Despididas, Farewells.

Here I am, in the end of stay camp, ending my long adventure in the much loved Argentina. This is probably the worst camp I have ever been on in the history of camps. Everyones just waiting for their flights home, I don't really know anyone and I would do anything to be back in La Plata right now. ANYTHING. I've already said goodbye to so many people and every time I did it, I wished that I'd just turn back around and say "KIDDING!, I'm here forever!" but no, i couldn't. :(
On the other hand, I finally got to catch up with my friends from Norway and Annie and Maria from New Zealand again... That's about all that's good right now. Well apart from being on my way home I had a bunch of despididas (farewells), like I had in New Zealand which I'll write about.

First off, we had a party two weeks ago. There was a lot of alcohol, I didn't drink but for the sake of the dignity of my friends I'll say no more and that it was a whole lot of fun and I enjoyed it thoroughly! You guys are the best!

And then we all went to a Pizzeria on Friday night, we all waited outside in the freezing cold until we had enough people to go in and claim two tables, we still had more than enough people haha. The pizza was delicious and the company was even better, my friends gifted me a sweatshirt from my school which I've been wanting during my whole exchange but didn't know who to ask. You probably now see me wearing this same sweatshirt in all my photos, just cause It's like a representation of all my friends here in Argentina who I love so much. So much infact that after the Pizzeria, we all went outside for Icecream, chatted for a while and then went to say our goodbyes. Pretty much everyone cried. That was when I really felt like I had my own special place in Argentina, I can't wait to return. Sometimes I really wonder if I belong here more that I belong in New Zealand.

The Saturday following was probably one of the best ever outings, if not the best, that I have ever had in the duration of my life. Martin, Joaco, Ghersi, Uriel, Mora and I all went to the Children's Republic and spent the day doing what 6 teenagers do best. Nothing. We rode a few of the rides and played around on Mora's skateboard and made a video of probably the best ever court scene known to man! I honestly can't stop smiling when I watch it hahaha. This day was honestly so well spent and I still can't believe how I'm not going to see them all for so long, I don't think anyone can! Everyone I met here is so great!

The Sunday, I thought I was just going to stay home packing my bag sadly and moping around all day, when  I actually ending up in the middle of town with more friends doing whatsoever just to spend time with me, we ended up going to the usual hangout table in Mcds and then making our way to more nothingness and finally ending up in a pancake restaurant. It's moments of spontaneousness that I'm really going to miss about these people, every day here was done spontaneously. Like if a teacher didn't show up, we'd go play soccer, or walk around town. Now that I think about it, Joaco promised to take me to the zoo on my first day of school...we never did. ohwell, All the more reason to return I say!

Monday morning. Bags Packed. The Realization of going home still hadn't set in, and I was on my way to the terminal ready to say bye to everyone, I honestly felt like the deceased at a funeral! I got there and Sophie was already bawling her eyes out, I saw my friends first, they were fine, but after I saw Sophie, I just couldn't take it anymore and some tears just started flowing as we hugged eachother, neither of us could believe it! I still can't. I turned around and saw Joaco, Juli and Martin waiting for me. More tears for the people I cared about so much, and then furthermore behind them was my family silently waiting, How much could I cry! Never have I felt so sad in my life, I swear I'll come back though! So I ended up getting on the bus and off I went to return back from my dream world and back into reality.

Pity that right now, I'm in this silly camp. It's honestly the biggest drag in between a dream and home, might aswell as spend it dancing horrible maori dances with the other new zealanders. Be home soon everyone, hasta luego Argentina! 

Two weeks left.

Two weeks left. Two weeks left. Two weeks left... every second, every minute, every hour of everyday I am living this horrid feeling that I'm having to leave this amazing place in only two weeks. It hangs in the back of my mind when I sit in class, at the dinner table, just in general really. I've been trying to spend my last few weeks by not being bored at home, and because of this, I'm lucky to have the time to write this post in between school and my Chinese class.

So after all my exchange there have been so many amazing changes and some things that have just stuck on. For instance, my entire exchange I've been so health conscious that I was starting to freak myself out. I have been running around 3-4 times per week and trying to eat as healthy as possible without starving myself, all just to find out that keeping out off in my exchange life is really impossible. I can now jiggle my belly :( . This probably isn't the most exciting story that you've ever read in your life but ya know, it's still important to me to be fit and healthy. That's why I'm quite proud of my parents in NZ for joining the gym and getting really into health! Can't wait to go back and join them! Other than that, after all my running and exercise, I've still managed to keep myself fit enough to go for long distance runs. SO I competed in a 10.3km race with Sophie in Berisso in the North of La Plata, and came like 65th or something out of everyone and Sophie came 1st out of the woman's section and got her trophy, which I took photos with just to make myself feel a little prouder. Although, I'm rather surprised I ran the whole way and still made it under and hour! It was a fun experience and probably my favourite memory with Sophie, I'm really going to miss her when we go back to our own countries!

Two weeks left.

I think the biggest change the I have made from my whole exchange was the major build of self confidence. Over all my time here I've really come to realise that if you need something, don't expect luck to get you anywhere, You have to work for it yourself and not let anything get in your way. I've really learnt what things are important in life and what things I should worry about or not. A really big eye opener really. I've realised that the thoughts and actions of other people shouldn't really affect your life or stop you in anyway in doing what you want, and I've really realised that life is so short and we can't really can't waste it on waiting for things to pass, so my advice to everyone who has nothing to right now, if to go see a friend and do something more constructive than the virtual lives on facebook, twitter and whatever else there is...ps3?

Monday after next.

The main reason I actually came on this exchange was to learn the Spanish language, and well, it's always been my dream to travel and I'm so grateful for the experience! But i'm sadly regretting to know that the 4 and a half months I've spent here aren't going to be enough to perfect my Castellano. I know I can have conversations, tell stories kind of and make my way round a spanish speaking country without problem, but I still make a lot of little errors, and I really wasn't expecting to do that once I had reached this time in my exchange. I would've had loved an extra few months to become so much better at speaking but ohwell, all the more reason to have to return after university to perfect it. Then make it to Europe afterwards because I've made too many promises with meeting exchange students that I really need to fufill.

Not gonna see anyone for a long long time.

The thing i'm going to miss most on my exchange is definately my classmates, they're honestly some of the coolest kids I've ever met and It just makes me a lot sadder to know that I have to say goodbye so soon. I feel like only now I've just started becoming really good friends with a few and I'm hoping our friendship will last for the rest of our lives, I'm going to miss them so much and surely think about them all the time in New Zealand. You guys better keep me caught up with the class gossip ok? Good. And I'll skype you all while you're in school.

I can't really think of much more to write about in this blog post, so I'm going to end it here because I really need to go to my second to last Chinese class and say goodbye to my friend who's going to China for two weeks! SO i'll just say, although a lot has changed in my own life and that I'm going to be really sad when I leave Argentina, I'm also quite happy to see all my old friends, my family and all the little things I miss, like carpet under my feet, New Zealand milk and most of all the fresh air of the place I call home!

When good goes to bad.

So as some of you might know, I planned a trip for myself to go down to the southish middle of Argentina to a city called Neuquen, to go catch up with my friends from Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Turkey, Italy, Denmark and Sophia from New Zealand. It was planned to be a great trip including going to neighbouring towns and visiting cool sites like the museums in Chacon and so on and so forth. But little did I know what was going to happen wasn't actually going to be too much fun.

