updates n' stuff

So, these days have fortunately been a turn for the better.  About two weeks ago, the manager of a hostel my friend vicky works at offered me a job.  The only problem is that I really can't work, being a rotary student, a minor, and living in this country on a tourist visa.  (the last two don't really matter due to laws apparently meaning nothing here)  He also told me that I'm welcome to go and chill out in the hostel whenever I'd like, which is excellent.  I've been going nearly every day lately, just meeting cool people and chillin' out.  It's perfect.  Here's just a few of the people I've met/ things that have happened lately.  Three days ago, I went out to dinner with a big group of travellers, about 15 people, from australia, switzerland, germany, and the netherlands.  I mainly talked to the two people from austrailia; a guy and a girl.  The guy was trying to tell me all these tricks to do with cocaine, and how to get girls, and shit like that, and the girl (a social worker) was telling me how bad of a person he was, and apparently that's how people from sydney are (she was from melbourne).  I also met these two really cool Isreali dudes, Oren and Toli, who, like most of the other Isreali guys I had met before, had recently completed their mandatory 3 years of military time, and were now travelling south, central, and possibly north america.  Man, they were fun people to be with.  When I was telling them about my future travel plans, Toli told me "If you want to be a man, come to Israel, become a jew, and join the army." (He was joking, of course (sort of)) They were really fun guys, just chillin' out after a hardass three years in the military, and looking for a good time in south america.  There was one point where, before he knew my name, Toli was trying to get my attention, as I was talking to an argentinian girl at the same time.  So, he says "hey you! hey, christian!"  What? christian? I think that's the first time in my entire life I've been called that.  It amused the hell out of me though, and I made this clear to him in the amount that I laughed.  So he says "what? it's the same as if you say to me, "hey jew!" And that just made it funnier.  it was totally cool.  After those guys went to sleep, I stayed up until about 5am, having a lengthy conversation with a german guy about everything ranging from hitchhiking to government conspiracies.  I ended up going home around dawn, and waking up at about 5.30 pm the next day.  Whevever I went down to the hostel, I met these 4 american guys, about college age, who were just travelling around argentina for fun.  They were pretty cool, told me about some sweet raves around the world, and gave me free dinner. score!  To top it off, today I finally worked out everything I needed to for my brazillian visa, which I'll receive tomorrow.  I really wish I could work at that hostel, I mean it's such a cool, laid back, fun place, and the job offer basically just fell into my hands.  How often does that shit happen, a job that you really like/want to do for more than just the money, being basically given to you?  Figures, the one time this happens to me, I can't do it.  But, thus is life.  Whatever, I guess; shit happens.

Future Plans: hittin' the road!

So here's the deal:  about 2 weeks ago, I was stumbling my way around the web in my infinite boredom, when I happened acrossed a very interesting website, and some even more interesting stories.  What were they about? well, the more interesting of the ones I found was about a guy who hitchhiked from San Diego to Cape Horn, argentina, and I thought " damn, that would be sweet to do." So, I read more, and got nothing but more intrigued.  Somewhere along the way reading, something just clicked in my brain.  I really want to do that.  And I can.  The original plan for my future was to go to college of charleston, and study german and/or international studies, with the intent of being a translator.  All of this was very vague, I mean I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but just something that I could travel a lot through.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized; if I did that, at this point, I think I would feel like a rat in a cage;  studying abroad would be extremely costly, and restricted to the progams provided by the school.  Even now, in argentina, that's exactly how I feel; I want to MOVE! travel! see the world, because it's out there waiting for me, calling me!  Another thing: I'm f**king tired of constantly having to ask my parents for money, having to leach off of them, constantly ask for more funds.  I've been offered a job, but because of rotary, I can't take it.  The more  weighed the options, the clearer it became; Hitchhiking to Latinoamerica is exactly what I want to do.  Except for the cost of a pack and some supplies, it's more or less free.  I would be going by my rules, going wherever I'd like, with no schedule, no rules, seeing exactly what I want: a country as it is, not it's tourist towns and nice resorts, and the safety shelter of some organization.  I love meeting travellers and cool new people, and that's exactly what I would be doing in hitchhiking.  So here's how I'll do it:  first, either before or after my graduation party in late june, I'll try hitchhiking a 4-hour trip or so to visit a good friend in canada, a) to visit her, and b) to kind of warm up, get used to things hitchhiking.  Then, maybe sometime in July, or whenever I have the desire to get up and leave, I will, with the destination of mexico.  If I like it, then further south I'll go.  If not, then back home it is.  But, there's something that I feel is drawing me to see more of Latin America, namely Mexico, Cuba, and Colombia (exactly the countries I wouldn't be able to visit through a college study abroad program).  Argentina is nice, but the fun and excitement of being here has long since faded away.  I've lately felt restricted by the rules of rotary; I can barely travel, can't switch schools, can't work.  Need permissions for this, permission for that.  Stuck in a particularly uneventful town, which I would like very much to leave.  For all of you exchange students having the time of your life, I'm very glad for you, and I envy you.  Argentina, for me, so far, hasn't really been anything special.  I've seen what it could be, if I were living somewhere else, but I'm not, and I can't.  But, I'm not really concerned, because of the knowledge that the adventure of a lifetime awaits me.

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad!

