A update on how I'm doing

Well hey there!  I just finished writing in my journal and what had started out as extremely negative, transformed into something completely positive.  Something finally clicked in my head and a revelation was made about my time here.  I also feel like this entry accurately sums up everything I would want to say to people about my trip, but would never be able to tell it so many times in the exact same way, therefore, I am turning this journal entry into my next post.  The only things that are necessary to know before you read is that the class I talk about had two professors, and I was spending the night at Annalise’s homestay this night.  The following is a direct quote from my journal that I’ve been keeping during my time here:

28-6-12

6:28 am

I just woke up because I dreamt that I was being covered by a blanket and suffocated.  I didn’t know where I was and it scared me.  After a few moments, I realized I was laying on a mattress in Annalise’s homestay house.  This calmed me only momentarily because then I started to feel uncomfortable lying there Not the kind of uncomfortable that comes from needing to rearrange myself, the kind of uneasiness and discomfort that can only come from Hell.   I became irrationally afraid of the dark, I reverted back to being a child again, who is afraid that the monsters will get you if you even had one toe off the bed.  This made me want to curl up into a ball to make sure that none of me was off the mattress, but that was too hot.  It became so hot overnight that I found myself absently scratching at my fingers in the exact spot my eczema flares up when it’s humid or there’s a rapid change in temperature—something that hasn’t happened for weeks.

I tried to go back to sleep, but every time I closed my eyes I was sucked back into the nightmare of having a sheet or a blanket over my entire body, not being able to see what was going on, being surrounded by evil creatures of the night.  Immediately all my thoughts would get jumbled and I wouldn’t be able to think straight, wouldn’t be able to warn anyone of the evil dangers that were all around, waiting to try and mess with them.  I laid awake, too terrified to move, too scared to try and close my eyes, but too scared to do anything about it.  I tried calling out silently to God, but instead of the loving, comforting embrace I so richly desired, I saw instead an image of a spiritual battle.  The arms of God were trying to reach out to me, trying to get to me to hold me and to comfort me, but the darkness was too much and too strong. 

I was left in the darkness.

That image terrified me.  Am I so estranged from God that I have let darkness fill my life?  Not wanting to disturb her slumber, I let Annalise sleep on, but soon my fear became so crippling that I knew I could not stay on that mattress, scared to stretch out but too hot to be balled up, for an indefinite number of hours.  I had to wake her up.  When I explained what was happening, she gave me her hand and immediately started praying.  The only thing I could think, however, was “You need to write, you need to write, you need to write” over and over and over again. 

I immediately became grateful I remembered this journal and a pen—although I’m certain Annalise would have let me use paper and pen of hers.  There’s just something satisfying knowing that I can write my own words directly into my journal on pages that are less likely to fall out.  So now, a glass of ice water and an open window later, I write.

I want to write about all the darkness that has been in my life recently, and although I know a few things off the top of my head, I have no idea where this will lead.  My only goal is that by the end of it, I feel a release of the darkness and an abundance of the light…and then hopefully I will be able to sleep deeply and soundly.  I was so tired before, so exhausted and in need of sleep, but closing my eyes only brought sheer terror, and so awake I remained.

The first and most (currently) prominent right now is that I failed the final for my Antropología y Arqueología class.  They failed me.  If they had known how hard I worked on that paper, maybe they would have been more lenient, but they didn’t and they weren’t.  They told me my Spanish was pretty bad and that it was obvious in my paper that I didn’t have much experience using it.  They said my sentences were weak and after searching for a word for a while they just kind of looked down and came up with the word “basic”.  Then they moved on to the content of the paper and asked if I had gone to get help from the student aid/helper person for foreign students and I admitted I hadn’t and they just looked at each other and said Yeah, there’s obviously a lack of understanding about what we talked about in class and you definitely should have gone to get help.  I think I was just too honest with them.  I told them I had been working on the paper for three days, I hadn’t read anything for the class (I didn’t want to B.S. that because I’m certain they would have asked me questions about it later and I would have nothing to say), and that I couldn’t elaborate on any points from my paper because all that I knew was in the paper and I really couldn’t elaborate more than that.  They even asked me if I wanted to take the exam in English instead of Spanish.  Is my Spanish so bad that people really can’t understand what I’m trying to say when I speak?

They started off by telling me that my Spanish was terrible.  That is NO WAY to start any sort of exam or evaluation—my confidence was shattered and so of course I was second-guessing everything I wanted to say and trying not to use more words than absolutely necessary. But my efforts were not enough. I still failed.  What bothers me is that I tried. I tried so hard to keep myself motivated for that class even though it doesn’t count for anything.  And even though I didn’t give up, I still failed.  And that sucks.  It sucks that I could have done nothing and ended up with the same result.  It sucks that I made a conscious (and tough) decision to keep going, and it didn’t even matter.  And not only that, I became ashamed to call myself a Spanish major.

That’s what it comes down to.  I feel like I have let so many people down by failing that exam.

I let the Hope College Spanish Department down, I let the Cuban, Spanish-speaking side of my family down, which means I let my dad down.

I know none of that should actually be true (I can’t even write that none of it IS true) but it all feels so true.  That was the pressure I have been carrying around with me this whole time.  This was my test to see if I really should be a Spanish major, if I’m Cuban enough to actually know the language of my father, if I’ll ever amount to anything in the Spanish-speaking world.  And I failed.  So now I don’t know what to do.  At this point I’m too ashamed to look anything/anyone Spanish-related in the eye…which makes me fear for my online-Spanish class.  But maybe that class can be the remedy.  Maybe that class can show me that I’m not that bad at Spanish and I just happened to encounter two of the rudest professors of my life at a critical moment.  But then, is Hope College spoiling me?  Am I being lured into a false sense of ability in speaking Spanish?  What if I actually suck at it and they just have a crappy Major program? What if I get out into the real world and find that as much as I want to help people, I actually can’t…I can only try to make them feel a little bit better (maybe) with basic phrases and simple words?          

            Well then, that’s what I’m going to do.