So I started off by organizing really well with my coordinators what I needed to do to be ready for my trip in Neuquen, I emailed AFS NZ asking for permission, got all the details from my consejero (coordinator), told my school that I wasn't going to be there for 3 days or so, and did everything that I was supposed to do and badabing badaboom, ya esta, I was off and buying tickets for my 5 days trip to the south to stay with Sophia! The day finally came, my bag was packed and there I was waiting for the bus from La Plata to Confluencia (Didn't have a clue where that was, so I presumed it was the name of the station). After about 16 hours on the bus, we had arrived in General Roca, which is one hour from Neuquen...but I still had about 6 hours left of my trip. This is when I decided that I should try figure out where the hell Confluencia is...I asked some other passengers and they had no idea but they we're still nice enough to help me, in the end they actually couldn't figure it out and I asked the driver myself haha, he told me that it's actually on the outskirts of Bariloche... nowhere near Neuquen.

Once we arrived in Neuquen, I decided that I should get off and change my tickets because something seriously went wrong...luckily I didnt sleep for another million hours and wind up in the wrong city, it's like travelling from Wellington to Hamilton, then accidentally ending up in Russell... Well it was about 7am at this point and Sophia wasn't expecting me until 12, so I called her anyway and made her come and get me. Within the first 10 minutes we were cracking up and almost crying with laughter at our own awkward stories, especially with the kissing people on the cheeks, we've decided that New Zealanders probably come off as the most awkwardest people in the world! I spent the rest of the day catching up with Sophia in Senillosa and drinking mate down by the river, probably one of my favourite afternoons in Argentina.

The next day was spent just hanging around with Nicko(Nikcko, Nico, Niko) I'm actually not sure how to spell it as I've seen it in so many forms..- and some other friends aswell. In the afternoon, we travelled to Plottier and caught up with Manolya from Turkey and had some coffee to end the day, then we returned home. Yes, I know it doesn't sound very exciting, but it was actually really nice to catch up with friends and hang out for a bit, Besides, The Saturday night, Sunday and Monday We had planned to go out and do everything, but that was before all the problems started to roll in on the friday...

Friday morning, we got up and I realised that I couldn't find the 1000 pesos that I had travelled with... this actually counts up to around $300 NZD...today I still can't find it, so I decided that I must've been pickpocketed, not very good for a start to the day, next thign we did, was we went to Sophias school and asked if I could come along with her, the teachers said yes and I went along to a computers class with her, we did nothing but go on Facebook for an hour or two.. after that, they had a big flag assembly, and then point at me and Sophia and told us we had to leave the school, so they put us in a little room during the ceremony and then kicked us outta the school... we thought it was quite rude after they had just said we could come in...same teachers too.. so we decided that we'd have a day trip to Neuquen...that's when the next bad thing happened, we got a message from Sophia's consejera saying "Zac has to return to La Plata", we were confused why and asked why, she said "They're asking for him in the capital". not the most nicest messages to hear when you don't have a clue whats going on.. so after an hour of panicking, we arrived en Neuquen and met up with Nick from Germany and I went off to the side for a while to get explanations from the volunteers from La Plata. They told me that I didn't have permission to go to Neuquen, that I didn't have anymore days to skip school on my exchange and that my family wanted me back for fathers day on Sunday.  However, I hadn't missed a single day of school for my entire exchange, I know my family well enough to know that they didn't mind, and it turns out AFS Argentina had a miscommunication with AFS NZ which meant I didn't have permission. So, in the end I went along with what AFS was saying and returned early from my trip to my home in La Plata where my family was just as angry as I was.

So, why did AFS make so many excuses to me and send me home? Because it turns out that one woman, a mother of one of the students (that all the students hate because she doesn't let them do anything - They call her the b**** mum of Neuquen), was afraid of about 15 exchange students getting together for a party in General Roca. So this initiated what I like to call, "lets give Zac and the other exchange students as many excuses as we can to send them home plan". A few of us were then spending that night in the Free Peanuts Bar, trying to figure out what was going on and it all turned out to be the woman. I now really think the worst decision I've made on this exchange was to follow AFS and go back to my city early, because now I missed out on my chance to meet my friends from Norway and Iceland and I might not ever see them for the rest of my life, they were one of my main reasons for going to Neuquen in the first place! And now my family here is still angry, I'm still pretty annoyed and we're still waiting for some sort of apology from AFS, because in the end none of this was my fault and I lost a lot. uh, ohwell, life goes on I suppose.

Una noche en el museo!

First of all I'd just like to start off this post by saying "Stay strong Jasmin Sallis!". She's our family friend here and she's been really brave after she got paralized after being in the middle of the gunfight and a bullet hit her in the spine, so hope all goes well for the rest of her and that she can raise the funds for a surgery in China.

SO in other news, about a month left here in Argentina and I'm already starting to miss it... only about 4 and a half weeks of doing the usual, living a once in a lifetime experience. Everyday I worry if I'm not getting the most out of my exchange and want to find things to do with friends and keep improving my spanish! I'm not really not looking forward to the fact of leaving my life here, the people are amazing and I would do anything just to stay a little bit longer, cause I already know that time is going to fly! :(

This especially makes me sad when I had the best night ever on saturday night. There was an event happening called "Una noche en el museo" (A night in the museum) just like the movie, except what it was is that all the museums in the city were open and free for the night! with free buses taking you from the centre of town on a circuit round the museums, ALL COMPLETELY FREE!

So I started off the night waiting in the cold with my best friends Joaco and Juliana with our free fluro orange scarves that they were handing out, we waited in the line for what was probably an hour and then made it onto the bus that took us to the museum of Natural Sciences, it looked amazing from the outside and was way more interesting on the inside!

Once we made it inside, we didn't really know what to do first, so we went to the first room on the right...little did we know, but it was the trademark room with all the rocks and geographic info that every museum has and no one really cares that much about about... so in the end we made it to the section about planets and I took a picture of me with the sun, because well. It looked cool.

After realizing that none of us had any interest in rocks whats so ever, we made our way into the dinosaur and ocean life areas. That was when I realized that I had never actually seen one of those giant dino-skeleton sculptures in my life, nor a museum with dinosaurs. Do we even have them in New Zealand?? Anywho, I was a little guttered that I couldn´t take any photos because all the lights were off in certain parts of the museum, I think it was to replicate the night in the museum movie! The ocean part was pretty amazing too, with more skeleton sculptures and fakes animals everywhere. As you can probably tell, I enjoyed looking at things rather than reading the information about them.

After that, we we're beginning to notice that a lot of the people we're walking past with face paint on in different patterns, so we asked we they got them down and towards the stairs to the upper floor to the American Indian section. However, our stomach's became our number one priority as we stopped in the mini restaurant for dinner. All the usual meals were up for grabs, so we went in thinking that we we're going to get a wholesome hamburger for dinner. That's was when we ordered the crocodile instead... AND WOW! IT WAS TASTY! Kinda like chicken to be honest haha, We each had a little bowl and a kebab each with portions of crocodile meat, along with other foods such as potato, rice, shellfish and those really, really hot chillis that people are afraid to eat...Joaco...

After that, we made it upstairs to get our faces painted in some indian form. We found the lady doing it and she told us about all the traditions behind each pattern, I can't quite remember what pattern Joaco and I got, I think it was one to do with the Coming of Man or something along those lines and I think Juli got one about something to do with woman, as you can tell, I was just wanting my face to get painted. So once our faces were painted, we had to awkwardly ask people to take photos of us for the memories of a great night. Once we realised that it getting quite late, we decided that we needed to catch the next bus to make it to the museum of music. And so we took, one last photo of our indian selves and made our way to the busstop. What I didn't realise was that we actually missed out on seeing the room with all the mummies which I would have loved to have seen, but ohwell. I guess that can wait for another day... not that I have many left.