You know, I was a bit anxious as to how christmas would go, and still am about new year's.  Iguazú has a nasty habit of turning "the best party all year" into generally unimpressive, completely expected events.  But, it was nice.  So here's how it went down last night/this morning.  To set up the background, imagine this.  about every 30 seconds incredibly loud firecrackers, thrown by little kids are going off.  All around my neighborhood, and probably Iguazú, there is music blasting from either the backs of cars, stores, or clubs.  Not christmas music, but the usual cumbia (my least favorite), reggaeton, and electronica.  On the riverside, about a mile away, there are fireworks going off occasionally, all of this generally setting the festive atmosphere.  First, after my hostmom's infinite stress as to what everyone was going to wear, I rushed down to a local store; I had forgotted to buy my hostcousin a gift, so I decided a bottle of fernet would be a safe bet.  The system with gifts was as follows:  A few days beforehand, everyone in the family was given a slip of paper with someone else's name on it; that's who you get a gift for.  So at about 9:30 or 10 christmas eve night, everyone went down to my hostgrandparent's house for a big dinner.  On the walk over, my hostbrother Lucho informed me that we would be going out to hit up the clubs afterward; apparently christmas and new years are the best days in the year to do that, and some of the craziest.  That is PERFECTLY ok with me.  So, we get to my hostgrandparent's house, where a very long table is decorated beautifully with ornate glasses (one for pop/wine, and the other for sidra), color coordinated napkins, the special silverware, stuff like that.  We start eating at about 11.  The food was interesting.  some (similar to) doubled eggs, some meat with a strange tan sauce over it, sopa paraguaya (similar to cornbread, except not as good), some misture of chicked, mayonaise, lettuce, and something else all in some...material, that you ate with a spoon, and also this big thing that was about 2 or 3 inches thick, cut like a cake, layered with several cheeses, vegetables, balogne, lettuce, and several other things.  Potato salad, and finally kebabs, everything was served cold.  All in all not bad, but I still strongly prefer american food.  On the table there was copious amounts of red wine, seven up, fanta, some chocolaty, creamy, liquor, and a mixed drink containing vodka.  My hostfamily made sure that my cup was never empty for long.  At midnight, every toasted, with glasses of sidra (a sort of fruity, slightly alcoholic, argentinian holiday drink), and everyone cheerfully said "¡feliz navidad!" to everyone else.  Then, we started opening presents.  They were more or less all pretty small gifts, ranging from bottles of alcohol, clothes, champagne sets, mate things, stuff like that.  I myself got a t-shirt, that said "cataratas del Iguazú" on it.  After gift opening, everyone in the family said what they were thankful for, how much they loved everyone else, and how important and special each other family member was to them.  There was a lot of crying, tears of love and joy, which for me, was something very different.  In this christmas celebration, it was clear that there was a lot more importance on family, and valuing everyone in the family, than gifts.  After about another hour or two of lounging and talking, at about 2am, my hostbrother, hostcousin, and I went out dancing.  First, upon seeing that it was too early in the night for very many people to be at the clubs yet, we drove over to the costa nera (the "coast" of the riverside, a very elevated and generally beautiful place, where you have a view of the river about 300 feet below, and the coasts of paraguay and brazil, covered in rainforest).  As soon as we got there, you could here music.  There were hundreds of people, teens, girls dressed up to go out, guys the same, trunks of cars open, with HUGE speaker boxes blasting music, people throwing firecrackers, guys showing of motorbike tricks, stuff like that.  We stuck around there for a few minutes, (we didn't stay, because, as my hostbrother put it, they were all "negros" (this use of the word having no correlation to skin color)).  So, we headed back to the boliches.  First, we spent a few hours at La Barranca, a club that is known for its electronica music, and brazillian population.  It was alright, there was a band playing on the stage, and pretty decent music on the dance floors.  Fun, but nothing special.  We then decided to head to Cuba Libre, the club I usually go to, because my hostbrother told us he could get us in for free.  Upon entering, we discovered that it was absolutely packed.  As far as I'm concerned, this is great; I love being in a happenin' place people are packed like sardines on the dancefloor.  But, this also unfortunately meant that at this point in the night, the security was making sure that only the most attractive and provocatively dressed girls got in for free, and entrance was 50 pesos.  shit.  So we milled around for a few minutes, thinking of ways to get in, but came up with nothing.  We eventually decided to head over to a local bar instead.  it was pretty cool, I mean as cool as nice bars get I guess.  We chilled there until dawn, just talking and generally having a good time.  When the bar closed, we just hung out by the car, with the trunk open, and music playing, as there was probably about 100 people just on that street doing the same thing.  At about 7:30, we were driven back home.  First, my hostbrother, hostcousin, and I talked and ate leftovers from dinner the day before.  At 8:30 or 9, my hostbrother and I walked home, and I went to bed.  Overall, a pretty fun, and certainly different christmas than those that I'm used to in the states.  

A random post

Yeah, I know, I did just write yesterday (or was it the day before?).  But, it's not very often that I actually feel like writing, so I figure, hell, why not.  For starters, here's a brief recap of last night.  I went over to my friend Juan's house at about 11, where we planned to get some other guys together.  none of them ended up being available, so we ended up going to another kid's house.  Once there, since I knew no one, I was barraged with the usual questions for a good hour or two (do you like argentina? the girls? how long are you staying?)  also, for some reason there was asado and rice, and a lot of it, so I ate a good bit of that.  At some point, I went in to lay down, as I was feeling particularly lazy, and getting a little tired of the gazillion mosquitos outside.  I ended up falling asleep, and woke up maybe around 6 that morning.  I decided that it was probably a good idea to head home, as my family has a general "be back before 8am" policy.  Not knowing where I was, I walked in the general direction that I thought I should go.  I ended up walking on the highway for awhile (he apparently lived a ways out of town).  I arrived home at about 7, and went directly to bed.  I woke up at about 4:30 today, only to find a few interesting things;  for some reason, my legs felt like I had just run, REALLY far.  Also, my right palm is incredibly bruised, and I have a mysterious cut in my right ring finger.  Interesting.
                  On another note, I'm pretty psyched.  Tomorrow, I'm getting my brazillian visa, and it's recently come to my attention that my birthday is only about a month and a half away.  Once I'm 18, I can cross international borders by myself, so I can go to Cuidad del Este in Paraguay, and Foz do Iguaçu in Brazil.  My hostfamily has told me several times before that they would take me, but they never seem to get around to it.  Once I'm in either of these two cities (both are pretty big, I think Foz has about 100 or 150,000 people, and Ciudad del Este has 250,000) I figure I'll try my hand at busking, and see how that works out.  So, that's about it.

