enough to concern me significantly). Since there didn't seem to be anything else to do, I just quickly walked through, putting my hand up to the side of my head and looking away so as to not experience the privilege of having a red-hot fleck of metal embed itself in my eye. Good times.

So.... I really like being an engineer.

Yeah, I really do enjoy being an engineer. Math and Science are nice and fun. Literary analysis less so. Don't get me wrong, I am really enjoying my classes, and the material is really interesting. I did, however, have to read 120 pages in spanish for my lit class this week. And I'm about 200 pages behind on the reading for my history class (according to the syllabus), since I didn't have the book first week, and I let someone borrow it until last monday (at which point I was trying to get the reading done for my lit class). Good times, definitely.

In other news, I got onto the roof of my apartment building yesterday and last night to check out the view and take some pictures. I'll post those whenever I get around to posting the rest of my pictures. I'll try to do that tomorrow or friday. They're all on my computer, so all I have to do is lug it to a cafe and do what I do. The roof is pretty neat..... I'm in the tallest building on my block, and one of the taller ones in the immediate area. About 16 stories, so nothing ridiculous, but enough for a really nice view. I'd like to get on top of U Belgrano's main building (la torre)... It's about 20 stories or so, and closer to the river so I'm betting the view would be quite nice). The only problem with being on my roof is that there are no guide rails or anything.... It's basically ''unfinished.'' As in not a patio sort of deal. Roof vents and antennae and DirectTV dishes taking up space. And very windy. It was really easy to get up there though.... Took the elevator to the 15th floor, walked up the next flight of stairs to a kind of 16th floor deal (it has some maintenance closets and stuff and what looked like some kind of big open room through a door on one end with some construction materials or something in one corner). Went out one door and up a ladder and there I was. Very nice. Think I'll ask the doorman today if I can get on the roof. So as to find out if it's ''allowed.'' Might have to make a habit of going up there, it's pretty nice to be able to look down on the city and everything going on down below.

A Post

So, classes are pretty interesting. I did drop Sistemas Politicos even though it was interesting... but that was so I could take Tango. Good times, that. It's odd only meeting once a week (except for the advanced language class, which meets twice a week), and a 2 hour class gets to be quite long.... Another side effect is that we get a lot of homework. That kind of sucks, but as I still have more free time than I do during a normal semester back in the States, it's not so bad. Viz, I am currently sitting in a cafe using free wifi, and have been for the past 2.5 hours. I do love me some free internets. And it's not like "I have to pay for some food to get access to the 'free' internets," either. Of course, I do have to get something, but since I have to eat lunch somewhere, and somehow, this seems a capital way to do it. Especially since I paid 20 pesos for 4 empanadas and a (glass) bottle of coke. About $5.50 or so. Not a bad deal in any case, and even better with free internet.

Got rained on again yesterday. I do really despise rain sometimes. It is nice for things like staying inside with a book or something like that, or for playing football outside (of course), but for things like getting around from place to place on foot? Not so much. Getting soaked while walking home gets very tired very quickly. At least it doesn't rain as much as it did about 3 weeks ago. Apparently BA is very nice in the fall, so that's exciting. We're just kind of on the front end of it here.... Kind of like early September-ish. I can hear cicadas singing in the trees when I walk to class, which has always been something I've enjoyed.

We have a trip to an estancia (read: farm/ranch) near Buenos Aires this saturday. Trip description on the ISA website:

"During this excursion,students have the unique opportunity to visit a farm near Buenos Aires and learn about the life of an Argentine gaucho and his farming traditions, and taste traditional country cuisine. Students learn about agribusiness in Argentina and experience traditional gaucho music and dances. The day is made complete with insight into the history and preparation of "mate," a traditional tea, and an "asado," Argentine-style barbecue."

Sounds like fun times. It will be especially nice to get away from all of the tall buildings. Being closed in on all sides by tall buildings gets a little bit tiring at times.