Although I'm one of the most musically uncapable people on this planet, I actually really enjoyed the music museum, although it's probably the most smallest museum there is; with it's total of 5 rooms that hold about 4 people in each. There was a little info about all types of instruments and you could play with most of them, so we made some pretty mean beats with the bongos, and I also now have bragging rights of playing a Gong.. After goofing around with the instruments, we learnt how a music box works and then made our way to catch the final bus home. That was when Joaco smudged his facepaint, and we decided that we should probably go get ourselved washed first..

So we ran across the road to the Shell stations and went into the bathrooms, too bad we didn't have soap in the boys bathroom because it turned out to be water-active paint and I just gave myself a giant black beard which had Joaco in hysterics haha, So Juli let us into the girls bathroom, and seriously I think it's a worldwide thing when the girls bathroom is 1000 times better than the mens haha, Once we had got our paint down to the dark tinge, we walked back to the bus stop, luckily the bus hadn't came yet and so we were able to make it back safely to the city centre.

It was at this point when we were laughing and joking around with my camera on the bus, that I realised that hadn't had a night like that in such a long time, a night where I could finally relax and be myself with my best friends. I'm really going to miss argentina, so from now on I plan to make the most of every moment here and make the best memories of my life! Argentina, te amo!

Trip to the Iguazu falls

Hey everyone, Im not sure how many of you actually know but I just returned fron a one week trip with AFS to the falls of Iguazu along with a lot of the other exchange students that I met at my entry camp aswell as ones who have been here since august. The trip includes visits to the falls, Brasil, the wanda mines and the ruins of San Ignacio, The native bird park and some other things that I cant quite remember at this moment.

First of all, here the Argentinians are used to travelling long distances in buses. So this means that after my 1 hour busride to the capital I had to catch my next bus which took 25 hours. Not cause it broke down or anything... just cause its a long distance. If you search the distance from "La Plata" to "Puerto Iguazu" you can actually see where I am and came from. Personally I enjoyed the long bus ride because I had enough time to catch up with Maria from NZ and meet new people aswell like my new friends from denmark, norway, turkey, hungary and iceland. Thanks to them I can now point out where there countries are!

Well as I was saying, we had travelled for only god knows how long but we all fell asleep and woke up at the ruins of San Ignacio for some breakfast. Im pretty sure no one knew that we were stopping here as we were a giant group of just awoken foreigners. Unfortunately because of not knowing this my phones battery had already died and I could take any photos. The ruins were quite neat, they told a story of the catholics in Argentina through pictures on the wall and the layout of the building. For me, I just really liked how cool the ruins looked, I believe Im going to steal photos from other people in the group. After that we made our way to what we thought was the hotel in Puerto Iguazu.

Then we arrived at the Wanda Mines. Wanda actually means Maria in the native language here if you're wondering why they have such a blantantly unspanish name. Here we got to see all those cool gem clusters in the caves and outside aswell, legend says if you put your right hand on the gems and then your left hand in the sun then you'll be charged with positive energy. I thought that was a joke to make all the foreigners look stupid because well, everyone did look a bit silly doing it haha. After that we exited through the giftshop and made our way to the hotel.

This time it wasnt a lie and I was able to charge my phone and relax by the pool with my friends. Oh yes, I forgot to mention I wemt away from cold winter weather into a summer climate where it was very comfortable to go swimming. And also the hotel was really nice! Warm showers, comfortable beds, free wifi and a nice look in general that I bothered to take a photo.

Once we were all settled in and rested, we made our way to the Argentinian side of the Iguazu falls, turns out that the river borders Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. It was nice to see nature full of life again after living in a urban world for 3 months and a bit. And after a million and half photos of pretty much spectacular views and typical tourist poses we finally made it to La garganta del Diablo (The devils throat). It was probably one of the most amazing things Ive seen and I was a bit gutted that my camera once again decided to be lame and run out of batery right before it. Once again, Im just going to have to steal all the photos again. For now, heres a photo of throat from afar.

That night (because I paid to do all the extra things), a few of us went to a dance show called Obba Obba which featured the dancers doing national dances from the countries in south america. This meant I got to see women dancing with five bottles on their heads, the feathered dancing from carnival and real live professional tango. What I thought was the best thing of the night was that the AFS people didnt tell us that we were actually going to see the show in BRAZIL. I now have bragging rights of visiting Brazil.

The next day, turns out we were going to Brazil anyway the visit the other side of the waterfalls! First we went on this little carriage thing that took us to a dock that turns out we were going to have speedboat rides up the river. They told us that we might get wet so we went in our t shirts and shorts only, leaving our shoes behind with our heavy clothing. Also turns out that when they say that you might get wet, they mean they're going to put you under one of the waterfalls for good luck and say youre going to return in 3 years. Eugh. Thanks Brazil once again. After that, we all headed to the viewing platforms in front of the falls, we were lucky that it rained over night because it meant the falls were full of water. It was impossible not to be hit by the spray of the falls while on the platforms but we didnt mind because we were already wet enough. But i must admit that this sight has probably been one of the most breathtaking things in my life, the beauty of nature has never been so powerful and I can see why the cataratas is now claimed as one of the 7 wonders of the world.

That afternoon we found ourselves in the Parque das Aves (Birdpark) in Brazil, close to the cataratas. Ever since doing a project on toucans in year 4, I have always wanted to see one in the flesh. And by god it was stunning, they looked so unreal, the feathers around its head looks exactly like that of a plush toy and the colours looked like they could only be artificially made. At times I questioned whether it was a robot or not... But apart from that, I can now claim that I saw all these amazing birds (including Flamingos) in real life. I'm quite glad I spent extra money to go visit the park now.

That night we went into town to go visit the shops. And because it's a highly touristic place, everyshop was the same. THE SAME. I wouldnt doubt it if all the exchange students could recount all the items in every store. One item that was rather strange was the eatable wood. Yes, you can argue that all wood is eatable but this wood is made for lunch and such. It tasted as I was eating honey-coated bark.. But it actually wasn't that bad... Anywho after our visit to town, we finally went to bed!

The following day we were meant to go flying foxing through the treetops of Argentinian jungle but it was raining and we all finally got to sleep in, because they postponed it until the afternoon and gave us freetime in the morning instead. Hallelujah. So that afternoon, we all headed to the border of Paraguay, (about 200m from it) and wenting canoping. First of all, we went for a short walk, which included a surprise abseil off a rock which made one girl burst into tears from fear, luckily enough I was able to film her screaming the whole way down and have it as a laughable experience. After that, we went up high in the trees and scaled from one platform to the other. To be flying through the treetops of Argentina definately has to be added to my growing list of amazing experiences!

Then the time came to finally leave the province of Missiones and make our way back to Buenos Aires. I made so many life friends from this one week trip and everyone was really sad to say by to eachother, even crying was involved. Not on my part though haha. But it's pretty amazing to come to realise that it takes less than just one week to make strong connections with other people in this world and all I can really think about now is how sad it is going to be to say bye to Argentina. I think i'm already beginning to miss the place.

Life as I know it.

Aye! I just realised I haven't done a blog for almost a month, where has the time gone!? Everyday I relive the nightmare of the fact that my time here is almost over! less than two months now...BLAGH! It seems a little unfair to me that I have to have  my exchange cut so short and others get to stay for almost 6 months in other countries. I'm raging with envy. Although, the offer to do this has been so amazing and beneficial to me, I just cant be mad.