            I never felt called to learn perfect Spanish, I only felt called to work with women in Spanish-speaking countries and figured that it might be helpful to know the language.  I’ve been thinking about this all wrong.  I’m not studying Spanish because it’s something that I should have already known how to do, I’m studying it because I knew nothing about it and wanted to learn it because it would be helpful in the line of work I want to be in.  It’s ok that I’m not perfect at Spanish, I was never expected to be.  And this has all been a learning experience for me.  Hope College’s Spanish Department will be proud of me for going to Argentina and being in another culture, and trying even though it didn’t work out how I wanted it to.  My Cuban Spanish-speaking family (which includes my dad) will be proud of me for spending a whole semester down here and (even if it didn’t seem like it) improving my Spanish in any way.  Also, just the fact that I am down here at all is an accomplishment.  I’ve learned so much and done so much that it’s crazy the growth that has happened.  I’m fairly certain it’s a pretty big change in me, but I think I’ll wait for the opinions of friends and family members when I get back…in 3 days.  Well, I leave in 3 days, get back in 4.

You know, all of these things (positive revelations, that is) are things that other people could have told me (in fact I’m sure some people have at least tried to tell me a few of these), but there are just some things in the revelation process that just need to be realized on one’s own, by oneself.

And now that I have finally come to this realization, I finally have peace.  And now that I finally have peace, I finally can sleep.

So good night (for now) and I will see you again soon.

-Kiki

And that is the story of my revelations about my trip in Argentina.  I’m glad that you took the time to read it because this is pretty much the best kind of update I can give you about my life right now.

It's about time for another update...

I suppose an update is long overdue, and so, to get into the writing mood, I will first write a blog entry, and then write my papers…of course, I will probably have to leave for class before I get to writing my papers…but I feel this is a worthy cause. Also, all I’d be able to do is the thinking/writing equivalent of flopping around while trying to figure out what I want to write, if I’m going to spend time doing something, I may as well make it something worth doing.

Needless to say, so much has happened since my last entry! The last thing I wrote about was Bariloche? Oof. That was a while ago.  Some important things that have happened since then: I moved homestays, Annalise and I had a weekend of awesome, finals week is upon me, and I’m running out of time to do anything.

Ok, I’ll go one by one: homestay change.  June 1, my housemate and I moved homestays.  We did this because, simply put, we weren’t comfortable living in Ines’ house anymore.  She would daily make comments to me about how messy and dirty I am, she would always be there to point out mistakes we were making and it felt like the list of rules kept going on and on and on, as if she was adding them as she saw us doing things incorrectly.  I realize that one can’t remember ALL the rules in their household (due to the fact that some are just so natural you forget they’re not normal to everyone), but seriously, you should establish the ground rules before you start anything.  It got to the point where I would hear my host mom in the kitchen and wait for her to leave before I went to go retrieve my breakfast (which would normally be two pieces of bread sitting out on the counter with cold coffee).  We never ate dinner together, even if we were all at the house at the same time—she didn’t eat the same food as us, she would make us something and often times make herself something else.  The cuts of chicken we got…well, it was usually the thigh or once I actually got the ribcage. The ribcage of a chicken. Do you know how much meat is on a chicken’s ribcage? Pretty much zero.  So basically, we went to bed hungry many times and we never felt welcome in our “home”.  Yes, we are adults, but we are still adults in a different country and we would like to come home to a welcoming environment…not a semi-hostile one.

So Yelena and I finally moved out once we realized that neither of us was happy there.  Once we mentioned this to IES staff, in less than a week we were gone.  Monday we brought it up, and Friday we moved into our new house.  And this new host mom rocks.  She’s awesome.  She’s a TV show producer and this (June) is the only month she was available to host students because she had been working on the production of Big Brother in Argentina up until the end of May, and July 1 she flies out to Peru to do the same thing.  So if we had waited any shorter, we probably wouldn’t have gotten her—which would have been really sad!  But, she hadn’t been planning on hosting students, and so she was on vacation for a week in Mexico with her boyfriend…ok actually it was more like 12 days…but it wasn’t a huge deal.  She left us with the contact information of one of her good friends who lives close by and has come to visit us while Albana’s been away.  But the awesome weekend comes in the first few days my host mom was gone because Yelena was also gone, visiting Iguazú falls.  So basically Annalise and I had a three day sleep-over in which we made awesome food (chicken alfredo), watched Tangled, made more deliciously awesome food (homemade pizza) and watched countless episodes of How I Met Your Mother.  We also did leave the apartment…to go shopping for groceries, as well as…well, I’m sure we did SOMETHING else outside…but I can’t really remember what at the moment.

I know I only gave you a few sentences…but really, the weekend was pretty awesome…I guess you just had to be there though to get the full effect.  I think part of the awesomeness definitely came from the internet being so fast…with only one computer online it just zips right along!  Which brings us to: finals week.  This is THE most stressful finals week I have ever had.  We have had minimal (as in, for most cases, zero) graded homework in my classes, and so the only things we get graded on are our midterms (30%) and finals (40%) with 30% left for the prof to decide how it gets split up (weekly exercises, attendance, participation, etc.) and so A LOT of pressure falls onto the grade you get for these finals.  Also, these grades transfer back into my GPA at Hope instead of (like for some of the students here) having it just count as pass/fail.  Also, Thursday is going to be the day that everything goes down.  I have two papers due that day, a written test, and an oral group presentation. All on Thursday.  But after that…I’m still not done.  On Wednesday evening I have an oral exam for my partner university class that, from what we understand, is just the professor asking us questions and us needing to answer them, only problem is that I have no idea what those questions will be like. Also, due that Wednesday, is a 10-15 page paper for that class (which I have yet to start) about the archeological and anthropological significance of one of the neighborhoods called Boca here.  Of course, it’s an archeology and anthropology course, but I don’t feel like the things we’ve learned in class are going to help me on this paper, it feel more like a research paper that I could have done without the class…so I guess it’s just kind of disheartening to know that I didn’t actually have to go to this class…not to mention it will count for NOTHING once I get back to Hope.  It’s just more elective credits I don’t need.  I wish I had dropped it, but when I finally decided I wanted to, it was two days before the deadline to withdraw from a class, and I was getting seriously guilt-tripped by the other girls in my class who didn’t want me to go.