On another note, my weekend started at 1:00 today. It ends at 9:00 Tuesday morning. Just saying.

Good to be back....

So, once again it's been awhile. Apologies. Started classes yesterday. My schedule is pretty nice, I'm not gonna lie..... No class on Monday. Or Friday. Every week. Full schedule here. Very nice. Seriously though, I think I'm going to enjoy my classes quite a bit. The writing course will be...good times....I think. There are those of you who know just how much I love to write. En serio, I think that it will be fun. And I'm really looking forward to the Lit. class. I really do love me some Latin American Literature. It's good stuff, I'd recommend that you read it, even translated to english.

The weather here is the same as it usually is. Either sunny and hot and humid, or cloudy and not quite as hot (still humid). Or raining (and subsequently flooding). It is good times. Seriously though, I love this city. I'm sitting in a cafe right now, finished my coffee, and I'm still just sitting here. Free wifi and all. I love the way time seems to have a different feel here.... much more relaxed. I'd recommend to anyone that they visit BA. And Santiago de Chile for that matter. Or just pretty much anywhere in South America. Shoot, you should just go travel, it hardly matters where, as long as you do, seriously.

Speaking of Chile, what an interesting time. Honestly one of the oddest vacations that I've ever been on, bar none. Our plans were not absolutely solid before we got there to begin with, and that just kind of 'sploded them completely. Maybe it was better that we had less plans, come to think of it. Anyways. Santiago is a beautiful city, at least at that time of year. Vina del Mar is also very nice. Interesting thing about Santiago is that it's about the same amount of time to drive/ride the bus to either the ocean or the mountains for swimming or skiing. In the same time of year. You could alternate weekends or something. Sweet. Didn't do any skiing though, just a couple of days at the beach, got a little sunburn, bought a couple hats, that kind of thing.

And to think, I still have 4 months left here. Very excite.

Fun Times

So, apologies for last short post, but I was short for time. Same story here, as there are people waiting to use the internet, and I just spent a while writing an email to my parents. Anyways, quick rundown here.

We got into Santiago at a bout 3 o'clock local time, about 12 hours after the earthquake. There have only been a couple aftershocks since we have been here, and they have been very small. We are currently in a nice hotel in the better part of Santiago (the the last couple of days since we got here were in a not as nice part of Santiago, which was close to the bus terminal). But we were RESCUED from there by a very nice Lockheed Martin employee. Because the dad of two of the people I am with works for Lockheed (has for about 26 years or so) and was adamant that we get out of there. So this guy is in Chile because Chile bought some F16s, so he's their LM liaison. Pretty sweet. So he took us to the nice part of town (very. nice.), and we are now in a quite nice hotel just relaxing. So we are just kind of going to chill here since we won't be able to get back east until at least Tuesday, since everything, flights and buses, is booked.

All in all, though, everything is pretty good. There is minimal damage in Santiago, and also in Viña del Mar and Valparaiso. The LM guy was in Viña when the quake hit, and he said everything is fine there. So, after a couple days here we might head out west to the beach to relax a bit. Very exciting. Also, anything you have seen on CNN has been sensationalized like none other, and everything here is basically okay. Chile is pretty stable as things go, and it can get back up again. There were some hard hit areas of the country (Concepcion and Biobio were pretty badly hit... I think Biobio got the tsunami) but all in all, everything is good. I think only 300 people died in the entire country or something. This is no Haiti or Katrina. Also, Santiago is a beautiful city and I would recommend to anyone that they come visit it.

Spring Break

So we get into Santiago yesterday, around 12 hours after the earthquake hit. Very exciting...... Even woke up to an aftershock this morning. Luckily, we didn't decide to leave any earlier on the bus, or we might have been going through the Andes when it hit.... That would not have been good, judging by some of what we saw when we did go through.

One more time....