Life here is good, the people are friendly, the schools are just like home, the language is coming along and the culture..I'm accustomed to. In this blog, I've decided I'm going to write about life here because I feel like I haven't really described an everyday for me and described the cultural differences, so where do I start? The morning of course!

Every morning, I wake up at 6:30am and take an hour to eat breakfast and get ready for school. Here, they don't have breakfast. My brother eats a small packet of biscuit and my mum has these miniture toast slices that are about the size of your hand, and then they're pretty much ready for the day. I come along with my westernized body and make myself a muesli from all these mixed ingredients because the fact is that it doesn't exist ehre because of the lack of breakfasts.. after that I get dressed in winter clothes that I actually have to wear or else I'll get frostbite.. haha kidding it's not that cold! but it's more cold than whangarei has ever been, so I always get a bit of a grin when my friends post a billion statuses complaining. After that, I'm ready to go! And so we take a taxi to get to school.Taxis are insanely cheap here, for us it's probably less than $5 drive for a distance like Kamo to Okara Park. And then I arrive at my giant, antique school.

It is through those doors in the middle where I meet my friends every morning. And this is probably the biggest cultural difference, The greeting. All we New Zealanders should be ashamed of how cold we are. Here, if you enter a group, you go around and "Saludar" everyone. You go around an shakehands with every one of you guy friends and kiss all the girls on the cheek, If you're a girl, you just go around and kiss everyone on the cheek. And even guys sometimes kiss eachother on the cheek. Actually all the time, I lied. Its only teenage boys who shake hands instead of this, and then again we sometimes greet eachother like that. If you don't do anything, you get like an awkward stare and the moment passes, but you feel guilty for not making it known that you're in the group and so is everyone else. People have asked me why I'm so bad and awkward at "Saludando" (Greeting) and that simply because it doesn't exist in New Zealand, then they follow this with "Well what do you do when you meet your friends in the morning" and I have to explain that we walk in and don't have to say anything, we're kind of just acknowledge mentally, but after I say this I always get the same laugh and comments of how weird and cold that is. I would try to bring it to New Zealand, but the aspect of being exiled by my friends for acting like this is too much of a risk. So I'll pass on that.

After we stand around greeting eachother and asking what we have first period, we go to our first period class and hope for the teacher not to come, because here, they don't usually (never) have substitutes. and so we then have about two hours off to go around and do nothing, most likely play some game of take advantage of a free coffee deal at Mcds. However, It's more often that we have class than we dont. In my school we have those little desk table things like you see in all the american movies and it's really easy to manipulate the classroom into grouped tables or straight lines. Whatever you want. And then we sit there and listen to our teacher rattle on about nothing in particular and give us some work. This homework is always constant and not too difficult, I prefer it to the homework in New Zealand which is more or less like 3 x 1500 word assignments to do in one week after doing nothing at all in the previous 4 weeks... I can't wait for the pile of catch up homework I have waiting for me when I return... Then the grading system here is a lot more simpler aswell. It's a score out of 10 for every subject, 7/10 is a pass, you have 3 exams or homeworks and you need a total of 21/30 in the trimestre to not sit the resit examen. so, it's a bit complicated but a lot less complicated than NCEA...yeesh!

After a long, hard day at school, where we normally just take advantage of the free wifi and play games, I walk home through the forest and pass the university buildings and arrive at my house where lunch is in the process of being cooked, (oh yes, i forgot to say that I only go to school during the morning and arrive home around 1-2 and my sister goes to school for the afternoon shift), the food here, is...well I'm not sure if it's just my family or what but we don't cook a lot, like my family in New Zealand does by fiending on different spices and foods. Here we eat a lot of cheese and meat with the oil and salt coated salad on the side. I eat the salad normally because I'm so afraid of exchange student weight gain, (I've already witnessed some of the kids from the United States with a bit of extra weight on the side...) but all in all, I can say the junkfood is amazing and so is their "Melanesa" (Schnitzel). But I wasn't really coming over for food in the first place.. now where was I? Oh yes, and everyday afternoon.

And so after lunch, I either fiend my homework, or go and "read"(Which is normally me falling asleep without getting through one page and has become a running joke in my family, I blame dad for giving me this falling asleep gene.) otherwise I actually go to bed to sleep a siesta. A siesta is an afternoon nap if you don't know, and everyone has them here, It's so often, that most shops close up between 2pm-4pm so people can go sleep and the main business hours is from around 4pm-7pm. and then I wake up at around 7pm or even 9pm just in time for dinner, Oh yes, they have dinner at like 9pm or 10pm here, but then again they have a massive lunch which you're most likely still full from so it's not that bad, then they have their giant dinner and you go to bed again, It's quite like having two miniture days within one normal one, with one big meal and a sleep. Life is good.

One a weekend, It's slightly different because there's always a chance to go out to a "Boliche" nightclub and luckily enough it's normally organised by school students and so we get all the VIP stuff that comes with it. So then my weekend is spent organizing how to get to the fiesta and then resting from going out and partying for so long. Great way to meet people, every new week, I shake hands with new mates and kiss more girls on the cheek! Me encanta la vida.

Past Events:
For the past few weeks, I've been a bit busy with moving house but now I'm finally done and what a mess that was. First we'd been cleaning and moving things around all week and then the day came to move, so we put all our things in the movers truck and took them all to the new house after giving over the keys to the new owners of the house and letting them move in, when we got to the new house (only one block away), the old renter was saying that she wasn't moving... We we´re shocked and had to explain that everyone was organised to move in that day, but she decided to change her mind and wouldnt leave. SO then we were homeless with a truck full of furniture... we had to make a few calls and the old landlords had to come and try kick her out. In the end we were allowed the garage for all of our furniture and the old landlords booked us a hotel to go stay in for the night, the next day I had school and it was a bit weird getting ready at a hotel to go to school, but nonetheless we just went along with everything. That day, my family spent it organizing to get the lady removed from the house and then it was still uncertain if we were going to have to stay in the hotel another night or not...But fortunately for us, the lady moved out and left us to move in late at night so I ended up going to bed at 1am! Yikes!

The other day I also went to Buenos Aires to go see the Feria de los Libros and the Zoo, it was lots of fun and It was quite strange to see animals that I've never seen before but only read about or seen in movies, for instance seeing all the lemurs. I couldn't help but think of Madagascar all the time! After about two hours of hanging out in the zoo taking around 200 photos, we went to the Feria de los Libros which was literally across the road! I have never seen so many books.. IT WAS MASSIVE, the was about a 500m walk from one building to another just to see more and more books, I ended up taking advantage of the currency exchange and get 7 books for reasonably cheap prices. Mainly all being books that I've read before so it's not too hard to read in spanish aswell, and I few more to test my skills while I'm at university...like shakespeare...  after doing alot of walking, we returned to our house via the subway and the bus and finally got some well deserved rest.

Last weekend, the kids from Buenos Aires came for a visit to La Plata and we had a picnic in El Bosque and then moved to Plaza Moreno for some games and promotion of AFS, It was good to see all the kids again because last time I had only my 3 weeks worth of spanish and couldn't speak very confidently, so this time I was having chats with all the kids and felt pretty good being able to speak haha, The best about speaking spanish more confidently now is that I can make jokes like I used to, it was rather strange being silent for a few weeks.

Next week I'm heading off to the Iguazu falls with a lot of the other AFS Students that I went on camp with, Im really excited because I haven't seen them for about 3 months now and a lot of us bonded well through the camp. That means it'll be a week before I post an immense amount of photos and maybe a blog post if I'm bothered enough, I might try write a day by day diary or something just to make sure I do it, can't wait to see you all soon! Chau amigos!

The Blogs are becomed distanced..