Needless to say, I am completely and utterly overwhelmed by the incredible amount of work left to do in the next two days.  Two days. All I have is two days to write all these papers (minus the Boca one) and study for all these tests, and practice my presentation. Two days.  In case you couldn’t tell, I don’t think that’s enough time and I think that I might actually fail some of these finals. Which would suck. Because I don’t want to fail.  On top of all the stress of finals, there is also a clock ticking on the rest of my time here.  Every time we say “Oh, we have to go see this place!”  or “Wow, we have to come back here before we leave!” it just comes back and hits us that we won’t be here too much longer and so these things have to happen NOW or they won’t happen.  Which leads me to wonder what I’ve actually been doing with my time here, and how I’ve been spending my time, because right now, it feels like I’ve done nothing but sit around and watch TV while letting important deadlines slip away…and that is pretty much the opposite of taking advantage of a study abroad experience.  It’s doing the exact same thing I do every day in the States.  And now I feel guilty for writing this post instead of flopping around trying to think of things to say for a paper…any paper, they all have to get done.  But I feel like this post was worthwhile, if not for giving an awesome update, at least for giving an extended prayer request list. 

Also, I’m sorry that I kind of let the ball drop on Blog updates, it just never seemed like a good time to write (and it still isn’t) but I guess it just became too mandatory to update. 

Oh man, I almost forgot! I totally went to a Boca Juniors soccer game yesterday!  It was a lot of fun :D  We went through a tour group that included transportation to and from the game, beer and choripan before the game, and bleacher-style seating at the game.  When we got to the “restaurant” (and emptied out building with a grill out front and a cooler in the back) we were submersed into a group of tourists, mostly all English-speaking, from around the globe.  One of the girls in my group brought blue and yellow face paint (the colors of the Boca Juniors) and so the 7 girls I was with and I (there were 4 of us from IES and then four more girls from another program that one of the IES girls knew) painted one blue and one yellow stripe on our cheeks. Almost before we had finished a little old lady came up to us and asked if she could have it too and of course we said yes.  She offered to pay us, but we said no, a decision we soon regretted because from there, there was a fairly steady flow of people asking to get their faces painted too. Even though we didn’t make any money, it was still fun to be able to share the face painting with others.  I was also able to buy myself a jersey (thanks Lita!) and it is awesome. 

We got to the game about an hour and a half before it started and about an hour to kick off, the songs started.  Now, I would say the chants, but these were actually songs that had more of a melody than just rhythmic chanting.  There were so many songs.  It was a bummer that I didn’t know the words to any, but I caught on to a few of the more popular ones by the end of the match.  Boca was playing Arsenal, but the Arsenal from Argentina, not the one from the UK.  And Arsenal and Boca are same-city rivals.  We saw a banner on the other side of the stadium that said “Nunca hicimos amistades” [We’ve never been friends]…so that might give you an example of the very not Cubs-Sox-friendly-rivalry in this same-city match up.  We ended up losing 3-0, but the refs were definitely against Boca.  I’m not just saying that because we lost, I’m saying that because there were SEVERAL times Arsenal fouls were not called, but almost every time Boca did something wrong they got excessive penalties for it.  It was ridiculous.  So ridiculous, in fact, that when the refs came back on the field after half time, there was a group chant of “Hijo de puta” [Son of a bitch] throughout the stadium for a while.  It was kind of awesome.  Also, the strings of cusses I heard there was…well, it was highly entertaining to hear, but I couldn’t help but notice that there were several younger kids there that would sometimes join in. But I guess that’s just the fútbol culture here.  Despite the crowded stands, it was still quite freezing, so I was relieved to be able to get back on the bus to head back to the drop-off point.  It was a bummer I never got to cheer for a goal, but it was still a great experience nonetheless.  And the game ended on a (sort of) positive note when the last song sung was about how they were bummed they lost, but it’s ok because Boca would win in the championships…so…you know, typical rivalry stuff.

And now that I have caught you up (however briefly) on what’s been going on here, I can only ask for prayer support for these next two days so that I am prepared for all of these papers and exams and presentations and that I still have a few shreds of sanity left by the end of it.

Thank you all so much for your support.

Besos,

Kiki

Bariloche: The extended edition

So…I guess I owe you guys an update, huh?  As promised: Bariloche.

So throughout our weekend in Bariloche, we did a bunch of stuff…ok, I guess I can go into more detail than that. And I guess I should start at the beginning.

They gave us very little information about what to do before the trip.  We knew that it would be our class going (15 students, 12 girls, 3 boys) as well as 3 professors. We had to be at the airport by 8:00am to catch our 10:00 flight. We had to pack for cold weather. That was pretty much it.  Of course, there was a little bit more information than that…but not much.  Now, this airport is actually really close to my house, it’s only 2-3 miles away, but I still figured taking a taxi would be the easiest thing to do (instead of a bus or walking with all my luggage).  Not wanting to be late, I made sure to leave the apartment by 7:15—who knows how long it would take to get a cab?  As it turns out, it was raining that morning (which results in less cabs and less likelihood of being picked up by one because you’re wet) but I stood on a somewhat busy street (close to where my normal bus stop is) and tried flagging down a cab.  This was my first time doing this alone and I was kind of unsure of myself, but after about 7 minutes of standing on the curb and three cabs passing me by, fourth time was the charm.

I made it to the airport at probably around 7:40 and was (obviously) the first one there.  After about 10 more minutes I finally saw other people from my class there and after 15 more minutes of waiting with them, we finally saw one of our professors walking by and she told us where to go and what to do.  By 8:20 everyone was there, and then we went through security.  Now, pretty much all of us had forgotten what Airline Security had been like before 9-11…all we did was put our stuff on the conveyor belt thing (all our stuff being out carry-on bag) and then with shoes, belts, watches, bracelets, earrings, etc., we walked through a metal detector.  I think we were supposed to get a brief pat-down from one of the guards…but they weren’t being too vigilant about it and I just kind of walked right by them.  And that was it.  I’m pretty sure all of us set off the metal detector, and nothing happened.  It was so weird. 