a refreshing change of luck

Well, after a usually unbearably boring week, last friday (yesterday) was a refreshing, and enjoyable change of pace.  Here's how it went.  First, after FINALLY getting in contact with my good friend Vicky, I spent the late afternoon until about 11 hanging out with her, which was fun.  The usual, her attempting to speak english with me, me laughing at her making up words, and then her criticizing my every error in spanish.  Which is good, because there are very few people that really (intelligently) teach me good spanish like she does.  At around 11:30, I was on my way home, when a car pulled up.  The driver beckoned me closer, at first I thought it was someone asking for directions.  Turns out, it was a (15-year-old) kid from my school, who asked me if I wanted to go to Cuba Libre (the dance club) tonight.  I said yes, and he sold me an entrance ticket for 20 pesos (it's 30 usually, and there was some special DJ there that night).  I mean hey, go out dancing and partying for 5 american dollars.  That's pretty ok as far as I'm concerned.  He told me to wait in front of the club for them at around 1:30.  So, 1:30 rolls around, and I wait.  15 minutes later, I'm still waiting for him, so I just decide to go in, since I have the pass anyway.  Upon entering, after I squeeze my way through the extremely crowded pista 1 (the first dance floor, the club has 3) I stumbled into some friends that I hadn't seen since before I left for Hernando almost 2 months ago.  So, I stuck with them for a little bit.  I noticed that the guy wrapped around my friend Rut was blonde and didn't look anything like an argentinian, but didn't think anything of it at first.  After awhile, the girls went to the bathroom, and I talked to him for a little bit.  Turns out, he's a danish exchange student living in El Dorado, a town about 2 hours from here, and he was here with some other exchange students.  nice!  He eventually introduced me to his friend from Quebec, and another girl from Italy living in Iguazú (I forget everyone's names, unfortunately).  I generally stuck with them for the rest of the night, being that the girls just kind of came and went.  I was introduced to a gazillion people, and given tons of free drinks, (non-alcoholic of course, being a rotary exchange student ;)) which was pretty sweet.  We then decided to venture to the other dancefloor in search of different girls.  once we arrived at the main one, we found a pleasant surprise.  On each of the two poles, there were two REALLY attractive girls, wearing REALLY small underwear.  So that's why I bought a special entrance pass.  Fuckin' A.  After meandering around there for awhile, enjoying the view, (the girls eventually went to the VIP upstairs) we went up to the VIP, me having the original intent of finding where those girls went.  So we were upstairs, and suddenly this midget (yes, that's right) lady starts dancing with me.  Not that I think she's attractive, or really want to dance with her that much, but i figure, hey, I'm in argentina, how often does weird and crazy shit like this happen.  She left shortly though, because I couldn't control my urge to laugh...Eh, what the hell.  It was weirdly fun (and incredibly humorous) while it lasted.  So, distracted from my original intent, I chatted with a brazilian girl for a little bit, and then went downstairs.  We kept dancing until about 5:30 or so, and then left (about dawn, since it's summer right now) I was incredibly hungry when I got home around 6 (I walked) so I ate a HUGE bowl of rice before going to bed.  overall, pretty enjoyable day/night.

When the dust settles.

       I've decided to write this article to give a bit of insight to those of you that have never been on an exchange probably don't hear about much, or have never heard about.  My previous posts have been nothing but good fun and good times.  Now, I've decided to write the whole truth.  After the south trip, I've had a pretty damn boring, uneventful, and pretty depressing time in Iguazú.  As some have you may noticed, I've never really written about my daily life here in Iguazu, only the stuff outside, rotary weekends, trips, stuff like that.  Well, that would be because daily life here has, for the most part, let me down incredibly.  In the first few weeks of my exchange, it was ok, because it still kind of cheered me up knowing that I'm some 5,000 miles away from home, in the middle of south america, on a student exchange.  Because everything was new, and different, I mostly just though of it as such.  Nothing good or bad really, just incredibly different.  New language, family, food, climate, hemisphere, everything.  Which was really nice; all the things listed in the last sentence were exactly what I came here looking for.  but after about 2 months, when I started settling in, I became pretty unhappy.  For the first time in my life, I found myself really hating school, and wanting to sleep lots, because I found that there really wasn't anything fun in being awake.  But I think school was/is the worst problem.  Me being completely new to the society of Puerto Iguazú, school is my main social venue, where I can meet and talk to people and so on.  But, they mostly never talk(ed) to me.  The school I go to is incredibly small, being private, and supposedly the 2nd best in Iguazú.  This means that most of the kids there are fairly well off, and as I've found out, pretty douchy.  In the first few days of me going to school, I was asked a lot of questions (what's your favorite food, do you like argentina, when are you here till, etc.), which was nice.  But after that, nothing.  I think so far, in my 3 months in Iguazú, I've been invited to maybe 4 things by people in my grade (of which there are 17).  In class, literally NO ONE takes any actual interest in talking to me; "todo bien, ben?" and nothing more.  In the school itself, I have maybe 3 or 4 friends, but all of them being in different grades, I see them in two 10-minute recesses each day.
       You know, back in the U.S, talking to my south american friends, I was pretty excited to come here, I mean everything they were saying sounded GREAT to me.  Warm, friendly people, nice girls, fun, crazy parties, I mean who doesn't want that?  And they weren't wrong.  In the other places I've been, resistencia and Hernando, I found exactly that.  Some of the kindest people I've ever met, wonderful friends I'll never forget, everything.  But, of course, Iguazú, the place where I was put for my exchange, is a total drag.  The few "parties" that I've been to (in iguazu) outside of the dance clubs have been pretty much a let down (not that I drink, being a rotary exchange student, but 8 guys, sitting outside in the dark sharing a bottle of wine really isn't my idea of fun).  Lately, I know who my real friends are, but I have no way to contact them, being as my cellphone got wet and now doesn't work.  How fortunate that the 4 friends that I have almost never use facebook, and their numbers were on my phone, which conveniently doesn't work.  So, that leaves me with an unfotunate amount of time being at home, by myself, with mostly nothing to do.  I've been playing a little bit with a drummer in the town, and he's not bad, but the other guys that come are for the most part completely boring, uneventful people.  I mean common.
      This whole thing has left me pretty unimpressed with my exchange so far.  I mean I've had some fun, but nothing that's really blown me away, and what fun I've had wasn't from the town where I live.  Don't get me wrong, this doesn't make me want to go home, or miss my home, or anything like that.  Mostly it just makes me frustrated and a bit angry.  In reality, I think the only people who can relate to this are other exchange students who have been through, or are going through, the very same problems.  They say that the best friend's you'll make on an exchange are other exchange students, and they were absolutely right.  I'm writing this in hopes that things turn up soon, and that the future has good friends and good times in store, because god knows I need it.