As I have noticed, my blogs are becoming a lot more distanced from the previous blog post. And right now as It's a lazy sunday afternoon, I decided I have the time to write one. The only problem is that I can't remember what I've done over the passed two weeks so I'm just going to update everything I guess.

First of all, my language, As I came here on a scholarship focusing entirely on improvement of language, It means I have to constantly monitor how my language is improving, or declining...like my english for example. I'm too lazy to edit this whole blog, so you'll see how much my english gets. But, I'd like to say my spanish is improving but I don't really think it's a matter of improvement or just being confident with how fast you speak it, I'm pretty sure my spanish is the same level as it was before I left..But I can easily make sentences now without having to think of the verb, how to conjugate it and then actually pronounce it. Also my listening is becoming better as I am now able to understand most of new peoples voices, Like the TV...I can even hear the accent between someone from spain and someone from here! Apart from my Spanish and English are going, I've also started Chinese classes as a bit of a challenge and I'm thoroughly enjoying the side culture of China!

Second update, my schoolwork and friends. Because I am beginning to understand the TV and newer voices, I can now understand the majority of what my teacher is asking me to do and can actually do homework. Also along with all this, I've realised that I can help people with their French, Maths or English homework if they help me with Literature, Media studies or Production Techniques. I feel a little more settled into my school now as I can make my way around the classrooms and find where all the little offices are and such, and don't always have to follow friends like a lost sheep. My friends are still as awesome and friendly as they were from the start and I really don't want to leave them. I'm already dreading having to make the experiences I have now into memories...But I hope that I can skype or visit them a couple of years time after I have a degree, hopefully in Modern Languages and Linguistics in general. Then I can continue my great argentinian adventure!

Something I have noticed about Argentinians is that they are all really into their soccer. ALL OF THEM. I don't know how many times Ive had to explain that in New Zealand, we don't really have the same thing with rugby or soccer, I know we do.. But I've decided that New Zealand in general is more about their National teams than regional teams, I doubt many of you know all the rugby players ages for the warriors.. And just now my brother just shouted GOAL from his room and walked out cheering... hahaha. Also here, you HAVE to have a team, I'm with my family who's Gimnasia, just like the rest of my neighbourhood. But then my class is Estudiantes, so you get real pressured to choose between them, hahaha. The other day we went to one of the more tougher games for Gimnasia, we came out with 0 - 0 so we we're thankful that we didnt lose! But It was quite an experience to be part of an exciting crowd, you really learn a lot about the culture by getting right into it.. Also they have this giant banner that goes down across the whole of the crowd to show who's boss! Oh and then there was another thing I thought was rather funny, when there was a little dedication about the Malvinas, the crowd started jumping up and down shouting that whoever doesn't jump is an englishman!

Heres a photo of the banner...

Aswell, as the being part of the culture, so is going out...Just like New Zealand minus the binge drinking and adding more to the actual dancing. ITS A LOT OF FUN. They have this music here called cumbia, it's kinda like the same beat the whole time, everyone hates it here but still listens to it in the clubs, exactly like how every hates dubstep but still listen to it. The fiesta I went to two nights ago was organized by my school year for the end of year trips that they have in their final year, They really know how to fundraise here.. anywho, So seeing as it was organized by my year, we all got in for free with our VIP bands which also entitled us to arrive there in the buses. Completely free. They buses were probably my favourite bit as everyone was yelling at the top of their lungs, waving out the windows and slapping the roof yelling about how much they love their school and hate the rival school hahaha. This bracelet also entitles me to the next party next weekend so I guess I might try go to that aswell...if it wasn't for the fact that we're moving house the next day...I dont think I want to die..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR__WMtmN90 My Brother just told me to show everyone this song. This is a famous cumbia song...I just realised that they all look like douchebags when they dance aswell...

Anyway, I can't really think of anything else to update everyone on, but I'm going to go skype my family soon and leave you with a photo of me at the club, I keep getting told that I've already become and argentinian...this photo kinda proves it.

Well, in the next few days, I'm going to get some maple syrup off Sophie and finally cook pancakes with maple syrup, fried banana and bacon. Oh how I miss that so much! I hope you're all having fun with Escuela, NCEA, University, Work or whatever else your doing! And I'll see you all very soon! 

 

Easter Weekend and such!

Dear Blog,

I have now reached week 6(?) of my overseas adventure and I feel like I’ve have finally settled into life here. I even went for my spontaneous bikeride that I sometimes did in New Zealand... The Spanish language is becoming a lot easier to understand and I feel like I can reply to most things with knowledge that what I’m saying is as correct as it’s ever going to be. The slightly annoying thing is that this isn’t actually Spanish that I learnt at school and will have end of year exams with, this is Castellano Spanish and then it further develops into the regional version of Castellano Spanish which is known as Español Rioplatense. Also my English is going down the drain as a few of you may have noticed when I talk to you on Facebook. However all in all, I can understand Spanish in general now...most of the time. Anywho, in this post I’m going to write about a few of the little things that have happened over the past few weeks, beginning wiiiithhhhh “El Boliche”.

El Boliche is what they call a night club here, and some of my class mates we’re buying tickets to the opening of a club or something like that, and it was open for all school students in La Plata...I think. I was a bit sketchy on the details but went along anyway. I can’t remember if I mentioned this before but fiestas here start at like 11ish and go till about 5-6am. They sure know how to party. SO my amigos and I went to a house before hand, got ready and made our way to town at 1am when everything was only really just starting. IT WAS PACKED. I had to wait in a line for around 30 minutes explaining to people that we all don’t play rugby in New Zealand and how I’m pretty sure more people play soccer... Once I finally made it inside we kinda squirmed our way around people and found a small patch of air where some more classmates were, we danced, talked and complained about  the lack of the space the whole night, apart from my bathroom mishap where I needed to pee, and we went to the bathroom and there was 3 identical walls and the taps and people were peeing on whatever wall they choose...so I thought. So I did the same, after 5 seconds I was kicked out and my friend was trying to explain that I wasn’t drunk for peeing on the wrong wall, just foreign. So here’s a tip everyone, when peeing on a wall, make sure it’s a wall you’re allowed to pee on. And after that mishap I returned to the cramped area and then we all decided to leave and sit outside and hangout, that was a lot nicer.. They all explained that the boliches aren’t normally that packed and so I think we’re all going to come back another night. Supposedly they don’t really care too much about ID here, I can just casually buy a bottle of Vodka if I want...

Speaking of which, My AFS advisor, Jose Luis, and I went to a pub the other night and had a beer each. I felt like a real man with my frothy mug and all, It was great. Also the other night was the 21^st birthday of my other AFS advisor who went to NZ on exchange and knows what my culture is. SO I went to his small fiesta at his apartment and hung out with the other AFS Volunteers all night as I was a bit younger than the others, I still had a lot of fun explaining swear words and when to use certain ones.  I hope Joaquin had a good pre-birthday fiesta and I hope his second one will be just as fun and better! Happy birthday again! Also the AFS girls of La Plata, you best be coming to this one. :P

Also, that little fiesta was the beginning of my long Easter weekend of laziness. Ah, bliss. Staying up late, sleeping all day, speaking a foreign language, and visiting family AND A THEMEPARK...That’s the life I want to lead. Let’s skip straight to the traditions of Easter first. Luckily enough, they have the same ones with the chocolate eggs, so I didn’t feel too far from home, we only ate two giant ones amongst each other, but it was still so good. Apart from that, as this is a country with a high catholic population, there was a lot of church services and a giant parade in La Plata and Buenos Aires celebrating Jesus and the resurrection, I kinda half wanted to go, but I only discovered it when we were watching it live on TV. Practically Jesus wanders through town with the cross and everyone follows him. It looked really neat! Apart from the religious side of Easter, we went and visited the family aswell, Grandma, Aunty, Uncle and the cousins! Such a cute family I have! We had “Asado” which is an Argentinian BBQ containing different types of meat and the famous Spanish sausage “Chorizo” It was riquísimo! But In the end, Easter still had the same feel as Easter always had and I’m pleased about that.