For those who have difficulties in reading the spanish, apologies. It has been pointed out that I wrote the pertinent part of last post (what I have been doing in general) in spanish. Ops. Anyways, here is translation of it.

Everything is pretty good here... I've visited a couple of museums, the Museum of Bellas Artes (Fine Arts) and theMuseum of Arte Popular. They're both pretty interesting, but the Arte Popular is pretty small, so that was a short visit... It didn't really have a whole lot either, which was a pity. The Bellas Artes was pretty neat, though... Three floors and a lot of stuff to see. Something else that I have enjoyed doing is visiting used bookstores (because, if you know me, you know I love to read and purchase and browse books). Anyways, I've bought some stuff by a few different Latin American authors like Jorge Luis Borges, Rubén Darío, and Federico García Lorca, among others (in spanish, of course) It's prett interesting stuff... Borges' stories can be pretty neat, if you like stuff that deals with the surreal and things like that (Buenos Aires was his stomping grounds too, which is neat). I've also been looking for books of Asterix, which can be hard to find. I really enjoy them, and reading them in spanish has been fun.

Anyways, I've also purchased a copy of Don Quijote in spanish (for 20 pesos, about 5 bucks...). It's hard cover, two volumes, and in good condition, so I was pretty excited about that. Had the final today for the intensive month of classes..... A little more intense than I was expecting, but I think it went alright. It had a 2 hour written portion and then an oral presentation, so yeah... Anyways, I'm looking forward to classes starting after our spring break here, but I'm looking forward to heading to Chile tomorrow even more at the moment. Get on a bus and ride across the continent. Whoop. Apparently the buses are pretty nice though, so it shouldn't be too bad. If I get a chance I'll write some while I'm there.

Hace tiempo.....

So I guess it's been about a week since I last said anything? Anyways, not a whole lot to say, really. The weather is honestly beautiful right now.... Been about 75 degrees and sunny the last couple of days... Just fantastic.

However, I have learned that when it rains here, it stuff gets really fubar.... I'm talking like literal rivers flowing down the streets and people wading to get anywhere. Buses not running and the subway shut down. Power cut off and the whole bit. A friend of mine had to walk home 40 blocks, a good portion of which was wading through water at least to his knees, when not higher. And the power was off in the apartment when he got there. This happens when it rains hard, which happens often enough around this time of year. It happened monday before last, last friday, and again on monday. Stuff like this, although that doesn't quite do it justice.

Anyways.... Almost done with the intensive month of classes, the final is tomorrow, which should be fairly interesting. I am excite. Next week is our ''spring break'' before the semester starts, so I'm going to chile with some friends. Taking the bus, which should be interesting. If you take the bus, you don't have to pay the $130 (US) entry fee that you pay if you fly in. That is, of course, just for US citizens (and it is good for 10 years). It's not the price for the visa (you only have to pay once every 10 years....), but it's a kind of 'reciprocity fee' because we (the US) charge their citizens that much for a tourist visa. Have to pay the same to enter Argentina as well. Kinda sucks, but hey, you know, it's only money....

Bueno, para los que quisieran practicar español, voy a escribir un poquito para que puedan hacer esto (y también para practicar mí mismo...) Todo está bien aquí, he visitado a dos museos, lo de las Bellas Artes, y lo de la Arte Popular. Los dos son interesantes, pero el Museo de Arte Popular no es muy grande, y era un viaje cortito. Otra cosa que me gusta mucho es visitar las librerías de libros usados (porque me encanta comprar y buscar libros, todos saben esto...) He comprado unos libros de las obras de escritores como Jorge Luís Borges, Rubén Darío, y Federico García Lorca, entre otros.... Claro, son libros en español. Los cuentos de Borges especialmente son interesantes (y también, Buenos Aires era su ciudad). También he buscado libros de Asterix (alguien sabe Asterix? ---> Asterix), libros que son difícil de encontrar.... Son muy buenos, y es interesante leerlos in español...