South Trip through Patagonia, Nov. 9-26

So here's the deal.  Since the trip, I've had a pretty severe case of procrastination, being that I've done nothing of importance for a week.  But still, the trip was so fun and memorable that I feel it basically has to be written down.  Anyway, here it goes.
      After a very rushed good bye from Hernando (to rushed to be able to get another jar of peanut butter, a precious commodity for us Americans in Argentina) Cande's mom drove me to Córdoba, where we went to their apartment there, to eat lunch and so I could shower. after that, I went to the center in Cordoba to board the bus.  It was great to see everyone again, all the friends I made from out last get together in Iguazú.  Only, this time, there were more.  78 exchange students, to be exact, from canada, the U.S, Germany, France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia, and probably some more that I can't remember at this very moment.  after all the hugs and handshakes, we boarded, and I sat in the back of the bus with my friends.  We had plenty of time to catch up, being that the trip from Córdoba to Puerto Madryn was about 22 hours long.  The view during the ride was probably about the most boring, uneventful landscape I've ever seen.  A solid 20 hours of desert, completely flat as far as the eye can see, with about 1 town of probably 100 inhabitants every 500 miles.  Also, being that we were travelling due south so far, the climate was noticeable colder; I first noticed this when I woke up the next morning on the bus, and there was frost on the windows.  After stops at a few gas stations and restaurants, we arrived in Puerto Madryn in the afternoon the next day.  Puerto Madryn is a coastal town in southern Argentina facing the atlantic ocean.   The place where we were staying consisted of two large cabin-looking buildings, with each one having 5 or 6 "habitaciones," each one having between 4 and 6 beds, a kitchen, and bathroom.  I roomed with a group of german guys, 5 of them and myself.  After everyone got a chance to settle in and shower and whatnot, we ate lunch at a restaurant right next to the hotel.  after lunch, we walked around Puerto Madryn as a group, to the mall, the beach, around the center in general.  After that, we had the rest of the day more or less to ourselves.  I ended up mostly hanging out with my german roommates most of the time, and with a group of american/german girls before dinner.  The next morning, we woke at 7 to go out on a peninsula to see some nature stuff only found in a few spots in the world.  Our tour guide was a particularly loud, white-haired lady who spoke spanish with a german accent. (I got pretty frustrated with her, I just didn't understand why she had to have the mic turned up so loud, to talk about such boring things)  First, we stopped at some tiny town about an hour from Puerto Madryn to go whale watching.  I had been whale watching once before, in Maine with my family, and I had remembered it to be particularly cold, windy, and boring.  This time, it was equally cold and windy, but we actually did see whales, and very close up.  a mother, father, and child, close enough that at one point if i would have stepped of the boat I would land on the whale.  After about an hour of that, we headed back, and had about 2 hours of free time before lunch.  My friends and I chose to spend our time climbing to the top of an enormous hill, about 150 or 200 meters tall. (500 or 600 feet) Once we were at the top, the view was beautiful.  Sitting on the edge of a shear rock face, looking down to see incredibly clear coast, and being so high up, being able to see for miles around.  Once we got back down, we ate lunch, we travelled maybe an hour more to a spot where lived some sea lions, and there was also one of the only spots in the world where the coast was growing, and not shrinking.  As usual, the nature scene didn't interest me terribly, but, also as usual, it was tons of fun hanging out with all the exchange students. On the way back, we stood on the only spot in the world where you can see both sides of the peninsula.  Afterwards, we had the rest of the day to ourselves.  I went with some friends to the (incredibly windy and cold) beach.  The water was icy cold.  The next day, we woke up to go to calafate.  on the way, we stopped at a spot where the largest group of some type of penguins (I forget the name) in the world lived.  It was alright, I mean, like almost all of the nature spots on our trip, it consisted of the usually bleak patagonian landscape, somewhat cold weather and piercing wind.  But hey, I touched a penguin.  There was also some ostriches and weird deer-looking creatures, of which I forget the names of in spanish, and don't know in english.  we hit the road again for several more hours until we reached calafate.  At calafate, we stayed at a spot where there was an enclosed spot that had maybe 10 cabins or so, I can't remember exactly.  I roomed with the same people as last time, except this time, because the cabin fit 8, there was another german boy and american boy.  After showering, I went for a run with my friend cameron (the other american in my cabin) and we saw a lake with some flamingos.  calafate was where the landscape began changing, and the appearance of towns as well.  for one thing, the Andes mountains were now visible, there was more vegetation, and the towns, being generally richer than the north, looked less dirty and poor, and incredibly similar to the kinds of places I saw in Germany.  Calafate was really a tourist town, with a large fraction of the people in the city being tourists.  It was really cool to just get to hang out with everyone, chill out in the cabins or outside.  Another interesting thing about patagonia:  the ozone layer is much thinner there.  Thusly, the sun is much stronger.  Although the wind is incredibly cold, when there isn't wind, it feels quite warm.  