Anyways, we had time to kill before our flight and so we ended up sitting at a café and getting some breakfast.  The flight lasted about 2 hours, we also got breakfast on the plane (and I had eaten a bit before I left the apartment…so yes, I ate breakfast 3 times that day) and when we got off, we drove to where we would be staying, a place called Camping Musical, and had lunch.  This was probably the best food I’ve eaten since being in Argentina. Every meal was fantastic.  Also, Camping Musical is (during the tourist season) a place where musicians come and stay; it is a kind of campground and so we stayed in cabins and meals were in the Main cabin and we were surrounded by mountains and forests and lakes, and nature in general.  Now when I say we stayed in cabins, I mean the girls in one, the boys in another, and staff in the third.  And these were nice cabins!  There were 4 bedrooms and two bathrooms and two sets of bunk beds in each room.  As it turned out, Annalise and I were sharing our own room which was nice because we got to use the extra blankets and pillows from the unused beds.

After spending some time unpacking and then eating lunch, we went out on a much-needed walk.  It was much-needed because we had all eaten so SO much food and we were all needing some exercise.  It was a gorgeous walk.  We were walking through the forest near a lake and…well it was really, really breathtaking.  And what was so incredibly interesting to me, was that the scenery was a blend of fall and spring.  The leaves were changing colors into the familiar fall array, but here and there were flowers and plants that were bursting into life in vibrant shades of pink and red.  It was incredible to see these two opposite seasons being fused together in one panoramic view. 

Our walk led us to our next destination: tea and cake—yes, more food.  I actually didn’t have tea, I had hot chocolate. And it was the best dang hot chocolate of my life.  Seriously.  Also, at this point it had started to rain a little and (I got a window seat—woo!) I was able to drink hot chocolate while looking out a window while it was raining. That’s just always a good time.  After tea was a little bit of free time, followed by an introductory speech by one of the staff with us, and then dinner.  Need I remind you that all the food is delicious? Perhaps the most delicious was the bread.  Apparently the water used is different than in Buenos Aires (makes sense) and that’s what gives the bread its flavor.  It was by far the best bread I’ve had here, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t anything special really, it was just warm, fresh bread—you can’t really go wrong there.

So the next day, Friday, brings with it a trip into the actual city of Bariloche (and by city I mean like Holland, Michigan is a city…it’s not, but that’s what people call it anyways).  While there we got to see the artwork of Toon Maes which was really really awesome.  What was crazy about that, though, was that it wasn’t in a museum or anything, the paintings had been stored in the basement of the building and they weren’t framed or anything, we could touch them and take pictures—everything you’re not allowed to do in an actual museum, we were allowed to do; and as cool as that was, it will definitely shorten the life of those paintings. I mean, they will never be in a museum (at least not with how things are looking…) because of the controversy of the artist…you see, he was a nazi in WWII and some people were just not willing to accept his artwork because of that.  They had actually tried to do an exhibit somewhat recently, but people that came would either take the pictures down or cover them with something…needless to say it didn’t really go all that well.  Another reason it was interesting to see them, is because we had read about them during our class beforehand.  It was cool to actually see something that we had been reading about—it always makes readings so much more real to see their subjects. 

After the “museum” there was lunch at a seafood place, but because I’m not one for seafood, I got the ravioli instead of the trout (I was one of about 6 or so) which was still good!  I was able, however, to taste some of Annalise’s and, for fish, it wasn’t bad.  After lunch was a talk from a guest speaker about the history of the Mapuche (indigenous peoples of parts of Argentina and Chile) but…we had all just eaten a fantastic meal…and we were really really tired…and I’m pretty sure that every single person at least dozed off for at least a little bit—one of our profs said she did too, a bit.  I tried really, REALLY hard to stay awake, and for the most part (except for in the first ten minutes or so) I succeeded.  But it was hard.  And of course, after the talk we went back to the Camp, had a couple hours of free time…and then dinner.  Seriously, food and nature, that’s what this weekend consisted of.  Now, after dinner this night, we decided to make a campfire outside (because what do you know, they have a fire pit).  Their only request was that we put out the fire when we’re done.  So for the next 3-4 hours, we were sitting around a campfire, having a grand old time—even the profs were with us for part of it!  Now, we had heard that a couple of guys that had come last year had gone for a polar dive in the lake one morning, and we figured…well why not us too? 

Of course, by the time the decision had been made to actually do a polar dive, a vast majority of the students were…less than completely sober.  Not to say everyone was super drunk…just…not completely sober.  Now, I feel I should clarify, bottles of wine were available for purchase at dinner, and some students decided to buy an extra bottle for the campfire to share with others.  Remember, the profs were there and saw all this going on…so it’s not like we were breaking the rules, just saying.  Also, I feel I should point out I had only two sips of wine, one because Annalise wanted me to taste one, and one because a couple hours later people were slightly appalled I had not been drinking and urged me to take another drink…then they forgot about me and I continued being sober the rest of the night…yes, even during the swim.  Also, it was a ton of fun.  I mean, I didn’t have shoes and there were tons of rocks, so my feet hurt a ton…but it was still a blast and I’m pretty sure I would do it again, given the chance.

At about 1 in the morning most of the people had gone to bed and it was just myself, Annalise, and one other person, Tyler, who were left, so we put out the fire, cleaned up a little (not nearly as much as we should have…there were several empty bottles laying around the next morning) and headed to bed.

The next morning brought breakfast and another speaker (more about the Mapuche) and then almost immediately after—lunch.  After lunch we went on a boat ride. And it was awesome.  It wasn’t just a boat ride, it was a tour of three separate islands and we traveled by boat.  The boat was big enough to hold at least 70 people (I mean, it’s a tourist boat!) and there was an upper deck, as well as an inside (where most of the people were sitting) but also you could walk around on the deck of the boat and even go right up to the front—Titanic style.  Needless to say, that is where I spent most of my time.  Also on the upper deck people were giving out crackers so you could hold them up and let the seagulls that were there grab it right out of your hand. It was kind of awesome.  But being on that boat, seeing the vastness of the water and feeling the mighty presence of the mountains, while listening to the Hope Chapel CD’s (courtesy of Annalise’s iPod—and Kelly for sending me the second one!) was an experience I won’t soon forget, and one I hope at least some of you will be able to experience one day. 