And for my final topic, THE THEMEPARK. Hahaha, I’m kidding, it wasn’t really a theme park with a log flume and giant rollercoaster, it was more or less a miniature Disney land hence the name, “El Republico de los Niños” which translates to “The Childrens Republic”. It’s a park made for kids and literally run by kids, the town has a vote for which child they want to be the president of the place and then that child becomes president. Simple as that! Anywho, It had little castles all over the place, a giant lake where you could rent rows boats or go on a pirate ship ride, a train that went round and round the park and if you haven’t seen my photos on Facebook yet, there was a live show of Spanish Aladdin right before the park closed! That park was a lot of fun, I want to go park and explore the rest of it, it was honestly so massive...I think, I ‘m pretty sure couldn’t actually see the barrier fence the whole time I was in there...

Well it’s 11:30pm now and I haven’t been going to bed early because it’s been such a long weekend... and so I gotta be ready to look my best at school as the token Kiwi boy. I don’t think I have anyother label apart from not being able to play volleyball at all... haha :(.
Just so everyone knows, I do miss you all and think of New Zealand every now and then but I’m also in love with my temporary home at the moment so you’ll all just have to wait for my return halfway through the year, keep living awesome lives everyone and I’ll post another blog soon!

CHAU!

PS: Just tried to add photos, but the internet is being lame, so you'll have to go to my Facebook to see pictures sorry. :)

Aventuras

Yay, New post! In this post I'm going to write about my recent adventures in Argentina, being my trip to Buenos Aires, AFS Night and the Fiesta de mi clase! But first of all, I'm going to apologise to everyone for making the worlds worst pavlova...I tried to make one for AFS, but it had no middle and the cream kinda had too much sugar and made the crusty meringue bit soggy and then most of the peaches weren't ripe enough, so we kinda just had a big pile of sweet mush which everyone said tasted good, but I'll never accept their lies :P

AFS Night

So, If you're wondering what an AFS night consists of, it's games, food and a night to hang out with the students and volunteers that are helping you along the way in your exchange. Firstly, I began the day with shopping with last minute food items with Sophie, they lack a lot of ingredients here so we had a bit of trouble trying to find everything and finding replacement foods aswell, but I think in the end, we succeeded! As Sophie and I were the selected chefs, we decided to make national foods, Mine being the failure of a Pavlova and Sophie's being Burritos as the USA doesn't have a national food except Mcds and they don't even have Mexican food here, you would've presumed that they knew what Burritos and Tortillas are..but no. They don't. However, They all loved the mexican food and said that they liked my Pavlova. :D After cooking the AFS chapter these meals, we made our way into playing that game where you have the famous person taped to your forehead and you keep asking questions until you figure out who it is. It pretty obvious when someone is Michael Jackson, because the question of "Am I black?" throws everyone into a state of not knowing what the answer actually is...Also I found it rather funny when "Kony" asked if what they were famous for was a sport. I really wanted to say yes just for a laugh, but I don't know if someone would get offended so I held my tongue. And in the end we all got to know eachother quite well and organised for a trip to Buenos Aires the following day to meet with other AFS volunteers and students, and to also be a tourist for once aswell.

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires, the city where my inner tourist came out, 178 photos the majority being to get the perfect moment of the Argentinian flag in the breeze and taking photos of ourselves in every mirror we found..even if the mirrors were just doors in La Casa Rosada... anyway...The city was maaaaaaasssssssiiiiiivvvvveeeeeee! So many skyscrapers, So many monuments! So many people! (on a sunday aswell!) I just had to take photos of everything! We spent the first half of the day roaming the city shopping and finding little nicknacks to buy. I brought myself one of those toy cameras where you look through it a take photos but it just switches the photos inside the cameras and shows you the famous sites around BA. I thought it was quite a smart buy. I also saw some ponchos that I really want to get the next time I go there, I'm not actually sure if ponchos are part of their culture but I don't care, I've always wanted a poncho just for the novelty of having one! After our shopping trip, we stopped and got some lunch at a very foreign takeaway store called something like...Subway? hehehehe, I actually prefer the subway in NZ but the fact of finding a store made me happy. Once we finished our oh so foreign meals, we made our way to meet the other students at some plaza in some place. It's easy to get lost in these big cities, so we cling to the volunteers like new born kittens and their mother...speaking of which, our kittens are going great! Soon they'll be fun and able to play with! :D Anyway... so we made it to the meeting place with the other Argentines and started the gathering to drink Mate and eat homemade biscuits and then we had a lot of time to socialize with others, we played fun games like duck duck goose and various other games I remember from year 9 and 10 Drama class :D After this ended, it was sad to say goodbye to some more lifelong friends (which I’ll hopefully see again while on my exchange) and then we returned back to La Plata running solely on AFS Spirit and nothing else.

Fiesta
For those of you who think a fiesta is a whole bunch of Mexicans dancing around holding a boy in the air who invented Stand’n’Stuff tacos, you’re wrong. Hahaha The party atmosphere here is a lot like the one in New Zealand, although I have high stereotypes of what clubbing is like here, but I don’t really think I’ll ever do that here..I’m too scared of the criminal activities and transvestites...(I saw a tranny this morning by the way). ANYWAY, So my class organised a small gathering at a country house of our friend Francisco, in order to celebrate the beginning of the year and I’d like to think welcoming me into the class but I don’t want to feel like the special kid all the time... The alcohol was tasty, everybody danced, A few games were played and there was a friendly atmosphere the whole time! Everybody is so cool in my class, I really enjoy hanging out with them, I’m actually trying to organise a primo challenge this weekend at the local park, I don’t know how well that’s going to go down as everyone can literally see you there and will probably frown upon your silly teenager competitions... Ohwell.

I’m trying to think of more to write but I just keep forgetting everything as everything is going so fast aswell! Oh, there was a cartoon with talking eggs before and they played “Walkie talkie man”. I thought that it was exciting to have a famous NZ song in a Spanish cartoon... Anyway, I’m hoping to have more to write about soon, things like the primo challenge and so on, but I’ll try to write as much as I can about the little things aswell, Chau friends, see you all soon! :D

School!

SO I know I said that I'd write a blog about my first day of school but I got so caught up in it all that now I'm writing a post about my first week at school. BUT before I do that I have news the the cat gave birth to kittens!

Three little gatitos! One black and white, one grey and white and one exactly like their mother, Ginger/grey/black spots on white. They're very cute and at the moment, not very exciting because all they do is drink milk and not open their eyes. But soon enough we we'll be able to play with them! Except there is also a sad side to this story, as one kitten died the other night. :( Poor Marco Junior wasn't drinking his milk and left this world a little early. RIP. But we can't let that hold us down, as life moves on and so do we.

SO anywho, I started school on tuesday, I only had two weeks practice of speaking spanish and bam, I was chucked into a school with only one other exchange student, who I don't know who that is still...and all the students here speak totally in spanish, and a very impressive english when they try. But I tell them not to, as I really want to improve my spanish, so it's an emergency only thing. Anyway, So my first day of school started with a long and boring speech from the principal, seems like our schools are exactly the same... After that we were taken to our first class, where our coordinator explained some new system thing blah blah blah, I don't really know, haha but now I HAVE FRIENDS! Two weeks in this country of hanging out with Sophie and Afs Volunteers and finally I have friends!