The next day, we went to see the glacier "perito moreno."  There was a mini-excursion where you could walk on the glacier for about 4 hours, but I didn't go, because it was 500 pesos. ($120) Instead, with the 20 other people or so that didn't go, we went on a boat to get a close view of the glacier, and afterwards to a park where there were some trails and stuff, each having spots for a great view of the glacier.  The surroundings were beautiful, with a glacier bigger than Buenos Aires, (the capital, a city of about 14 million people) the andes mountains, a lake made by the glacial melting, surrounded by forrests that were incredibly similar to those found in northern north america.  We got back at about 6pm, had some freetime, and then ate dinner.  The next day, we travelled to Ushuaia.  Yet again, another busride of 20-or-30-something hours, eating at gas stations or restaurants. After crossing from the mainland to Tierra del  Fuego and crossing the chilean border (the island of Tierra del fuego is shared between chile and argentina)  we arrived in Ushuaia (cape horn) at night.  Ushuaia, being the southernmost city in the world, has quite an interesting climate.  It was explained by a tour guide as such "here in ushuaia, we have 4 seasons every day."  This was a pretty accurate way of describing it, being that every day we were there, it was cloudy and rainy for a little bit, sunny and warm for a bit, and at night freezing cold, where a winter coat is pretty much necessary.  Another thing:  because we were so far south, the days were a lot longer, and the nights shorter.  while the northern hemisphere is going into winter at this time, the south is getting summer, so down in the southernmost city in the world, it didn't get dark until almost 10 o'clock.  We had a day to ourselves to see the city, go shopping, and all that stuff.  While hanging out with my friends and exploring the town, we happened to get lost not once, but twice, having to walk around for an hour or two to find where we were.  unlike El Calafate, ushuaia has a large residencial population as well as a large tourist presence.  Basically, this means that there is also a "bad side of town."  And that's where we ended up walking for a good hour or so.  The free time on this trip was perhaps the funnest part.  going to a cafe, bar, or restaurant, and getting to hang out with some of the best friends I've made in argentina, and perhaps my life, just chillin, talking, and generally having a good time.  We later went to the National Park of Tierra del Fuego.  Here, there was basically the usual patagonian landscape.  I shouldn't say "usual" because of how stunningly beautiful it was, but I use that word because we saw this type of landscape fairly often.  The enormous Andes Mountains, forrests, fields of flowers and vegetation, and crystal blue lakes, and a clear blue sky, that looked more like the atmosphere of a planet then the usual shade of blue because of the thin ozone layer.  After Ushuaia, we had another solid day of travelling, to Esquel.  In Esquel, we ate lunch at an Irish-like pub, and then went to "Parque Nacional los Alerces."  here we took a short hike to the top of a rock peak (bigger than a hill, smaller than a mountain).  the few at the top was spectacular.  I specifically remember a group of girls taking pictures near the edge, and one of the rotarians yelling at them for being too close to the edge.  After esquel, we went to the famous Bariloche.  This is a ski resort in southern argentina, sitting next to the andes mountains.  It is incredibly known throughout all of south america, for the clubs and nightlife as wellas the skiing and landscape.  Comparable to skiing in colorado, but perhaps more popular;  it's an argentine tradition for the graduating class of a school to have a class trip to Bariloche.  we chilled there for 2 days at a hotel, getting tours of the town and national park, including a tour of a chocolate factory (oh yeah, bariloche is also famous for its chocolate)  Unfortunately, because we were at Bariloche on a sunday and monday, the boliches (clubs/discos) weren't open, although we did get to go to a pub and go bowling.  The morning that we left bariloche, the rest of my room and I woke up late, so i was very rushed in packing up my things.  because of this, I unfortunately lost my external hard drive (with nearly all of my 600 something pictures from the trip).  After Bariloche, we travelled another day to San Martín de Los Andes.  This was another tourist town/city, tucked near the andes.  Some of the highlights include: swimming in a freezing-ass-cold lake made from glacial meltings (it was prohibited by the city to swim, but we did it anyway, being the awesome fun exchange students we are), finding a music store and jamming with my friend Robert, getting lost again, and having another night to go out.
This was our last stop before the trip ended, heading back to Córdoba.  The nights of the trip generally involved staying up outragiously late to watch movies, (mostly disney) eat snacks, and sneak out to hang out in other people's rooms.  After San Martín, we began the infinitely long trip back.  We stopped at a wal-mart on the way back, the first one I'd seen since leaving the U.S, which also had a macdonalds, also the first one I'd seen since being in the states.  I bought some peanut butter at the walmart, but it kind of sucked, and less like american than the jar I bought in Hernando, and almost double the price (15 pesos).  we ate lunch on the bus, and most of our meals were on the move for those 36 hours or so of travelling.  It sucked so bad saying goodbyes, especially to the people living in the south, because I probably won't see them ever again, unless I visit them in Europe.  Overall, the trip was 11,800 kilometers (7330 miles), 17 days, and 78 exchange students, and about a billion great memories.