As I said, the tour was of three different islands, so we were on a boat for most of the day, and when we got to each one, we were allowed to walk around and take pictures and do pretty much whatever we wanted for 40-60 minutes until the boat left for the next island.  It was indeed a beautiful day to explore what Patagonia has to offer.  And as always, after our “Nautical Excursion” (as our itinerary called it) we had dinner.  No campfire this time, but Annalise and I spent a decent portion of the night talking and pondering life’s questions…like what do we do with our lives from here?  It was a night full of interesting conversation to say the least…

Our last day in Bariloche.  After breakfast was another talk—this one about edible plants (because there is a vast knowledge of these that has been lost with the dying culture of the Mapuche—I had to let you know how it all tied together!) and after the talk (which was quite interesting—dandelions dude, we need to eat more of them) we went out on a walk around the campsite, identifying and tasting and gathering edible plants.  We gathered enough leaves and flowers and berries to make a delicious salad—that was probably the most nutritious thing I ate that weekend—and we were treated to some DE-LI-CIOUS asado, that was cooked in the very same fire pit as where our bonfire was a few nights earlier.  Seriously, it was the most flavorful cut of meat I’ve had in Argentina and I wish it all was like that.  Unfortunately, it is not.  However, I’m glad I got to try it while I was there. 

After lunch we headed out to a ski-lift where, once at the top, we could see the most serene sight yet.  There were lakes and mountains everywhere, and the sky was so clear…you could see so far out…it was just an incredible experience.  And…even though I probably shouldn’t have, I used my nails to scratch my name into a wooden post at the top of the mountain.  I left my mark on Bariloche, and it has definitely left its mark on me.

When we finally had to go back down, we were able to spend a few hours exploring the city of Bariloche and, because it’s a city built for tourists, we all did a little bit of souvenir shopping and yes, family, I bought chocolates that I am planning on bringing back for you all…of course, I HAVE been having a bit of a sweet tooth lately…but I promise you I will try to bring back some of the Swiss-like Chocolates that Bariloche is famous for (well, one of the things it’s famous for at least).  After spending time in the “city” we all (very sadly) loaded onto our 20 passenger bus and headed out to the airport.  Another two hour flight later, and we were all back in the city, with views of buildings and…more buildings. Our precious moments of mountains and lakes were behind us, and reality set back in.  I must say, it was a hard transition.  I sincerely, sincerely hope that one day I might return and see those beautiful landscapes once more.

I hope you enjoyed reading and that I was able to convey some of the wonderfulness that is Bariloche.  

Also, I only have one month left. Where has my time gone???

I guess I'll be seeing you all soon(ish)

Chau, 

Kiki

The Wonder of Bariloche

Wow.  How does one describe Bariloche, or Patagonia in general for someone…the truth is, you can’t.  Pictures don’t do it justice, and words are always going to be insufficient.  The reason pictures are insufficient is not because a lens cannot capture the scene or the view in the most natural way—by now we’re almost to the point where all camera phones can take high quality pictures.  Capturing the physical scene is actually relatively easy, but there is so much more to the beauty of the land than just the physical glory of it all; there is no way to capture, however, the sensation of standing on a shore, seeing the water, the sky, the tree-covered mountains, and seeing and hearing and feeling all of creation worshipping its creator.  That is what I was able to experience in Patagonia this weekend.  Of course, I was able to enjoy other things Bariloche had to offer, like the best chocolate I’ve ever had, as well as I got to learn a lot about the indigenous culture and how that has been changing over the years, and I was able to see artwork from a collection that is not in any museum (there is a lot of controversy about it and it’s artist, Toon Maes), but it is impossible to avoid the natural beauty that constantly surrounds you here.  It really has been a wonderful weekend; one that has made me wonder how anyone could ever stay in one place their whole lives.  This trip, more than anything else previously, has instilled in me the urge to travel.  There is so much more to the world than all the cool things man can make…there is so much that I have never seen, and so much I now really have a desire to.  It has been a majestic experience—one I will not soon forget—and it is an experience I would never give up for anything in the world.  I’ll write more about specific things later, but this paragraph needed a post of its own, and here it is.

Spring Break (and a couple other stories)

Whew! I guess it’s time to dust off the cobwebs of this ol’ blog and update it again!  I feel like a lot has happened, and yet not so much has happened, but some written processing might help figure out how much has actually gone on since my last update. 

[Just looked at last update]

Summary of this blog post:

·         I get midterm grades this week and that should be…so-so, I haven’t been doing as well as I could be     (A’s) but I’m not doing too terribly (as far as I know) with B’s

·         Annalise searched for an English-speaking church in BA and found a small gathering of people that meets every two weeks, called The Well.  We’ve been twice and both times have been pretty great—it’s a great group of people.

·         We found a group of people off the BA Expat website that were interested in hanging out and so the first day of Spring break we met up with them at a bar and ended up hanging out with some of them later during break as well

·         Spring break happened, a lot of it was chill, but it also included a sleep-over, a trip to Tigre, and a viewing of The Avengers (which was awesome)

·         I think my brain is telling me that I should be on summer vacation now…which is not good because I still have 8 weeks of classes left.

[Actual Blog Post]

Ah yes! Midterms.  I guess this week I’ll figure out how those actually went.  I feel like they were ok, but I really can’t be sure.  I do know how I did on my globalization one, I got a B+…I was one of the three students who did, and we were the lowest grades in the class.  Of course, we all got an email saying everyone’s name and grade…and I know that a B+ is good…but I feel like I should be able to do better.  I felt the same way about the B- I got on a paper.  I was expressing my frustration about getting a “low grade” and when I told my friends it was a B- they did that whole concerned-look thing where they want to make sure that I’m not getting too down on myself for a B- because it’s still really good—they wanted to make sure I wasn’t being TOO much of an over-achiever, to the point that I didn’t know what good grades are anymore.  I understand that.  But these classes have been so much easier than the ones at Hope, and if I get B’s at Hope (and sometimes A’s), then I feel like I should definitely be able to get A’s here.  But I guess we’ll see where I’m really at at the end of this week…of course, now I’m kind of dreading it, but hey, what comes, comes.