So there's this process in school called "Hora Libre" Which is caused by the non-existence of Relievers (or substitute teachers or something for you americans). Hora Libre, Translates to "Free hour", meaning that when your teacher doesn't turn up, you get the class off to go into town! I had Analysis of Visual something for three hours, but the teacher didn't turn up. SO My new friends and I went off to play soccer for three hours, I thought I would have been terrible as I kept telling them but they made me play anyway, turns out Onerahi Soccer has made me a little better and I was actually a lot better than I expected. woohoo! So through my soccer skills, I earned a place in my class!

From then on, I've been sitting in each class daydreaming a lot while the teacher speaks because I get way too tired from focusing on what they're saying. And lucky for me, I have a basis on each subject in school because of the subjects that I took at Kamo, like the topic in history turns out to be on the World wars and Russian Revolution...which are the two topics I specifically learnt about in Year 11 History, however, I don't think I'll have any basis in Political rights, whatever that class is... However, Good news is that I ace english! woo! Who saw that coming!

Also there have been so many dopplegangers that I have met on my exchange, Kellie Wharerau, Vaughan Brooke, Anthony from SMOSH and many more! It's like reminders from New Zealand are lingering everywhere! I'm also making a Pavlova tomorrow for the first time tomorrow, so wish me luck!

But apart from all that, My exchange is going really well, I have amazing friends, I have a great school, I have an awesome family, I have a typical routine. I HAVE A LIFE.

Also, Happy Saint Patrick's day and Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Week 1...Check!

Well, What a week! I've learnt so much Spanish and it's really doing my head in, everyday, I'm constantly focusing in on everybody's words and listening intently to the sounds and accent. It's difficult but I love it!

At the moment It is the summer holidays so I'm just hanging with the family playing games with cards, balloons and the pets. It's quite difficult to learn a complicated card game in spanish but I think I've got it, I've decided I'm going to teach everyone the game Truco because it is honestly a lot of fun, and we ARE going to need something to do when I come back in winter...soooo horrah!

On the 29th of February, I had my first disaster as a foreign visitor, I went to the main bank in Argentina with had the most amazing architecture that I had ever seen! I even commented that it was like we were inside Gringott's Bank from Harry Potter because it was so beautfiul. And in the center of the roof was this fantastic stain glass window depicting some catholic thing of somesort, The colours, The architecture, Oh how I wanted to take a picture so badly but there were signs saying no cellphones which is in this case, my cellphone is also my camera for this exchange. So I asked my hostmum if she thought that I could get away with taking just one photo, she said "I don't see why not". So I slyly stepped out of the bank line and aimed the camera, got the picture, and after I examined to see if the picture was good or not, I looked up and I had two security guards around me. One yelling something in Spanish and the other just staying quiet, my hostmum and a few ladies in the bank line were saying "he doesn't speak english! just let him have the photo! What's so bad about it!" But the security guard just kept yelling! "AEGERIUJKGLRERSJK" I forgot all my Spanish and my face went bright red! The other guard, who wasn't yelling, calmly said, "Can you erase the photo please" and did a little hand gesture which complimented his calm words. And so being the scared little foreigner I was, I slowly deleted the photo, showed the guards and stood back in line. I've decided I don't ever want to return back to that bank no matter how beautiful it all is!

Two days ago, I went for a run with Sophie, I died. And today I feel better, but my legs are still dead. I'm going for another run tomorrow though... lets see how I end up hahaha. As most of you know, Exchange students get fat. I plan to avoid this by eating healthy, except it's really hard because they practically eat a giant amount of meat for every meal! I literally had some off the side fat that I was cutting off, squirt into my face... D:
Good news, I just asked my mum if she can buy me some muesli for breakfast and she said yeeeeessssss! woooo! Along with my immense targeting of the salad at meals, I think I will be successful and staying healthy. Huzzah!

Yesterday I went for a walk around El Bosque and took some photo's which I'm about to put on facebook! It was so nice, there was a band of people who all play drums to make this weird song, I can't really explain it but it sounded cool, and there was about a bagillion people playing football or drinking mate, It's definately the place for people to hang out! There's also a zoo next door which while we were on our run, we saw a protest happening, the urge to join in and yell at people for keeping animals locked away was definantly there but the fear of not actually understanding what was actually going on and making a fool of myself took over and we just carried on running. I'll save my activist side for when I'm fluent. hahhaha

Also, I get on really well with my family, we all like to bully eachother in a family kinda way, like my whole family laughs at Ana (my sister) cause she laughs funny and says some pretty stupid things haha, She thought spongebob was a piece of cheese when It's clearly in his name, I decided to join in on the teasing her last night by playing the card game "Pick up 52" with her... hehehehhehehehe

Apart from all that, Life is going well and I start school in 10 days... I hope everyone is having as much of an adventure as I am and I'll leave you with a nice photo of my running track :)

Adios!

First Few Days!

Well, Its been three nights at my new home and I LOVE IT, the house is small...no not small...cosy, and the kids are very funny and everyone is so helpful! My family even brought my cartoned milk because I didn't know how to use bagged milk, YES, milk comes in bags here. Same with Yoghurt, and Mayonnaise and sauce, well, Ketchup. I think it's the strangest thing and they all laugh at me hahaha.

The Food:
The food here is very nice! The fruit is so nice, I have never had a banana or apple that tastes so good! I think I might try venture to a big supermarket later and buy myself a giant pile of different fruits just to take a break from the constant meals of "Carne" (meat). Every night we have a type of carne and lots of cheese, Normally Ham and cheese. I've had Ham and Cheese pizza, Ham and Cheese pie, Ham and Cheese Toasties, Ham and Cheese empanadas and then the left overs of all of those to have a leftover ham and cheese feast! Que Rico! Also after every lunch and every dinner, we have a sort of pudding...well yoghurt. Its as though we eat and finish with yoghurt every time! I'm not complaining! I like it haha, and yes, I am watching my weight. :D

The City and People:
Everyday, I have explored the city and I have spoken a lot of espanol, the first day, I went with my parents to the city center to go for an exploration and take some photos, where I found some free tango classes which I might return to but that can wait till I'm fluent. I forgot to mention the the architecture is FANTASTIC. The historic buildings appear around every corner and I feel like a tourist when I stop and take a photo or two. The only thing I don't really enjoy about the city is the buses, but I've never liked buses, they're dirty and crowded and yeah. Even in New Zealand, I think the same, and so I'd rather walk to town from Kamo instead of catch a public bus. THAT'S when my friend Sophie comes in, she's an exchange student from the USA who's been living here for 5 months and decided to become my guide. She loves to run and so she came to my house and took me for a walk to "El Bosque", which is a park nearby and a a place where everyone likes to go and relax. So she took me around there and told me everything about her exchange and why she had a bad start and blah blah blah, she has a a lot to say because she hasn't spoken english as much a she used to :P Also, being the blonde american girl that she is, the perverts eg. Construction workers, always shout rude things to her and I like her to tease her about that, Until she brings up that "At least I won't be hit on my transvestite hookers". I'm a little afraid now.. It seemed like something certain to happen hahaha. Aswell as Sophie being one of my only friends at the moment..Today two workers from AFS came to take me around the city and buy a simcard, Joaquin and Jose Luis we're very nice and forced me to speak spanish unless it was something important like talking about phone plans...Which I still don't understand haha But I'll get there, Joaquin went on exchange to New Zealand and so he understands which culture I'm coming from, yaaay! But apart from that, everyone is nice and the city is wonderful, except for the rubbish but that's just what comes with a big city! :)

Mi Familia!:
In my family I have a younger brother, Marco, who's 15 and a younger sister, Ana, who's 13. They are funny, helpful and just like kiwi kids. Literally, the jokes that are made are just like New Zealand ones, sarcastic and dry! :D I couldn't have asked for better siblings, except it's strange because it's just like living with the Pearson family back home! My dad is Antonio, He's quiet but very knowledgeable, and he likes the fact that I love languages, I think he likes cultures as much as I do. And My mum, She is a lot harriets mum haha, She acts out everything very well, whether it's a dog being scared or a volcano eruption, and she loves my pineapple lumps, I couldn't have asked for a better family, I am so grateful for them!