Hernando

Mostly since the beginning of my exchange in argentina, I had planned on visiting my friend Cande, who lives "close" to Iguazú.  So, finally, after a tedious few weeks of signed letters, authorizations, parental consent, and invitations, I came to visit her. (I'm there right now) Cande's town is called Hernando, and it is about an hour south of Córdoba, the 2nd largest city in Argentina.  Although it looks pretty close on a map, it really isn't that close.  The bus trip from Iguazú to Hernando was about 21 hours long.  I think about 880 miles or something; for those of you reading this from greenville thats like going from PA to Florida, more or less.  It was long, but very worth it, to see one of my good friends again.  I got off the bus to see Cande and her mom waiting for me in the Córdoba capitál bus station, and after several long hugs, I got my baggage and we went to Cande's grandpa's apartment, to eat lunch with her grandparents and cousins.  After lunch we went for a walk around the city, and it was pretty cool;  I'd love to stay there sometime.  On the walk, we came across 2 people from near London, (cande asked them for a lighter in spanish and they didn't understand, so I had to translate) and I talked to them for awhile.  I always love meeting travellers; its so interesting to me, and I'd love to just travel around the world for fun sometime.  After that, we drove about an hour back to Cande's house in Hernando.  Hernando is a pretty small town, with about 16,000 people.  Although it doesn't have as much to do, I think I prefer it to Iguazú.  Everything that my south american friends told me south america would be like, the school, the people, hernando is.  I've made tons more friends here than in Iguazú, in less than a week than I made more friends than I did in over 2 months in Iguazú.  I mean, I have friends in Iguazú, but not the kind that I can just hang out with and have a good time in just that.  My first 2 days in hernando I went camping with cande's classmates, and that was really nice, to get to know everyone.  The only "bad" thing was, around 5:45am (we went to bed around 3) there was a pretty terrible wind storm.  It blew over some people's tents, and was LOUD.  Very cold, too.  We had to move everything & everyone to the dining room, where we slept a few hours more.  Man, was that wind cold.  When I woke up (due to my friends pushing me and yelling my name, not because of the windstorm) I was so cold.  The wind made the tent act like a sail at first, and once they took off the rainfly (it was about to break off) it blew right through the tent.  My hoody was literally useless.  And, to add to that, I had lost one shoe.  That night, I had set my shoes outside the tent, just like everyone else.  I ended up not finding it until about 2pm the next day.  But, despite that, it was really fun.  After that, around 4 I think, we went home.  That weekend was so fun.  I met one of cande's friends, Martín, who plays guitar, and it was the first time I've played on a decent sized amp since I left the US; that really made me happy.  The next afternoon, I went over to a kid's house where Martín's band was practicing.  It was really sweet to jam with them, tons of fun.  After that we chilled, ate some facturas, and around dark, I went home.  After an awesome dinner of asado (steak, except thicker) I went out with my new friends for la previa, the party before you go out to the club to dance.  that was from about midnight until 3:45, when we went to Villa 8, the club in hernando.  It was pretty sweet, more for socializing than dancing.  Perhaps worse music than Cuba Libre in Iguazú, but equally sweet.  Also, cheaper.  The entrance, in dollars, was about $7.50.  We left the club around 6:30, and I slept until 3 or so the next day.  Sunday was pretty sweet, I mostly just chilled out downtown from 6pm or so until about 11, when I went over to my friend Nahuel's house where we ate some pizza for dinner.  School the next day (today) was pretty fun, being that I did nothing but mess around with my friends.  Also, school starts here at 1:30, which is pretty awesome.  Overall, I'm pretty bummed that I can't live here.  But hey, shit happens.

Side Note; oct. 1, 2010

Something just came to my mind recently:  I'm sure people are all wandering whether I miss my family, my friends, my house, all that stuff.  Here, people ask me all the time if i miss my family.  Well, here's the answer.  Honestly, no, I don't really miss anything, or at least like maybe people think I would.  In my experience, the only time I (or maybe anybody) miss something, is when I can't have it.  For example, if I'm really freakin hungry, I could really go for some american pizza, or peanut butter, or something like that.  Or, maybe, just for a second, I could go for a turkey sandwich.  But, to me, do I miss these things?  No, not really.  As far as people go, here's how it is. (again, just for me, it's different for everyone I think) In one little instance, I really wouldn't mind hanging out with one of my friends.  Or, maybe if in a certain situation, I might think "so-and-so would really dig this."  As far as family goes, well, I think about my family occasionally, but I really don't miss any of them.  Of course, it's good to talk to them and hear from them.  I think as a whole, there are only maybe 4 things that I "miss" from the states: My amp, peanut butter, american pizza, and driving.  It isn't a problem at all for me not to have these things, but it certainly would be nice to have them.  I think that in general, people miss home the most when they are bored, unhappy, or (this one might be the most important) refuse to adapt to their new surroundings.

What a night! 9/26/10

What a great night!
        Originally, yesterday evening, I had planned on going to a club called "La Barranca" with one of my friends vicky.  Most of the people here in Iguazú that go out dancing go to a place called "Cuba Libre," which I had been to a few times before.  But my friend vicky preffered La Barranca because most of the people that go there are brazilians, and they only play electro/electronica. (as opposed to the Reggaeton, cumbia, and electro that Cuba Libre plays) So, the plan was that we would go to La barranca, along with some of her friends.  But as it turned out, Vicky's friend had to go to Brazil for something, and Vicky didn't want to go because it was raining.  So, then I talked to one of my other friends, yennifer, about going to Cuba Libre that night instead.  The plan was that I would meet up with her and her friend Dianna at the entrance.  But, when I got there and was waiting in line, I heard some people speaking English.  So, I asked them where they were from.  The group was a Brazilians, from Rio de Janeiro, Foz do Iguazu, and some others from some beach city. (I forget the name)  So, I got to talking to them, and they seemed prety cool.  I ended up just going in with them at a little before 2am, and danced with them for awhile.  Then, while I was talking to one of them, he said "I wander if those girls over there are american?" He was right; you could tell by how they danced that they weren't from here.  So, I asked the girls first in spanish where they where from.  they said "estados unidos."  Good call, man.  Turns out they were from california, and were studying in Buenos Aires, and were stopping through Iguazú for the weekend.  So, after I danced with those girls for about an hour or so.  Unfortunately they left, because they had started dancing at about 11, unlike most of the rest of the argentinians and brazilians there, that had arrived at 2 or 2:30.  Still, it was so cool to just meet people like that, just by chance.  I ended up sticking around with my brazilian friends until about 4:30, when they left.  After that, I finally met up with the people I had originally planned on coming with, and 5 or so of the boys in my classroom.  I ended up dacing until about 6 or 6:30am, and arrived home at about 6:45.  Right now it's 7:11, and I am so ready for breakfast.