So after midterms was SPRING BREAK! Wooooo!!!  Of course, it’s really actually fall break here (May = full on autumn, leaves are changing colors and everything!) but everyone has been calling it spring break anyways.  I stayed here in Buenos Aires with Annalise and we’ve had our days of adventure as well as our days of extreme laziness…and I feel like those days have been dominant…don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining—just saying. 

Now, before Spring break happened, Annalise was looking for some English-speaking churches in the area and she found this small gathering of people called The Well.  They meet every two weeks and the Sunday before midterms happened to be one of the times they met, so we went to check it out.  It’s a subte (Argentine subway) trip and a few blocks of walking away, but it’s closer than any other English-speaking church by at least an hour of traveling. So we got there and it ended up being Annalise and myself, the couple who run it, Paul and Emma, a couple from Germany, Hans and Rosemary (such a cute older couple!), another college student from another program, Laura, and then later Paul’s dad came.  It was just the 8 of us, and we sang two songs and then did prayer requests, and then we continued where they had left off with the end of the first chapter of Colossians.  This was the third time they’d met, and so it was (is) still pretty new.  After Paul talked about the passage, the floor was opened to anyone who wanted to say something about it—adding to what was said, disagreeing with what was said, questioning it, what have you, it was all welcomed.  After that we kind of just stayed around talking for a while. It was so great to find a community of Christians again.  It was really REALLY hard to go from Hope College, where there is never a lack of Christian groups on campus, to absolutely zero Christian community.  I hadn’t realized how much I had missed it until Rosemary started praying out loud and I realized it had been the end of February since I had last heard someone pray.  It was so wonderful to find that place, and I am SO glad that Annalise did happen to find it. 

We went back yesterday, but we got a little bit lost (ok kind of really lost) on the way there, so much so that we were contemplating not going at all.  We convinced ourselves it was a good idea to continue to try to find it, and eventually we did.  Once we finally got to the church, there were signs directing us to a different place than we had been (there are several groups that meet at the church on Sundays I guess and so being moved around kind of seems like part of the deal).  Well this week we were in what seemed to be an office of some sort (so much smaller than the sanctuary obviously) and there were not 8 people there, but closer to 18.  There were SO MANY PEOPLE and it was totally AWESOME!  We were too late for worship, but we came just in time for prayer requests and then the lesson.  We were there for about an hour before it started to draw to a close, but one of the things that was brought up was the desire for a more community-like feel among the people and how we should go out to dinner together after, and potentially meet on the off weeks as just kind of a hang out where we can bring people (potentially non-Christians) and just hang out.  Well, people liked the idea of going out to dinner after, and so we did.  Of course, everyone couldn’t make it, but a group of 8 of us went out to a Chinese food place that was not too far away.  I had such a great time—it was a blast!  The people that went were Paul and Emma, Annalise and I, Rosemary, Paul’s mom Lily, and two brothers Alex and Danny.  Alex went to high school with Paul, and Danny I think just recently graduated from Biola University in LA.  It really was a great time and I loved getting to know Alex and Danny and getting to know people better, in general.  I really, really hope that we end up being able to meet with them more than just every two weeks…because that means I will only see them 3 more times… L sad story.

And that’s another thing.  I feel like my time here is so temporary. I really want to be able to become friends with people here, but I feel like once I leave…well, that might be the last time I see them.  I feel like I’m caught between wanting to make the most of my time with people here and not wanting to start something that’s not going to go anywhere.  But, I’m going to go with the “make the most of my time here” option because I really enjoy their company and so why should I keep that from happening?

Speaking of meeting new people, this brings me to another part of Spring break with another group of people.  The first Sunday we went to The Well, they had not yet decided to go out to eat afterwards, and so Annalise and I went to a restaurant/bar called Sugar which we had heard had American food…and I had really been craving some wings (which they had).  So we headed over, and it was pretty quiet (I mean, it WAS Sunday night, people had work in the morning!)  But we were able to try some buffalo wings and cheesy fries as well as some vodka lemonade (which was pretty good, if you ask me).  We deemed it worthy of coming back to, and we also found out that Ladies Night was Thursday and that for 40 pesos at the door, women got free drinks until midnight. (PS that was foreshadowing.)  So sometime during the week, Annalise posted on the B.A. Expat website that she was new in the city and looking for a young adults group to go out with.  Well, she got several responses (most from people asking if 28, 29, etc., was too old for “young adults” and if they could come anyway—of course they were welcome!) and so we made plans to go out Thursday to Sugar (most of the group was ladies, so it worked out well). 

So Thursday came (and that was our last day of classes before break started) and we met up at the bar.  By the time I got there, Annalise, Nicole, Drew, and Olivier were all there.  Nicole and Drew are Americans that happen to be living in BA right now, and Olivier is a French guy who happens to be in BA.  Throughout the night more people came (Yvette, Juan…and some other people that I don’t know that I was ever introduced to…) but the three I mentioned earlier were the ones I talked to most.  Now, I won’t go into any details, but it can definitely be said that I drank too much that night…but we all have to learn our limits right? And…yeah, that’s all I’m going to say on that topic.  Anyways…Thursday was fun, and I got to sleep in until whenever I wanted to on Friday…so that was good.  Saturday we went out again with the same group (well it was supposed to be the same group but it ended up being Annalise and I with Drew and Olivier) and I had much less to drink—but it was still fun.  We ended up staying out until about 4 just because we were talking and having a good time.  That was probably the most porteña (Buenos Aires local) Annalise and I have been since we got here, it was great.

Sunday we spent the evening with our friend Laura from IES who was also staying in town.  We found a cool restaurant around my house and we had a great time just talking and hanging out.  I think Monday might have been a lazy day because I don’t remember anything important that happened that day…but Tuesday we (Laura, Annalise and I) went to Tigre.  It’s a city up north that’s an hour train ride away.  We ended up leaving on the train at about 9 in the morning, so we got in at about 10, and we got to Puerto de Frutas (a very market-heavy area of the town) at about 10:45, which we found out was way too early for anything to be open.  So we went to a café to have some breakfast and we were sitting and chatting for a while and by the time we had paid and walked out, many, many more shops were open.  We pretty much spent the entire day walking around, buying little things, and then enjoying some lunch when we got hungry. It was so awesome to have a day out that was still really chill.  I really enjoyed that day a lot.  Then when we ended up deciding to head back (around 6:00 I think?) we went our separate ways to eat dinner at home, and then we met up again at the movie theater to watch The Avengers (which was awesome. So incredibly awesome.) 