De todos modos, quizás escriba cuando esté en chile la semana próxima.... vamos a ver.

THE INTERNET

This whole thing with not have teh intarwebs in my apartment is kind of two-sided.... I like the not being quite as addicted to it anymore, but the not being quite as well connected is starting to wear a little bit. Oh well, things are as they are, and I like them that way.

Things are going pretty well... I'm really enjoying my host mother and her little dog. The weather is a really nice (a little hot some days... maybe up into the 90s... and really humid too, but it's good). It's kinda funny to think that the ''winter'' olympics are going on right now.....

Last weekend was alright, the trip to Tigre was postponed. Again. It's cool though, because I spent all saturday walking around Recoleta, one of the neighborhoods here. Went to the Bibioteca Nacional, the Cementerio (where anybody who was somebody in BA is buried... It's basically a massive walled-in area full of huge mausoleums...), the Museo de Bellas Artes, and the Feria (a huge market sort of place with lots of vendors and neat things).

Blargle argle argle

Wooooo..... monday. I just love mondays. Actually, all things considered, today was pretty good. Had a good night's sleep, and the weather today has been just beautiful. Sunny, not too hot, with a nice breeze. Too bad that I've had to spend most of it indoors..... Anyways. A good day.

Had a pretty good weekend, as well. Our trip to Tigre was cancelled due to impending rain, but it did not, in fact, rain really at all. Cloudy all morning and sunny all afternoon.... Spent the morning basically exploring one of the city's neighboorhoods, Recoleta, with a friend. Saw the National Library (didn't go inside.... that's a trip for another day. An entire day, I believe)... It's a pretty intense building. Has some really neat architecture going on... Walked through some parks, saw some neat statues, and visited the open market. The market is pretty big... lots of stands with plenty to see. Saw some stuff I might buy next time I'm there.

Hopefully this week goes pretty well.... weather forecast looks like sunny with scattered thunderstorms.... highs in the 80s all week. That's right. You read that correctly. We have a test on thursday, but that should go alright.... I've got a presentation on Jorge Luis Borges for tomorrow. Should be pretty exciting. I've realized in doing research on him that I want to read more of his work..... Pretty interesting stuff.¨

And so...

Bueno.... Hace unos dias, regreso a mi blog.... Well, I have been quite busy, what with orientation meetings, and a city tour, and whatnot. The apartment does not have internet, but you can get 30 min for 2 pesos, so that is pretty neat (about 55 cents). The food is pretty awesome here, although they have not really heard of spicy stuff. I knew I should have brought that bottle of tabasco...

De todos modos... The city is really fantastic, though I have not done any extensive exploring, I have spent some time walking around my neighboorhood. I have not spent any extensive amount of time talking to any locals yet, but that will happen eventually... (If you have noticed by now that I am avoiding using conjunctions, it is because the apostrophe is in a different place and harder to use.... No conjunctions in Spanish) I have not taken a great amount of pictures yet, mostly because I do not want to look too much like a ridiculous tourist taking pictures of everything. I forgot it on the city tour, so more´s the pity...

Anyways, that is all for now. No ridiculous stories or anything like that yet, though they have told us a few...

POR FIN

Finalmente, I am in Buenos Aires. After "years" of flights or whatever it was.... Anyways, it has been excellent so far. I am in the computer lab at the ISA office, which is only a 10 minute walk from where I am living. The keyboards are in spanish, that is to say, that there are keys in the wrong places and some of the commands for symbols (most notably @) are different. It is amusing. We are about to have an orientation thing, and I think we are supposed to be quite busy for the next few days... Adios for now.

first post, testing, testing, this is a blog.

This is a blog. Here will be recounted such adventures as I am fortunate to experience.

Currently I am sitting in the airport in Lima, Peru. I have been here since 18:00 (local) and my flight doesn't leave until 1:20...... woooooo.

BUT! I have found, as you can guess, an internet connection, AND power for the laptop. Win.