Viaje a Resistencia

Last weekend, from the 10th to the 12th of september, there was a RYLA conference in Resistencia, Chaco, which all exchange students in the district had to go to.  The ticket for a 10-hour bus ride, one way, was 136 pesos, or about $33 american dollars.  To me, thats insanely cheap.  Us four, Angie, Deidre, Jane and I (all the rotary exchange students in Iguazú), boarded the Rio Uruguay bus at 8am.  It was incredibly lucky that I got on the bus in time, given the circumstances that morning.  I woke up, through pure coincidence, at about 7:15am.  I had gone to bed the night before at about 3, so this in itself was nothing short of a miracle.  My entire family was asleep, so i couldn't turn the light on in my room to look for and pack things more effectively.  After I got out of the shower, I quickly pack enough clothes for 4 days, some gum, and my ipod in my Rotary duffle bag.  I quickly left the apartment, got a taxi, and headed to the bus terminal.  I ended up boarding at about 7:58, and the bus left promptly at 8.  The bus had 2 stories, meals, reclining seats, blinds for the windows, etc.  About 40 minutes into the trip, we came to a random National Guard security check.  An officer boarded the bus, and asked everyone for identification.  No problem, I thought.  I brought my driver's license from the U.S.  Technically, it's legitimate, state-department issued identification, and in theory, I thought, should suffice.  But, the man asked me for my passport.  I asked him why that, and why my license wouldn't work.  It turned out that he needed to see the tourist visa and the stamp from Buenos Aires airport.  Damn.  He talked to me very threateningly for a little while, and there was an inkling of thought in the back of my brain that thought that I might have to get off the bus (worst-case scenario).  But, there ended up being no real consequences except for an infinity of stress for me, and a lesson learned quite well.  I thought, shit, if this happens every 40 minutes or whatever, I'm gonna need an awful lot of luck.  But, as it turned out, on all the rest of the 3 security checks or so, the men only looked around on the bus, or my license worked fine as identification.  We arrived at the Resistencia terminal at about 6pm, and a rotarian picked us up, took us to the hotel/hostel where we would be staying for the night, and showed me a some things we could do that night    in the city if we wanted.  after she left, we were on our own.  We ate dinner at around 11 or so, but didn't really do much else becuase a lot of stores that looked interesting were closed, and we would have to wake up too early to go to a club or something.
      We were picked up at 8 by another rotarian, a man this time, and he took us to the place were RYLA was being held.  It was somewhat similar to a summer youth camp ground, with separate buildings for boys and girls to sleep in, a room where there would be lectures and events, and a dining hall/kitchen where we ate, and a lot of open grassy area with a little bit of trees and stuff.  When we got there, there was mostly no one there yet, and we had a tiny bit of food for "breakfast." (cookies and maté; the girls had coffee)  After that, exchange students and other argentinian kids began showing up.  There was a lot of Germans, I think 9 or 10, and I basically started talking with them immediately.  I almost instantaneously became quite good friends with a girl named Mellie.  at first, I thought she was argentinian because she had dark hair, skin, and eyes.  but, when she greeted everyone with "hi," I thought otherwise.  Turns out her mom was philipino, and thats why she looked darker than most Germans.  She, and mostly every other european at the conference spoke excellent english, which made communication immensely easier.  After I hung out with my new friends for a little bit, I had to register for the event, which cost 65 pesos.  I met a ton of people while I was in line, both exchange students and argentinians attending the RYLA conference.  After registration, we had maybe an hour to just hang out and stuff, get to know everyone at the conference; there were alot of people there, maybe 70 or so, I can't say for sure.  Then there started to be some games, of which we had to play.  Again, just things to get to know eath other better, I think.  Mellie and I saw some girl drinking tereré.  There was an argentinian man, Maxi, who was 20, accompanying her everywhere, because her hostclub/family didn't want her to do anything alone.  So, Maxi asked the girl if we could have some.  She said there wasn't any left, so we snuck out of the game to go fill up the pitcher, and have some tereré.  Maxi was perhaps the nicest person I have ever met.  For example, if you just said "I'm thisty," he would return momentarily with water, without you ever asking him to do a thing.  But anyway, Mellie, Maxi and I went over to the kitchen, got some water and juice, and made some tereré.  By the time we prepared it, had a little, talked a little bit and went outside, the ballgames and stuff were done, and it was back to just hangin out.  It was so nice to hang out with everyone there.  for the most part, people sort of formed themselves into several circles all around the grassy area, several of which had a classical guitar involved.  Everyone was unbelievably nice to me; I could sit down in literally any one of those groups and almost immediately people would ask me how I liked argentina, if I wanteed to play their guitar, what sorts of things I like, etc. We ate lunch, and about an hour later, there were 3 lectures, each of which was about an hour long, with a 10-minute break in between.  They were about various subjects: teen pregnancy, being an organ donor, and some common problems that exchange students have.  After the lectures, we ate dinner at about 9.  Both lunch and dinner were quite good, with milanesa and mashed potatoes for lunch, and hamburgers for dinner.  after dinner, there was dancing in the building where we had the lectures, although it was about an hour or so before people went from chillin out outside to dancing in the building.  The dance was so fun.  The music was great, and there was a DJ, with these enormous speakers that were maybe 8 feet tall stacked on top of each other.  Mostly there was electronica, reggaeton, and cumbia.  Everyone was so fun do dance with.  At first I was just having a good time dancing pretty crazy to the electronica with my german friends.  we were mostly in a group, about 5 or 6 of us.  Then, I noticed they weren't in sight anymore.  hmm, interesting.  I turned around to see where they had gone.  What do you know, everyone had formed a circle, and I was in the center.  It was interesting, I mean that's the first time in my life that that had ever happened to me.  It was really cool though, whenever I did something cool or crazy everyone cheered.  I left the circle after a little bit and danced with some argentinian girls.  I LOVED to talk and hang out with the german girls; they were so fun to be with, but when it came to dancing, they just didn't compare to the argentinian girls.  Although, it was really weird for me to dance to Cumbia; for the most part I had never listened to that in my life, I just couldn't feel it and get in the groove like reggaeton.  But, the girl that I danced with for most of the night showed me some stuff.  while we were dancing, about 15 other girls asked me for a picture with them.  At about 2:45am we had to go to our dorm buildings.  Inside, I talked with Maxi until about 5am.  That morning, we had to wake up at about 8 (on argentinian time this means 8:45)  When I went to take a shower, I realized another fatal error in my packing: I had forgot to bring a towel.  I was so frezing while I was showering, becuase there was a window in the stall I was using, and the wind was blowing.  I walked back to my room freezing and wet, and luckily Maxi let me use an extra towel that he brought.  I left then to eat breakfast, and after that we had time to ourselves again for maybe an hour and a half or so before we had one last speech.  After the speech, there was a ceremony called "open hearts" and everybody talked about what they liked about the conference, the fun they had, and those sorts of things; it was about an hour long.  By the time it was done, at about 3, the conference was done.  There were about a million goodbyes, hugs, kisses, etc.  I had especially long goodbyes with my german friends, and Tamy, the girl that I danced with the might before.  It really sucked saying goodbye to everyone, knowing that they lived so far away, and it would be a long time before I would see them again.  The original plan had been to stay at the hotel for another night and leave on monday, but Jane, Angie, and Deidre wanted to leave that day.  we bought the tickets, and the departure time was for 8 o'clock that night.  In the meanwhile, the girls stayed at the rotarian's house that drove us to and from the conference, and I hung out at a german girl's house that lived really close to there.  Since I had gotten about 3 hours of sleep that night, I was very tired, and slept for the whole bus ride, of which there either weren't any security checks, or the soldiers just passed over me because I was sleeping.  We arrived at about 6:45 the next morning, just in time for me to not have to go to school.  Overall, it was just about the funnest time that I've had in argentina so far.