Wednesday was another chill day, which ended up with me sleeping over at Annalise’s house.  It was a classic sleep over.  We made a junk-food trip before we actually went to her house, we played cards, we talked a bit, and we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning watching TV on my computer.  It was great.  And so Thursday we kind of slept in until like…2:00?  Yeah, another lazy day.  That night there were plans to meet up with the Sugar group again (I guess that’s what I’m calling them now?) but I was feeling kind of down and so Annalise and I didn’t end up going, we were sitting and talking in a plaza for a while—PS I’m really, really grateful to have such a great friend as Annalise here with me.  It’s really been a blessing to have her here.  Friday we chilled to do homework…so I spent all my time on the computer, obviously.  Saturday I don’t really remember doing anything particularly productive, and then Sunday I finally did some homework and then we went to The Well and out to dinner, etc.  So it was a pretty chill Spring break, but I really enjoyed it.  It was so nice to be able to have so many days of just…nothing.  I’m certain that if we had gone anywhere else that would not have happened…and I needed a break, not a sight-seeing trip.  So point of the story is: Spring break was great.

Also Sunday night, Yelena and I switched rooms because we made a deal at the beginning of the year that at the halfway mark we would switch.  I definitely had the better end of the deal.  My room was at least three times the size of hers, and the bathroom was way bigger (at least two times the size with like, 4 times the storage space) and so it’s kind of hard to down-size my space by so much, but I’m glad that we are both able to have the “nice room” for at least half of our stay.  Also, this room I am in now is much closer to the front door, so when I’m super exhausted I can pretty much just walk in the door, walk three steps to my room, and boom! Bed.  It will be wonderful.

Also, I really am ready to be done with classes.  I’m pretty sure my brain has been too well conditioned to the American school year that it’s about ready to be on summer vacation now.  Which is not good…I still have about 8 weeks of classes left!  But this weekend, (Thursday through Sunday) I will be in Bariloche which is a town (ok, more of a city) in Patagonia.  I get to go with my class about Patagonia and it should be super awesome.  They told us it was jam-packed with things though, so be ready, but I think it will be awesome.  Also, I will probably give you an update about that after it happens—I might even add pictures! (Maybe, I mean, it depends on if other people take them, lol, I’m so bad at remembering to take pictures of things!)

Anyways I hope that this update fulfilled your desire to hear about what’s been going on with me.  I hope you enjoyed reading it—it was good to write a post again.  That was seriously way too long to let my blog go un-updated.  Consider the lesson learned and I will try not to do it again…try.

Thank you for reading,

Chau,

Kiki

Pre Mid-Term Update

Wow, I guess it’s been a while since I last updated, huh?  Sorry about that, things have really picked up here academic-wise, I mean, this week brings mid-terms!  Also it’s kind of weird to think that I’m taking mid-terms when everyone else is taking finals. Also it’s a little stressful to think about things I still have to do in the States (like register for a summer class and figure out how that will work and if I’ll be able to keep my job at Taco Bell, or how that all will go down. Also, as it turns out, I’m registered for a class next semester that I really shouldn’t be registered for.  I mean, I was the one who chose it, but it’s a night class on Wednesdays from 6:00-9:00. Silly me wasn’t thinking about youth group (which is exactly over that time) and so I’ll change that class, but I can’t do it until the semester starts in the fall.  But it’s ok, it was a class I wasn’t really too pumped about anyways, it was just one that I needed to take eventually.

Anyways, I’ve kind of been sick the past couple of days, I think it’s just the stomach flu.  It’s nothing too serious, and I’ve been feeling better after drinking loads of water and getting tons of sleep…I have however, lost two pounds in two days, not exactly the way I want to lose weight…

I can’t really write for too long because I have lots (and lots and lots) of studying to do.  But I did want to give you a small update.  I guess overall things are still going well here, oh! I don’t know if I ever told you, but I’m in the IES “choir”…it’s in quotation marks because there are 7 of us.  But it’s nice, we meet every Wednesday night for a little over an hour and we sounds pretty good, if I do say so myself…which I do.  Also, after this week of mid-terms come Spring Break (which is actually Fall Break here, but everyone refers to it as Spring break…because that’s what it feels like it should be) and that means a week of exploring Buenos Aires with Annalise!  That should be fun and I’m really looking forward to it J  We have a growing list of things to do, and I will be sure to take my camera with me (and by camera I mean my DS with my SD card because the battery will last much longer and it works!  Most of the pictures I have uploaded to Facebook were taken with my DS, so I’m pretty excited to have it! (P.S. Thanks again TJ!))  It should be pretty awesome.  Anyways, studying now, more updates later.

Chau,

Kiki

P.S. Any [more] prayers you could send this way would be greatly appreciated, for health, for focus, and did I mention health?  Thank you all so much!

Mendoza (Final Part)

Dear Friends and Family,

So super sorry for the delayed post.

Love,

Kiki

Seriously though, I am sorry; I have been kind of swamped with homework for the past couple of days though (Wednesday was craaaaaazy), so here is the rest of my Mendoza weekend.

·         We went zip-lining at a gorgeous location, it was lots of fun (and lots of hiking!)

·         For dinner, we decided to make our own food and I was able to enjoy some of Annalise’s great cooking once again (wooo!)

·         Sunday morning brought a Catholic Easter service and later, a game of Settlers of Catan

·         I highly recommend the movie “Pride and Glory”

·         This week has been crazy busy with lots of homework in all my classes

·         Titanic in 3D tonight!!! (Woooooooo!)