And at the moment, I am making my phone work so I can skype from it and such :D huzzah!
that's all for now,
Chau amigos!

Journey, Arrival and Camp

The Journey:
After my parents got us lost on another exciting tiki tour, my nerves were going wild. And although I still arrived about half an hour early, I couldn't have been more excited to get on the plane and go to Argentina! As other students slowly arrived I couldn't help but grin at them and watch them grin back all with similar feelings to me. Scared, Excited, Overwhelmed.

Once I had finally made it past the obstacles of crying parents and NZ's famous customs with my new posse of exchange students, we were introduced to the Spanish speaking airline, 'Aerolineas Argentinas'. No backseat TVs. Beware. However most of us were too tired to care and slept, or at least dozed, for half of the 12 hour flight. Didn't touch my book once. Sorry Ms Goldie,but Wheel of Fortune on my laptop is a lot more entertaining the the struggles of poverty. At one point, I went for a walk to go see where Lily and Toni went and I found them hiding at the air conditioned area at the back of the plane with the air hostesses andwhat I thought was a bong... THAT was when I was introduced to my first drink of 'mate', the herbal Argentinian drink that is drunk from a metal cup and metal straw which I still think looks like a drug instrument...but it still tastes very nice, like a strong sort of tea.

After that flight, we finally made it to El Aeropuerto de Buenos Aires! Which we then had to wait a further six hours  for the Malaysian exchange students to arrive. It was actually more exciting than it sounds, there was heaps of things to look at including a lifesize lego Argentinian flag sculpture! :D Also going to a bookstore and seeing lots of translated books was pretty exciting too! Especially when you have the same book in your bag :D

Next, we had a bus trip through Buenos Aires to the orientation camp. As this was at night, we saw part of the nightlife in Argentina, the clubs, the people. Our hooker count got to 7. And there was one young man who was standing outside our bus window when we were making a stop and I just couldn't help but cry from laughter when he tried to hop on the bus to tell her face to face. Apart from that, the architecture is amazing and every third house was either a palace or a shack, all sharing the same cool looking creeper vines, ¡que linda! Once we made it to camp, we were served some amazing steak for dinner! Surprising, I know. Soon after, we were taken to our rooms which were nice and cosy. My room mates were Noa and Dion from NZ. No one got jetlagged at all, it was really weird, but we just put it down to just having a late night or something similar. The following morning, we woke up early and rearing to go until we found out the activities started in the afternoon when more exchange students arrived...so we sat watching spanish kids shows all morning and learnt a fun thai version of the slaps game which I really want to teach everyone when I get back... in 5 months! :D

And then BAM! Suddenly the americans, canadians, germans, scandinavians and many more cultures came through the door. Once they were settled, we all dispersed into our colour groups for activities. Team Armadillo (Amarillo) for the win. We a lot of scenario type activites in order to prepare everyone for the exchange, acting like animals included. After that was when the only Australian arrived just in time to join the talent show along with the New Zealanders. Australasia for the win. Except heads shoulders knees and toes in maori and flax flowers wasn't enough to woo over the judges and get us a winning prize... :( que lastima! Then we had dinner, isolating our New Zealand selves into an Elite group where few foreigners are allowed in, (Labour party?) That night, after a long fiesta of dancing and letting our bodies feel the rhythm, we found a giant spider in our bedroom and like the savage New Zealanders we are, we hunted it down, and killed it! It rained the next day, coincidence? I think not.

Last day of camp was rather fun, never have I ever thought that I would be pretending to be a tangled vine with a german boy that was as determined as me not to let the gardeners win. Once again Maria, I{msorry for kneeing you in the face, it{s an intense game to play. After this, I had an amazing time just getting to know eachothers cultures and traditions but sadly, that had to be ruined because of the end of orientation camp and how we had to say goodbye to all our nuevos amigos. :( Right now, I hope they're having an amazing time travelling all over Argentina to find their host families andI wish them the best of luck. Buena suerte! ;D Y hola from La Plata!

After all our sad goodbyes, I made it to my host family. I couldn't have wished for anyone better! :D They are solovely and it turns out I can hold a conversation (kinda) for 2-3 hours in spanish! I'm so excited to go and see the rest of my city and meet lots more amazing people, well, I typed this all last night on my phone but my phones being lame so I'll wait until I have wi-fi before I upload any photos, sorry guys! But I hope you're all having fun whereever you are! And I'll catch up with you when I'm next available. :)

Chau

Departure!

At this current moment, I am on my way to Auckland airport. I finally said all my last goodbyes after a week of goodbye dinners, longlasting hugs and an amazing farewell sign. Oh and especially the tears harriet left on my shirt. :p

It's a fantastic feeling to know that your friends care about you and are already waiting for your return. However I cant let all that hold me back from the amazing experience I am about to endure! I've been told a million times that Im going to have a great time and I think that it's only now just beginning to sink in!

Im overly excited right now, to think within a few months I could be fluent in Spanish! I can't wait to meet all my new friends and my new family. I couldnt have thought of a better way to get out into the world! Its strange to think that dreams really do come true if you put your mind to it..

Goodbye Whangarei! have a fantastic few months without me! :D

Skype Date

Today I had a skype date with my host family before I see them in 2 weeks, and I think it was quite funny for both sides of the camera haha. It was the first time I had really been put on the spot for using my spanish skills and so I made quite a few mistakes and couldnt help laughing at how many times we had to repeat ourselves because of the language barrier.

On top of this language barrier, there was also the bad internet connection causing it to be a mix of spanish and static that I was trying to interpret. However I think I could tell that they were laughing at the situation as much as I was. The repeating "que"s and "como"s probably took up about 95% of the conversation. haha

But, from what I can gather, my family aren't too serious and look as excited as I am to be in Argentina.

I think I'm going to fit in well.

Antes mi intercambio!

Hey everyone, I've now set up a blog for my time in Argentina as it's only a matter of weeks until I actually go.
I'm hoping to update this at least once a week while I'm over there with many photos of the people I meet and the things I experience, and most important of all - my learning of the language!

I am very excited as I've already got in contact with my family, who seem pretty down-to-earth and very welcoming to my foreign self. I've also got in contact with another exchange student called Sophie who's been telling me that everyone is waiting for this New Zealand boy with the funky accent, so it's a bit more comforting that there's actually a lot of people waiting for me.

The only problem is that I haven't even started packing...I don't actually have a clue what to bring... I know there's the usual things like clothes, toothbrush, books...But what else? It's a lot more difficult packing for 5 months than just a 1 week camp.

Well, that's really all I can think of to say on my first post and I'll be returning to this in a couple of weeks. So i'll leave you with a picture of a map showing everyone where I'm actually staying and a few links to my school's website and city's wikipedia.

Adios amigos

http://www.nacio.unlp.edu.ar/ - My school
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Plata - My town