La Selva

Today I went zip lining and reppeling in the jungle.  I ate a big lunch at one of my host-dad's friends houses, and left at 2.  My host-dad dropped me off at the place where about 12 other people were boarding a truck to go on the trip.  Before I got on the truck, the tour guide greeted me in english and shook my hand, which was cool.  There were about 5 other people on the truck that spoke mainly english, and because of this the tourguide spoke in both spanish and english.  On the way to the place, he was telling us about how most zip-lines are about 100 meters long, and how the one we were going to ride was 800 meters long.  Along the way, we drove only on dirt roads, and passed several Guarani "neighborhoods",basically shacks, some with what appeared to be pretty big TVs inside. (weird, i know)  It was really cool to see the jungle, I've wanted to do that for a very long time.  at the end of the 12km truck ride, we stopped to go reppeling, and put on harnesses.  the ledge we went off of was maybe about 70 feet tall, and at the bottom was a beautiful clearing , where there was a 50-foot-tall waterfall and a creek that ran through the forest.  the reppeling was pretty fun, but pretty easy (it was mostly what I expected, which was good nonetheless)  after that, we walked out to an elevated spot where you could see out several miles, including the piranha river, and the coast of Paraguay along it.  during the hike, I talked to a canadian girl who was visiting Iguazu for fun, and staying in a hostel.  Before this she had been to Cuzco, Peru, as well as camping in the amazon, tought english in Ghana, and went on a trip to India through her college.  I was envious.
       After that, we went out to the spot where we would rappel.  we climbed up about 75 feet of wooden stairs to the canopy, and launched off of there.  It was pretty easy, although several people were scared, nervous, or extremely hesitant to lift their feet off of the treestand to lauch off.  It was really cool zooming through the jungle canopy at probably about 25 or 30 mph, very exhilarating.  after that, we went to a Guaraní gift shop, where there was some panflutes, blowguns, maracas, bracelets, wooden carvings of jungle creatures, and stuff like that.  Afterwards, we drove back, dropping off people back to their hotels, and finally stopping back at the place where we started.

Puerto Iguazu, Argentina I

Well, for starters, my name is Ben.  I am currently on a year-long exchange in Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, through the rotary international program.  this blog will be about the few days beforehand, the trip over, and the first week or so. (current time)
       The week or so before I left, I had a going away party with all my close friends.  We went camping, had a bonfire, etc.  It was a really great time, and a great thing to have memories of.
I found out my date of departure 2 days before it occured.  This was mostly a welcome thing for me, because I was so incredibly ready to leave for the entire summer.  I packed my bags the day before my departure, and left from pittsburgh airport the next day.  Saying goodbyes to my family wasn´t near as hard as it's cracked up to be. (no offense intended)  I flew from pittsburgh to Miami, miami to Buenos Aires, switched airports at Buenos aires by way of a taxi, and flew from there to Puerto Iguazu.  overall, I travelled for about 22 hours.  I wasn't near as tired as I had expected to be;  in the 40-ish hours or so from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep at my house in argentina, I had about an hour of sleep in between.  I arrived on thursday, the 17th.  In the very first moments of my arrival at my appartment, my first thoughts were of how small it was.  the entire apartment is about 2/3 the size of the bottom floor of my house in the US.  But after about 5 minutes, it was't really an issure for me.  I am currently sharing a room with my host brother Lucho, who is going on an exchange this year as well, but his visa is still pending.  I started school the monday after.  At first I wanted to be in my hostbrother's class, because I already knew several of his friends.  but, within about 10 minutes of class, I already had started talking to some kids.  School here is from 7am until noon.  although it´s shorter than in the states, it still feels very long...You can't go to the bathroom in class, with i didn't, and still don't, really understand.  I take a taxi to and from school, occasionally taking a public bus or getting a ride on the way home. (there's no schoolbusses)  The language is coming slower than I'd like, although I suppose it's only been 8 days.  Today in school was a science fair, in which the other exchange students(there are 2 other girls) and I did nothing but get free drinks and talk, seeing as we spoke pretty minimal amounts of spanish, and had only been at the school for a week or less.  Overall, it was pretty fun for me, certainly better than regular class.  I think the classes would be pretty easy if I spoke more spanish, but right now it's still a bit difficult to process things.