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 21st 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...
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 21st 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. :)
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. :)
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