Saturday: Zip-lining. Oh yeah.  Now, you see, we got back late the night before, and so when we asked the guy at the front desk what time we had to leave for the zip-lining, he definitely said 9, but we registered 9:30 in our minds.  So I didn’t set an alarm for myself because I knew that someone else would, and I would just wake up with everyone else.  Well, the alarm went off at 9…and the people that were going to take us to zip-lining were already there waiting for us…oops.  So what ended up happening is that they left to go pick up some other people first, and then came back to pick us up.  This was good because then we could all get dressed and eat some breakfast and shower (for those of us that wanted/needed to).  So the second time they came around, we were ready to go.  This time it was not a group of taxis, but instead a 15 passenger van.  Oh yeah.  I can’t say exactly how long of a drive it was (I don’t really remember), but I feel like it was between 30 and 45 minutes.  Also, it was gorgeous.  I have decided that I love seeing mountains, just, whenever.  Also, I decided that I want to spend at least some part of my life living in Mendoza because it is gorgeous.  But back to the story, we finally get to this activity center (essentially) and hop out.

Now, the reason I call it an activity center is because it was not just for zip-liners, there were guides for hiking, white water rafting, climbing, repelling, and other outdoor things.  This was the first and only time we saw other IES students during our trip, and they ended up going zip-lining with us, and so that was pretty cool, but we didn’t really talk with them because they were a couple groups behind us (what I mean is that the large group of zip-liners that went at the same time as us was made up of several smaller parties, and we all had to stick with our same groups, and their group was a couple after ours). 

So, this was my first time zip-lining, and Oh. Em. Gee. It is so much fun.  We went on 7 lines, and two of them were over the lake.  Not only was the view gorgeous, but it was also really exciting to be suspended so high above everything, but rushing by it so quickly.  The only thing about zip-lining is...well, it’s gravity-driven.  This means you need to hike up…and up, and up, in order to get to a place that’s high enough for you to be able to sail down in one go.  Now, this wasn’t so bad for the first 6.  But the 6^th line left us down pretty far (and we were on the other side of the lake at this point) and so we had to HIKE up.  Like way up. 

At first I didn’t know where we were going, but then I looked up and saw high, high above us, our destination.  It was kind of daunting.  But it was so worth it.  When you’re flying over the perfectly blue water, with purpley-grey mountains on either side of you…it’s not really a sight you can forget—and I never want to!  And the water, I just need to take a second to talk about it.  This water, it was as if somebody had poured tons and tons of blue-green paint into it.  It was so stinking blue.  And it stood out so much!  All around it were these dingy (in comparison) looking mountains, with very muted colors, and then BAM, there’s the water.  It was crazy.  I’m sure there are some picture on facebook of it…ok, talk about water is done.

Unfortunately after that 7^th line, our day was done.  Don’t get me wrong, it was incredibly awesome, but it was just so short.  We finished at like, 1:15, but were told that we couldn’t leave until 3 because that was when the next bus left.  We ended up being able to leave by 2:45, but for that almost two hours we were just chilling and talking.  Once we did get on the bus, we started playing some guessing-like games.  You know, the ones where only one person knows the “key” and everyone else has to figure out the rules.  Like “I’m going to a picnic and bringing cantaloupe” which is ok for someone named Christina, but Ashley needs to bring artichoke, or apples, or something else with an “a”—and everyone has to figure out what the “rule” is.  Well we played this one called Snaps.  Now, this game…it sucks.  Well, at least while you don’t know the rule.  It’s super tricky to figure out (well, I may be a little biased as I was the last person to get it…and even then it was pretty much spoon fed to me).  I’ll have to teach it to you the next time I see you.  But you’ll have to bring it up because I don’t know who actually is consistently reading this…

Anyways, the zip-lining was super super fun, and after we got back we were thinking about what to do for dinner.  What we ended up doing was going to the store to buy some things and so we ended up grouping off by food preference.  Having known Annalise’s great cooking abilities based off of living with her previously, I knew I wanted to be in her group, whatever it ended up being.  She ended up cooking for herself, Drew, and me and she made steak, mashed potatoes and green beans.  It was all really good.  We brought out the wine we had bought the previous day and we all enjoyed our dinner, sitting around, talking and laughing, it was pretty awesome.  The night ended with a viewing of Zoolander—I had never seen it before (go figure).  It was actually surprisingly good; I didn’t get to hear all of it though because the lobby got a little loud at points, but I would watch it again to get the whole thing.  Also the disk was a little skippy, so there were some parts that got cut out of it too.

All in all, it was a great day spent with great people, and eating great food.  And because Sunday was relatively uneventful, and because I am a little behind, I’ll just talk about that day too.  On Sunday morning (seeing as how it was Easter and all) several of us went to a Catholic service at a church we found not too far away.  It was nice, but I was a little but tired and not super willing to translate everything in my head, and so I may have zoned out a little bit…oops.  But after the service, we met up with the people who didn’t go and we started looking for an ATM so people could withdraw money to pay for the hostel.  Now, Annalise and I had gone out on Friday to withdraw some money and so we were set…everyone else was a different story.  Yes, we were trying to find an ATM on Easter Sunday.  They had tried a few places while we were at church, but all of the ATMs were out of money (that happens here…often).  So what we ended up doing was going to a casino.  Yes, Easter morning we walked into a casino to use their ATM.  I still don’t know how to feel about that…

After withdrawing money, we went out to eat and then headed back to the hostel.  After everyone had paid, we still had about 2.5 hours before our bus.  So someone broke out the Catan.  That’s right, Settlers of Catan.  It was a bit of an intense game, Annalise and I were on a team, but the Emily-Katie team took home the win (Katie, that is the other girl’s name).  We ended right on time, though, which was sweet.  We packed up the game, picked up our stuff, and headed out.  There were no giant storms today and nothing to delay the bus, so we left pretty much right on time.  The rest of the day was spent on the bus…and nothing too interesting happened.  Annalise and I were trying to watch the featured film, “Pride and Glory” which was really, really good (I highly recommend it), but it was a little hard to hear and it also kept skipping…but it was still really good.  It’s a movie about cops, and kind of the fight between corruption and…honesty I guess.  It’s just…really intriguing and I recommend it…still.

Monday morning we got in, and I was had about 5 hours before class, so I was able to head home and relax a bit.  I wish I had done more homework in that time, though, because this week was super crazy with homework!  Oof, I’m just glad it’s over…except there are midterms in two weeks…meh, not looking forward to that either…But I am looking forward to tonight! Titanic 3D with Annalise!! Wooooooo! (I’m pumped).  So I’m going to go and get ready for that, but I hope you enjoyed the update!

Chau,

Kiki